Dark Reign: Fantastic Four

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman #0

by Jonathan Hickman, Sean Chen

Dark Reign strikes Marvel's first family - in an explosive way! Prepare to be blown away as: H.A.M.M.E.R. agents attack the Baxter Building, Reed changes everything, The Human Torch suffers a horrible loss, and Franklin and Val go shopping! There's Time Travel, Alternate Realities, Celestials, Eternals, Deviants, and Doombots... and more important than all of that, we find out the answer to the question: What is the Bridge?

Collecting: Dark Reign: Fantastic Four 1-5

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

120 pages, Paperback

First published October 21, 2009

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

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

"Milady, 'tis the clobbering hour." - Ben "The Thing" Grimm (!) in a medieval alternate world

Nice little three-layered adventure story featuring Marvel's 'First Family.' While Reed Richards mostly works solo and has the ponderous section, more fun is had with trio Sue / Johnny / Ben jumping between dimensions (17th century buccaneers, gunslingers in the Wild West, paratroopers during WWII) and the Richards children Franklin and Val keeping watch over the Baxter Building. Most amusing were references to the 1993 film Tombstone, with Sue Richards channeling Doc Holliday during a duel and then Franklin Richards quoting Wyatt Earp before a showdown with the villain.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hickman sets up his Fantastic Four run when Reed builds a Bridge to examine other realities to see how Civil War and Secret Invasion could have turned out differently. Of course, due to some hiccups, this sends Sue, Ben and Johnny on a cross-time adventure with other versions of themselves. Franklin and Valeria are left to hold off Norman Osborn and his HAMMER goons and it's hilarious. Then we end with the allusion to the Council of Reeds to come. Good stuff and I always like Sean Chen's art.

[Artemy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Appropriately fantastic! I really love how Hickman writes his Marvel books. It's never your boring typical 'heroes-versus-villains' setup, he always brings some interesting and unexpected ideas to the table. This particular book reminded me a bit of Grant Morrison's Multiversity, because we got to see a bunch of Marvel parallel universes from the perspective of the Fantastic Four. Hickman manages to construct an interesting story around this concept and get right to the core of Reed Richards as a character, something he would later rely on in his excellent Avengers run. I also loved the B-plot focused on Franklin and Valerie Richards bullshitting Norman Osborn with lawyer talk, that was just really funny, and the way Hickman writes those kids is absolutely adorable (and how often can you say something like that about a bunch of fictional children!). Overall, it was a great read that made me nostalgic for this particular era of Marvel comics.

[James DeSantis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I told my friend I'm finally reading Infinity. His response? You better fucking read Hickman's Fantastic Four before Secret Wars or you won't feel the FEELS!

So I went back and decided to follow the reading order online. Surprised it recommended starting with Dark Reign but screw it. I loved the hell out of the Dark Avengers so why not...right?

Well this was my first official fantastic four comic and...it's okay. What's it about though right?

Reed is kind of figuring out why the hell Secret Invasion and Civil War happened. What he could have changed himself. Then you have the Richard kids coming home to Ma and Pa. They are super smart, super cute, badass little mofos. Then you got Reed by accident putting Sue, Johnny, and the Thing in some kind of weird loopy world where they travel through various worlds similar to their own but in different themes and structures. Weird huh? Welcome to Fantastic Four I guess!

Good: LOVE the kids interaction. They're adorable and so cool. I also really enjoyed Reed and Sue interaction as they actually felt like husband and wife. Osborn is always a pleasure to have in and the art is solid.

Bad: The crazy loopy weird ass story of traveling through different times was kind of tooooo cheesy for me. I guess I got to be more open minded getting deeper into the series but I was kind of bored. Also, the ending felt rushed.

Overall not a horrible start but I wanted more. However, I hear it only gets better from here. So here we go into the fantastic four world! 2.5 out of 5.

[Subham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was such a fun volume, after the Skrull Invasion and Civil war before it, Reed has built a bridge that allows him to see into different realities and see how the people of those Earth acted and accordingly act, then it becomes him trying to navigate through these possibilities while Johnny, Ben and Sue are stuck in some AR-Chamber that takes them from being Medieval Knights to the Wild Wild West to Paratroopers during the war to even Adventurers battling Venomized Skrulls and Franklin and Valeria are trying to keep the Baxter Building safe from HAMMER agents and Norman.

