Heroes Reborn: Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four (1996) #1-12

by Jim Lee

Marvel's greatest heroes reimagined! In 1996, the hottest creators of the day teamed up to reinvent and reinvigorate Marvel mainstays Captain America, Iron Man, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four. Seemingly killed off in the mainstream Marvel Universe, these classic heroes were reborn with bold new looks on a brave new world, their origins re-envisioned with a raw vitality and contemporary sensibility. The reborn Fantastic Four faces menaces from the earth, the sea...and the nation of Latveria! But even the Mole Man, Namor and Doctor Doom himself pale before the threat of Galactus and his Heralds! Featuring the Heroes Reborn versions of the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D. and more! Collecting FANTASTIC FOUR (1996) #1-12

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

336 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Jim Lee is a Korean-American comic book artist, creator and publisher. After graduating from Princeton, he decided to attempt illustrating comic books, and met with success. Lee's distinctive, crisply hatched line art style and rigid, idealized anatomical forms established a new stylistic standard for superhero comic-book illustration and reinforced a popular trend away from brushed to penned inking in the late 20th and early 21st century. Lee is currently one of the most successful artists in American comics.

He has received a great deal of recognition for his work in the industry, including the Harvey Special Award for New Talent in 1990.

Reviews

[Anthony]

Most of you have probably heard about Heroes Reborn. Some of you probably lived through it. As a child of the 90s, at the time I was the target audience for the relaunch. So it's interesting for me to return to it as an adult and see how boring and dragged out it is.

After the Onslaught storyline, Marvel decided to let a number of creators (who had previous left a few years earlier for creator owned careers at Image Comics) have full control over some of the main lines for a year. The two that are mostly remembered at Rob Liefields Captain America (pretty much for THAT one image) and Jim Lees Fantastic Four, because Jim Lee is a pretty cool creator and his stuff does look awesome.

They manage to fit in several years of 'rebooted' Fantastic Four mythology into 12 issues. Namor, Black Panther, the Inhumans and ultimately building up to a finale with Galactus.

But here's the thing, all this new world building and rebooting for something that doesn't even last that long, makes you wonder what the point was with it to begin with? (Even though I'm pretty sure it was to put out a bunch of new number 1s with Image superstars).

And sadly, Jim Lee only pencils about 4 or 5 issues of the run, which is then took over by Bret Booth (who's work does look very similar to Jim Lee).

But like I said at the beginning of my review - it's actually kind of boring. Because we've seen all this before, by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee no less, and while Jim Lees style does bring a good look to it, they're not really adding much new or different to characters.

Heroes Reborn lasted a year while something like the Ultimate line ran for over a decade (at least half of which had several strong titles coming out it).

There's too many wordy panels on the page. It's never quite exciting enough. Simply put - they've not aged that well.

[Kyle]

Though this is probably my favourite series from Heroes Reborn, it still didn't do too much for me. There is some nice artwork and the very beginning, when the origin story is being set up, is quite good; however, everything after that feels rushed and a little ADHD. No tension or suspense, very choppy bare-bones storytelling, it really just feels like point-form plot-points. You do get to meet a lot of villains along the way, though.... just not in-depth.

Just standard stuff.
3/5

[Little Timmy]

I was not impressed with Marvel's attempt at a relaunch of many of it's main titles. The art was Ok and the stories were not horrible but I just couldn't seem to get into the flow of the new series. I will give it a Recommended as it's a good read just not to my taste.

[Sans]

This was actually a departure for me. Previously, the only knowledge I'd had of the Fantastic Four had been the films. And, honestly, the only thing I remember about those is how often Chris Evans walked around naked/half naked/in skintight clothing. Let's face it, that's pretty much the only thing any of us really got out of those films.

So, having never read FF comics before, I think these were okay, not amazing. Doom was OTT, but he's Doom, so that's expected. I did like how the Inhumans were worked into the story. Overall it was just...okay.

[Kris]

It's cool to see Jim Lee's artwork and his interpretation of the Fantastic Four, but the story (and, ugh, the dialog) is straight out of Stan Lee's overworked toolbox. What good is having Jim Lee draw a book if you're going to cover his art with lots of dialog boxes and other words? A good graphic novel is that sweet balance of words and pictures, but this one has too much of the former.

[Angela]

A Fantastic Four reboot from the very beginning. They meet Moleman, Doctor Doom, and the silver surfer for the first time. Or do they? Not a bad reboot but the flashes of the real universe keeps the reader wondering what is actually going on. An ok, if action packed read.

[Adam Fisher]

Read all 4 Heroes Reborn graphic novels at the same time, in continuity order.

Between Jim Lee's amazing art, and the complex storylines found within (origin story, encounters with Doom, and the wonderful story with the Inhumans, etc.) This Volume of Heroes Reborn was my favorite.

Recommend.

[IvanBat]

Pensaba que sería un buena forma de empezar a leer a los 4F, pero vaya decepción.

Historia muy aburrida y mala, y encima con unos diseños feísimos. Creo que no hay nada más hortera que los superhéroes de los 90.

[Kurt Rocourt]

A great retelling of the origins of the Fantastic Four. The only good thing that came out of the Heroes Reborn story line.

