Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection, Vol. 3

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman #6-8

by Jonathan Hickman, Greg Tocchini (Illustrator), Steve Epting (Illustrator)

Collects FF (2011) #6-16, Fantastic Four (1998) #600-604. Jonathan Hickman's landmark run continues here! The War of Four Cities escalates as Black Bolt returns, determined to reclaim his throne - and the conflict expands to encompass the entire Marvel Universe! The Human Torch is back and Marvel's first family are reunited - just in time to end up caught between the Kree Empire and the Negative Zone's fearsome Annihilation Wave! And if that weren't enough, Galactus has arrived to judge the world! But as the battle between the Council of Reeds and the Future Foundation extends through the Bridge and spills over into our world, Galactus takes on a group of rogue Celestials! And now the Fantastic Four and their extended family must make their final stand. Discover exactly how Doctor Doom and the Future Foundation will save us all!

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics

449 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 11, 2021

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

[Benji's Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great climax to Hickman's wonderful run of the Fantastic Four. Yes, there's still a handful of his books left in the final collection of F4 issues, but what a ride this was so far. I'm looking forward to how Hickman ties any loose ends together moving forward.

Minus a star for the inconsistent artwork throughout, though I can understand it. Fantastic Four and FF were two different titles collected together in this book, so it's fair they each had a different artist working on them.

Nonetheless, recommended!

[Pruett · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don’t know if I fully understood all of it but I know it was awesome

[Tesutamento · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arkabahçe sağ olsun önce bu cildi ikiye bölerek yayınlamaya karar vermiş. Önceki ciltlerde böyle bir durum söz konusu değilken şimdi bu şekilde davranmaları canımı sıktı açıkçası. Zaten iki yılda bir basıyorlar şu seriyi. Şimdi kim bilir ne zamana bitecek şu seri. Bunlar yetmezmiş gibi numaralandırmayı da değiştirmiyorlar. Toplamda 4 ciltten oluşacak seri şimdi bizim standartsızlığımıza göre 6 ciltten oluşacak. Bari 3. cilt bölüm bir falan deselermiş. Umarım kuşe kağıda basmayı da bırakmazlar şu seriyi ama pek iyi görmüyorum ilerisini. FF #6-11 ve Fantastic Four #600 sayılarını içeren sözde 3. cilt için bir iki söz edeyim şimdi. Bu kitabın ikinci yarısı basıldığında bu kısmı güncelleyeceğim.

Hickman yine döktürmüş açıkçası. FF yine birden çok olayla aynı anda baş etmek zorunda. Kree/Inhuman gerilimi bir yana farklı boyutlardaki Reed Richardsların oluşturduğu cemiyet öteki yana. Halen çözülememiş bir Annihilus sorunu da Negative Zone'dan Dünya'ya taşmak üzere. Hiçbir hikaye üstünkörü yazılmamış, hiçbir görsel detaysız hazırlanmamış inanılmaz bir seri bu. İçimdeki fanboy her seferinde daha da gaza geliyor şu seriyi okurken. Kitap elime çok önceden geçmiş olsa da okumaya kıyamamıştım. Devamı da umarım iki yıla kalmadan çıkar.

5 ay sonra gelen güncelleme:

Kitabın ikinci yarısı elime geçeli birkaç hafta olsa da ancak okuyabildim çünkü yine kıyamadım. Çok seviyorum bu seriyi. Bilim kurgu, aksiyon ve aile ögeleri bu kadar mı güzel kullanılır. Hickman kurduğu hikayeyi yine çok güzel sonlandırdı. Bunu yaparken de bir sonraki hikayenin sinyallerini epey iştah kabartıcı bir biçimde veriyor. Future Foundation sayılarının çizimini pek sevmesem de Fantastic Four sayılarındakiler yine muazzamdı.

[Sam D’Antonio · Rating 4 out of 5]

My favorite art in the whole run by far. Doom is the coolest ever, and they give him TWO Infinity Gauntlets?? Unreal.

[Danny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very high sci-fi. So much so that I couldn't follow a lot of what was going on. Hickman has big ideas, and they're so big that I NEED to reread and will be excited for that day to come. Like good cinema, his comics will reward with new viewings.

