Fantastic Four: Solve Everything Omnibus

by Jonathan Hickman

Genres: Comics

232 pages, Paperback

Published July 1, 2023

About the author

Jonathan Hickman is an American comic book writer and artist. He is known for creating the Image Comics series The Nightly News, The Manhattan Projects and East of West, as well as working on Marvel Comics' Fantastic Four, FF, and S.H.I.E.L.D. titles. In 2012, Hickman ended his run on the Fantastic Four titles to write The Avengers and The New Avengers, as part the "Marvel NOW!" relaunch. In 2013, Hickman wrote a six-part miniseries, Infinity, plus Avengers tie-ins for Marvel Comics. In 2015, he wrote the crossover event Secret Wars. - Wikipedia

Reviews

[Viktor Logi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started off... dare I say, Fantastic?

The first three issues titled Solve Everything were great!
Mr. Fantastic meets a council of Reed Richards deticated to solving all of the infinite worlds problems and he has to decide whether or not he can put his life and family aside to 'Solve Everything'

But the rest of the book was disconnected from that plotline and was fairly uninteresting.

There was a moment I audibly laughed when Val (Reed and Sue's daughter) calls her brother a retard (Multiple times)! That shocked me a little to read in a Marvel comic and was very funny!

If you want a super short, interesting read, read the first three issues 'Solve Everything' but then just skip the rest!

[WillBrit · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off fun with a Mr Fantastic Multiverse but then that storyline ended and the rest was boring as fuck

[Aodhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The actual "solve everything" story was really good and one of the best comic book stories I've ever read but it was 3 issues long. The other 4 or 5 issues in the omnibus were disconnected from solve everything and were setting up an entirely different story. Feels like they just slapped them into solve everything in order to make you hyped to buy the next omnibus. Solve everything was a really gorgeous introspective look into the character of Reed and how he is torn between his intelligence and desire to fix the world, and his family, who keep him grounded. It also has some really poignant backstory with Reed and his dad. The art is okay but the story carries

[Ben Perry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like the Fantastic Four team, and the ‘solve everything’ story was pretty compelling, but this omnibus is a mess.

The story of Reed having to consider abandoning his family to help solve every problem that happens in the universe, starts off great. I loved the council, and the strain his absence places on Sue, but it has a bit of an abrupt ending, as the second Reed discovers he’ll have to abandon his family, he immediately leaves the council all to die, and never looks back, then the story ends. It was a bit unsatisfying, and I wish they took a page out of Toy Story 2’s screenplay to make this conflict more engaging, but we do get a random side quest with Jonny and Ben, so never mind, it’s perfect.

This sentiment is carried throughout the rest of the omnibus, because every story after the future Franklin comes down to do literally nothing, just doesn’t have an ending. They set up a conflict, then have an iPad fill us in on what happened afterwards. Why the fuck would I bother getting invested in a story if I know you won’t end it properly? And I know it was recontextualised at the end when it was revealed Val was writing these down to give to future Franklin or whatever, but it still makes majority of these plots have very unsatisfying endings. I can’t name a single story in this whole book that had a good ending, in fact, I can’t name a single story that had an ending, they all just stop!

It has cute character dynamics, and fun moments, with some (but not all the time) decent art. The stories set up were pretty cool while they lasted (except for the Inhumans one, fuck me, that was dull) and we get to see how the Future Foundation begins. But this was genuinely disappointing, and if they bothered to make it longer and actually finish what they started, this might’ve been awesome.