Ultimate Fantastic Four, Volume 1: The Fantastic

Ultimate Fantastic Four (2003) (Collected Editions)

by Brian Michael Bendis, Mark Millar, Adam Kubert

The World's Greatest Comic Magazine - and subject of the upcoming blockbuster motion picture - at long last makes its long-awaited debut in the Ultimate Marvel Universe! Witness the beginnings of the Four - Reed Richards, Johnny Storm, Susan Storm and Ben Grimm - super-hero icons for the new century! When high-school genius Reed Richards enrolls at a secret government-sponsored school for the most gifted minds in the world, he unwittingly starts himself and his friends on the journey of a lifetime! A story about science, adventure, and above all else family, set in the most dynamic and unpredictable universe in the comic-book world!

Collecting: Ultimate Fantastic Four 1-6

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Comic Book, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 11, 2004

About the author

A comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.

Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.

Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.

Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.

Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.

Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.

He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The Ultimate universe version of the FF seems to have a few nice little twists to it.
However, I may find it more interesting this time around simply because I know that this will eventually give us Ultimate Reed Richards.



Volume one is all about the backstory and getting the gang together.
Reed and Ben were friends in middle school, and Ben protected him from the bullies. Reed's family life sucks and both he and his parents are relieved when he is invited to a prestigious school for gifted youngsters.



Nope, not that school.



Sue and Johnny live with their scientist father at the government-run Baxter Building that houses all the aforementioned gifted youngsters. Basically, it's a year-round science camp for child geniuses who will someday change the world.
A few familiar faces include Victor Van Damme (Doctor Doom) as an antisocial student and descent of Vlad Tepes, Arthur Molekevic (Mole Man) as a teacher and all-around creep, and General Ross as...General Ross.



Fast forward a few years and one experiment gone wrong, and you have The Ultimate Fantastic Four.
It's been a little over a decade since I first read this, and it really sucked me in this time around. I want to see where this goes.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a pretty fun read!

It redoes the origin of the F4 and rather than the cosmic rays its the negative zone and we focus on that and everything and its fun. How Reed meets Doom and Ben here is different and the childhood angle was fun and working for the army and all, and how the accident happens and how the members deal with it is explored here and finally them facing off against Mole man and his Ani-men and its fun, getting the hang of their powers and discovering enemies all around and personal struggles for Ben also.

So yeah familiar storylines but its well done and make for a great read and the dialogues can become heavy like there is so much sometimes and considering its Bendis it makes sense but regardless great face off between the two though I had hoped they would have shown more fighting. The art was okay I guess and it sets up the next conflict between Doom and this team well.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK so now I can trace the connections between the failed Fan4stic movie and this source material.


All those people working on this picture and not a one thought to give poor Ben some pants?

It was better then expected though some exceedingly early-2000s aspects (allow me to explain Bluetooth! It’s big in Scandinavia, didn’t you know?) haven’t aged well. And having Sue randomly bare midriff all the time was just silly.


Check it out, the Always Visible Belly Button.

[Brittany · Rating 4 out of 5]

***Fantastic Four Buddy Read with the Shallow Readers! Criteria: Fantastic Four all the way***

This was my first super hero origin story. I was convinced that I wouldn't like Fantastic Four for some reason. I even only got one of their comics because I was sure I would hate reading about them. DUMB BRITTANY.

It was amazing to watch how these intelligent people got instantly transformed into "supernatural beings", "mutants", "powerful versions of themselves", whatever you want to call them. We even got major background into Reed, who was such a cool kid I can hardly contain my excitement over him, and equally so as he grows up. I also really like the fact that Grimm sticks around for the long haul. I just cannot say enough that I LOVED reading an origin story. Seeing how everyone came to be together, how intelligent they were from the very beginning, how Grimm sadly (but awesomely) gets dragged into it unknowingly, how they all react when they first discover what they can do. It is eye opening, especially after jumping into so many comics on their third, fourth, millionth run since their origin story.

This was awesome though, and never left you feeling bored. There was a kick ass villain with minions out the wazoo. There was an experiment gone wrong and thus powers for four. Grimm's bad attitude was not only justified but hilarious. And Johnny was cocky as ever after the accident. Add in that the artwork was awesome, and I can tell you that I'm already working on getting volumes two and three.

