Ultimate Fantastic Four #18 Review

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Reviewer: James Hatton
Story Title: N-Zone Conclusion

Writer: Warren Ellis
Breakdowns: Adam Kubert
Finishes: Scott Hanna
Colors: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Chris Eliopoulos
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Publisher: Marvel Comics

Warren Ellis has been working to try and revitalize the loose thread of the Ultimate-verse. The Fantastic Four have never been a strong team when it comes to Ultimization, and I’m not sure why. Maybe it’s that the concept is so deeply delved in the old days of comics that we can’t see how they can be a contemporary group. It could possibly be that the team themselves are generally older than the average comic book reader so they seem so hard to make youthful. It could even be that science fiction comics just don’t make the grade these days.

Ellis is doing hand over fist better than the Millar run, but is it enough? I’m not sure.

STORY!

This is the blowoff of a six-month storyline that defines the N-Zone in the Ultimate Universe. THe Fantastic Four are now on their way out, with aliens in close pursuit. Right off the bat we see a bit of the problem I’ve had with this book. Decompressed storytelling is the buzzword of the last five or so years, specifically when talking about Ultimate titles. Ellis isn’t good at it.

Bendis can take going and getting a cup of coffee into a long one issue inner monologue that makes you feel good about that character getting that coffee. Ellis doesn’t have that ability. He’s an excellent storyteller, we know that – but trying to take a bad landing and final battle (which is the main crux of this issue) and making it the entire issue should be easy. Somehow the landing takes too long, and the fight not long enough.

The end result? The good guys win and are now obvious in the public eye. We know who the Fantastic Four are. Maybe that’s the change that this book needs. They need to taste the fame and openness that the rest of the Ultimate universe has – our world is run by the media, and I hope over the course of the next storyarc, we move away from the science fiction theatrics and place ourselves deep into the “real” world.

ART!

I’ve been a huge fan of this art team since the beginning with its huge sweeping tech and dramatic space scenes. That might even be part of the problem I have with this book. Those panels are so huge and scoping, that one panel takes up a full page and destroys any need for small panel filled pages that someone like Bendis or Vaughn use for quick pacing.

No doubt though, Ultimate Fantastic Four is a sci-fi dreamboat for art.

OVERALL!

When all is said, this issue is fine. It continues the same pacing as the issues before it, and it’s a good ending to this tale. The biggest problem that stand sis that this tale could have been told easily in 3 issues and it was pressed to 6. In the case of cerain titles, you can take what you are given and stretch it – in the case of this book, it probably would taste much better in a graphic novel.