Fantastic Four #605

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    gmanfromheck

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    #1  Edited By gmanfromheck

    Reed and his father have never really had a close relationship. Taking a little trip together could change things for Reed.

    The Good

    Before I get into anything, let me just say that there was a point in this comic that actually brought a tear to my eye. The issue was going along fine in a typical Hickman fashion. Suddenly I got hit by certain events that almost came out of nowhere. It should have been expected but I was caught by surprise.

    There's no denying that FANTASTIC FOUR (and FF) have been pretty insane lately (in a good way, of course). Hickman's been building up the suspense and stories since he first came on board. It's been a great trip seeing how he's been tying in the smallest things together.

    What we learn is there are consequences to every action. With someone like Nathaniel hanging around, you'd think they'd have a good idea what the future might hold for them. There's also the fact that they've seen the adult Franklin and Valeria. But one line from Nathaniel puts everything in a new light. They've rewritten the future and this is the first time he's not sure what the future is.

    Another point to note, the recap page brings up the fact that the Future Foundation kids made that serum for the Thing that allows him to turn human for a week each year. We may not get the answers here but that's something I've been wondering about and can't recall Reed fully giving his thoughts on it.

    Then there's the art. The good and bad thing about this series is we've seen many great artists during Hickman's run. While I do love some consistency in my comics, we've been able to see a lot of good art. I've always been a big Ron Garney fan, especially after his CAPTAIN AMERICA run with Mark Waid. His art looks great here. Part of it may be from Jason Keith's color art as well.

    The Bad

    The issue starts out as what feels like just an "okay" issue. Reed and Nathaniel going off on a little adventure almost felt too forced. For some reason, most of the time we see future events, they don't have the same excitement as the current time period. But all this is a minor thing as the story quickly evolves into something you might not expect. That's where it shines.

    The Verdict

    There's been a lot of action in this series lately. Jonathan Hickman (with Ron Garney and Jason Kieth on art and color) give the characters a chance to catch their breath. These types of stories are great to see once in a while as action after action can get overwhelming and possibly monotonous. When it's time for the action to slow down a bit, this is where writers have to show their versatility as well. What begins as a simple trip into the future (only in comic books can you say going to the future is simple), the story soon takes off and Hickman shows us why so many of us have been enjoying his run on the series. His stories often go in directions we're not expecting and his ability to surprise us comes across as genuine rather than feeling forced. I've been a fan of FANTASTIC FOUR since I first started reading comics and I'm loving everything that Hickman is giving us.

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    danhimself

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    #2  Edited By danhimself

    this is my pick of the week so far....such a great heart touching issue...if Hickman's run were going to end with this issue then it would have been a perfect ending point...luckily Hickman's still got a few more issues left!

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    dernman

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    #3  Edited By dernman

    Another good issue. Hickman proves that you can make interesting stories with what most people consider old, boring  and outdated characters like the Fantastic Four. 
     
    Always liked the FF glad to see him do them justice.

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    Johnnyjavavee

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    #4  Edited By Johnnyjavavee

    Anyone wanna explain that variant?

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    gmanfromheck

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    #5  Edited By gmanfromheck
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    TheAnnihilator

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    #6  Edited By TheAnnihilator

    I really liked this issue and I wasn't expecting too. One thing that struck me in a bad way was when Nathaniel said

    "You have to admit...this is much better than playing catch."

    That just seemed to cross the line. Of all things to say to your son who you barely spent anytime with, that doesn't seem like the best option. Reed had no reaction too. I guess it wasn't supposed to be taken in the way I did, but I didn't like it.

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    Lt_Cmdr_Kicker

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    #7  Edited By Lt_Cmdr_Kicker

    I thought the issue was very touching & somber. The twist about Benjamin's condition was also interesting, but very tragic. Also, does anyone know how many issues after this one is Hickman going to be writing?

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    kingjoeg

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    #8  Edited By kingjoeg

    @Lt_Cmdr_Kicker: Hickman is leaving in fantastic four 611 and ff 23.

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    JonesDeini

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    #9  Edited By JonesDeini

    Really glad Hickman followed up this thread. He's been doing a great job of tying up and exploring loose threads from his epic story.

    @TheAnnihilator: Having read S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hickman's work with the F4 Nathaniel saying that and Reed response or lack thereof makes perfect sense. It's just how those brainy Richard's communicate. And when you think of it this is definitely the kind of stuff Nathaniel would've been doing with Reed had he not been off doing all that crazy stuff in S.H.I.E.L.D. and Reed would've loved every moment of it.

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    owie

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    #10  Edited By owie  Moderator

    Really nice story and I liked the art a lot.

    I like the ages on the tombstone on the cover--Reed being born in 1961, the year FF was first published, but also giving him an appropriate age of 51 now.