But those last 3 chapters were astounding and jaw-dropping. They were deeply humanist, which is what good sci-fi should always aspire to! This is how I assume people felt reading Asimov or watching good Star Trek. Your mind is blown, and your heart melts.

[Arthur · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic conclusion to the storylines that made up this run. All six members of the "family" (the grown-ups plus Franklin and Val) had great, satisfying character arcs and I found the side characters like Spider-Man, Doctor Doom, Nathaniel Richards and Evil Reed to be written delightfully too. The scene where Johnny comes back was genuinely thrilling.

[jacobi · Rating 5 out of 5]

zero thoughts only unused_spiderman_humantorch_gems

[Kyle Spishock · Rating 2 out of 5]

The FF run was really overhyped for me before digging deep into the compendium, so maybe my expectations were too high. But to me, it falls victim to the trappings of so many other crossover events in the marvel universe: too many storylines, too many different artists, too many characters. In this volume:

- Reed is gathering a posse of villains to discuss how to defeat all the Reeds.
- Daughter teams up with Doom discreetly.
- The FF family, joined by the avengers, doom, and future Nathaniel, stop the celestials from starting an annihilation wave.

[Jamie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hickman really gets what makes the Four so Fantastic, and all of the threads sewn throughout his epic run on this title come to a dramatic crescendo in this hard-hitting volume. A really fun and enjoyable read, coupled with a lot of heart and soul.

[Marcelo Soares · Rating 5 out of 5]

Existe uma verdade na Marvel, durante muito tempo o único gibi de equipe que importava era um que tivesse um X no título; de uns anos para cá, os Vingadores também ganharam mais ênfase; porém o título que iniciou a função toda, o Quarteto Fantástico, sempre foi o primo pobre, poucos autores conseguiram tirar o título do marasmo e dar destaque aos imaginautas da Casa das Ideias. Poucos; o Byrne e o Hickman. Cada um ao seu estilo.
Esse volume é o que fecha a fase do Hickman que começou com cidades, profecias, pontes, realidades alternativas, viagens no tempo, inumanos, inumanos de outros planetas, o império Kree, a Zona Negativa, o Aniquilador, o Destino, o Galactus, todo mundo reunido contra algum mal malévolo que fica cada vez maior, até os Celestiais aparecem. Todos os personagens do Quarteto - ou Sexteto com o Franklin e a Val - tem momentos de destaque e crescimento, existe uma evolução em cada um deles, por exemplo o Johnny e o Franklin; finalmente o Johnny vira um super herói de verdade com poderes, responsabilidades e aquela vontade de tocar fogo em tudo e largar sal grosso em cima, ele não é mais o irmãozinho idiota e cabeça quente da Sue; finalmente alguém usa os poderes do Franklin de forma decente, o piá que pode criar universos sempre tem seus poderes travados por que ninguém quer escrever sobre o cara que pode fazer tudo, o único jeito é arranjar algo que ele não possa fazer.
Além de tudo isso, os personagens coadjuvantes; um Destino maravilhosamente prepotente; um Nathaniel Richards cheio de secretos segredos; um Namor que, no meio do maior quebra-pau deste lado da galáxia, diz que vai lutar por amor; e, claro, o melhor personagem de toda a fase, Bentley 23 o clone de vilão mais divertido de todos os tempos.
Há duas coisas que eu acho essenciais num autor; a habilidade de fechar a histórias e a habilidade de espalhar os momentos entre os personagens; e o Hickman faz isso, as pontas são fechadas, todo mundo tem um momento de brilho. Quem não leu, deveria, provavelmente é o melhor Quarteto desde a época do Byrne. Leiam e façam anotações.

[Billy Jepma · Rating 4 out of 5]

I can’t confidently say I followed all of this perfectly, yet rarely did a moment big or small miss the mark. Would I have been even more invested if the plotting were slightly smoother? Probably! But part of why I enjoy Hickman’s work so much is his refusal to do anything in a standard way, and seeing all his various threads continue to build atop/alongside each other is so gratifying to watch. And the pacing doles it out at such a solid tempo, too, so even if I missed a piece of the puzzle along the way (a lot of the stuff with the Inhumans sorta went over my head), that final part clicking into place is still a real treat.

