I have heard everyone and their moms ranting and raving about Jonathan Hickman's work on the Fantastic 4, and my curiosity was sufficiently high that it became an impulse buy on my last pass through the comics store.

The first 3 issues of the collection, "Solve Everything" are spectacular stuff -- Reed Richards encounters a multiverse-spanning Council of Reeds and works to join their ranks. There's great art, and great characterization of the Fantastic 4 as a family in addition to being a superhero team.

"Adventures on Nu-World" is my least favorite of the five. I had to spend a lot of time Googling to understand what was going on here, as I'm not someone deeply versed in the Marvel lore. This is the point in the collection where the art starts to drop off.

Finally, "Days of Future Franklin!" is a fun issue marred by some terrible art. It's obviously setting up the pieces for future issues in Hickman's run, but I was still able to enjoy it.

Overall, I wouldn't say that it's an amazing jumping-on point (there's not a lot of hand-holding when it comes to the plot, and I'm still confused as to whether or not this is the first appearance of the Council), but it's obvious that Hickman is a strong writer, and I'm willing to see where he goes next. ( )

I was handed this book and told to read it immediately, one of the reasons being that it will make me understand some more Rick and Morty jokes (i.e. The Council of Ricks). I have been asking lots of questions since I'm not familiar with the Fantastic Four universe, but overall I liked it. I'm interested to see how Reed continues knowing about the Council and trying to maintain his family life. Onto the next! ( )

I realize that not everyone reads comic books exclusively in the form of trades, but I know a lot of people do, and I'm one of them. If you don't, my objection to Volume 1 of Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four Vol. 1 will not be relevant to you.

When I read a trade, I expect a full and complete arc. If the trade encapsulates 6 issues, all 6 of those issues should work to tell a single story. If it's 7 issues, or 5 issues, same deal - tell one complete story, and finish that story by the end of the last issue. The problem I had with Fantastic Four Vol. 1 is that it violates this principle. It's a 5-issue collection, and issues 1-3 are one story, and 4-5 an entirely different story. Actually 4 and 5 are really just standalone stories. These stories do not relate in any way, the first has no real payoff in the second or third. It's just a random collection of separate arcs into a single "volume" and I find that to be very obnoxious.

The first arc was the most infuriating. It's really not a "Fantastic Four" story at all, it's a "Fantasic One". Reed Richards is pretty much the only character in the entire thing, we occasionally hear from the other members of the group, but it's really a one-man show. Richards invents a device that lets him travel between universes. This seems like pretty standard stuff for FF, but what's neat is that he discovers that the Reed Richardses in a ton of other universes have already done the same, in fact they all meet together and have a secret society of all Reeds. This is a neat idea, and it's made even more interesting when the group members basically tell him, you have to leave your family behind to join the group, they'll just hold you back and distract you. I hate to spoil things, but Reed basically decides to turn this offer down because he loves his family, and his father wanted him to be a good family man. It's schmaltzy, sure, but the real problem I have with this is that it completely shuts down this entire story permanently, and so it goes absolutely nowhere. It'd be like, if Luke Skywalker told Obi-Wan he won't join the rebellion, and then supplied a series of reasons for doing so, and Star Wars went on without him. You'd wonder "why did we even meet this Luke guy?"

The second arc is actually less interesting. Kind of standard action stuff, save the world, the entire team comes together. And the third is just as separated, and has Spider-man because Spider-man.

What's so annoying to me is that this notion of a Reed Richards society is interesting enough to fill 5 issues if fleshed out more completely. But instead it just ends early without being really explored, and then two random unrelated stories are thrown in. I'm sure this would be fine if you were a week-to-week reader, in fact you might even appreciate the episodic nature of these issues, but as a trade reader I found it annoying. ( )

Great start to the Hickman FF run. I read the Dark Reign FF mini a while back, now onto the main event. ( )