The Good
This is a fun story. The team treats the situation as they would any of their other adventures; but this one is a little bit different. Willie Lumpkin had been the FF's mailman for years, and as a result the team had grown quite fond and familiar with the old man. I don't want to give too much away, so I won't say anything else about the plot itself except that Hickman sets this story up as he would any other cosmic adventure; but by the end the reader will realize that it isn't at all what they had expected.
What I really liked about this issue is the fact that it really brought a level of humanity to the characters; this story really grounded them. It demonstrated that saving the world is just as important to these characters as saving the life of one person: essentially, all life is important. It's a nice story. I think that the pacing was great, and I didn't not at all expect the very sudden twist in the plot of the story in this issue. I thought that was great.
The Bad
There was a considerable amount of back and forth in this issue, and the header that indicates some panels are flashbacks was not very clear (page two of the issue). It's there, but it's hard to see and the confusion sort of took me out of the story. Additionally, there were some panels where the art was a little bit strange, like the floating image of Reed Richards, for example. A little bit out of place. Some panels felt a little bit incomplete; not fully rendered.
The Verdict
For the most part this was a great issue. There's a level of suspense here that was great. The element of not knowing what is going to happen next really resonated with me and it's what made the issue so great. For the most part I really enjoyed the art and I thought it was really pretty; however; there were some panels that felt a bit strange and oddly incomplete. Overall, I thought that this was a decent stand-alone issue of FANTASTIC FOUR because it brings the reader down after reading such a dense cosmic adventure for so long. Although this issue was not as good as Hickman's Spider-Man and Johnny Storm story, it still served a similar purpose: it created a break in the series between story arcs with a story that depicted the value of human relationships. It was good.
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