Its such a great dive into all characters, Reed trying to find a solution to these problem where they could have been avoided without conflict and failing and Sue and all having such a last and a great adventure meanwhile the siblings having great moment with Norman. Its just so fun and then finally when they all return back to reality and face Norman and what Franklin does after..its super good! It was a great volume and sets up so many ideas and Reed's motive that will be instrumental in future FF volumes by Hickman but also the art is so clean and a pleasure to look at, its just vibrant to skim through! A perfect start to the Hickman-Era!

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

As usual, I could only understand about half of what was going on Reed and the Gang. Possibly due to the fact that I don't follow what goes on with the FF with any kind of regularity. The only time they interest me is when they intersect with a larger story arc in the Marvel universe.
It's not an unreadable story, but I'm not sure that this added anything to Dark Reign. So, if you're not a die-hard Fantastic Four fan, feel free to skip it.

[RG · Rating 3 out of 5]

Solid story but feels more like an intro or build to something more. So far I'm intrigued.

[Mike · Rating 4 out of 5]

The single greatest impression I have at the start of this book (other than "here's where Hickman really took off with Big Ideas") is how emotionally flat everyone's faces are. Which is especially jarring at the moments when the characters are having very emotional moments. It's art troubles like this that keep me from fully enjoying what should be five-star creative work.

After having read some of Hickman's later FF, it's interesting to see where he started laying the foundations for his later story ideas. The multiple realities is firmly established here, as are the precociousness of the kidlings.

Knowing where this led made it a bit harder to stay engaged, but even then the way this book ended still gave me a thrill. This is a helluva kickoff to Hickman's run on FF.

[Trevor Dailey · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good place to start for a fan of comics who understands the dynamics of FF and don't want to start in 1962. Hickman and Chen deliver on being science fiction, yet fantastic and trippy.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Man, Norman Osborn is very reminiscent of our current President........

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading some of Hickman's other Fantastic Four work, I decided to go back and read this Dark Reign tie-in, which represents his first time writing an FF title. I'm glad I did. If this was Hickman's trial run before getting handed the reigns to the full title, then he definitely proved that he had what it takes to do so. He utterly nails each character right out of the gate, and gives them a ton of room to play around. I particularly loved his characterizations of Franklin and Val, who he continues to give a lot of screen time to in his later FF work.

This is also a great, grounded intro to the big ideas Hickman loves to play with. We get Reed trying to "solve everything," which ultimately leads to his decisions in Hickman's later stuff. There's even a bunch of foreshadowing of things to come, which I thought was awesome to see. Hickman really lays some groundwork before he gets started on a series.

There's also some of the finest FF reality jumping insanity I've ever seen in here, complete with a medieval version of Ben Grimm that made me laugh out with this line:



I highly recommend starting here if you're going to read Hickman's FF stuff. It's a great intro to it and has direct importance in how everything plays out later on. This isn't just a typical crossover tie-in, it's got weight. I wish every tie-in could be this exciting.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Marvel universe has been through the ringer. Avengers Disassembled, House of M, Civil War, Secret Invasion... and now Dark Reign, where supervillains have control and Norman Osborn is making a personal enemy out of the Fantastic Four. What is Reed Richards doing at a time like this? Well, he's doing science about some other stuff, of course! Wondering where it went wrong, what he could have done to stop all the fighting, and what he should do next. So we get a view of the multiverse and how these events went down elsewhere as Reed uses his big brain to think about ways his big brain could make big brain solutions to problems. It's a great recap of what troubles a genius like Reed Richards and Jonathan Hickman delivers a hell of an intro to what his Fantastic Four run is gonna be- big multiverse, big problems, bigger ambitions to solve them.

[Arturo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm not an FF fan, probably like most people, and I was already aware from reading the first issue years ago that this wasn't a big crossover to Dark Reign and was one of those books to show why the FF aren't too involved (or to get them out of the way). Norman Osborn does show up to the building with HAMMER agents, but they don't attack the building like the description states.
The story focuses on Reeds new invention, a Bridge to see into alternate realities. Sue, Ben and Johnny falling through said realities by accident, and Franklin and Val being home alone when Osborn comes a knocking.
It was all a light, fun enjoyable read. It reads like a back up story, but considering the 5 issue length it wasn't bad, I read it pretty quickly.
Val's intelligence level reminds me this is during Mark Millar's and Bryan Hitch's run on FF, which was great, and this book is a nice stop between that and Hickman's run. This is one of the FFs better stories (which isn't saying much) and on my lil mission to read Hickman's run through the Marvel U to Secret Wars, this is a good start.
Strongly recommended.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where was the FF during Dark Reign? Why here, at home...

