Comic Book Review: Fantastic Four #561

The Revolution has thoroughly enjoyed Millar’s work on Fantastic Four. I have never been much of a fan of Marvel’s first family of super-heroes, but I am now completely hooked on this title. Each issue gets even more entertaining than the past one. I fully expect Millar to turn out another exciting read with Fantastic Four #561. Let’s go ahead and hit this review.

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

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

Synopsis: We begin at the Defenders’ headquarters with Sue Storm now back with her team. Johnny is stunned that Ms. Deneuve is in fact his sister. The Hulk tells Sue that she can leave if she does not want to watch her brother in pain by being hooked into the Galactus engine. Sue comments that her husband and children died to get them here and that turning away now would be an insult to them.

We cut to the Baxter Building where Reed, Sue, the Thing and She-Hulk are regrouping. Reed fills them in on the fact that Ms. Deneuve is actually Sue from the future and that she is part of the group that kidnapped Johnny. Reed continues that they do not know where Sue’s secret headquarters is located. So, Reed finished constructing a microscopic tracer that he had been designing.

Reed then injects Sue with the microscopic tracer. Reed says that once it is injected that it is impossible to remove. Sue smiles and adds how clever Reed is. Suddenly, the tracers come alive. The Thing says that one of the tracers is right here in Sue in the Baxter Building and that another tracer is located in upstate New York.

Reed asks She-Hulk to stay behind and to protect the children. Reed then looks at Valeria and tells her that they are going to talk when he gets back. Reed, Sue and Ben then hop into the Fantasti-Car and take off.

We cut back to the Defenders’ headquarters where Johnny is screaming out in pain. Johnny yells for Sue to turn the Galactus engine off. Sue answers that Galactus will be drained and die first, then Dr. Doom and then Johnny last. Sue says that Johnny’s odds of dying are fifty-to-one. Hulk interrupts and said that the machine has eaten through more energy than expected and that the odds of Johnny dying are ten-to-one.

Alex Ultron then says for them to look at Doom. That Doom is refusing to scream at all. We see through Doom’s facemask a look of steely determination in his eyes and his teeth clenched tightly together.

We then see the Fantasti-Car arrive outside the Defenders’ headquarters. Sue tells Reed to give her sixty seconds for her to clear a path for Reed and Ben. Sue makes herself an invisible surfboard and zips off into the Defenders’ headquarters. Reed smiles and says “God, I love that girl!”

We zip back inside of the Defenders’ headquarters with Sue ordering the eight billion refugees from the future to be equally distributed. That there can be no more than two billion refugees on each of the five continents. The Hulk says that the refugees will be arriving in less than four minutes. The Hulk checks the final coordinates.

The Hooded Man tells Hulk, his son, that he is real proud of him. The Hooded Man adds that Reed would also be proud of the Hulk. Suddenly, Natalie X, one of the Defenders, gets light-headed and collapses. The Hooded Man sniffs and says that he smells force fields. We then see Sue busting onto the scene and attacking the Defenders.

Suddenly, the Thing rips open a huge hole in the wall of the Defenders’ headquarters and he and Reed join the fight against the Defenders. The Thing starts kicking ass on the Defenders. We then hear “Snikt” and see the Hooded Man pop out admantium claws. The Thing asks if the Hooded Man is who he thinks he is. The Hooded Man yells out that he is indeed Wolverine.

Wolverine then attacks Reed. Sue then makes Wolverine’s optic nerves invisible which renders him blind. The Thing then states that he hopes that Wolverine still has his healing factor as the Thing crushes Wolverine’s head with one punch.

Sue then contains the remaining Defenders in force field bubbles. Sue states that bringing eight billion people to the present would destroy the planet. The older Sue yells that the eight billion refugees are already in transit and if the coordinates are changed then the refugees will die. Sue tells older Sue to trust her and that she will not let them die.

Sue then calls Alyssa and asks Alyssa if she is ready to drive Alyssa’s lying, cheating husband, Ted, out of his mind. We shift to Nu-World with Alyssa telling Sue that she is ready and willing. Alyssa says that the shields are down and for Sue to go ahead and bring on the mass migration. We cut to the main control room of Nu-World where Alyssa’s husband, Ted, is being informed of a massive influx of new life readings across Nu-World. That it is like a massive full-scale invasion.

Ted asks Alyssa what the hell is going on. Alyssa replies for Ted to think of it as payback. That now there are eight billion asylum seekers running away from the world that Ted left them to die in. We see happy refugees from the future standing in the streets of Nu-World.

Ted snaps at how stupid Alyssa has been. Ted says that the Board is going to be furious. Ted asks Alyssa if she understands what the Board is going to say about this. Alyssa slyly replies what is the Board going to do? Evict eight billion people?

We shift back to the Defenders’ headquarters where Alyssa radios Sue to inform her that all eight billion refugees safely made it to Nu-World. Reed muses how Nu-World was designed for politicians and the super-rich. That there is no crime, no poverty, no hunger and no disease. Sue adds that they sent the refugees to heaven and that the rest of their days will be glorious.

The older Sue hugs Reed and exclaims that she knew that Reed would not let her down. Ben then unhooks Johnny from the machine. Ben says that Johnny is still alive but that they need to get him to a hospital. Doom is also still alive, but clearly drained of his energy. On the other hand, Galactus is dead. Lightwave comments how odd it is that a creature that was famous for destroying worlds in order to live would die in order to save a world.

The Hulk then tends to Wolverine and tells his dad that they managed to rescue everyone. Reed then comments that Nu-World has everything but super-powered protectors, but that Reed assumes that the Defenders can take care of that little detail.