[Devero]

Heroes Reborn, ossia il tentativo malriuscito di far rilanciare i principali personaggi Marvel dalla Image. Non che fossa una cosa semplice da fare, per carità. Nel complesso Jim Lee non se l'è cavata troppo male. Nel senso che la sua idea di rinarrare le origini del volo dei F4 attualizzando i personaggi è certamente più che sufficiente a livello di disegni, ma l'ho trovata carente come trovata.
Il ritmo è molto veloce nei primi sei numeri e sembra quasi che Lee sia partito con l'idea di rinarrare 35 anni di storie in 12 mesi; poi con il riferimento alla mini X-Men/F4 il timbro della serie cambia, e non solo per via dei disegni. Il numero 12 finale ovviamente è un crossover con le altre serie, quindi il finale del volume è più drammatico di quello che dovrebbe essere.
Nel complesso posso dare una sufficienza scarna a questa annata, anche perché da una comparazione con i periodi immediatamente precedente e immediatamente successivo risulta perdente.

[Quentin Wallace]

I read the Heroes Reborn series a long time ago, and was a little underwhelmed. Now that I've gone back and read it, it wasn't as bad as I remembered. It still wasn't great, but it's not horrible.

The Heroes Reborn series all suffered from lack of a consistent creative team. I think when these series were announced, everyone was under the impression Jim Lee would do the art on every issue, with Portacio doing every issue of Iron Man, Liefeld ever issue of Captain America, etc, but that's not what happened. The popular artists did a few issues, then other artists took over, and the quality of the books dropped.

The basic premise of this series was a retelling of the early issues of the Fantastic Four. We had thought this was a reboot, but of course later we find out these are the original characters and it's all tied in with Onslaught.

Overall not bad, just overhyped.

[Kirby Davis]

The Heroes Reborn series reprints a good attempt one-year effort to re-imagine essential characters in the Marvel Comics universe. This represents the first time Marvel attempted to restart and modernize storylines launched by Stan Lee in the '60s. The storyline weaves through three other Heroes Reborn titles (Iron Man, Captain America, and The Avengers), so readers must have access to all four to keep pace with and appreciate the scope of these titles. Demands to introduce more and more characters rushes the action at times, but readers familiar these longtime fan favorites will enjoy the experience.

[Rocío]

Me re olvidé de marcarlo como leído. Es el único que voy a leer de Heroes Reborn, al menos completo, porque los otros de Cap America, Iron Man y los Avengers medio que me chupan un huevo.

Leí cosas súper negativas así que me esperaba lo peor pero no estuvo tan mal. Es verdad que se siente apresurado, intenta contar historias de los FF de hace años en 12 issues, y eso hace que algunos personajes terminen sintiéndose planos, el diseño por momentos es medio feito. Pero si ignoras los flashbacks a todo lo que pasó antes de Onslaught, es un buen punto para empezar a leer a estos personajes.

[Jdetrick]

Its hard to say if this book could have been better if it had more time....the art looks nice and it's certainly a lot more stable creatively than the books that Rob Liefeld was running. However, it didn't have much time, so it comes across as a rushed, chaotic group of stories, with no real connective tissues or sense of who these characters are.

[MR C D ROOME]

A real mixed bag

Lovely Jim Lee art for the first few issues but this disappears after a while and the overly verbose writing style begins to grate. The story is basically a rehash of Stan and Jack fantastic four tales. Leaves you understanding why the originals are still the greatest. But the Jim Lee art is lovely 😀

[Aaron Ambrose]

Marvel books in the 90’s were hopeless. It hurts my heart to see the FF get the ‘Roid Rage Hero treatment like this. Everyone is pointlessly angry, the plotting is dull, the dialog is worse than dull, the art is scratchy and shallow, and the colors are dark as midnight. A comic book should be fun, and this is a wet Cheetoh on a raccoon turd.

[Rory Toohey]

Probably not as awful as a 1-star rating would indicate, but I can't imagine recommending anyone read this (or any of the other Heroes Reborn efforts) when there are so many better stories with these characters and better works by all the artists/writers involved. "Instead of watching a remake of a classic, rent the classic." - Jay Sherman

[Johnathan]

storytelling in this collection was much better than the other three sets of this year's run. it felt like someone intelligent was at the helm. and the art....sublime! i just wish the rest had read this well.

[Edward Davies]

This starts out as a fun reimagining of the FFs origins, but soon becomes something of a chore. Plus it’s sad to see they didn’t include the crossover issues nor any of the issue 13s!

[Joshua Williams]

If you're wondering how DC comics could be doing so poorly, look no further than the work of Jim Lee. Idk how they put someone this untalented in charge of the creative department of a company

[allowableman2]

You know manga that speed runs introducing all the "interesting" characters as quick as it can to avoid cancellation? This is that for comics.

[Aaron]

It’s different and unique.

[Pedro Espada]

Buen reinicio noventero lleno de acción, vale que el dibujo de Lee es todo el rato lo mismo, pero los guiños a los orígenes y la acción lo compensa.

[Troy-David Phillips]

GREAT Art!
Really weak story.
The reboot is just not great, although it is brilliantly illustrated.
The characters do not feel like fresh invarnations, they are almost parodical versions of the main characters.
The “Ultimate” Universe is substantially better at giving an updated re-invention of the Marvel Universe.

[Todd]

The least shitty of the Heroes Reborn family of turds, fwiw.