Only the most slight tie in to DR, which is fine by me.

Reed decides he has to figure out why things went wrong and builds a machine, the Bridge, to examine the multiverse, and uses it like a Google for infinity, examining other realities and Civil Wars, Invasions, Reigns, etc.

The rest of the Gang travel thru realities, and the kids embarrass Normie...I especially love the "nice hair loser" line by Franklin to Osborn, while wearing a Spidey mask.

Oh, and Reed discovers that he's not the only Reed who builds a Bridge, and we set up the later runs of what I call the "Council of Reeds" that figures out all the everythings.

Good work Hickman, but the art is up and down....I do like the bright colouring.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, but a bit less than great, especially since I came to this after reading Hickman's later efforts with the Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation. Still, as others have mentioned, we get to see him laying some of the groundwork here for what was to come. Reed's work with the Bridge is interesting stuff. The other team members tumbling through time? Not so much (it happens so quickly, they don't really get to do much other than look around quizzically before it's off to the next era).

[Jan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Moje prvé zoznámenie s Hickmanom nedopadlo vôbec najhoršie. Počas piatich čísel sme sa poprechádzali po rôznych alternatívnych realitách a Hickman nám z rýchlika ukázal, koľko What If príbehov by dokázal napísať na tému Občianskej vojny a Tajnej invázie. Skvelé tempo, humor a výborne ladená príbehová linka s Franklinom a Val, ktorí sú sami doma a ako Kevin McCallister čelia nájazdu Normana Osborna do Baxter Building. Hickman je továreň na nápady!

[ShamNoop · Rating 5 out of 5]

This guy is slowly becoming my favourite comic writer.

[Connor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent Fantastic Four book. It's not much of a tie-in with Dark Reign. If you're trying to complete that event, you could skip this. It does set up the Jonathan Hickman FF series (I accidentally read Fantastic Four, Vol. 1 before this), so I would recommend this first. Plot summary: Reed Richards creates a portal to see all the versions of himself in the multiverse so he can find a universe where things are going well, especially after Civil War and Secret Invasion. He is not successful. Meanwhile, the other members of the Fantastic Four get dragged through multiple universes. It's fun to see them in other worlds and costumes, but ultimately pretty pointless. Meanwhile meanwhile, the Richards kids are left alone in the Baxter Building and have to deal with Norman Osborn, who wants to bother the Fantastic Four.

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s so wild that Jon Hickman’s celebrated run of FF kicks off in a “Dark Reign” event tie-in, of all things. And it sets up so much, for being a tie-in book! Fun read with a lot to set in motion for the stories that follow.

[Jirka Navrátil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Já jsem úplně zapomněl jaký Cock byl Osborn.

Bridge!!

Rada Reedů!!!

[Derek Santiago · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cómo tal con esto empieza el run de Jonathan Hickman con los Cuatro Fantásticos, planteando una pregunta interesante. Para el hombre que es más inteligente, ¿cómo arreglarlo todo? Más allá, nos demuestra porque la inteligencia de Reed además de ser su mayor virtud, también es su gran debilidad. El pensar en una solución para todo, y no solo para su mundo, si no para todos

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collects Dark Reign: Fantastic Four issues #1-5

When I set out to read Jonathan Hickman's run on Fantastic Four, I assumed that the best place to start would be Volume 1 of Fantastic Four by Hickman. Surprisingly, this was not the correct place to start. I was actually supposed to start with this book, Dark Reign.

I heard that a reading order was available online for reading between both Hickman's Fantastic Four and his Future Foundation. It was on this reading order list that I discovered Dark Reign was the beginning of his run. Dark Reign was a great read, and definitely set the stage for the "Solve Everything" storyline that Volume 1 presented.

This book has a lot of the fun with the Multiverse that we have seen Hickman play with in the past. The jist of the story is that Reed wants to see where things went wrong. How did we get to this bad place? Was there any way to avoid it? To do this, he creates a device, called the Bridge, to observe other realities in the Multiverse. He wants to observe similar universes to see how they dealt with their similar events. Hopefully, by doing this, he could figure out how to solve all of the world's current problems.

The Dark Reign tie-in was minimal, but still there. Besides the few issues that H.A.M.M.E.R. appeared in, there is also a brief Dr. Doom/Namor story at the end of the book that connects with Norman Osborn's Cabal.