I knocked a star strictly because we didn't get any kick ass Sue until the very very end. Her protection field was awesome, and obviously she can turn invisible (HELLO? AWESOME!) but I wanted more of her. Her powers are so intense and I feel like they demand more attention. But maybe that's just me. At any rate, waiting for more is going to suck.

[Bookwraiths · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an okay read. It did a decent job of "updating" the series for the twenty-first century (though the cultural references are a bit dated now), and the new, ultimate explanation of their powers is okay, but I couldn't help but feel like I was watching the last FF movie all over again. (And I didn't like the new FF movie, by the way.) I'll try the next story arc a go, but if it doesn't thrill me a bit more, then I will not be continuing with this one.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, it's a decent start, but hardly exciting. I think the series became better a few volumes in.

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

Score: 3 out of 5
Grade: 60% (C-) | Decent Start

Decided to read this again since Marvel released the Fantastic Four cast (with daddy Pedro Pascal leading the way). Not as good as I remember, but still a fun way to kickstart the "ultimate" version of the Fantastic Four.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Better late than never...my library was just a little slow on the delivery, but I now have a stack of 9 FF volumes to get through for our Foursome Shallow Buddy Read...from LAST week...my bad...

Anyhow, here we go! Welcome to the Ultimate Marvel Universe, a place which varies slightly from the normal Marvel U, and which allows us to tell familiar stories with slight twists...

Here, Reed Richards is still a super smart kid, Ben Grimm is a big jock who defends Reed from bullies in exchange for help with Trigonometry homework, and Sue and Johnny Storm are kids of Dr. Storm, the head of the Baxter Building.
Reed's father (Gary, not Nathaniel) here is a bit of a dick, mad that Reed breaks the blender and other devices...eventually, the Baxter Building program for super genius scientists recruits him at the Science Fair, and off he goes, but even there, there's not much love from the family still (mom is OK, but dad isn't).

Sue is a smart one here, Reed is in love from day one, and Victor (Van Damme, not Von Doom - though I hope it means he's great at Kung Fu and does Volvo commercials!) is his main rival. Mole Man is a professor at the BB who's fired for doing human DNA work and General Ross (Thunderbolt?) and Dr. Storm fire him for immoral work.

Johnny's his usual self, a bit younger, and Ben just happens to come visit one day when they're doing a big experiment...it goes wrong, and they all wake up in different places with variations of their powers (Earth - Ben, Air - Sue, Fire - Johnny, and Water - Reed (makes more sense than Elastic)) However, Victor is still missing...

There's a Mole Man creature who shows up to attack the city, and Ben and Johnny dive right into ass-kickery, Reed a little less so...they then discover that Sue was found by Mole Man, and there's some awkward shit there...

We're left with the whereabouts of Victor still unknown and the army concerned about what the four have become, especially Ben...

So this is a great variation on the origin story, and a fun place to jump into a series that can alienate by being too high concept and science-y for some of us troglodytes, but it also corrects the blatant sexism of the early 60s FF when they weren't quite sure how to deal with Sue...

I'm looking forward to continuing the series, and cannot wait to see how Victor will manifest himself. I'm also happy to see the comedy and action mix, courtesy of Bendis and Millar, who wrote this together! Now, onto Vol. 2!

This should have been the required read for Foursome Week...great fun read that's not too fluffy or too heavy.

[Shadowdenizen]

3.5 stars. A decently strong start to the Ultimates saga.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this years ago. About the same as I remember.

This is actually a really slow build up to our "Heroes" getting their powers. It doesn't even happen till issue 3. So it's a bit of a slow build and to be honest not super interesting one. Once they do get their powers it does speed up and get better. Watching each have to get used to their powers and being separated at first is fun.

A 3 out of 5.

[Jedhua · Rating 2 out of 5]

Book Info: This collection contains Ultimate Fantastic Four issues #1-6.


