Take the plot from Aliens. Fold in the X-Men for no apparent reason and add a generous helping of super-hero teamup cliches. Take an artist out of his element and throw him in the mix. Add a lot of unnecessary ink. That's the recipe for X-Men/Fantastic Four. Be sure to use nary a pinch of sense or logic in the batter, though. Substitute the popularity of some of the characters and the artist instead to keep the audience's attention. Well, I've tried this dish, and believe me, it tastes terrible. The writing here can best be described as amateurish, and the art fails to capture the sleek, polished look that's made Pat Lee's work on Dreamwave's Transformers such a success in recent years. This may just be the worst comic book of the year.
Something goes awry at NASA's new space station, Simulacra, when an expedition to Mars returns home and docks at the orbiting facility. The station is immersed in a communications blackout as a result, and the government calls upon the Fantastic Four to help them determine what went wrong and if there are any survivors. But to detect life signs, the first family of the Marvel Universe decides it needs the aid of a telepath, and that's where the X-Men come into play. Unfortunately, so does an old rivalry, and super-hero fisticuffs erupt as a result.
Pat Lee may wow his fans with his depictions of cold robots and their hard angles, but when it comes to bringing human figures to life, his work leaves a lot to be desired... at least, it does in this instance. Anatomy is twisted and misshapen. Exaggeration is taken to the extreme. Wolverine's claws make him look ludicrous as opposed to threatening. Rahter than provide detail, Lee dresses several figures in darkness. This is a big super-hero teamup, with an emphasis on action. This isn't about darkness. If anything, the art should be bright and playful.
Wolverine attacks the Thing for no apparent reason. Reed Richards turns to a telepath for help even though he could invent a lifesign scanner using a Gameboy and a gum wrapper. The teams modify the X-Men's Blackbird for space travel even though the FF has like 38 spaceships of its own nearby. Heroes with energy powers don't go on the mission for fear of damaging the space station, but Gambit, who makes things blow up, is greenlit to go. There are bizarre plot elements such as these throughout the issue, and it's thoroughly distracting.
The problem is that the plot isn't driving things forward here. The writer is clearly aiming at key visuals, cool scenes, and things are being arranged to make them ever so conveniently come to pass. Nothing makes sense here, making for a frustrating and thoroughly miss-able read. 1/10
