Today, Shelby and Drew are discussing Fantastic Four 1-3, originally released November 14th, 2012, December 12th, 2012, and January 9th, 2013.

Shelby: Family stuff is hard. There’s something about the family dynamic, this group of people you’re stuck with, for better or for worse, for the rest of your life, that makes everything a thousand times more difficult than it would be otherwise. The Fantastic Four has the perfect storm (no pun intended) of layered family dynamics: husband and wife, children, an actual uncle, and the family friend you can call uncle, all going on a little trip. On top of all that, you’ve got the fact that all the adults are super-powered saviors of the universe, and the little trip involves traveling the very folds of time and space. Will Matt Fraction be able to balance the mundane family dynamic with the crazy space adventures? More importantly, is Reed Richards always such a dick?

It all started when Reed, Mr. Fantastic, got bit by a dinosaur. His arm was not healing like it should, and a glance under the microscope revealed why; his cells were breaking down at the molecular level. Fearing the same was or would soon happen to the rest of the Four, he decided the best thing to do was take a family vacation, and under the ruse of exploration and education, he would secretly look for a way to reverse his molecular entrophy. Thanks to comic book science, their trip would last them a year, but would only seem to last 4 minutes to everyone on Earth. Just to be safe, the Four recruits a new set of Four to keep an eye on things while they’re gone; you can follow their adventures in FF. So, Reed, Sue, Johnny, Ben, and the little Fantastics Franklin and Valeria hop in their ship and zip away. Their first stop is a newly developing planet that tries to eat them.

Some fast thinking which involves huge force fields from Sue, lots of clobbering from Ben, and Johnny lighting the whole damn atmosphere on fire gets everyone out of harm’s way. Sue plays the mom card and declares something like that is never going to happen again. Reed agrees, but we all know that that is the only kind of thing that’s going to happen on this trip.

I ask again, is Reed Richards always such a dick? He has super-powered cancer and he hasn’t told his family. I couldn’t help but think of Walter White on Breaking Bad. This is early season one, so it shouldn’t be too spoilery, but if you haven’t seen it you may want to skip ahead a bit. Anyway, Walt finds out he has lung cancer and doesn’t tell his family about it for several episodes, instead choosing to embark on this crazy dangerous scheme of making meth to provide for them after he’s gone. Reed is doing the same thing, but it’s way way worse; it would be like if Walt found out he had cancer, and his wife and son probably also had cancer, but instead of telling them about it, he teaches them how to make meth and tells them it’s rock candy and science. I could maybe forgive Reed’s behavior for not wanting to scare his family so they can enjoy their time together if his family wasn’t also probably infected. What’s going to happen when Sue starts falling to pieces, and Reed can only say, “Yeah, I figured that would happen?”

The whole Fantastic family dynamic is interesting in how uninteresting it is. The devoted, if somewhat tunnel-visioned father, the strong, make everything better mother, her younger and somewhat douchier brother, the hot-head with a heart of gold family friend, it’s all very formulaic. I don’t blame this on Fraction’s writing at all, I think that’s a big part of what makes the Fantastic Four who they are. The Fantastics have a very “in simpler times” vibe to them; they may be stuck in a dinosaur, but they’re gonna crack wise and escape just in the nick of time, by golly.

Reed’s illness is a wholly different kind of threat, a threat that you can’t defeat with science, teamwork, and quips. His body is breaking apart, his whole family’s bodies are breaking apart, so he faces the threat the only way he knows how: science, teamwork, and quips. Well, not teamwork, but the science and quips part for sure.

It may sound like I feel pretty negatively about this title, but I actually kind of like it. It’s true, I find the tropes of the Fantastic Four to be a little uninspired, but 1) complaining about that would be like complaining that Bruce Wayne spends too much time brooding, and 2) I want to see things fall apart. Call me mean, but I’m looking forward to the inevitable blow-out between Reed and Sue when she finds out he’s dying, and she probably is, too. The fact that everything is going to come to a head whilst in the confines of a ship thousands of light-years away from anything recognizable? What little Drama Queen I have in me cannot wait. I also really like the way this title connects with FF, especially considering the time difference. Remember, a year to the Fantastic Four is supposed to be a mere four minutes to their Fantastic Replacements. Something happening on Earth in FF a few days after the Fantastic Four left would be weeks, or months even to our Fantastic Family. I’m excited for the way these two titles can continue to align, and the kinds of stories Fraction can tell because of it. What about you, Drew? Do you think Reed is making a tough choice by keeping his family in the dark, or is he just being a selfish a-hole? Are you reading FF as well?

Drew: Man, this title is going to be hard to talk about without referencing FF, amirite? I suppose the simple fact that there’s a title following the replacement Fantastic Four Reed et al. found to stick around for what was supposed to only be a four minute vacation is enough to suggest that something goes wrong with that plan. It may be a long time before we know what that something is, but these first few issues set the pace for what looks to be a thrilling adventure series.

First, a story: I once participated in a team-building exercise where a teammate and I were supposed to be solving a puzzle. The catch was, I was the only person allowed to look at the pieces, while my partner was the only person allowed to look at the solution. Ancillary catch: only he was allowed to talk. Seems simple enough, right? Well, it turns out this person was particularly bad at giving direction, so I eventually gave up trying to listen, having all the confidence that I could solve the puzzle without his help. All this is to say, I understand the Reed’s egotism here. Sure, he has no idea how to solve his problem, but he has every bit of confidence that, not only is the answer out there, but that he will be the one to find it. He doesn’t anticipate that he’ll die, so his condition is no more worthy of concern than a paper-cut. He’ll give it the attention it deserves, but there’s no sense worrying his family and friends over it. Obviously, this is pretty dickish behavior, but I think he truly believes he can solve it, so not wanting to worry everyone kind of makes sense.

In his Making Comics, Scott McCloud suggests that one of the things that makes the idea of the Fantastic Four such an enduring one is their connection to the classical elements. Understanding the link between Johnny and Fire or Ben and Earth is pretty simple, and I think understanding Sue’s connection to Air follows pretty easily, but Reed’s relationship to water has always seemed more tenuous to me. He’s stretchy, not damp. The thought of carrying this notion of fluidity over to his personality (or morality) makes the connection much stronger. He’s mercurial, but only because mercury is a liquid.

At any rate, there’s enough going on to distract from Reed’s lies by omission. Each issue has been drastically different, with the first two particularly intertwined with the start of FF, but issue 3 suggests a kind of adventure serial format that sounds absolutely thrilling. Reed himself describes it at “less action, more adventure” (which Sue rightly confronts him with after their first near-death experience). This kind of one-off and short arc approach has served Fraction well on Hawkeye, and the thought of porting that to a Buck Rodgers-style space adventure series sounds damn near perfect.

It helps that Fraction has a pretty good mind for this science-fiction stuff. The “this isn’t a planet at all” gag is older than Empire Strikes Back‘s asteroid worm, but the reveal that it’s actually a GIANT LURE is a fun twist.

That’s just clever. As someone whose always been fascinated by deep-sea life, this is an unexpected twist on a well-known concept.

It’s the adventuring that I think is going to be the big draw for me, but you’re right to point out the balance between the high-flying space antics and the family drama. I still don’t know the Fantastic Four very well, but you can bet I got a chuckle out of this sight gag:

Of course it was Johnny being so damn annoying.

For a complete list of what we’re reading, head on over to our Pull List page. Whenever possible, buy your comics from your local mom and pop comic bookstore. If you want to rock digital copies, head on over to Comixology and download issues there. There’s no need to pirate, right?