Fantastic Four Visionaries: Walter Simonson, Vol. 3

Fantastic Four Visionaries

by Walter Simonson, Arthur Adams (Illustrator), Gracine Tanaka (Illustrator)

After the past, present, and future, what's left but the end of the universe? Back from dinosaur days, the FF are themselves targeted for extinction - but will a new FF render them obsolete? Cross-genre champions face alien invaders at the center of the Earth, as only Walter Simonson could conceive it! Then, team members get medical treatment from none other than Doctor Doom, whose split-second war with Mister Fantastic leads the Time Variance Authority to rear their faceless heads! Guest-starring Ghost Rider, the Hulk, Spider-Man, and Wolverine! Collects Fantastic Four #347-350, #352-354.

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

184 pages, Paperback

First published November 18, 2009

About the author

Walt Simonson is an American comic book writer and artist, best known for a run on Marvel Comics' Thor from 1983 to 1987, during which he created the character Beta Ray Bill. He is also known for the creator-owned work Star Slammers, which he inaugurated in 1972 as a Rhode Island School of Design thesis. He has also worked on other Marvel titles such as X-Factor and Fantastic Four, on DC Comics books including Detective Comics, Manhunter, Metal Men and Orion, and on licensed properties such as Star Wars, Alien, Battlestar Galactica and Robocop vs. Terminator.

He is married to comics writer Louise Simonson, with whom he collaborated as penciller on X-Factor from 1988 to 1989, and with whom he made a cameo appearance in the 2011 Thor feature film.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

347-349: A skrull takes the Fantastic Four out of action and forms a new Fantastic Four with Spider-Man, the Hulk, Wolverine, and Ghost Rider as the members to take on her enemies!

This story was pretty superficial. It read like someone called Arthur Adams, the guest penciller, and asked him what he wanted to draw and had Simonson write a story around it. Skrulls, Mole Man, and lots of monsters. I suspect Wolverine and Ghost Rider were members of the surrogate Fantastic Four solely to drum up sales. It's a pretty good example of a soulless 1990's Marvel story. Shame on you, Walt!

350: Doctor Doom and his doom bots attack Latveria to unseat Kristoff. Things are going well until another Doctor Doom shows up. And Ms. Marvel makes a deal with the devil to regain human form.

And things are back to status quo, not just for the Fantastic Four but for Doctor Doom as well with Kristoff out of the picture. There seemed to be a shot taken at Steve Englehart when Doctor Doom talked about Ms. Marvel's origin.

352-354: As the remainder of the Fantastic Four battle Doctor Doom's defenses, Reed and Doom battle across time in a duel to the death until the Time Variance Authority get involved.

Funny how the top guys in the TVA look like the late Mark Gruenwald, the guy in charge of Marvel's continuity. With all the time travel that goes on in the Marvel Universe now, the TVA could use a monthly title just to clean up after it.

Closing Thoughts: Walter Simonson's run was a return to big stories featuring Marvel's First Family but they didn't really break any new ground and didn't accomplish much more than hitting the reset button. This last volume was a little weak but still gets a three out of five stars.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Arthur Adams guests on art for three issues where the Fantastic Four are replaced by Ghost Rider, the Hulk, Spider-Man and Wolverine. The Skrulls and Mole Man are involved as well. It's a lot of fun. The story also seems to be an attempt to let Adams draw whatever he wants (which he does, drawing all the old giant Marvel monsters.)

Then Dr. Doom returns and battles Reed between moments in time which draws the attention of the Time Variance Authority. Yes, Simonson brings the TVA back from his epic Thor run. And yes, this is the same TVA used as the basis for the Loki show on Disney+. I love everything about these two issues. Simonson draws such inventive pages throughout this arc. It's big and bombastic and no one uses sound effects on the page better than Walt Simonson. Alas, this is the end of Simonson's run.

[Mike · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really, just kinda boring, ho-hum, and terrible use of the guest stars. Not one of them feel like Simonson cares to inhabit their true personalities. Or else the 90’s dilution infected Walt, and he couldn’t be bothered to wade past the scummy surface of the tepid pond of terrible pedestrian dialogue.

Wolk’s All The Marvels stakes this as a jolt of fresh air in a long series of forgettable FF stories, and I have no reason to believe that isn’t true, which proves just how little interest I’d have in reading any of the rest of this crap. Hell, even Arthur Adams’ art wasn’t that interesting.

Pretty mix the only interesting things in the first three issues (I didn’t bother punishing myself further) are the things no one even bothered to explain (such was the weirdness of the 90’s):
- why is Hulk gray, cynical and uninterested in anything but slinging fists?
- when did Alicia Masters marry Johnny, and why is there no tension with Ben?
- speaking of, who’s the female Thing, why is Ben mostly human, and how did he change into rock-beast when it came time to clobber? (He’s never had control over his shifts from rock to flesh and back, has he?)
- why is Ghost Rider so non-threatening?

