Fantastic Four: Road Trip #1

[cyberghostface]

"The body horror side of that comes from my visceral response to the FF at an early age. I was very scared of the Thing when I was a kid because I imagined something like what we do in this book happening to his body. I have kind of intense trypophobia and something about the Thing's skin really activates it in me. Also, the FF are mutants—in the true sense of the word, in that an externality was introduced into their physiology that changed them forever.

There's something disturbing about that on a visceral level to me, to have one's body become distorted or strange. It's like how we also have a subconsciously strange appreciation of redheads. They're literally mutants and I don't mean that pejoratively. The gene has mutated. Mutation can be beautiful, powerful, and also quite horrific.

That's the FF in a nutshell to me. I thought if I leaned into the extreme of that idea I could make it really upsetting. But then I combined it with the other integral part of the FF—family. The family operates best as one unit. Well… how far can we take that? Felipe [Andrade] and I take that pretty dang far." -- Christopher Cantwell

Comments

[lordultimus]

Well, I do like the ending with everyone not forgiving Reed.

[mesmiranda]

I kind of... don't?

I mean, I do--Reed shouldn't be let off the hook for poor behaviour--but at the same time it feels like Marvel is leaning so hard into the tired old "jerkass / insufferable / morally questionable genius who is detached from humanity" with Reed these days that it's like, what does Sue see in him? What does Reed bring to the table in their family unit besides an ongoing headache to deal with?

I know, it's part of Reed's whole shtick. I just wish there was more actually healthy communication and love and support from Mr. Fantastic over here (especially with Bruce battling literal and figurative demons and Tony doing God knows what and not sure what T'Challa is up to).

[lordultimus]

I totally get it, but for a one-shot that will probably never get referenced again, I think it's fine. I might have a different opinion if this was part of the main series.

[sanjuro]

This seems like something out of the venture bros.

[themajesticmoose]

Richard Impossible is what Reed Richards would be if he was less of a dick

[donnblake]

"The Fantastic Four are mutants... but, and let's be clear on this, Franklin is not, and never ever ever was, and that's legally binding."

[owlbrigade1]

I've had worse holidays. We once spent an entire weekend stuck at Abington services, for one.

[stubbleupdate]

That sounds bad.

It's nice for a half hour break to stretch your legs and stop you from falling asleep and crashing into the central reservation, but a whole weekend? Sounds like no fun.

[silverhammerman]

There's a huge horror influence on early FF, growing out of monster comics and scifi, which extends to the Marvel Universe in general's early days, so tapping into that and taking it little further works, for me. Plus, getting into the horror roots is a good way of distinguishing a take on these characters that's not just the somewhat ossified "celeb super family" thing they've been doing for decades now.

Also, this one-shot is yet another reminder that Slott's run on the main title is just about the least interesting thing to be done with these characters.

[mindsweeper]

I feel like Immortal Hulk opens the door for these types of ideas, given how it’s been so successful by tapping into the horror angle.

Agreed on Slott. It’s a very back to basics approach in the wrong way. It’s what I fear for the X-Men when Hickman moves on.

[lordultimus]

My hope is that Al Ewing takes over X-Men after Hickman leaves.

[tcampbell1000]

Don't entirely agree there. Most importantly, I like that Ben and Alicia have been allowed to get married and adopt. Most progress for DC/Marvel mainstays is illusory and eventually reversed, but I hope at least their marriage sticks for a while. It's very satisfying to see Ben overcome the biggest obstacle to his own happiness, and Alicia's shining in some new roles.

There's definitely more that could be done with the characters and adventures, but I think I honestly prefer them a little boring if the alternative's a hot take like "these guys dislike each other enough that when Reed blames himself for something that was clearly a supervillain's actual fault, the family will pile on instead of comforting him."

[themajesticmoose]

WELL THIS LOOKS HORRIBLE ;-;

[tcampbell1000]

The horror elements here scrape up against some interesting potential, but the story's paced too quickly for much suspense to develop, and yet it's also drawn out by the characters taking way too long to realize something's not right. I mean, the second Val started losing words, Sue should've force-fielded them back to camp and shouted, "REED, SOMETHING IS WRONG WITH OUR DAUGHTER."