FF #1

Jonathan Hickman – writer

Steve Epting – penciler

Steve Epting & Rick Maygar – inkers

Paul Mounts – colorer

Rus Wooton – letterer

Lauren Sankovitch – associate editor

Tom Brevoort – editor

Marvel Comics - publisher

I rode the Hickman bandwagon hard in the beginning of his run on Fantastic Four, then sort of crashed and burned toward the tail end.  His handling of the Human Torch’s death was so forgettable that I think I don’t even care that the Human Torch is dead.  But I bought FF #1 anyway because I’m a giant tool.

And I like parts of it!

But just a couple parts. 

Mostly I don’t like anything. 

I kinda dig the cover design.  Not the art, just the design.  The bloated white FF looks cool.  And the credits page -- that’s cool, too, what with the FF imposed over the blue/white outer space.

I swear I used to like Epting’s art when he was on Captain America, but something’s gone terribly awry, this is just no good.  His faces look like they were scorched into balsa with a soldering iron.

Hickman’s script is pretty wooden.  It’s like he’s assembled some set pieces of what the grieving process typically entails (typical as far as superhero comics go).  Johnny leaves a motivational goodbye video encouraging the team to move on -- make the world better.  Ben slams the door on poor Petey -- he blames himself.  Spidey fucks with the seating arrangement -- Johnny always sat there.

I'm a catty cunt.