ABSOLUTE RATING: {2.5/5 stars} (Rounded Up)

STANDARDIZED RATING: <2/5 stars>



Ever since Reed Richards was born, he has had a curious mind. As a preteen, his obsessive tendency to tinker with household gadgets and appliances constantly got him in trouble with his hot-tempered father, and he was regularly bullied in middle school. Linebacker Ben Grimm was his only friend, and – in exchange for afterschool math tutoring – would always rush to Reed's defense against his tormentors. At age 11, Reed established himself as one of the world's most brilliant minds, and gained government funding through his membership in the Baxter Building's scientific think tank. Little did young Reed know that, several years later, an unexpected mechanical malfunction during a matter teleportation field test would drastically transform the lives of him and his three friends forever, and that the guilt born of this event's fallout may follow him for years to come...

Possibly most detrimental to this volume was its brevity. Several issues in the collection drop below the average 23-page length, and this cumulative reduction makes the entire volume a full issue (approximately 24 pages) shorter than it should have been! Though the writers may very well not have been up to the task of stronger plotting or deeper characterization (for whatever reason), they robbed themselves of the option to even try. More than anything else I've ever read, this truly feels like a book where the writers believed they had better things to do than put much effort into their work. And as a introductory volume, this was likely the worst possible time to cut corners; more than simply wanting to guarantee prolonged readership, the writers should also want to lay down a strong enough foundation to carry future volumes.

Especially for this volume, and probably so for the entire series, Reed Richards is the main character. By far most of the events and scenes are centered around him, and the narrative almost never abandons him for more than 4 pages at a time. That said, one should logically expect his character to be the most developed, but it was surprising to me just how little he stood above any of the other three in his group. Honestly, I think Reed's childhood struggles could and should have been much more engrossing. While Bendis may have opted for an origin story with very similar themes and many parallels, Reed Richards isn't half the character Peter Parker was in Ultimate Spider-Man's first installment, and I couldn't feel particularly bad for him; he ended up being nothing more than your typical, shy child genius. For example, potential avenues including social anxiety/isolation and Reed's longing for paternal validation could have taken the story pretty far, but never went anywhere.





At this point, I know I've already made several criticisms of this book and offered a couple solutions, but at the end of the day, poor writing may still have prevented the production of a book exceeding 2.5 stars. Truth be told, I'd really love to pin this all on Millar, but this book was actually cowritten, and something about the dialogue made me feel like Bendis handled the script. I guess it was the vapidity of the adolescent remarks (vaguely reminiscent of Ultimate Spider-Man) or the brief periods of excitedly sporadic dialogue, and I fear I have no choice but to accept this harsh reality. But for some reason, all the wit and emotion that Bendis has repeatedly shown himself capable of was entirely missing here, and it reads like the kind of script I would create as a first-time writer. This was one of the biggest reasons I found the book so painfully lightweight and boring.

As bad as the 2015 Fantastic Four film is believed to be, I'd argue that it was by no stretch (pun intended) worse than this. Now I'm not at all saying it wasn't a disappointment, but it was definitely not as bad as the ratings would imply, and actually accomplished several things this book did not. For one thing, the moment where each member of the team realizes the changes their bodies have undergone after the accident was excellent, and probably served as the highlight of the entire film. The corresponding segment in this book was pathetic by comparison, and lacked the deeply haunting impact of the movie. Ben's response to his transformation was probably the most impressive and memorable (in the movie), and, incidentally, this brings me to my second point. I found the previous friendship between him and Reed to have been just strong enough to make Reed's desperate pleas for forgiveness and Ben's cold rejection surprisingly moving. In this comic, however, Ben very easily calms himself after briefly attacking Reed, and only follows the incident up with half-hearted passive aggression and sarcasm.







[Cute, but not nearly funny enough to be justified, given the circumstances.]

Oddly enough, I just got back from reading volume one of Ultimate X-Men as my previous book, and it was illustrated by Andy Kubert – who is the brother of the Adam Kubert (i.e. the guy who illustrated this book). Personally, I think I prefer Adam over Andy, and would very much like to see some of his more recent (and improved?) work. My only "complaint" would be his stuff sometimes looks like a shameless rip-off of John Romita Jr. But with some years of fine-tuning, and a greater focus on distinctiveness, he might just become an artist to look out for.




