From: mickey@pecan.cns.udel.edu (Mickey)
Subject: McReviews: Fantastic Four Unlimited
Keywords: fantastic four, marvel 
Organization: University of Delaware, Newark
Date: Wed, 16 Dec 1992 02:03:04 GMT


This is a (p)review based on the Marvel Comics Preview of Fantastic
Four Unlimted #1.  The Marvel Comics Preview comic was a black and
white photocopy of most of the actual comic released through Diamond
Distributers to comic shops.



Rating System:
*****	- To read this comic is to see the God of Comics smile on you.
****	- To read this comic is to talk to a true prophet of Comics God.
***	- To read this comic is to talk to a reasonable follower of above.
**	- To read this comic is to be tortured by Comics God's fanboys
*	- To read this comic is a free trip to Comic Hell.



Title:  Fantastic Four Unlimited #1
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Plot:  Howard Mackie
Script:  Roy Thomas
Art:  Herb Trimpe


Story:  **
Art:  *

Note:

Fantastic Four Unlimted is the next in line of Marvel's quarterly
titles.  (The first being the current Marvel Super-Heroes.)   The
book is not off to a wonderful start.

Synopsis:

The FF go to Wakanda to visit the Black Panther.  It just so happens
that their visit coincides with the invasion of Klaw, the Master of
Sound, who is looking to whomp on T'Challa (the Black Panther) in
order to revenge himself.  The FF get shot down and team up with the
Panther to beat up on Klaw and his Henchmen.

Commentary:

The art is an insult to the eyes and the dialogue has more corn than
Farmer Brown's fields.  The strong point on this book is the plot,
brought to us by Howard Mackie (who recently destroyed a good character,
The Rose, in _Web of Spiderman_ for no good reason...).  And even the
plot only hits a few bits of nostalgia along the lines of "Hey, it's
good to see Klaw again..."  Ol' Klaw isn't exactly wonderfully worked
either as he starts screaming for his own death in a very choppy
manner halfway through the book.  

Roy Thomas puts utterly ridiculous thoughts into the characters' heads
and has them talk in that old Corny Roy style.  There's a moment or
two in the book where I thought "Gee, it's nice to see all the FF
working together as a unit in a story...that's not such a bad part", but
I always think that no matter who's writing or what they're doing.

Herb Trimpe and his new "Liefeldesque" style is best described with
"Blech."  Body parts get distorted, muscles bunch up in strangle
places, and people's necks become twice as thick as their heads...and
this isn't because the characters are being tortured, folks!  They're
just standing around!  We get lots of strange open-mouth-with-view-
of-the-underside-of-the-tongue head shots.  The action sequences seem
stilted and forced, not to mention choppy.  Reed and Sue spend a lot
of time looking Real Mean, although there is no apparent reason for
them to be making such moody faces.

Unless you are a dedicated fan of the Fantastic Four, avoid this one,
friends.  And if you are a dedicated fan, you may want to do better
things than see this senseless story unfold with your favorite four.


Mick


-- 
Mickey McCarter, amateur actor & reporter     mickey@chopin.udel.edu  __
"I'll make your business my business."		Forever reading      / |	
"You wouldn't want my business, the pay's            The Fantastic  /__|_ 
too small." -  Phil Marlowe, _The Big Sleep_                           |