Fantastic Four #15 – Not Ghosts, Just In A Spot of Trouble

It’s 65 years of Fantastic Four. To celebrate, Marvel has unleashed a Fantastic-sized adventure featuring their first family. Ryan North takes readers on a new adventure that honors the past and looks to the future of the Fantastic Four.

This review is brought to you by Nerd Initiative’s Shawn!

Creative Team

Writer: Ryan North
Penciller: Humberto Ramos
Inker: Victor Olazaba
Color Artist: Edgar Delgado
Letterer: Joe Caramagna
Cover Artist: Humberto Ramos
Cover Color Artist: Edgar Delgado

Vintage Art: Jack Kirby, George Klein, Stan Goldberg, Stan Lee, Art Simek, John Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Sam Rosen, John Byrne, Jim Novak, Glynis Wein, Steve Epting, Rick Maygar, Mike Perkins, Jonathan Hickman, Rus Wooten, and Paul Mounts

Writing

Ryan North has found the secret sauce. As much as I love a good anthology, Fantastic Four #15 is the way comic book publishers should honor the milestone moments of their characters going forward. Fantastic Four #15 features Marvel’s First Family in a current story that has them traveling through and experiencing their past moments this time as observers instead of participants. While I know this may not be as easy to navigate for other characters and franchises that don’t have the benefit of being a group of scientists, North gives us a perfect story that is equal parts his modern take on the Fantastic Four and a nod to Kirby, Lee, and all those who came before him.

The decision to meld the modern versions of these characters and their art with the original versions pulled from the pages was a brilliant narrative decision, but one that still required execution. To wit, North put together a fantastic (pun intended) adventure that sets the stage for and explains how our heroes find themselves casual observers in the trek through their own history. It’s fitting then that such a great story honoring the history of the Fantastic Four is penned by someone who will one day see his name etch among the list of greatest to ever write the Fantastic Four.

Art

Together with the vintage artists whose work was featured in this issue, Humberto Ramos, Victor Olazaba, and Edgar Delgado really created something special. North’s high-science time-travel spectacular doesn’t work if Ramos’s beautiful penciling doesn’t do such an amazing job of bridging the vintage and modern. While I love modern art techniques in comics, there’s something so comforting about seeing Ramos lay down lines, Olazaba follow up with the inks and shades, and Delgado with the colors.

Victor Olazaba and Edgar Delgado did a lot of heavy lifting in this issue. Through shading and careful coloring, they created a look that both connected to the vintage art while maintaining the distinct look and color of this run of the Fantastic Four. Joe Caramagna maintains the distinct classic look and feel of Marvel, helping us remember what we loved about the Fantastic Four from issue one. He does a masterful job of guiding us through the time travel, letting the art sing as it merges into a generational choir of beautiful lines and colors.

Final Thoughts

This is the new standard. Not every Marvel character that hits a major milestone will be able to use time travel to tell their story, but Fantastic Four #15 is the playbook for a new way forward in telling the history of characters without relying simply on anthology style stories. Fantastic Four is fun, daring, unique, and rewriting all the rules in the best ways possible. Instant Classic!

Overall Grade:10 /10

Did you like this style of anniversary book over the anthology style? Let me know in the comments