[Correct me if I'm wrong, but these look like classic Romita Jr. facial expressions.]

Like I said earlier, I'm not sure whether to blame it on Millar or Bendis, since they apparently both had a hand in writing it, but I'm tending more to lean toward the former just because Bendis has more clearly proven his talent. Still, I feel both writers are capable of much better, and I'm willing to attribute this to the fact that they may both have been overextended with multiple separate projects (in the Ultimate Universe and beyond). But since there seem to be so few good Fantastic Four comics out there, the poor quality of this book feels just a bit more tragic than it should. I recall the following two volumes written by Warren Ellis to be noticeably better, but I may just pick back up with the Crossover arc; that's around when I remember this series being at its strongest. You know, I really gotta take a break from the mediocre comics and get back with the good stuff; not sure I can handle much more of this shit...

Postscript:


What I'm about to say is kind of strange considering it's an observation I've made during both of the previous two Ultimate comics I've read just before this (i.e. Spider-Man and X-Men), but here it is: when things begin to heat up, and the city is faced with a huge threat, somehow the heroes are able to keep their cool and take on the challenge head on. What makes this so strange for me is that no member of the Fantastic Four has ever dealt with this kind of thing before, and they have no training in the use of their abilities. Am I really supposed to believe that shock or the fight-or-flight response is sufficient to explain their pronounced enthusiasm and courage in the face of such startlingly exotic danger? I'm sorry, but I simply don't buy it. Not for a second. Besides, I think it would make the characters a lot more approachable if they didn't behave so fearlessly at such an early stage. Go ahead and take a peek at this, and you can be the judge:

[Cameron Chaney · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up because (1) I was in the mood for some comics, (2) I am only familiar with the Fantastic Four from the movies, and (3) the new reboot movie series will be based off the Ultimate storyline and I want to get a head start. Overall, I had a lot of fun with this first volume. While I do prefer darker superhero comics, I loved the bright colors and all the attention to detail that went into the art. Also, the dialogue and story were well written, fresh, and entertaining. Not bad!

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Everything I know about the Fantastic Four I know from the movie so I was intrigued to visit the ultimates version of the team.

The Fantastic is the origin story for the new team. They're younger than the classic tale so Bendis and Miller have to massage things some for them to be where they're supposed to be. Reed and Sue are easy. They're both geniuses so it makes sense that they'd be together at a special school. Johnny (my favourite by the way) is Sue's brother so he'd be with them because he has to stay with his dad who's also at the special school. Ben? Ben's a bit different and I didn't really believe that they'd let him attend the test of Reed's machine but I'll go with it.

I liked seeing Reed grow up and I liked how the authors chose to give their version their powers. I also felt very stupid for never noticing that the team is essentially the four elements. Fire and Air are easy (Johnny and Sue) but I never really thought of Ben as Earth because he never really looked as if he were stone before and Reed elasticity is certainly akin to Water.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

Second re-read: still captures the imagination, skips along energetically and gives us a relatable take on the first family’s origins. I enjoyed whatever mashup of talents Bendis and Millar hammered out, but I can’t wait to dive back into Ellis next issue!

First review: Bendis kicks this off with a killer take on the premise of a super-genius stuck in normal high school, and how little the world around him makes sense - and how much he pursues his brain-trips even without any support or peers. I can almost feel the misery and hope coming off the page, Bendis personifies it so well.

[Stormy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one tells the origin of the Fantastic Four and how they became who live came this was right at the Beginning though no so we see reed as a little boy and he always getting in trouble with his dad for his experiments he then does a science there were he gets giving a full or scholarship or ride to this science place where they do experiments to see if they can get through to the other world like a parallel line used universe so he does this experiment at a bigger scale than what he was used to so they could sort a walk through but it backfires and Johnny Ben Sue I'll get changed as long with reed Johnny obviously became torch Ben became the thing Sue became the invisible girl and I forget what the other guy became I just know he's a stretchy person it was really good but I didn't really know their Origins so if you want I just know their origins this is a really good book to start with you don't have to continue with the service after this if you don't want to

[Antonia (antoniaslonelybookclub) · Rating 3 out of 5]

(3.2 estrellas) Nos presenta una historia buena, el comienzo de los 4 fantásticos es interesante, me gustó como la historia se desarrolló y ver “crecer” a los personajes, hay partes chistosas y buenas referencias.