My only slightly significant critique of this collection is that the art for one-half of the story that makes up the final push just didn’t hit for me the way the other half did. I can appreciate the intentional disparity between those two styles, but it's still a little jarring to go between the two. I don’t usually mind that stuff, but since some of the characters who appeared in both didn’t always look alike, I found myself needing to pause and confirm whether someone was who I thought they were. It doesn’t help that there are a lot of kids in this book, and a lot of them have very similar builds and hair color.

But otherwise, this continues to be a damn good series of comic books. I get why people love the Fantastic Four now, and I genuinely didn’t think I’d ever get there.

[Spencer Gilliland · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there’s one thing Hickman can do well. It’s an explosive finale. It doesn’t have the emotional punch of last volume, but it does have a pretty compelling narrative. The Future Foundation is just fun. I wish we got to spend more time with it, just getting up to scientific shenanigans. Spidey is a fun addition to the team, even if he never really gets much to do aside from stand in the background. Johnny’s return is fun, but after all the cosmic battles are done with, it just didn’t feel as fulfilling as I’d hoped. It felt rushed and jumbled a bit— which is strange, because Hickman’s run goes on for a while after this. He had more time to build up to the big Kree war and all its after effects, and he just chose not to, it seems. I think this run is great, but it could have been incredible if Hickman hadn’t gotten bogged down in his own worldbuilding and scale. He truly gets these characters, and at his best, he writes them better than anyone else.

[Kevin Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though I don’t think we needed the Inhumans story at all in this and that should have stayed in the Inhumans comics instead of making this more complicated...this was a PHENOMENAL ending to so many plot lines and character arcs in Hickman’s run. This felt like Fantastic Four: Endgame in a lot of ways. The lesson Reed and Franklin Richards learn at the end where we discover our Reed is better than the entire Council of Reeds is just perfect. The action throughout is thrilling. The return of the Human Torch is well handled. And the Future Foundation stuff is really fun. This was worth the wait (they changed the release of this volume several times when I pre ordered it).

Also it ended with the best cliffhanger I’ve ever seen for the Fantastic Four. I really hope they pick that right up in the next one (going right to Fantastic Four Vol 6 and FF Vol 4).

[Shevek · Rating 2 out of 5]

Para mí esta etapa falla en el enfoque. Dentro de todos los conceptos imaginativos y locos que sembró Kirby y que luego se siguieron explorando en posteriores etapas, una característica que hace único a este grupo es mantener el tono de cotidianeidad y familiaridad de los personajes. No dejaban de ser historias hogareñas de Reed, Sue, Ben y Johnny, por mucho que estuviesen en la Zona Negativa o surcando el espacio. Esa mezcla entre lo cercano y lo imposible es lo que hace grande a los 4F y que se produzca una conexión especial con el lector. Hickman aquí pasa de esa premisa y antepone su gran idea a todo lo demás. A mí esta etapa me resulta extremadamente aséptica y descorazonada, incluso habiendo "muertes" de por medio. La parte gráfica, aparte de bailar mucho, tampoco es nada adecuada para estos personajes.

[Ben Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this far more than the first two volumes. Hickman plays the long game, which means you often have to sit through multiple volumes to confusing, disjointed, unsatisfying setup to get anywhere. But here we are! Aside from the long Inhumans setup at the beginning of this, it’s paced much better than the other volumes. I think Hickman has trouble with knowing when to progress multiple storylines at once vs devoting entire issues to one storyline. I have some complaints, and I don’t take back any of my previous reviews (I really was frustrated by how unfun volume 1 was) but the fact is that I tore through this in one day because it was so thrilling. Hickman writes like a novelist rather than a comic book writer. He may not thrill you on a month to month basis (which btw is why I like comic books… especially sci-fi adventure romps like FF) but he will make it worthwhile in the end.

[Néstor Vargas · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s a bit of a challenge for me, because most of the time I’m not really into 3/4 of the stories that are happening. I don’t know much about the Inhumans, the Kree empire, Annihilus, or anything else. I’m just trying to keep up with the current and learn as much as I can. But then comes *that* issue, where everything clicks, and it’s an absolute blast! You finally get to experience those legendary panels. Even though this isn’t a solid five-star run for me, it pays off with ten-star moments.

