Knights: 4 #1 Review

Reviewer: Daron Kappauff
Story Title: N/A

Written by: Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa
Penciled by: Steve McNiven
Inked by: Mark Morales
Colored by: Morry Hollowell
Lettered by: Randy Gentile
Editor: Warren Simons
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Some of you may be too young to remember the great comic tragedy of 2003, we’ll call it the “Waid Incident,” but for those of you who do remember, you may find the review of this title (Waid and Wieringo’s original replacement team) bittersweet.

When it was announced that Mark Waid had been fired from Fantastic Four (the title he had almost single-handedly rocketed out of “sales obscurity” into the top 30) the comic world was in an uproar. It didn’t help that his intended replacement was going to be a comic’s newcomer, though a viable playwright, and that this newcomer was going to take the title in a very different direction.

Of course we all know how this played out. Marvel eventually came to their senses and gave Waid back his job (and Wieringo who came along with him), and the world seemed to be back to normal. But one surprise wasn’t enough. Following the announcement of Waid’s reinstatement, Marvel announced that the team that was originally going to replace Waid and Wieringo were actually getting their own FF book, this time in the Marvel Knights line.

Though there were still many detractors (especially those who think there are too many FF books on the market, especially when the market could barely sustain one title about a year ago), most people seemed to be willing to give the newcomer a shot. Of course it didn’t hurt that Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa was going to have the phenomenal Steve McNiven bringing his words to life.

So here we are roughly eight months after the “Waid Incident” and Marvel Knights: 4 is on the shelves, so how did it turn out?

Surprisingly, much better than I expected, especially with a lot of people telling me that they weren’t too thrilled with the preview that Wizard had last month. The biggest complaint was that the title was moving away from its adventuring roots, and now focusing primarily on the “family” aspect of the group. To this I say, “Are you kidding, it’s about time.”

The one problem I’ve always had with the FF is that I just didn’t care about the characters. None of them seem very “real” to me. Amazingly enough, the closest one to being a real person is probably Ben Grimm (the Thing) the most inhuman looking member of the team. Sure the characters have been around forever, but what do we really know about them. They’re all pretty much templates. The genius who has no time for his family, the tortured hero, the egotistical playboy, and the mother.

With this the first arc of Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa, and Mr. McNiven’s new title, all that is seemingly going to change. It seems our new writer is planning on shaking up the status quo for the FF, but not only by making changes (though that seems to be in his plans), but by breathing new life into these often stale and drab characters.

Without giving away too much…The issue opens up with the FF finding out that the government has pulled their funding of the group, and that one of the team’s chief financial officers embezzled most of their money…leaving them flat broke. This leads to the various members of the family having to go out into the “real world” to look for jobs or face bankruptcy. Now this might sound a little cheesy, and I’ll be the first to admit that when I heard that this was what was on tap for this title, I was a little hesitant, but Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa does an amazing job of working around the cheese factor, and making this predicament feel real (especially considering today’s real world problem of unemployment.)

In the span of just one issue, this comic’s newcomer has done the impossible. He’s taken these normally flat characters and is in the process of making them living breathing people who we can not only care about, but relate to.

Past the surprisingly good first outing by Mr. Aguirre-Sacasa, Steve McNiven turned in some of his best pencils to date. For those of you unfamiliar with his work, Mr. McNiven was one of the main reasons Meridian was one of the most consistently good titles CrossGen published. After replacing Joshua Middleton of NYX fame, Steve held the penciling chores on the title for almost the entire run until recently when he moved to Marvel. And as amazing as he pencils were there (and you should all check out the Meridian trades to see more of Steve’s work) his first issue here of 4 is by far his best work.

I could go on and on about Steve’s art, but if you’ve seen any of the preview art you already know how amazing it is. If not, you should do yourself a favor and check this issue out.

So to sum up, Marvel Knights: 4 could easily be the breakout hit of the year. The art is nothing short of Fantastic and the writing is surprisingly touching and real. If you like a little more character with your larger-than-life heroes this is undoubtedly the title for you.