Written by Tom DeFalco
Art by Various Artists
Cover Art by Carlos Pagulayan; Jeffrey Huet; & Chris Sotomayor
SUMMARY:
Published by Marvel Comics in 2007, this 148-page DK Books-style digest by veteran Marvel editor-writer Tom DeFalco is a complete guidebook to comics’ First Family: the Fantastic Four. DeFalco summarizes the team’s history and storylines during each decade; provides character bios of the team, supporting players, and recurring guest stars; offers a section re: its temporary members; and even counts down the Thing’s ‘Top Ten Best Stories.’ The books is heavily decorated with reprinted images from countless comic books and their covers. The book concludes with a promo two-page interview with Stan Lee hyping his Last Fantastic Four Story one-shot project.
Note: This book focuses solely on the comic books, so the team’s animated and live-action exploits aren’t included.
REVIEW:
Despite the eye-squinting small font size, this kid-friendly book proves a Fantastic Four fan’s dream. In terms of its present relevancy, DeFalco’s text impressively extends into the 2000’s by discussing Fantastic Four 2099, Ultimate Fantastic Four, and the team’s Marvel Knights 4 imprint. Yet, this book’s best section may well be its remarkable solo tribute to Ben Grimm’s Thing, as DeFalco describes the character’s best-ever stories. To the credit of DeFalco and the contributing artists, they have done a truly commendable job of consolidating forty-six years of information re: Marvel’s first super-team into a handy reference guide. This paperback should be treated as a worthy standard for future projects like this one.
ADDITIONAL CONTENT:
Stan Lee provides a foreword. There’s also two sticker pages (with four stickers per page).
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 9 Stars