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

This wraps up Simonson's run on the FF, which might be my favorite after Lee/Kirby. Or at least third after Byrne. Simonson keeps things totally crazy and fun for the entirety of his run and I appreciate that.

The first story (347-349) has art by Art Adams and a replacement FF of Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk and Ghost Rider. It reeks of marketing and is barely and FF story, but it's also wonderfully goofy. It has Skrulls, the pre-FF Marvel Monsters, the Mole-Man and a sexy Skrull princess. It's totally bananas and overly compressed at the end, but it's fun.

Issue 350 is a double-length and brings back Doctor Doom. There's three separate Dooms (still not clear which is the "real" one) but the third has some really great snark on the FF's current state. Simonson is also back on art so it's wonderfully cartooned.

Issue 352 continues the story (351 is a truly awful fill-in issue about Kubik and Kosmos that isn't collected here) and is just totally nuts. Doom and Reed are battling using mini-time machines on the right side of each page while the rest of the FF are on the left side. It ends with the Time Variance Authority stepping in before we can really figure out what Doom's real plan is.

Issues 353 & 354 have the FF imprisoned by the Time Variance Authority and Justice Peace, a Judge Dredd parody. It has more crazy cartooning and the TVA is a fun parody of bureaucracy. There's also some train enthusiast aliens who save the day and the FF make it home in their underwear for some reason.

[Dubzor · Rating 4 out of 5]

What makes this so much fun is how frequently it revels in it's goofyness. I mean, it starts with a substitute FF made up of Ghost Rider, Mr. Fixit, Wolverine, and Spider man...and concludes with the original team escaping time police on a space train driven by an alien railroad enthusiast, and stripping down to their underwear for the last two pages.

[Jdetrick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walt Simsonson's tenure on this book ended much too early, but I think he goes out with a bang. The first storyline here is a lot of fun with some incredibly rare Art Adams penciled pages, but it's his next storyline, where he reimagines Dr. Doom, that I really love. He makes Doom the master villain of the Marvel Universe again, and its a shame that no other writers really followed up on this.

[Mervi · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first three issues are drawn (gorgeously) by Adams and inked by various people. The FF have returned to their own world and time, and are relaxing. Well, except for Sharon who is depressed because she’s now again the Thing rather than a woman. Ben tries to comfort her but in vain. A mysterious woman crashes her space ship to Earth and heads for the FF so that she can find what she came to Earth to find. She manages to subdue the FF one by one. However, she’s not successful in finding her prize.

Meanwhile, a skrull space ship has landed, looking for the woman. Instead, they find Monster Island. They managed to use their tech on the monsters and send them to various cities to attack humans.

The mystery woman keeps her disguise as Susan Richards and sends a message to four humans: Wolverine, gray Hulk, Ghost-Rider, and Spider-Man. To them, the woman claims that the FF are dead and the killers can be found with a hand scanner. The four head off to the Monster Island.

This was a fun little story with monsters, the Mole Man, and skrulls.

Then Dr. Doom attacks… Latveria. He defeats the Doombots and Kristoff who has apparently been posing as Dr. Doom ever since the real doc left. He examines the FF and realizes that he can use Sharon’s need to become human. So, he meets with her in New York and makes the offer to turn her back to a human. Sharon agrees and leaves with the doc to Latveria. Of course, Dr. Doom pries secrets from Sharon’s mind. Meanwhile, Ben uses Reed’s machines to become the Thing again, so that Sharon wouldn’t be so lonely. Awwww… that’s very sweet of him.

Dr. Doom sends an ultimatum to the FF who hurry to Latveria to rescue Sharon. While the rest of the FF fall victim to Dr. Doom’s traps, Reed and the doc battle each other using devices which allows them to jump around in time. Well, at least inside 30 minutes.

The Time Variance Authority gets involved. Their job is to monitor the multiverse and try to stop people from time traveling too much. However, they don’t really seem very effective. They arrest the FF and try to put them on trial for time traveling. Things don’t go well for TVA.

This was a bit wackier story than the previous ones, thanks to the TVA. In the ends, Simonson largely returns the FF to the status quo with Sharon back to a human and Ben again the Thing. The TVA is a wacky concept, especially considering how truly powerless they are to actually prevent time travel. They seem more like a bureaucracy for bureaucracy’s sake than anything useful. Which could well be the point.

Another fun collection!

