Old School Storytelling
With most Marvel titles being grittier after the Civil War cross over, it's nice to come back to the Fantastic Four for a good old school adventure story. Dwayne McDuffie's approach to this has been to bring in various characters from the Fantastic Four's past. He's done a good job thus far, but he's also plagued by following to great runs on the book by Mark Waid and J. Michael Straczynski. So far his work can't really be compared.
While the last story arc was very entertaining with the FF going up against the Silver Surfer and Galactus, the villains he choose to follow that up don't quite measure up. Most new readers might not even know who the Frightful Four are and with what little introduction they are given it would make it hard to take them as a serious threat. Those long time readers who know exactly who they are, might have an even harder time considering them as a serious threat. It's even pointed out in this issue that the Wizard's motives for going after Reed Richards make very little sense.
His master plan makes even less sense. The Frightful Four kidnap Sue Richards to basically force Mr. Fantastic to fight the Wizard. That's their master plan in a nutshell... seriously. No it's not a reprint of an old Stan Lee script. Although Wizard's motives seem a little too simplistic, McDuffie does try to show that it's because he's been driven over the edge and is simply obsessed with Reed Richards. Although it's a noble attempt, their is a scene between Wizard and the Invisible Woman that comes across as if it's attempting to be very dark, but just doesn't come across like that and it's mostly because of Paul Pelletier's art. I hate complaining about art since I can barely draw something that looks like a dog, but it just seems like Pelletier was having a hard time bringing across what McDuffie wanted. This wasn't a horrible book by any means, but it just wasn't anything very original. Long time Fantastic Four fans might get a kick out of the closing moments of this issue however as we get a glimpse of what's coming next month.