Vol 1
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Dale Eaglesham
2010
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 2
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Dale Eaglesham
2010
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 3
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Dale Eaglesham
2011
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
Vol 4
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Dale Eaglesham
2011
Available now from Islington Libraries
You can reserve this item for free here:
http://www.library.islington.gov.uk/TalisPrism/
If you're thinking of reading these books my advice to you is: don't bother.
It's strange that other than Batman (who's well in the lead with a comfortable fifteen entries) the Fantastic Four are the bunch of superheros that I've written about most on this blog so far (not including this I've written about them four (ha) times: Fantastic Four: 1234, Fantastic Four: First Family, Fantastic Four: World's Greatest / The Masters of Doom and Ultimate Fantastic Four). It speaks a lot to the slipshod nature of this series that they couldn't even be bothered to give it any kind of proper name - so I've had to enter it here as just "Fantastic Four" which I didn't really want to do because it might make it stand out from all the other entires - making it seem like the definite article - when in fact the opposite is true: this is a series that manages to exemplify (for me) all the worst qualities of mainstream superhero books - and in fact the only reason [1] I've bothering to write this is so I can get my rant on.
I don't take notes when I read the books that I write about here, but I feel like maybe I should, that maybe it would be helpful. But let me do my best to recreate the thoughts and feelings I had whilst I read the first volume of this series (and then skimmed my way through the rest of them): Please note that because I'm reading Stephen King (am currently on Book 3 of The Dark Tower! Go me!) I'm gonna crib his style and put my interior monologue in italics. Here goes:
Oh. Ok. Yeah. Ok. Oooh - I like these crazy ideas. And it has this kinda nice boldness to it too: "Idea 101: Solve Everything"- that's cool. That's something that you'd get in a good Grant Morrison comic: the kind of thing he writes that just sounds cool for the sake of it - like you could put it on a T-Shirt maybe. Oh - well - that ended abruptly (oh well). Hmmm. This art is kinda shabby here (is the art getting worse or is that just me? Why have they put in a whole page showing someone offering someone else a sandwich? In fact - why is the art so awfully bad? This person seems sad when it seems like they should be happy. And their body language makes them look like mannequins in a shop window. Damn it. Why do these stories keep ending in such an aburpt way? It reminds me a bit of Alan Moore's Tom Strong. But with Tom Strong even tho the stories at the start were all self-contained - they were still satisfying in and of themselves. This all just feel half-written - Reed Richards just walking out of a battle halfthrough through to deliver some trite Hallmark-style sentiment about how important family is: BLURG! Where's the rest of my story?? And - god - the more of this I read the more I just never want to read a comic book ever again. Oh - look - now they're referencing Mark Millar's and Bryan Hitch's World's Greatest / The Masters of Doom run - but - gah - it's just a reference - it just feels empty and pointless and continuity for the sake of continuity: look there was this thing before and now there's this thing now and - well - what's the point? What's the point? What's the point? What's the point? I hate superhero comics. This is why I never read superhero comics. It's just a never-ending story that doesn't have anything remotely human or real or anything inside it - it's treats it's characters more like action figures that can be posed in any which way rather than people - and from the other Fantastic Four books I've read (all of which - I'll say again: are better than this) I know that it is possible to make these characters feel realistic - it's just not happening here. And damnit Jonathan Hickman - after S.H.I.E.L.D. I trusted you - but after this I feel like I never want to read anything you ever write ever again - because this just feels like quicksand - feels like something that's slowly suffocating me and I feel like I'm reading something that is totally divorced from anything - like being stuck in a teenage boy's bedroom and being forced to read whatever ditherings he can come up with. I want out. My head can't take much more. Oh wait - yeah - this is the one where they kill off one of the major characters - but you know what - apart from enjoying the Wrath of Khan parallels (but then all that does is make me wish I was watching that than reading this) it's all just empty, meaningless and pointless. There is no point to reading this book. I should find something - anything - better. Yeah - think I'l read Fun Home again (just to wipe the taste away).
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[1] Ok - so not the only reason: the other reason is that this I reckon for a few of you that this is the kinda thing that maybe you'll enjoy (?) and - hell - I reckon it's a good thing to publicize a new series that we have in stock - right? Ok - whatever.
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Links: Comics Alliance Interview with Jonathan Hickman.
Further reading: FF, Fantastic Four: World's Greatest / The Masters of Doom, Fantastic Four: First Family, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four: 1234, Tom Strong, S.H.I.E.L.D..
All comments welcome.
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