As for the art, I’m glad Epting stayed on. Bobillo in FF was funny because he completely changed the design of a lot of characters, but he still draws amazing kids, so I let it pass. Seeing Dragotta in FF was also great.

[Jiro Dreams of Suchy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hickman concludes a cosmically huge story into an honest and endearing story about family relationships and becoming who you are. This is quality comic material.

If there is one thing that is constant about destiny – one thing that endures the changing of space and time. That defies even death- it is this: fate cannot be avoided. One day you wake, and the universe has conspired to make you something more. And that day? It is now.


It’s okay to be afraid. It’s okay to fail. But to say that you’re not even willing to try, that’s unacceptable.

[Dallas Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mostly a climactic "finale"!

There's a huge part of this book, in the front, that I was not particularly into.
I believe the popular opinion is Marvel's space is a huge fave of comic readers. Personally I dont connect to most of it.
So the Inhumans and Kree stuff going on here was only somewhat interesting to me.

The rest of this book feels as if it is the magnum opus climax of this phenomenal run!! Several moments were particularly jaw dropping and there's every plot thread woven through so well!!!

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you know Fantastic Four then there is plenty to like here. Inhumans, check. Kree, check. Galactus, check, Annihilus, check. Doom, check. Celestials, check. I could keep on checking.

Complex enough story. Family issues. Fatherhood front and centre.

Possible downsides. Art jumps around a bit, plenty of artists use, obviously some are better than others. Also some might have a little issue with how little the main Fantastic Four cast is in this (eep. Ben).

[Omni Theus · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Art is a Disappointment and is Just Not Good Enough Given the Quality of the Rest
OVERALL RATING: 4.5 stars
Art: 2.75 stars
Prose: 4.5 stars
Plot: 4.75 stars
Pacing: 5 stars
Character Development: 4.5 stars
World Building: 5 stars
The art is really disappointing given the artist changes for almost half this run. It is just jarring. Rest is still solid if a little below the first two arcs.

[Alexpaps1 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Aside from the really boring (imo) Inhumans and alter stuff at the beginning of this collection, it all comes together in a really strong and unbelievably cool way by the end
Love how those final moments really subvert the usual colossal event superhero sacrifice trope for something incredibly sweet, while never losing its epic scope
The stinger at the end rocks, and can’t wait to see what happens next

[Sevki · Rating 2 out of 5]

I already wasted and lost my precious time on longish comments for Vol.s 1 and 2 previously, so will not make the same mistake again.

This shit is the most boring, unintelligent, illiterate thing to exist in a really long time; people who thought and gave an average of 4.5 stars to this abomination are pure losers; and Hickman is apparently the most overrated imposter ever.

THERE, FUCKIN' SAID IT!

[Gabriel Calderón · Rating 4 out of 5]

love this, I am obsessed.

almost done with hickman's FF !!

didn't care too much for the inhumans plot but everything else was super cool I also think Johnny's return was handled really well and it was cool to see him start to be friends with Spidey.

the conclusion to the story was also EPIC with some great character moments especially with adult Franklin, Val, Nathaniel Richards and obviously with all 4 members... I kinda wished we got more Spidey tho...

[Matthew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good story, very interstellar and spacey vibes. The fantastic four nurturing the next generation with the future foundation is cool. The aliens and their origins were a little confusing. Could do with a reread where I don't take a bunch of breaks while reading it.

[Chad · Rating 5 out of 5]

The culmination of Hickman's run up to this point. All of the many plot threads dovetail into this epic event all contained within the Fantastic Four comics. So many jaw-dropping moments that make you say "DAMN!" I freaking love Hickman's run.

[Frank Wu · Rating 5 out of 5]

So good! The Council of Reeds, wars between so many planets....plus the kids of the Fantastic 4 are amazing, and the Avengers/Captain America are also here with the Kree? This is comic book storylines / Marvel at it's best!

[Dillon Rilea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible story, but the end section is very drawn out and results in a climax and conclusion that overstay their welcome just a tad too long. In it's defense, the ending does have me eager to see what will happen in the next, and final, Volume.

[Fadzlee Abdul Rahman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forget everything. Read this book ASAP

[Jamil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Damn

[Nick Lafontaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

This has to be my favourite writing of the F4 I’ve ever read. Hickman understands all the characters and their relationships so well.