FANTASTIC FOUR #60
"Inside Out"
Recommended (8/10)
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Marvel Comics
Writer: Mark Waid
Pencils: Mike Wieringo
Inks: Karl Kesel
Colors: Paul Mounts
Letters: Comicraft
Editor: Tom Brevoort
Price: $0.09 US |
Mark Waid came to prominence in the comics industry as a writer for his work on The Flash from DC Comics. He not only got in touch with the title character's Silver Age roots, but he really explored what made him tick. And with his debut on Fantastic Four, he takes the same approach, making for an entertaining read. Along with Wieringo's crisp and bright artwork, this new direction humanizes the title characters without sacrificing the sense of wonder that's inherent in the concept.
Reed Richards has achieved the impossible, but now he's done something that no one close to him had ever expected: he's hired an image-consulting firm to boost the Fantastic Four's public perception. An idea man from the firm spends a week with the fantastic family, freaking out over the amazing things the FF have come to take for granted.
Wieringo's style has certainly developed since he first worked with Mark Waid on The Flash #80 several years back. I enjoyed his work then,but he's since cast aside a more squat figure style for sleeker, more dynamic ones. His cartoony look suits the wondrous nature of the characters, but he also brings an eye for detail and a sense of fluid motion that instills some realism along with it. One can see a strong Dave (Watchmen) Gibbons influence at play here as well. Of course, Karl Kesel's inks bring out a stronger Jack Kirby tone in the artwork as well, and the characters' faces are thoroughly emotive, sometimes subtly so.
If this issue has a problem, it's that Waid overplays the Torch and the Thing as the "kids" of this unusual family. They come off as particularly infantile early on in the book. That oversimplification loses its impact, though, as the book progresses. This initial issue in the Waid run -- as we discover in the closing pages -- is clearly focused on Reed Richards. I would imagine that more layered and complex examinations of the other characters will come with future issues.
The initial attraction is Waid's sense of humor, for which he is well known, and this issue is, not surprisingly, an excellent introduction to the world of the Fantastic Four. But in the end, it's how Waid brings a lofty intellect like Reed Richards down to earth that makes me want more of the writer's take on the First Family of the Marvel Universe.
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