[Michael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Simonson's THOR is probably the best thing Marvel's ever published, and his ORION can make a similar claim at DC. His FANTASTIC FOUR run is, overall, enjoyable, but it's not quite on the level of those other runs. As always, great design work and incredible sense of scope to his work. He writes the FF's banter better than maybe anybody since Stan n' Jack, but something still isn't quite clicking for me - the new FF arc, with Hulk, Wolverine, Spider-Man and Ghost Rider, is sloppily plotted and Walt doesn't seem to have much handle on or interest in Ghost Rider. Great Adams monsters and designs. The Doom arc felt generic, but Doom often does to me. The TVA beaurocracy wound up being the most interesting - visually and story-wise - arc of the book, but it mostly boiled down to Ben and Johnny smashing stuff, before the thriling train escape.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would actually say 3 and 1/2 stars because the new FF with Spidey, Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Wolverine was ok but I really enjoyed the Time Variance story.

[Hamish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Issue #352 is a wonderful example of the type of experiment in form that you can only do in comics.

[Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

This thing is wonderfully all over the place, it's like a Fantastic Four story with Doctor Who sensibilities.

[Bob · Rating 4 out of 5]

The new Fantastic 4 on Monster Island & Doom & Reed fighting between the seconds are amazing

[Raymond Paquette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rereading this now I realized how they set up the Alicia story following it. Also bringing back Dr Doom and introducing a new Fantastic Four put this one at the top of my to read list.

[Michael P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this graphic collection is a bit on the pedestrian side and the second half mind-blowingly great.

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great collection. It collected the tail end of Walter Simonson's Fantastic Four, and the writer/artist was just having fun.

It included the three-parter illustrated by Art Adams introducing the "New Fantastic Four", Simonson's Dr. Doom arc, and one last time travel jaunt with the TVA, before putting the toys back into the sandbox for the next creative team.

[The_Mad_Swede · Rating 3 out of 5]

This third and final volume of Walter Simonson's run on The Fantastic Four collects issues #347–350 and #352–354 (skipping over the fill-in issue #351, which Simonson was not involved with).

The first three issues (#347–349), written by Simonson, but pencilled by Arthur Adams (with some assist from Gracine Tanaka) and inked by Art Thibert and Al Milgrom, present us with a fun and somewhat classic story arc involving Skrulls, Monster Island and the Mole Man. What really makes these issues classic, however, is the fact that Simonson introduces an alternative FF, who step up when three out of four of the original FF are believed to be dead. The heroes to step up are Hulk (in his grey incarnation), Wolverine (or more accurately Logan, as it is the civilian-clothed, hat-wearing version), Ghost Rider and Spider-Man. While a good read on all accounts, it is also interesting to Simonson's obvious commentary about the overuse of his "reservists" in Marveldom at the time. Back then, guest appearances or cameos by this particular quartet was so frequent it's not even funny to think of, and Simonson's story accentuates it by using all four characters in the same arc (and adding an exploitative cameo by Punisher to emphasise his strategy). The result is a really, really fine arc, in terms of storytelling, art and meta-commentary.

If the volume as a whole had delivered on this level of quality, the grade would easily have been a four, but as has been the case with both the first and the second volume, it is a bumpy ride with high highs and low lows.

In this volume, the really low low is the Dr Doom two-parter that follows the opening three-parter. Simonson is back on the artist duties again with these issues (and for the remainder of the volume), and his visual conception of Doom does little for. As does, in fact, his conception of the character as a whole. In a somewhat heavy-handed retcon, Simonson presents the idea that all but a few early appearances of Doom have in actuality been Doombots and now the real Doom returns in brand new (and dare I say butt ugly?) armour. The problem with this stunt is that it effectively kills off a lot of good Doom stories or conversely does not really make sense. The fact that the new armour also fails to hold its own against the classic design makes this something of a mess on all accounts, in my humble opinion.

If it has a redeeming feature, it would be the return of Ben Grimm as the Thing (albeit in a not very appealing version to begin with; visually speaking).

The volume, and Simonson's run, concludes with another two-parter that follows the Doom two-parter directly and neatly ties Simonson's run as a whole together. Here the FF is whisked off to confront the Time Variance Authority in the Omniverse, because of all of their time travel infractions during Simonson's run. Featuring Justice Peace as an agent of the TVA and the whole of the TVA itself, this is something of a romp, and while not on the level with the opening arc, still a good enough yarn, and a decent ending to the run.

All in all, Simonson's FF is neither the best of Simonson nor of the FF, but it is nevertheless for the most part an enjoyable run, and certainly worth reading if you like the FF. If you are after some first class FF material, however, I would certainly first and foremost recommend John Byrne's legendary run, and Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's original one. No other FF stories I have read tops those.

[Pturingan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great fun! I didn't care for the Skrulls/New FF storyline but the Dr. Doom / Time Variance Authority story more than made up for it. I normally don't like time-travel stories but I think the Reed Richards vs. Dr. Doom time-jumping battle was pretty clever and nicely done.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some intriguing storylines, and one really bizarre one. Why retro doom so none of it happened? It just did not make sense.

[David]

Note: This picks up where "Fantastic Four Epic Collection: Into the Timestream" TPB ends.