Advance Review: The Fantastic Four Anniversary Tribute #1

The Fantastic Four Anniversary Tribute takes two very well known stories, Fantastic Four #1 and the Wedding of Reed and Sue, and presents them with the original scripts combined with top artists each illustrating one page. It’s an approach Marvel has been using since the Marvel 1000 issue and it’s a rather easy way to mark a major occasion.

While original stories marking the event by these top creators would be nicer, this idea has its own charm as it allows us to see many different artists illustrating these characters in one issue. Unfortunately, the older scripts are so packed with content that many of these great artists seem a bit restricted. This is especially true of the origin tale where top tier artists seem reduced to house style layouts and aren’t really able to shine.

That being said it is so much fun to not only revisit this tale, but to flip back and forth through each page seeing how each creative team reinterprets the content in smaller ways. It would be fun to let some of the artists just go wild, creating a massive new visual style with The Thing or doing each page from an unexpected visual perspective. Instead we get pure, simple nostalgia.

It is wonderful seeing the inclusion of so many classic artists including Neal Adams, Adam Hughes, Walter Simonson and John Romita Jr mixed in with more modern artists. The issue takes a definite step up by the second half of the origin, and especially in the wedding as the artistic styles become more varied.

The wedding issue also allows the inclusion of the larger Marvel Universe as the issue features Dr Doom sending an army of Marvel villains out to stop the wedding and an army of Marvel heroes respond in kind. Each page is a different combination of artists and characters creating the emotion of looking into a kaleidoscope.

The one criticism of the wedding issue itself has to be the incredibly small role Sue Storm has in her own wedding. But of course the creators here are confined to the original source material and the result is a fun artistic tour of many of Marvel’s greatest creators and a great journey to the past full of fantastic imagery showcasing a massive part of the Marvel pantheon.

Writing: 4.5 of 5 stars
Art: 4.4 of 5 stars
Colors: 4.6 of 5 stars

Overall: 4.5 of 5 stars

Story: Jack Kirby, Vince Colletta and Stan Lee
Art: Everyone
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.