Spoilers:

-Somehow, while Reed was only able to observe the Multiverse, the Bridge inadvertently sent the other three members of the Fantastic Four through different adventures in the Multiverse (where they seemingly didn't remember who they really were). The adventures were so diverse, that I didn't care if they didn't make any sense.

-I loved seeing Reed go over the events of Civil War, the Illuminati, and Secret Invasion. Seeing the alternate realities was a lot of fun for me, and the conclusions that Reed came to are staggering. The only way to have perfect peace in a universe was for Reed to act unilaterally in the hard decisions. This revelation leads directly into Volume 1 of Hickman's Fantastic Four. I do wish that I had read this first, but at the same time, knowing what is coming up next gave this volume's importance more weight.

-Franklin starts to get his powers back in this volume, as displayed when he shoots Norman with a toy gun.

-The Bridge was able to find 12,435,018 other parallel universes, but I don't believe this is the exhaustive list. They are just the ones that the Bridge was able to scan.

[Sophie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd heard a lot of great things about this book. Deservedly so. This is really, really good.

Reed builds a device that allows him to see other realities, where things like the SHRA and the Skrull invasion have turned out differently. He wants to figure out how to prevent all the conflict and tragedy. While he's busy doing that, the remainder of the FF are trapped in alternate timelines and Val and Franklin are facing off Norman Osborn.

This was the kind of book that had me going, "Yes! Yes!" inside while reading it. Reed's project is as interesting as it is heartbreaking (as is the conclusion), and Val and Franklin are *awesome*. The interactions between the characters feel genuine and the book as a whole was both fun and intelligent entertainment.

[Sonic · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was really really good! Some of my favorite writing from Hickman. Strong art.

True FF!

[William Thomas · Rating 1 out of 5]

A completely expository piece that reads like an internal dialogue with Reed Richards. No climax, no resolution. Jesus Christ what a shit show.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this rather tame. The bridge contraption was cool, so was the alternate universes, other than that, nothing else stood out.

[linzi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strikes a good balance between being serious and heart wrenching, and having fun and silly moments. I think “M’lady, ‘tis the clobbering hour” is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read lol

[Comics Instrucciones de uso · Rating 4 out of 5]

Acá inicia el camino de Hickman en los FF, lo cual, si uno lo mira a la luz de su desenlace, años después, en "Secret Wars", no puede dejar de impresionar. Los FF reconstruyen el edificio Baxter después de la enésima batalla. Reed Richards toma conciencia de que aquella dinámica no puede seguir ¿en qué ha fallado él? ¿por qué no puede haber paz sobre la tierra? Obsesionado, decide indagar una solución en otros mundos paralelos (una constante de Hickman), para lo cual construye un aparato que será crucial más adelante: the bridge. A la vez, Hickman aborda la cotidianidad de ambos hijos de la familia Richards, con comicidad y cariño, guardándose una sorpresa inquietante para el final. Todo la historia construida con muy buen ritmo, muy buenas ideas. Algo débil quizás son las peripecias de los restantes 3 FF, quienes, mientras Reed navega por el multiverso, son arrastrados hacia otras realidades, lo cual tiene algo de atractivo, pero también de rutinario. En retrospectiva, sorprende la cantidad de detalles en apariencia insignificantes, que Hickman retomará años después: los poderes de Franklin, la desconfianza de Reed hacia los otros Avengers o la independencia de Val. Gran inicio.

[Terry Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hickman has occasionally been accused of being too heady. And while re-reads of his work is occasionally required, he fits perfectly into FF.

Given his predilection for nutty, esoteric ideas, nothing could be better for his adventurous storytelling than the fertile soil of Fantastic Four.

Now, as to the story itself. It is funny and exciting and invigorating and never bores. The final act feels somewhat rushed, and after the exciting time-hopping, the more staid real-world setting and Mexican stand-off feels a wee bit meh.

These are minor quibbles, and the story stills feels fun and fresh. The art is absolutely gorgeous, and complements the action nicely. A great read, and a fun side story within the context of Dark Reign.

[Marloges · Rating 3 out of 5]

This felt like one big introduction for what's to come in the mainline FF run of Hickman. Not bad by any means, but five issues seemed a bit too much for what little story there actually was. I guess some people find the wacky pirate and western adventures entertaining enough to look past that, but aside from the fantastic Chamberlain Grimm meme it didn't really add much to the story. As did the whole invasion of Osborn. That really went nowhere and would've went even less than nowhere if he didn't have extreme luck in his timing.

The Reed part was intriguing though and I'm really curious to see where it leads.