[Chris Borror · Rating 5 out of 5]

This first volume is 144 pages and contains issues 1-6 of Ultimate Fantastic Four. I had forgotten how much I loved this series. It’s a lot of fun and feels like a really fresh take on these characters that still holds up today. I highly recommend this one!

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just ok for me, nothing special. Did the trick of introducing the Fantastic Four and setting everything up.

[Shane Stanis · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love this book. In my last Ultimate universe review, I said I wanted to see a Millar plot with someone else scripting. Looks like my wish came true! Millar/Bendis seems like the absolute odd couple. I sort of imagine the pair of reality tv contestants that get paired up for the team round, grumble on the confessional about it, and then make magic.

Read for an excellent FF reboot, with an origin that respects the spirit of the original team while telling a whole new tale.

[Brandon Daniels · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this was a spectacular update to the Fantastic Four’s origin. Millar and Bendis were the architects of the Ultimate Universe and it’s fitting that they collaborated on Marvel’s first family. I really liked the updates and inclusion of Mole Man.
The art by Adam Kubert, John Dell, Dani Mimi, and John Dell is great, and they do a great job of making them look appropriately young. I was particularly impressed with the panel layouts in this one also.

[Dan Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the superior sets of Marvel graphic novels, but it still has a good few floundering episodes. The whole series spans Issues 1-57, collected across 11 slim volumes, each largely dealing with one story. The interactions and snark between the leads are a big draw, with fun dialogue and a willingness to mock superhero conventions. There's also a more sophisticated role for Sue Storm which sees her leadership and scientific genius come to the fore, and just about forgives the decision to give her figure-hugging two piece spandex outfits even in a battle situation (but then again Reed gets progressively more muscular with a painted-on outfit, so it seems even-handed to me).

Their new origin story is handled convincingly, and returned to now and then, giving their superhero lives a feeling of real trajectory and change. The villains are by and large fine antagonists, although there's less Doom than I would have liked. After about the middle of the run it starts to feel a little aimless, with gimmicky new characters and villains/allies kind of thrown in without the writers really knowing what to do with them, and the occasional self-reflection is either handled swiftly for plot purposes (especially Ben and Johnny) or air-dropped in and not hugely meaningful (Reed & Sue's relationship troubles).

The real strength of the run is in its commitment to the appreciation of intelligence, which it shares with Spiderman to some extent, and the benefits and perils of science. The more memorable antagonists - Doom, Rhona Burchill, Zombie FF, Moleman if you insist - each counterpoint Reed and/or Sue, while the rubbish ones - Nihil, Diablo, Silver Surfer, even the Tesseract and Thanos - are based on meaningless advanced tech or hand-waving magic / alchemy.

Still, these stories zip along and if you don't like it, then no worries each one will be over soon enough. And if you do like it, it alas leaves you wanting far far more.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here Bendis and Millar reboot the Fantastic Four for the Ultimate Universe and they changed the origin quite drastically. For me though, this worked pretty well. The original Fantastic Four origin felt a bit naff and instead here we get a pseudo-science explanation which works.

I really liked how they made the Four more human here. We get a reasonable amount of backstory and see the majority of Reed Richard's life up to the point of the accident. The writers really nailed him and the origin felt no entirely unlike Peter Parker's, but with family issues in a different way.

Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, is also characterised wonderfully. Ben Grimm, the Thing, is done quite well and I liked the fact they focused on the fact that he has lost the most from the accident and cannot even begin to live a normal life. The explanation for him being at the scene of the accident was a bit rubbish though. Finally, Sue Storm, the Invisible Woman, takes a bit of a back seat here. She doesn't really play much of a part here but unfortunately that has often been a constant theme with the character.

The villain here is the Moleman, who quite frankly is a bit rubbish. We are given a good fight against a giant monster and then they have to sort out this really weak villain which is a shame as it lets down the story a little.

