Advance Review: Fantastic Four Life Story #1

Mark Russell is one of the most intelligent, interesting writers in comics and seeing him tackle the Fantastic Four is fascinating. Russell loves to take any story and expand it to explore larger political, religious and philosophical themes. This issue is much less political than much of his prior work and much more focused on where we find meaning in life.

Fantastic Four Life Story #1 is an interesting variation on the classic Fantastic Four origin. This series will tell the story of FF and have them age in real time through the decades. It’s difficult to judge the series based only on this issue as we are still firmly wedged in the first decade of the team, and this is ground we have covered in many other variations.

There are two important differences to this story. First is the introduction of a foil to Reed within the government in Dr Ricardo Jones. Not having Victor Von Doom around feels strange given how central he has been to many modern retellings of the FF origin. The second difference is Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm going into space feels much less out of friendship and much more of their own volition. This changes the dynamics a bit as Reed doesn’t seem quite as culpable for their transformation.

The art by Sean Izaakse suits the Fantastic Four perfectly. It varies perspectives and moves the action in a way that keeps the exposition heavy scenes fun. The space-faring portions of the origin are absolutely epic as Isaakse and color artist Nolan Woodward really play with the ominous nature of their adventure, the insanity of their new powers and the mysterious threat of Galactus.

The issue begins with Reed Richards meeting President Kennedy and Dr Ricardo Jones in the White House. America is losing the space race and Kennedy is desperate to put a man into space. Because Reed can think outside the box he is recruited to help jumpstart the flailing space program. Jones does not feel Reed’s antimatter fuel is predictable and after months of development the project is set to be shut down.

Reed and Sue decide to sneak into the lab and initiate launch before the project is scraped. Johnny overhears them and pressures the couple to take him along. Reed needs a pilot and here it is Johnny who somehow knows a down on his luck Ben Grimm. With general reassurances from Reed they take off to space. When cosmic rays and antimatter fuel clash a spectacular change occurs and our heroes transform. Just before losing consciousness Reed witnessed the dark coming of Galactus.

As the heroes arrive back to adjust to their powers and embark as a team of adventurers, Reed continues to worry about alien life and the threat of Galactus. Time passes quickly here with Mole Man taken down, Reed and Sue married, managing fame and political unrest. Reed becomes increasingly obsessed with the idea that alien live poses a threat to earth and arranged a recreation in his lab of the journey that created the Fantastic Four.

Dr Jones finds a way to take Ben’s powers temporarily and travels with Reed to face a massive Galactus. Realizing Reed was correct about the threat before them, he remains behind to ensure Reed can travel back home and warn everyone of the threat to come. Ben is transformed back to the Thing and reunites with the team just in time to greet a newborn Franklin Richards.

This issue does a wonderful job of telling the origin of Fantastic Four with enough variation to keep it interesting. The book is lifted by the commentary we expect from Mark Russell, here focused on the purpose of the universe, life itself and humanity. These are deep questions and while it’s odd not to include any aspect of religious introspection within these questions, it finds value within family and empathy to justify existence and the cosmos. It will be interesting to see where Russell takes the story as our team grows past the ages we see in the current comics run. As it is, this issue is a fairly familiar but well done trip through the first decade of the Fantastic Four.

Writing: 3.6 of 5 stars
Art: 3.8 of 5 stars
Colors: 4.0 of 5 stars

Overall: 3.8 of 5 stars

Writer: Mark Russell
Art: Sean Izaakse
Colors: Nolan Woodward
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Author Profile

M.R. Jafri

M.R. Jafri was born and raised in Niagara Falls New York and now lives with his family in Detroit Michigan. He's a talkative introvert and argumentative geek. His loves include Star Wars, Star Trek, Superheroes, Ninja Turtles, Power Rangers, Transformers, GI Joe, Films, Comics, TV Shows, Action Figures and Twizzlers.