Comic Book Review: ‘Fantastic Four’ #610

After the one-shot time travel tale in ‘Fantastic Four’ #609, this series moves into a new arc revolving around the Wizard and his last remaining clone… Bentley of the Future Foundation.

As story opens, the US President has assembled Captain America, Reed Richards, Giant Man, and Iron Man to discuss what to do about Barbuda, a newly declared country that’s just formed within weapon attack range of the US. To make matters worse, Barbuda is an island country that was purchased by villainous science company of A.I.M. After the heroes pitch their ideas to the President, Reed Richards is selected to deal with the situation and the Fantastic Four are off to Barbuda.

When the FF arrive at Barbuda, they’re greeted by the Wizard and a small army of A.I.M. troopers. For the next two thirds of the issue, it’s chaos as it becomes clear that the Wizard is not in charge at Barbuda. When the dust settles, Barbuda still exists, but the Wizard isn’t exactly where he’d like to be… or is he?

This was a great start to a new arc and I loved the final scene (no spoilers!). Luckily, Johnathan Hickman is writing both this title and ‘FF’ because otherwise we’d only have one issue left to wrap up this plot since ‘Fantastic Four’ is ending with #611. This Wizard arc will continue in ‘FF’ #22 before that title also ends with its 23rd issue. I can’t say that I won’t miss Marvel’s First Family but I expect it won’t be long before they’re reintroduced into their own title again after Marvel NOW gets rolling.

In addition to a great story, the artwork from Ryan Stegman (‘Scarlet Spider’) kept with the action sequences very well. I don’t think Stegman’s anime/cartoon style of pencils would work with all of the FF adventures, but it does quite good in this one.

So join me back next issue when we see what Hickman has planned for the finale of “The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine”!

Final Score: