Of all the Marvel Monsters one-shots set for release this month, this was the one I was looking forward to the most, and creators Scott Gray and Roger Langridge didn't let me down. The premise is ridiculous, but they pull it off wonderfully. The creators' affection for Marvel's Silver Age monster comics shines through clearly, but they also know not to take those campy characters seriously. This is comic-book comedy that can stand up next to Giffen and DeMatteis's Justice League work and Priest and Bright's Quantum and Woody. In fact, they do such great work with the characters that I lament the fact that this may very well be the last we see of the Fin Fang Four.
If there's one thing the Fantastic Four has proven it can handle right from its first adventure, it's giant monsters, and the team has recently subdued four of them: Googam, Elektro, Gorgilla and Fin Fang Foom. But rather than just exile them to Monster Island, Reed Richards has launched a pilot program focusing on rehabilitating these destructive brutes. Reducing them to human size and giving them jobs at the Baxter Building, Reed hopes the monsters can turn over a new leaf. They do, save for one of them, and his efforts to conquer the world end up exposing it to a diffrent threat altogether.
Langridge's cartoony depiction of the four monsters is hilarious, but the visual that won me over time after time was Fin Fang Foom's look deflated annoyance and cynicism. The fact that the original Foom design seems to have the dragon in a perpetual slouch just adds to the effect. Gorgilla's blissfully chipper face nevre fails to amuse either. The action is surprisingly effective and exciting, and the artist uses exaggeration quite well to humanize these inhuman protagonists.
The premise of a work-release program for giant monsters is ludicrous, but in the context of the Fantastic Four's world, it actually works. I love that Reed treats Foom as an equal, which makes for a nice balance to the Human Torch's mistreatment of Googam. The Elektro/Roberta subplot is a cute one, and I like how it allows the Thing to connect with the formerly monstrous robot. The story's accessible and it definitely boasts an all-ages appeal.
This book, like the other Marvel Monster's one-shots, also includes a reprint story that pre-dates the beginning of the "Marvel Age" (which began with Fantastic Four #1 in 1961). It's a Fin Fang Foom story -- presumbably the first one -- from Strange Tales #89, and its appeal today stems from the writer's portrayal of Communist China decades ago. The story manages to include two antagonists -- Foom and the Chinese army -- with a lone anti-Communist Chinese hero playing them against one another. The ideas and visuals are insane -- Foom using the Great Wall of China as a whip?!? -- but while the creators were playing it straight in the late 1950s, today, we can look at the material and laugh at the campiness of it all. 8/10
