Comic Book Review: Fantastic Four #559

Mark Millar’s Fantastic Four has been a huge hit with The Revolution. Millar has managed to do the impossible and actually get me excited about the Fantastic Four. It is too bad that this title has posted rather disappointing sales numbers compared to other Marvel titles that Millar and Hitch have delivered. At any rate, I fully expect Fantastic Four #559 to be another quality read that offers up plenty of entertainment. Let’s go ahead and do this review for Fantastic Four #559.

Creative Team
Writer: Mark Millar
Pencils: Bryan Hitch
Inks: Bryan Hitch & Andrew Currie

Art Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10.
Story Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10.
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10.

Synopsis: We begin with the Thing using the Fantasti-Car to take Debbie Green on a date to see Johnny’s band play on David Letterman’s show. The paparazzi are on the scene at the Ed Sullivan Theater and take plenty of pictures of Thing with Debbie on his shoulder. They enter the theater and find Johnny’s agent on the phone with Johnny yelling at him for being late to the show.

We cut to Johnny across town racing in his Ferrari to try and get to the show on time. Johnny’s agent tells him to ditch the car and fly to the theater or else the band is going to replace Johnny with another singer. Johnny claims to have been visiting sick children at the hospital. Johnny’s agent tells Johnny to stop lying and that he knows Johnny was fooling around with two Playboy centerfolds.

Suddenly, Lightwave appears on the scene and trashes Johnny’s Ferrari.

We shift to Alyssa and Sue having dinner. Alyssa says that she had to meet with Sue because she has something important to tell Reed, but that Reed does not like her anymore and does not want to talk to her. Sue asks Alyssa what is so important.

Alyssa reveals that she just discovered that her husband, Ted, has been lying to her about Nu-World. Evidently, Nu-Earth is being built only for the elite. It is being reserved only for politicians, rich businessmen, etc. Roughly only half a million people who will be allowed on Nu-Earth and then they will repopulate the Earth. Alyssa states that the rest of the world will be left on Earth to rot.

Alyssa says that she does not know where to go since the Earth-Trust is composed of Presidents, Prime Ministers, mass media members and multinational corporations.

We slide back to Lightwave attacking Johnny. We see that Psionics is also on the scene. Johnny cannot believe that Psioinics would have him attacked just because he dumped her. Psionics replies that Johnny is so egotistical and always thinks that everything is about him.

Psionics reminds her father to not hurt Johnny since Dr. Banner wants him in good health. Lightwave snaps that Dr. Banner and the Defenders can go to hell. That Johnny had Psionics crying.

Johnny then flames on and starts brawling with Lightwave. We see the Hooded Man watching Johnny fighting with Lightwave and Psionics and causing tons of damage. Hooded Man calls Lightwave and Psionics idiotic amateurs. The Hooded Man springs to action and touches Johnny which immediately causes Johnny to lose his powers. Hooded Man then knocks out Johnny and then tells Lightwave and Psionics to come with him back to the Defenders’ base.

We zip to Reed Richards back in his lab at the Baxter Building. Hank Pym contacts Reed to find out if Reed is still working on finding Doctor Doom’s location. Reed replies that he is back to examining the ecological data from Alyssa while he lets his subconscious deal with the Doom situation. (Look at Reed flexing that big brain of his.)

Mrs. Deneuve then enters the room and informs Reed that something terrible has happened to Johnny.

He cut to the Defenders’ headquarters where Johnny wakes up and finds himself attached to some device that Doctor Doom is also hooked up to. The Hulk tells Johnny and Doom that the machine that he is building is going to require massive power to get the job done. Hulk states that Johnny and Doom are good, but that the main battery for the machine can be found beneath Johnny and Doom’s feet.

Johnny looks down and we pan back and see that Galactus is lying under Johnny and Doom. Johnny is completely shocked. Hulk says “I think it is time we had a little chat, Johnny…” End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Fantastic Four #559 was another entertaining issue. Millar offers up a well paced read as the story continues to move at a pleasantly steady pace. Millar demonstrates good focus as he progresses the story along with a clear direction and purpose. Fantastic Four #559 is also a well balanced issue as Millar serves the reader an enjoyable blend of action and drama.

