Fantastic Four # 588

Fantastic Four # 588
By Jonathan Hickman

I have deliberately held off from reviewing the penultimate issue of this run because of its media attention.
I have been championing Hickman since his Nightly News days and its no surprise that he was quickly snapped up by one of the big boys, in this case Marvel who promptly put him on a book titled

“The Worlds Greatest Comics Book” The Fantastic Four!

And boy, has he been putting the Fantastic back into The Fantastic Four!
This coming from someone who has never really liked the FF that much is praise indeed.
During his run Hickman has surprised, astonished and left me wondering why.

But onto this the Final Issue of the Fantastic Four and a month after the demise of the Human Torch,
the atmosphere is bleak, for the first half of the comic nothing is said, the silence is so loud its deafening,
the story being told is purely visual.,

we see Ben Grieving while being hugged by the children.
Sue alone, wide eyed and encased in an invisible force shield… untouchable even by her Husband Reed.

Reed using the ultimate nullifier to open the portal to the negative zone in a real state of anger and despair only to have Annihilus confirm the worst with a smirk.

All this and more as we are only into the first quarter of the book.
The mood is intense as we see Ben picking a fight with The Hulk and Thor, which results in tenderness.

The kids in class trying to make sense of it all by suggesting replacements but ending up with only one thing on the blackboard “Kill Annihilus”

The second half of the book see Franklin Richards on a rooftop, alone and grieving, Spider-Man swings by and a dialogue is stuck.

Franklin tells Spider Man that he feels that he could have saved his Uncle, while Spiderman tells him that he knows for sure he could have saved his, Why didn’t You? Asks Franklin, Spider-Man replies, because I was young and because he didn’t understand how every decision you make has a consequence. What was your Uncles name Franklin asks.
Ben. My uncles name was Ben, replies Spider-Man.

This is intelligent heart rendering stuff which reminds me what the comic book medium is truly capable of.
I give this book and the entire Hickman run so far a solid 10 out of 10.

Absolutely FANTASTIC

Reviewed by Your Favourite Well Mannered Boy!