Weekly Comic Book Review

By Jonathan Hickman (Script), Sean Chen (Pencils), Lorenzo Ruggiero (Inks), and John Rauch (Colors)

Some Thoughts Before The Review: I’ll be honest with you and admit that I had completely forgotten about the Dark Reign: Fantastic Four mini-series until this week’s shipping list reminded me about it. That probably says a lot about the first two issues even though I gave them solid grades.

The Story: The third chapter of Dark Reign: Fantastic Four begins with Sue, Johnny, and two versions of Ben on an air-ship that’s about to be boarded by Skrull pirates. That situation doesn’t last long as space-time collapses and the group is thrust into another version of reality…and then another….Meanwhile, Reed Richards continues to search alternate realities for superhuman peace by using the supercomputer known as “The Bridge.” As for Franklin and Valeria, they remain in the Baxter building while they await the arrival of Norman Osborn and members of H.A.M.M.E.R….

What’s Good: From the airship battle to the wild-west showdown and the alternate reality Illuminati sequences, Sean Chen, Lorenzo Ruggiero, and John Rauch do a great job of visually bringing Jonathan Hickman’s high-concept story to the comic page. The effort makes Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #3 the best-looking book in the mini-series so far. It’s a good thing the visuals do a lot of heavy lifting, as the character work and the concept are barely engaging.

What’s Not So Good: The overarching story feels like it’s stuck in neutral. In short, D.R.: F.F. #3 feels a hell of a lot like #2. Ben, Sue, and Johnny bounce around alternate realities as Reed sifts through alternate realities looking for nuggets of information. Meanwhile, Valeria and Franklin sit around the Baxter Building thinking about what to do in case the rest of their family doesn’t return. Those same things happened in issue two and, as a result, issue three feels disappointingly repetitive and somewhat boring.

Conclusion: Pick up Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #3 at your own risk. It looks nice and has some solid moments, but it feels far too much like the last issue to warrant a recommendation.

Grade: C-

-Kyle Posluszny

Filed under: Marvel Comics, Reviews Tagged: | Ben Grimm, Black Bolt, comic reviews, Dark Reign, Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #3 Review, Dr. Doom, Fantastic Four, Franklin Richards, H.A.M.M.E.R., Illuminati, Iron Man, John Rauch, Johnny Storm, Jonathan Hickman, Kyle Posluszny, Lorenzo Ruggiero, Magneto, Marvel comic Reviews, Marvel Comics, Namor, Norman Osborn, Pirates, Reed Richards, Sean Chen, Skrulls, Sue Storm, The Bridge, Tony Stark, Valeria Richards, WCBR, Weekly Comic Book Review, weeklycomicbookreview.com