Fantastic Four #559 continues Millar’s trend of delivering strongly plotted issues. This issue builds seamlessly off of the previous issues. It is impressive how Millar continues to allow the story to grow organically as this story arc is a logical and natural evolution from Millar’s first story arc.

Certain minor plotlines from the first story arc are now assuming center stage in this second story arc. It is clear that Millar has a clear blueprint in mind with this title and an overall goal and purpose that these various story arcs will combine to deliver.

Millar is certainly doing an excellent job juggling numerous plotlines at the same time. And best of all, I find each of these plotlines to be rather interesting. Fantastic Four is a plot heavy title, yet Millar still manages to make this title easy to follow. Despite the numerous intricate plotlines, Millar never allows this title to become too dense.

Millar dishes out plenty of great dialogue. The dialogue in this issue has a nice realistic flow to it. Millar continues to pull off quality character work on this title. Each of the members of the Fantastic Four are nicely fleshed out. Millar demonstrates a good feel for the personalities of each member of the Fantastic Four.

I continue to enjoy how Millar writes Johnny. Millar certainly nails Johnny’s capricious party mentality perfectly. Johnny provides a good source of humor in order to balance out some of the more serious themes on this title.

Millar treats the reader to an exciting fight scene as Johnny locks horns with the Defenders. This was a well choreographed brawl that felt like a scene out of a Hollywood blockbuster movie. I liked that Lightwave acts like a typical father as he veers from the plan and plans on teaching Johnny a lesson for making his little girl cry.

However, my favorite part of the fight scene was the appearance of the Hooded Man. I love this character. The Hooded Man has plenty of potential and is an intriguing character. I am excited to learn more about this character and his powers.

I liked the latest wrinkle that Millar introduces concerning the Nu-Earth plotline from the first story arc. I am not at all surprised that Nu-Earth is actually only designed for the rich and the powerful. The Earth-Trust and Nu-Earth simply sounded way too good to be true. You just knew that something rotten was going to be revealed concerning Nu-Earth. It should be fun watching where Millar takes this plotline.

Millar does a fine job handling the simmering tension between Sue and Alyssa. The reader gets a clear impression of the uncomfortable feeling that hangs in the air during this scene.

I continue to enjoy how Millar is writing Reed. I dig how Reed is able to multi-task and allow his subconscious to handle certain issues while he consciously works on another one. Millar has done a great job emphasizing the fact that Reed’s greatest power is his mind. Millar has made it clear that Reed’s mind is on an entirely different plane of thought compared to even the other big brains of the Marvel Universe.

I am totally digging this new version of the Defenders. I am incredibly curious to learn more about how Banner regained control of his Hulk form. This does not even remotely mesh with what we are getting over on the Hulk.

I would imagine that Banner is having his Defenders steal money to fund the construction of the machine that we see Johnny, Doctor Doom and Galactus hooked into. And it is possible that this machine was designed by Banner in order to save the Earth from whatever ecological disaster that Alyssa says that the Earth-Trust has deemed to be unstoppable.

Millar ends Fantastic Four #559 with an incredible hook ending. This is how you end an issue in style. My jaw was on the ground as I stared at Galactus hooked into Banner’s machine. I was stunned and I cannot wait to see what happens next.

And since Millar showed us the Anti-Galactus suit in the first story arc, I am sure that we will see it again at some point whenever Galactus gets loose. After all, Millar knows Chekhov’s maxim that if you fire the gun in Act 3, it must be seen in Act 1. This was such a wonderful hook ending that should get just about every reader excited for the next issue.

Bryan Hitch provides for plenty of excellent artwork. Hitch manages to give this issue that big blockbuster movie look and feel.

The Bad: I have no complaints with this issue.

Overall: Fantastic Four #559 was another entertaining read. Millar is treating the reader to a wild and larger than life tale on this title. If you enjoy adventure themed comic books then this is definitely a title for you. Millar keeps the story entertaining as we get solid character work, great action scenes, and huge over the top plotlines.

Best of all, Millar delivers a Fantastic Four story that does not require the reader to have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Fantastic Four. I would imagine that Fantastic Four would appeal to a large cross section of comic book readers. Even comic book readers who have never liked the Fantastic Four.