Marvel Knights 4, Volume 5: The Resurrection of Nicholas Scratch

Marvel Knights 4 (Collected Editions)

by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa (Writer), Mizuki Sakakibara (Artist), Valintine DeLandro (Penciler)

There is an order to everything. A balance to the world and the nether-realms beneath the world. And now that balance is being tipped, as dark forces gather like a storm. The occult mutants known as Salem's Seven are once more banding together. But this time, it's to bring their father, the nefarious Nicholas Scratch, back to life. If they should somehow succeed... pray for the Fantastic Four's souls.

Collecting: Marvel Knights 4 25-30

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes

144 pages, Paperback

First published September 6, 2006

About the author

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa is an American playwright, screenwriter, and comic book writer best known for his work for Marvel Comics and for the television series Glee, Big Love, Riverdale, and Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. He is Chief Creative Officer of Archie Comics.
Aguirre-Sacasa grew up liking comic books, recalling in 2003, "My mom would take us out to the 7-Eleven on River Road during the summer, and we would get Slurpees and buy comics off the spinning rack. I would read them all over and over again, and draw my own pictures and stuff."
He began writing for Marvel Comics, he explained, when "Marvel hired an editor to find new writers, and they hired her from a theatrical agency. So she started calling theaters and asking if they knew any playwrights who might be good for comic books. A couple of different theaters said she should look at me. So she called me, I sent her a couple of my plays and she said 'Great, would you like to pitch on a couple of comic books in the works?'"
His first submissions were "not what [they were] interested in for the character[s]" but eventually he was assigned an 11-page Fantastic Four story, "The True Meaning of...," for the Marvel Holiday Special 2004. He went on to write Fantastic Four stories in Marvel Knights 4, a spinoff of that superhero team's long-running title; and stories for Nightcrawler vol. 3; The Sensational Spider-Man vol. 2; and Dead of Night featuring Man-Thing.
In May 2008 Aguirre-Sacasa returned to the Fantastic Four with a miniseries tie-in to the company-wide "Secret Invasion" storyline concerning a years-long infiltration of Earth by the shape-shifting alien race, the Skrulls,and an Angel Revelations miniseries with artists Barry Kitson and Adam Polina, respectively. He adapted for comics the Stephen King novel The Stand.

In 2013, he created Afterlife with Archie, depicting Archie Andrews in the midst of a zombie apocalypse; the book's success led to Aguirre-Sacasa being named Archie Comics' chief creative officer.

Reviews

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll be sad to see this run end. This run was a really strong entry in the saga of Marvel's First Family.

When I finish this volume, I'll have read just about anything ever published for the Fantastic Four. Marvel really needs to stop being such asshats and start putting out more FF comics and merchandise again: the wretched recent movies shouldn't be the impression that people are left with when thinking about. these characters that FOUNDED the modern Marvel Universe.

Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny (and all their friends and foes) deserve WAY better than that!!

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a two-part book. The first half is a lot of Salem's Seven stuff. I only remember the part where Agatha Harkness was a good babysitter, so I'm not sure what all this is about. It's fine but seems overly complicated for a while.

It kind of morphs into being a Diablo story. Diablo is weird.

Then the second half puts away some lingering toys (like it reverses the unhappy Inhumans ending?) and focuses on Civil War foreboding. Those are OK stories if you like seeing Reed cover up.

[Ryk Stanton · Rating 4 out of 5]

The end of the Marvel Knights series, just before Civil War started. This one featured the Salem Seven, who were some of the first foes I remember reading in my earliest days of reading Fantastic Four. Ooh, and Diablo, who is an alchemist, which is the class of one of my current Pathfinder characters!

I miss the Fantastic Four.

[Don · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was kind of a weird collection. The first half was an ongoing story and the second half was random one shot shorts. Some were good, some ok, none bad. Really enjoyed the artwork, which is why it got four stars from me.

[Z.S. Diamanti · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was... okay. This was the end of the run and it ended going into civil war. The art got better about halfway through, but the writing was better in the first half. Mixed bag this one.

[Jdetrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series ends with the same sort of solid but unremarkable stories that it has told throughout its run.

[Jeremy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a fan. I feel like they just threw a bunch of ideas that didn't make the cut, to squeeze out one more volume.

[Kurt Lorenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

25-27, The Resurrection of Nicholas Scratch, ☆☆☆☆
28, Private Lives, Public Faces, ☆☆☆☆
29, Fallout, ☆☆☆☆
30, Open House, ☆☆☆☆

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought Roberto Aguire-Sacasa did a lot of interesting things on this title and this trade wraps up the series. Here, he has the Fantastic Four battle a host of magical villains and I really enjoyed the tale but is was wrapped up much too quickly. Maybe that was due to the book ending but the outcome was too easy to come by. The other one shots in the book cleaned up other storylines for Civil War and other stories. The most fulfilling part of this collection was one in which Reed and Sue had to deal with real life situations without each other. Really good stuff. There were three artists here and it was too disjointed because the stories were also different. Check this book out, its overlooked too often.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was somewhat underwhelmed by this collection of Fantastic Four stories.
Three issues included here deal with the "Nicholas Scratch" story line, while the rest are stand-alone tales. The Scratch arc was okay, but never really grabbed me. I am usually not a fan of Aguirre-Sacasa's writing, as I think he tries too hard to emphasize drama and weighty themes, at the expense of humor and action. But the exception to that rule is the excellent story here showing Reed and Sue dealing with personal, human issues rather than battling super villains. Overall, one great story here, the rest just average.

[Devero · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nel finale la serie si risolleva, come storie. I disegni non vanno mai oltre la sufficienza.
Nel complesso Marvel Knights 4 è stato un esperimento fallito, un modo per cercare di esplorare nuove vie della prima famiglia Marvel che però non ha fatto altro che ripescare e ripetere vecchie idee, quasi sempre peggio delle trovate originali.
Certo, magari tra altri dieci anni rileggerò le storie e ci ripenserò, ma ne dubito.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Namor was the best part. But this was a really interesting story. I quite enjoyed it.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great volume, with non-linear plotting and interesting character studies. Definitely more than your average four-color book.

[Timo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aguirre-Sacasa really put his heart in these last stories in the Marvel Knights 4-series. Best ones there were in the series too short run.
Good stuff.