Forget about the Fantastic Four, about super-heroes and cosmic villains. Unstable Molecules isn't about that at all. It's about 1950s America and how its citizens cling to a manufactured image of cleanliness, Norman Rockwell life and innocence that's about as real as silver-skinned surfers and a hide made of up orange rocks. I enjoyed the first issue of this limited series, but Sturm just blew me away with this examination of a homemaker's sense of being trapped and held down by the expectations of those close to them and society as a whole.
Sue Sturm doesn't have it easy. At 26, she's been thrust into the role of mother-figure to her teenage brother in the wake of their parents' sudden death. Sue tries to be the same together woman that her mother was... cooking, cleaning. She's even engaged to an accomplished man, Dr. Reed Richards. But somehow, none of it fills the emptiness she feels within herself. She has aspirations to be more, but she doesn't see any way to cast off her responsibilities and the expectations of others.
Those familiar with Guy Davis's work will not be surprised at how well he's captured a bygone era. He's demonstrated his ability to capture historic elements effectively before -- in Sandman Mystery Theatre and The Marquis -- and he's done it again here. I also remain pleased to see his character design still focuses on rendering real human shapes as opposed to the idealized forms that we've come to expect from the dominant genre in comics, super-heroes.
Sikoryak's visual contributions -- the Vapor Girl comics panels that parallel the more grounded elements in the main plot -- capture the kitsch and charm of Silver Age comics with seeming ease. What really sells it, though, is the dot-color scheme, mimicking the old four-color process of yesteryear.
Sturm has incorporated elements of more familiar FF characters into these "real-world" counterparts, and it makes it easier for longtime comics readers to immediately feel a connection with them. I enjoyed how Sue feels "invisible" as a result of Reed's insensitivity, Johnny's anger and her own inability to just be who she is around her own home. Sue only seems to be comfortable, only seems to exhibit something other than fear, when she's around Ben. The friendship and flirtation is the only thing that's real in her life. She acts the part in the roles of mother, fiancee and homemaker, but those are just roles and are far removed from the person she longs to be. Exactly who that person is, though, isn't clear, and it's probably the true source of Sue's frustration.
