Fantastic Four #575

Weeee! I love everything about this book. I mean that about Hickman & Eaglesham's run as a whole. Totally my favorite monthly. Although I use that descriptor on a bunch of books, so maybe that takes away from 'favorite.' Fantastic Four is at least the comic I look forward to most. So I guess it is my favorite. Or it's up there. I'm not saying it should be your favorite, too, but Fantastic Four is everything I'm looking for in the medium. Concise writing that can be both playful and serious. Classic-looking art with contemporary style that can be as explosive as it is subtle. Big moments. Little moments. And behind it all, an overwhelming sense of fun & possibility. As much as it could rightfully wear the old "World's Greatest Comic Magazine" slogan, I love how each issue now bears a quote from the script - "There is chaos in the underworld..." sits up high this month.

I never liked FF when I was younger. It was always so fucking wordy! Hickman is as good with the words as anyone writing superhero comics today, and his pacing is perfect. Several panels without text, let Eaglesham tell the story. Clever & swift dialogue that doesn't waste panel space & doesn't lack depth (I love the Thing/Mole Man exchange, fuck if I care that Ben is sappy: "Nobody should have to be a monster that don't want to be"). Writer & artist just seem to operate in perfect synchronicity, and Hickman sets up Eaglesham with some delightful splashes here - Mole Man arrives! Galactus dies! A city rises! Wouldn't be fair to ignore the rest of the crew. Classic cover by Davis, Farmer, and Rodriguez. Wooton shines - I particularly like the Ascension-Engine-Thing font (is the letterer responsible for the speech bubble shapes, too? Whoever is, I like the wavey ones!). Mounts is perfect for Eaglesham - if you didn't appreciate it the first time, go back to the coloring in the cavern scene, or Mole Man's initial entrance, or Galactus' burial site. I love the I-can't-fucking-wait-to-see-what-comes-next page turn anticipation.

The plot! Subterranea is in peril! Way back when, the High Evolutionary plays Island of Dr. Moreau in the underworld with his Ascension Engine, but when evolution backfires, H.E. jumps ship. Everyone's favorite Moloids later stumble upon the still-functioning Engine & enjoy a jaunt on the super-intelligence treadmill - as they devolve in appearance to resemble fugly humans, they evolve in smarts to challenge Mole Man. And of course, the more human-looking anything becomes, so too the more insidious! Moloids want raise city! Mole Man angry, Moloids subservient! Thing clobber! I repeat: weeee!