Ultimate FF

The Ultimate Line from Marvel re-looks at thier staples in new and interesting ways. Take the Fantastic Four, Back in 1962 Reed Richards, and Ben Grimm take Sue Storm and her brother Johnny on a rocket ride that ends badly. Cosmic Rays changed them into super powered adventurers! When Jack Kirby and Stan Lee put this quartet together that origin took about two pages worth.

Back in the early days the origin was something that wasnt dwelled upon, yet it fascinated the readers and as such it was visited and re-visited and twisted and changed etc.

The Ultimate Fantastic Four is the retelling set in the here and now and the Origin takes the first six issues. Forget what you though you knew about these characters. Reed Richards is still a genius of the Nth degree, but now we see him from birth being a misfit and dismissed by his Alpha Male father with his mother trying to understand. He has a friend and protector, Ben Grimm. Reed has already came across other dimensions and how to access them way before the governments cutting edge scientific community. His Science Fair project gets him into a think tank for gifted kids at the Baxter Building. This is run by Professor Storm, Susan Storm and her Brother Johnny's father. Susan is a prodigy herself and well Johnny is there cuz his dad and sister are...

Reed teams up with Victor Van Dame to build a working teleportation device. The big test takes place in the desert and Ben Grimm shows up by invite to see where his pal has been doing.

The test goes Awry and the five of them are transported to various parts of the Globe with 'changes' to them. Reed is pliable, Sue is invisible, Johnny can burst into flames and Ben is now a huge rock creature.

The real beauty of this book is the characters and thier relationships. You know why Ben and Reed are friends, you 'get' the relationship between Reed and Sue and between Ben and Johnny. This book really breathes life into them and builds a great relationship that makes you want to read more about these people.

I have gotten the trade paper backs 1 and 2. I hope to get caught up as time moves on. This, to me, is much better then buying the books. For all the great stuff about the Ultimates, I find the story evolves a bit slowly. The Trades help two ways. One you get the whole story arc then and there. Second, you save cash. Comics cost $2.99 each so, almost $18.00 bought separatly. The Ultimate trade books list for $ 12.99 and amazon.com has them for $10.00.

Ultimate FF. Great Read!