The older Sue then states that she must go apologize to Dr. Doom for kidnapping him. Older Sue says that it is so odd seeing this from a different perspective. Being the older Sue just submitting herself like this. Older Sue tells Doom that it was not personal and that she was only doing what she had to do.

Doom reaches out and grabs older Sue and says “Likewise.” Doom then fries older Sue with some electrical energy. Sue then screams “What have you done?” Doom replies “Restored my honor. Nothing more.” End of issue.

Comments
The Good: Fantastic Four #561 was an absolute blast to read. Millar simply makes the Fantastic Four cool. This was an exciting issue that delivered such a satisfying conclusion to this story arc.

Fantastic Four #561 was a perfectly paced issue. Millar crafts a story that had a wonderful flow. The issue begins with a steady pace as the reader experiences the quiet before the storm. The issue methodically builds in momentum before arriving at the climactic fight scene and arrival of the eight billion refugees. Millar then momentarily eases off the gas in the dénouement of this issue before surprisingly cranking up the intensity for a stunning ending.

I am amazed at how Millar is able to write on multiple levels. At the most basic level, the story in Fantastic Four is a classic action-adventure tale fitting of any summer blockbuster movie. However, Millar also writes into the story another level that deals with the personal relationships of the various Fantastic Four members and how they view and interact with each other. And then on a larger and more philosophical level Millar investigates the themes of humanity and justice. It is all there for the reader to enjoy depending on what the reader wants out of this story.

The dialogue in this issue is top notch. Millar continues to display an excellent understanding of the personalities of each member of the Fantastic Four. The character work as been solid as the Fantastic Four members are all well rounded characters.

Millar generates some enjoyable chemistry between Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben that help make the family dynamic between these characters so interesting. Millar understands that when writing the Fantastic Four that it must be kept in mind that this is a family and not a super team and, therefore, certain dynamics absent from your typical super team are present in the Fantastic Four.

I continue to enjoy how Millar handles Reed’s character. Millar understands that even though Reed is a science nerd he is still one cool character. And Millar has delivered a Reed Richards who is always calm, cool and collected. Reed always has an answer to any problem that might be presented to the Fantastic Four. And Reed injecting Sue with a microscopic tracer in order to find the Defenders’ headquarters was brilliant.

Millar treats the reader to a surprise reveal that the Hooded Man was Wolverine. Even though the reader kind of figured that this was coming it was still a nice touch. Evidently, Millar has stated in interviews that he has left subtle clues tying together the Old Man Logan story with his version of Logan from even farther into the future. I appreciate that type of effort from a writer and now I am going to have to re-read both stories and pay closer attention.

Millar continues to impress with his excellent plotting skills on this title. Millar has been able to continually take plotlines from the previous story arc and weave them back into the current story arc. At no point as Millar allowed the story on this title to wander or lose focus. Millar keeps a steady hand on the direction at all times and the reader gets the sense that every single detail, no matter how small, serves a specific purpose even if the reader won’t discover that purpose until some later date.

Millar’s use of Nu-World in this issue was fantastic. This was a brilliant use of a plot device that was presented in Act I and then put to use in Act II. The resolution to the problem of where to send the refugees gave this story a nice sense of symmetry as Millar delivers some fitting poetic justice by having Nu-World serve as sanctuary for the eight billion refugees. The reader cannot help but smile as Ted fumes over how Alyssa has betrayed him and the Board.

Millar pleasantly ties up the final loose end with the Defenders by sliding them into the position as the official super team for Nu-World. I found the Defenders to be an interesting collection of characters and I am glad that Millar found a place for them within the 616 universe. With the ending of this issue, Millar has now created an interesting addition to the 616 universe in Nu-World that hopefully will be visited again sometime in the near future.

Even though this issue delivers the climactic conclusion to the showdown between the Fantastic Four and the Defenders, Millar still has his eye to the future by addressing Valeria’s plot. Clearly, Reed knows about Valeria’s rapid growth in intelligence as he informs her that they will be having a talk when he returns. This is an interesting plotline and I am curious to see how this impacts Franklin.

Fantastic Four #561 ends with an incredibly dramatic ending. Millar has the eight billion refugees finding a new home on Nu-World, Galactus dies and then the older Sue dies. I loved older Sue’s death. Millar delivered on his promise to kill Sue Storm and he did in a fashion that made sense. This was completely consistent with Doom’s character. You do not kidnap and attempt to kill Doom and not expect to die if you fail to kill him. And it was interesting to see Sue willingly submit herself to Doom knowing full well what was going to happen to her.

Millar certainly delivers plenty of excellent action scenes in this issue. I enjoyed seeing Sue grab the spotlight and using her powers in such a creative fashion in helping the Fantastic Four to defeat the Defenders. I also enjoyed seeing the Thing drop Wolverine with just one punch.

Bryan Hitch’s artwork was fantastic. Millar is an artist’s best friend as he keeps the artist in mind when writing the story and allows the artist several scenes in which to showcase his skills. Hitch able to convey the massive grand scale of the Defenders’ headquarters and the dramatic scale of the Galactus engine. Hitch succeeds in making Fantastic Four #561 larger than life just like a summer blockbuster movie. Hitch also delivers the smaller details such as being able to pack plenty of emotion into the characters’ facial expressions. Hitch succeeds in making Fantastic Four #561 s story that is easy for the reader to get lost in.

The Bad: I have no complaints with this issue.

Overall: Fantastic Four #561 was another wild ride as Millar continues to deliver an entertaining story on this title. Millar’s Fantastic Four should appeal to action fans as well as fans who desire quality character work and strong plot development. Millar also delivers a story that is quite accessible for readers like me who have never been fans of the Fantastic Four before and have a limited knowledge of the Fantastic Four mythos. If you still have not given this title a try then I would certainly recommend doing so.