“Great Caesar’s Ghost!”
Maybe it’s a little weird to borrow a line from a DC character to describe a Marvel comic but it’s appropriate!
Matt Fraction and Mark Bagley’s adventure with Marvel’s First Family goes into the past and right to the heart of Marvel’s super couple. In this week’s Fantastic Four #5 Susan and Reed need some “Mommy-Daddy Time” so Ben and Johnny takes Franklin and Valeria into a living history lesson in ancient Rome.
In a hilarious hybrid of Brady Bunch and Doctor Who, Ben, Johnny and the kids encounter an alien and twisted history! The real and fake death of Julius Caesar, demon monsters in the Colisseum and Shakespeare’s greatest lines weave into this colorful excursion. I’m not spoiling it to reveal Caesar dies but Fraction leaves a cliffhanger that could carry this story element into FF and the modern day Fantastic replacements!
I’ve loved the heart and humor in this book. Fraction has made the super stretching genius a vulnerable man and relatable. Mister Fantastic is a dad, husband and friend trying to do the best he can against incredible odds. The book has been building to this moment when Reed finally shares the secret behind the family’s cosmic vacation and we see why Reed and Sue are a real power couple and not just because of of their powers.
Fraction’s Fantastic Four delivers big sci-fi adventure this book is famous for while making the fantastic characters assessible. It’s an epic journey through universes while still being a personal story that’s universal.
By Editor