I was impressed by the previous issue of Fantastic Four. This one blew me away. Waid has more in mind than just doing an Authority-style take on the Fantastic Four, entertaining as that would have been. In this issue, we start to see some of the ramifications of Reed Richard's decision to have the FF occupy Latveria, but more importantly, we see why he came up with the idea in the first place. It's not what most would expect, I'll wager, and while it ultimately serves a heroic goal, it's not the basic altruistic "to help the people of Latveria" that I expected it would be. With Howard Porter and Norm Rapmund once again providing fantastic (no pun intended) artwork, the "Authoritative Action" story looks like it might be my favorite of Waid's run on the Fantastic Four.
I'm always wary of super-heroes being dragged too much into the real world, because they really don't belong there. Before too long, you have to start explaining secret identities, vigilante laws, what their costumes are made of and the whole ball of string just comes unraveled. However, a touch of the real world can be just the thing to spice up a story, and that's what Waid has done here. He's not spending the entire issue exploring the geo-political ramifications of a super-hero team taking over a foreign country, but he is acknowledging the issue by the opening scene with Nick Fury, the Hungarian ambassador and the Secretary-General of the United Nations. Waid is setting up part of the conflict, but he spends just enough time on it, letting the reader know that he is aware of the larger ramifications, but that the focus of his story doesn't lay there.
Instead, it lays right where it should, which is with how these actions affect the Fantastic Four. The uncertainty that Ben, Johnny and Sue feel affects them all in slightly different ways, and it's a testament to Waid's strength of characterization that we can see that in just a few panels. Ben steps up his grousing, Johnny makes more quips and Sue, as always, serves as the rock of the team, trying to get a consensus from the others and talk sense to Reed without being unnecessarily confrontational. Reed also is true to his character, having little time to try and explain himself but instead showing the team why he's doing what he's doing. Reed has always had a little bit of arrogance in common with Doom, and with well-justified anger driving him, he's got even more in common, but his goals and the fact that he is willing to stop and provide an explanation set him apart.
Porter and Rapmund do a terrific job on the artwork this issue, capturing the rustic nature of Latveria and hitting some of the essential reveal panels just as hard as they need to be hit. Waid's story absolutely depends on some of these panels speaking volumes, such as the revelation of the "prison" chamber or the splash page that shows what lies beyond all of Doom's traps, and Porter and Rapmund knock these panels out of the park. Also, and this is a smaller thing but very important to me when it comes to the FF, I love the way Porter draws the Thing.
On top of an exciting story and great artwork, this issue speaks to why Waid is the perfect writer for the Fantastic Four. It's because he gets it. The prison chamber and the arguments that the Four put forth to Reed about why Doom has the love of the people in Latveria shows an absolute understanding of Dr. Doom and his role as leader of a country, and the final pages, where Reed lays out why he's doing this, are just such a perfect moment, such a revelation about Reed's motivation and how he's directing his anger, that it will probably go down as one of my top ten favorite Fantastic Four moments of all time. The decision to remove Waid from this book has never seemed more asinine than after reading this issue, and the only problem I have with the story is knowing that it's going to be Waid's last on the book.
