Will Entropy Reign in Fantastic Four #28?

Heavy comes the Griever at the End of All Things in Fantastic Four #28. Written by Dan Slott, drawn by R.B. Silva, colored by Jesus Aburtov, and lettered by Joe Caramagna, Fantastic Four #28 finds the First Family defending the Forever Gate, a high-tech entryway into every point across all realities and times. But can even the combined might of the FF stand against the living embodiment of entropy? Find out…NOW, True Believers!

Fantastic Four #28 SHOULD be a comic I love.

Not only does it look tremendous, thanks to the stellar pencils and colors of R.B. Silva and Jesus Aburtov, but it’s weird as hell. Marshaling the full might of the Fantastic Four, including recurring guest star the Silver Surfer, writer Dan Slott pits them against the living personification of decay. Not only that, but they have to stop her from crossing into a gateway that would then lead her basically across the whole of reality, fulfilling her “mission” to then destroy every possible reality and world save for the one that already exists. Honestly, just typing it out right now, makes me the kind of giddy that only comics can provide.

So why don’t I like Fantastic Four #28?

Well, for one thing, Dan Slott is still behind the keys and while his plotting and story ideas have generally ranged from okay to decent, it is his characters and narrative drive that is still very much lacking here. Picking up directly from last issue’s cliffhanger which found the First Family sacrificing their new HQ 4 Yancy Street to stymie the Griever’s advance, Fantastic Four #28 drops us right in the middle of the action. Well, maybe a few thousand lightyears from the middle as Silver Surfer Norrin Radd zooms to Earth and the FF’s aid, Ultimate Nullifier in tow.

This sequence is genuinely thrilling, mainly due to Silva and Aburtov’s tremendous artwork and kineticism, literally hurling us through space along with the Surfer to support his earthly friends. But when we get back to Earth, that’s when the problems start to really reveal themselves. For one thing, while the idea of Griever is cool and exactly the kind of high concept weirdness I want from the title, Slott is still writing her like a mustache twirling villain, destroying just for the sake of the destruction instead of the aloof, almost hilariously distant force of nature she was in the opening arc.

Worse still, we are nearly thirty issues into the Slott Era of FF and he STILL can’t decide on what he wants his FF to sound and act like. Some get the better end of the stick than others. Slott’s Ben Grimm still sounds and acts like the Thing we all know and love, but if I am being honest, Ben is probably one of the easiest team members to write. 

The rest of the team, including the children, are STILL caught in an odd characterization limbo that suggests Slott still doesn’t have the grasp on them he should have by now. He slaps at some fun development for them all as they are attacked by the Griever and encased in a weapon that will show them their “most possible death” (again, another tremendous idea). But before he can actually dig into the mindsets of Sue, Reed, and Ben, he has to power through the end of the issue. A resolution, mind you, once again placed at the feet of Franklin in his depowered state.

There is just…still no spark to this era of Fantastic Four and it makes the parts that WORK even more frustrating as they are unsupported by the cast. Sure the ideas of a living embodiment of entropy, weapons that attack your psyche, consistently stellar artwork, and gates that open all realities are fun, but they mean nothing when the characters moving through these ideas are just stock standard imitations of “iconic” runs of the past.

I didn’t like Fantastic Four #28 as a whole, but the potential for this run to at least be “okay” is still maddeningly there. Here’s hoping that eventually the title and it’s creative team finally cracks that.