It’s time to look at one of the more modern Fantastic Four series. Yup, not the Future Foundation, and not the fake Fantastic Four, but the real deals. Nowadays, they simply aren’t as big as the X Men or Avengers so they barely have any titles. Hopefully the new film will fix that…maybe, but I wouldn’t count on it. Also, as one of the only Original Sin tie ins that I’ve read, it’s nice to get into the event.

The Fantastic Four are in a real pickle. The Human Torch has lost his powers and a court has decreed that the Fantastic Four must surrender custody of their kids over to Shield. Moreover, the heroes must leave their home and leave all of their belongings there. Anything that is deemed to not be a threat will be given back to them at some point. Then, the whole “Original Sin” debacle happens and the Thing finds out that Reed Richards and Johnny Storm have kept a secret from him for quite a while so he gets framed for murder and sent to prison….it’s been a tough week.

As you can see, things are at an all time low for the heroes. What can they really do at this point? Reed takes this opportunity to take a job over at this futuristic island. He can now work in peace and try to make the world a better place. Admittedly, this plot seems a little boring at the moment, but I’m assuming that it will go somewhere. I’m also assuming that the other workers are all evil, but maybe I’m just a little paranoid. Invisible Woman is heading off to Latveria to visit Valorie, the only kid who wasn’t taken my Shield. After all, they wouldn’t dare attack Doom’s country right? Human Torch is coping by listening to music and partying..basically ruining his reputation even more.

As for the Thing, he’s stuck in Jail so it’s not like he can really do anything about this whole affair. Unfortunately, it’s one of those corrupt jails with a villain in charge. She Thing decided to turn into a villain and she runs the joint now. Power inhibitors have taken away everyone’s powers aside from hers. Since she’s motivated to hurt Thing by an unknown assailant, she is in charge of making things painful for him during his stay. Hopefully the other heroes bust him out soon since this is probably the most annoying subplot. Why do the heroes never try to find out what is going on in these jails? Thing better get out of their soon before the plot starts to drag on in a bad way.

Speaking of which, these events are all part of a villain’s plan. That seems to be the case anyway as the court proceedings were all rather fishy. The orders apparently came from somewhere above the Avenger’s clearance as well as Shield’s. And….the heroes don’t really have a problem with this. It’s rather sad. Then, a super villain group is tasked with attacking Reed Richards and they are getting paid for this. Luckily, Reed is saved by the Scarlet Witch in the big cliff hanger, but you have to hope that the Avengers are looking into this matter. Finally, Thing’s subplot is being totally orchestrated by the villain. I’m expecting it to be someone like the Thinker, but we shall see. Either way, he certainly has the upper hand at this point.

Back to the Avengers, this makes them look really bad as per usual. Once again, they’re shown to be lackeys to the government. Reed was actually glad to see them at first because he thought they were there to help the Fantastic Four with the current situation. Nope, they were there to make sure that the FF didn’t try to enter their home. This wasn’t a peaceful mission either, as the Avengers made sure to bring in all of their heavy hitters. They weren’t nice about it either as they immediately pointed their blasters at the FF. Sue Richards wouldn’t have any of that and she managed to put up a pretty good fight. She blew the Avengers away with a force blast and proved that she could control Thor’s hammer. She may have even been able to defeat them if the original Human Torch hadn’t intervened. Sue decided to call off the attack, but the comic does show why she is certainly one of the stronger fighters around. The Avengers should watch their backs and try to be likable heroes again. I really hope the films never go this route in terms of character development.

As for the original Human Torch, he seems like a decent character. I definitely find him a little suspicious as he seems too good to be true, but maybe he really does want to help. Maybe. Either way, he’s kept his end of the bargain so far as he saved the life of one of the Future Foundation members. Shield was planning to destroy him of course, but they are Shield. Maria Hill made the hero call this time, hopefully she can continue to take the high road and ignore the orders coming in from a shady source. Since when does Shield actually take orders from the government anyway? They’ve always got their own agenda and seem to just do what they want whenever they want.

One aspect of the comic that can be a little humorous is how the heroes love to state the official names for all of the characters. An example of this is when Scarlet Witch appears. In similar words, Reed says “My Gosh, it’s Wanda Maximoff……THE SCARLET WITCH!” and it’s a rather grand introduction, but it will make you wonder why Reed had to recite the whole thing. This happens with the Sandman as well and other villains/heroes throughout the comic. I guess it’s a good way for the readers to keep track of who’s who, but the human identities don’t matter all that much so we may as well just mention the super names right? Although I’ve gotten in the habit of calling Mr Fantastic, Reed Richards instead of his super hero name.

The art for the comic is certainly good. I’d say that it’s a step up from All New X Men. I definitely can’t wait until the Fantastic Four are back in their classic blue uniforms, but the red ones aren’t bad. The action scenes certainly stand out and all of the characters models appear to be accurate. This is certainly another good example of what good artwork looks like and I have no qualms with it.

As for the Original Sin that the Thing found out about, I seriously think that he is overreacting. He wishes that Reed and Johnny had gone to him and admitted that it was Johnny’s fault for him not being cured. First of all, I don’t see why that would make a difference. The Thing would have pouted for a while, but then gotten over it. It would be like bringing up a past mistake. The Thing knows that it didn’t work, he just doesn’t know why it didn’t work. If Reed later on made up some phony reason for why it didn’t work, then that would be another story. As it is, they probably just didn’t bring it up again. A lot of Reed’s attempts failed back in the day so why should this one be any different? The Thing takes the whole thing way too hard and I thought that he had mostly accepted his powers by now. Maybe someday he will, but it seems like an issue that he will never get over at this point.

Overall, This was a good volume of Fantastic Four. It’s rather light on the action as it is just focusing on how bad the circumstances are for the Fantastic Four. Hopefully it picks up for them soon since the villain really has the upper hand here. It’s a clever scheme, but my imagination can only hold out for so long before I start to wonder why nobody has figured out that they are being framed. I also hope that the Thing gets out of prison soon since that plot can certainly drag on. The art is solid and you’ll get to see how the FF vs Avengers fight could play out in a movie. I recommend this comic to anyone who wants to see an example of how unified the Marvel universe is now. It is always fun to see how many fighters are in NYC. There isn’t as much popcorn fun as the average comic, but I’m sure that the fights will be intensifying in future volumes. Hopefully the Human Torch gets his powers back soon as well!

Overall 6/10