Fantastic Four: Grand Design

 
Fantastic Four: Grand Design

by Tom Scioli

Marvel Comics

2020

 

 

I've read a lot of good graphic novels this year, but I haven't had the best luck with my superhero picks. Fantastic Four: Grand Design is Tom Scioli's attempt to do for the F4 what his colleague Ed Piskor did for the X-Men. In my opinion, he's not nearly as successful, either at creating a sense of overarching narrative, or at telling a comprehensible story on a panel-by-panel basis.

 
In addition to the story of the Fantastic Four, spanning roughly from their 'creation' in the ill-fated space flight to the birth of Reed and Sue's son, Franklin. We also see the Watcher, the Inhumans, Galactus and the Silver Surfer, Black Panther, Namor, and of course, Doctor Doom. There are a lot of other characters, mostly villains, who show up for a single panel here and there. 

 
Because I watched reruns the F4 cartoon as a kid, I at least recognize some of them, but the effect is less like a summary than like watching something on fast forward and just catching glimpses of key frames as you speed through. I don't think this is solely the fault of the Grand Design format; I had a similar experience reading Scioli's Transformers vs GI Joe a few years ago.

 
The book collects both issues of Scioli's miniseries, and the art is notably worse in the second issue. Scioli also does the same thing as Piskor with his colors, where everything is muddy and fuzzy to imitate the look of opening a decades old comic today. But Scioli's colors are muddier, and he never takes advantage of the off-white background to have 'special effects' visually pop in real pure white. This seems like a missed opportunity in general, and especially considering the nature of the Invisible Girl's powers, plus all the various cosmic energies getting invoked. 

 
Scioli's one really big change to the original art is to draw Sue, whenever she's invisible, as having her eyes, skeleton, and internal organs visible to the audience (but not the other characters), like one of those old Visible Woman anatomical models.

 
Even Fantastic Four fans are probably better off skipping this one.