I feel I should mention how well this volume manages to set up future plot threads, presumably with Victor becoming Doom, without leaving you with the feeling the first story hasn't been told, like some of the other Ultimate origins do.

I found this a surprisingly successful take on the Fantastic Four, perhaps not one for die-hard FF fans to enjoy but perfect for anyone who is intrigued by the characters.

[Nate]

Four people stealing a rocket to beat the Soviets to the moon wouldn't fly in 2004, so Bendis and Millar altered the Fantastic Four’s origin by having them (plus Victor Van Damme*) get their powers from a science experiment gone wrong. I actually really like this version. The first three issues are great, as we see bullied prodigy Reed grow up and attend science school in the Baxter Building with Doctor Storm, his two kids, and Victor. Reed’s friendship with Ben is glimpsed, too, and it’s handled well.

Then there’s the stuff with Mole Man, which is less than great. He was the FF’s first ever villain, so I guess it makes sense for him to be in this arc (there’s even a splash page homage to the Fantastic Four 1 cover). But I never liked the character**, and his motivations here are tired - nothing we haven’t seen a million times. Bendis also gives Mole Man a ridiculous amount of monologuing, even by his standards.

Still, this is a solid start. The sensible tweaks to the origin are what I expect from the Ultimate universe. And thankfully the series doesn’t go edgy like The Ultimates. It has the feel of a Fantastic Four book, and that’s important.

*Ehhh... the name’s fine, I guess.
**Except in this book.

[Dario Vaccaro · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've decided to start a journey of discovery of the greatest superhero family of all time, and I decided I would start from an alternate version. I know, it sounds stupid, but everyone who read Ultimate Comics knows they are made to be an accessible starting point for new readers and, athough they differ significantly from the canonic origin, the essential aspects remain the same. Here we have, in the usual 6 issues volume, the beginning of Earth-1610's Fantastic Four, how they got their superpowers and their very first enemy, the Mole Man, just like on the main reality.
Bendis's approach to the comic is great: it touches emotional moments without ever sacrificing the fun aspect of adventure, which is what really makes the family great. Each of them has a precise personality and they blend very well together from the get go. Maybe the arc gets a little repetitive, with each of the FF finding out their powers and everybody freaking out for each one, but the Brian doesn't make it a hefty read.
The art is nothing special, but it does better when drawing supernatural beings like the Thing, the Mole Man, etc. Normal humans don't look that good, though.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun revamp of the Fantastic Four for the Ultimate Universe. This trade is a six-issue origin story, pulling the team together via a special think tank for teens and then mutating them spectacularly with an experiment gone awry.

The volume's slack pacing is a hallmark of early 2000s storytelling, but it does give the series time to build the characters' personalities. It's nice to have Reed and the rest of the crew reenvisioned as teenagers, as it does give the series a welcome freshness: the group is still discovering themselves as people even as they discover their new powers.

It's not always very subtle--Reed's jock dad leans heavily on the jerk lever, and the big villain for this arc is definitely the rank-and-ranting sort. But I enjoyed seeing Reed's excitement at the possibilities of his research, and the decompressed pace, which put me off collecting the stories in real time, works well enough for a Marvel Unlimited digital subscription.

[Drew Canole · Rating 3 out of 5]

Stretching FF #1 into 6 issues. It feels both too long and too short. Too long because Kirby and Lee did this in a single incredible issue decades before this. But too short because it still feels like stuff gets skipped and years go by so quickly, I think the writers could have spent volumes telling the story of these characters in their younger years.

[Clare Moseley · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the launching of the Ultimate comics, Marvel had the opportunity to clean up and update origins of many characters and Fantastic Four was one of the most successful of those endeavours (I think only second to Spider-Man). The First Family of Marvel got an interesting new origin and I think it works well.

[Paxton Holley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always wanted to read some of the Ultimate Marvel Universe stuff. Read the first collection of Ultimate Spider-Man yesterday. Time to start one of my favs, The Fantastic Four! Really good. I like how they updated the origin story and the characterizations are done really well.

[Joe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good start to what looks like a fun take on the Team.

[Denisa (lapetitedeny) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nah, tak to se mi sakra líbilo ^_^