    Also, I did the math on the Thing:

    At 7 days of being human per year, and living for 4000 more years (dying in the year 6012), that means he would have lived a further 76 years or so in his human form, which seems like an appropriate lifespan. So I like that Hickman didn't just arbitrarily choose 5012, but based it on the math of how long he would really live if he aged one week per year.
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    TheAnnihilator

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    #11  Edited By TheAnnihilator

    @JonesDeini: The way I took it was, "Hanging out in the future alone is way more fun than playing catch with my son and raising him," but I could have taken it the wrong way. I don't really like Nathaniel that much as a character, but I do feel he's a necessity.

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    cobra88king8

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    #12  Edited By cobra88king8

    Definitely my pick of the week, at that's with some of the amazing books that came out this week.

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    Mutie199

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    #13  Edited By Mutie199

    I really felt sorry for the thing. despite the fact that there was no action in this issue it was the most touching one i read the last months

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    ArtisticNeedham

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    #14  Edited By ArtisticNeedham
    No Caption Provided

    Their time machine did remind me of the Forward Time Machine from Futurama.

    I liked the issue, seemed like a sort of cool down issue because of the big events of late. So its nice to slow things down. I agree about their reactions. I loved seeing Future Ben. Anyone know where to find pics of him?

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    Green ankh

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    #15  Edited By Green ankh

    I have missed this kind of story in the pages of the worlds greatest comic magazine. Pretty much a stand alone story..with great interaction. Best issue in a long time.

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    SoA

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    #16  Edited By SoA

    @Owie: with your math , how old would you say Ben was to begin with/presently ? i put in reeds tombstone(first cover) as his age and that seems about right

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    DEGRAAF

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    #17  Edited By DEGRAAF

    lol hahaha sorry about the double spoiler protection on mine

    I really liked that issue but

    i thought they were supposed to have some kind of issue when they get to the future bc they realize that there are no longer villains bc of something the Fantastic Four has done. (like they went all Justice Lords, or at least thats what i got from the preview summary from comicbookresources)

    I do love that they go on to mention the alliance Earth made with the Shi'ar and Badoon as well as the Kree failing and having the Skrulls as slaves.

    You would think they could have shown Ben hanging out with Wolverine, possibly Cap, Mocking bird, The Hulks, among others. I know this would have defeated the whole scene of him dying alone but i would have liked to see who might still be around.

    some other questions i have are:

    Is that supposed to be Johnny storm 1,000 years in the future?

    Did Franklin stop aging?

    Does Franklin need food or water to survive when he is older and gained full potential of his powers?

    Does Franklin still have Galactus as his Herald in the future?

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    owie

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    #18  Edited By owie  Moderator

    @SoA said:

    @Owie: with your math , how old would you say Ben was to begin with/presently ? i put in reeds tombstone(first cover) as his age and that seems about right

    Well, that's a good question...assuming he's about the same age as Reed, he'd be around 50 now too, so the extra 76 years would make him pretty old after all. But with his altered body, that makes sense I guess.

    @DEGRAAF said:

    lol hahaha sorry about the double spoiler protection on mine

    I really liked that issue but

    i thought they were supposed to have some kind of issue when they get to the future bc they realize that there are no longer villains bc of something the Fantastic Four has done. (like they went all Justice Lords, or at least thats what i got from the preview summary from comicbookresources)

    I do love that they go on to mention the alliance Earth made with the Shi'ar and Badoon as well as the Kree failing and having the Skrulls as slaves.

    You would think they could have shown Ben hanging out with Wolverine, possibly Cap, Mocking bird, The Hulks, among others. I know this would have defeated the whole scene of him dying alone but i would have liked to see who might still be around.

    some other questions i have are:

    Is that supposed to be Johnny storm 1,000 years in the future?

    Did Franklin stop aging?

    Does Franklin need food or water to survive when he is older and gained full potential of his powers?

    Does Franklin still have Galactus as his Herald in the future?

    I think those are all great questions and points...I also really like the alliance idea, and it would be cool if he was hanging out with some of those characters. I think Deadpool is supposed to have survived 1000 years into the future also (maybe in an alternate universe?). My guess is that's not Johnny, it's Firelord (since he has the staff). I guess Franklin should still have Galactus as his herald, or at least have some relationship with him, since he said they're bonded until the end of the universe.

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    sswang

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    #19  Edited By sswang

    It brought tears in my eyes a little bit.

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    LordXorn

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    #20  Edited By LordXorn

    Can we get Garney working on something regullarly please?

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    CrackedVersion00

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    #21  Edited By CrackedVersion00

    Hickman is just full of surprises

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    ranpuba

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    #22  Edited By ranpuba

    The Fantastic Four used to be a sad, boring book that just didn't matter. Hickman has done a wonderful job to make this title a must read and this issue punctuates his work.

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