REVIEW

Company: Marvel

Oh, c’mon – who doesn’t love a good origins story? That was always my favorite episode of every Saturday morning super hero cartoon, like – ever. And you know what’s really cool? When the writer takes an origin story that every single freaking comic reader on the planet has heard a million times before, and actually throws something in that A) fits perfectly into the mythos, and B) explains why four people that went through the same cosmic event ended up with four different powers, and C) makes a grumpy old reviewer think to himself, “Wow, I’ve never seen anyone use anything like that before.”

The book is, of course, hamstrung by the fact that you know 98% of the storyline: Reed Richards, Sue Storm, her brother Johnny, and Ben Grimm go up in an experimental spacecraft, run into an unexpected cosmic storm, and came back to earth significantly different than when they left. Then, they go on to become the longest running super hero team in Marvel history, battle every significant bad guy you’ve ever heard of (and plenty you haven’t), travel into outer space like most people run to the corner store, blah blah blah.

The fully painted artwork by Paolo Rivera also lends a feeling of an extra-special effort to the book – the reveal of Johnny in full Human Torch flame-up on page 26, and the villian’s galley on page 28 are especially nice touches. The creative team obviously spent quite a bit of time on something that could have turned out to just be a re-hash of what we’ve seen before. And honestly, if you don’t appreciate the twist provided by Paul Jenkins on page 14, then I’m just not sure what to do with you.

And just so we’re all clear on this: no real woman as hot as Sue Storm/Richards has ever said the above line. I just don’t want anyone getting their hopes up.

Rating: 6.5 out of 10

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