Written by: Ryan North
Art by: Carlos Gómez
Colors by: Jesus Aburtov
Letters by: VC’s Joe Caramagna
Cover art by: Alex Ross
Cover price: $3.99
Release date: March 20, 2024
Fantastic Four #18 wakes up Franklin Richards to remember who (or what) he is to intervene against a deadly asteroid storm hurtling towards Earth.
Is Fantastic Four #18 Good?
The more this series continues under Ryan North’s hand, the more frustrating it becomes. Fantastic Four #18 takes the worst aspects of Ryan North’s storytelling and somehow makes them worse by injecting an element of Attention-deficient focus. If you thought North’s half-baked attempts at a Mr. Wizard science lesson were tough to get through, wait until you realize this story has three plots and most of them are incomplete.
When last we left the Fantastic Four and their extended family, Sue Richards uncovered her skeletal remains at an archaeological dig, leading to a time-looping, nonsensical adventure involving the Master of Time, Rama-Tut aka Kang.
Now, Franklin Richards wakes up during his one-night-a-year parole to remember who he is and what powers he possesses to catch up with what’s happening in the world. During his scan of the universe, he spies a storm of invisible asteroids hurtling towards Earth. Using his powers over reality, Franklin imagines an adventure where the Fantastic Four (plus Alicia Masters) investigate the first asteroid strike before heading off to stop another with courage and a whole lot of pseudo-science. Ultimately, the storm leads to an unstoppable Armageddon that the Fantastic Four (and Alicia Masters, for some reason) can’t stop.
Franklin waves the storm away to prevent the unsavory future (without bothering to verify where the asteroids came from or why they’re invisible) before putting his powers away for another year. However, Franklin doesn’t know that he’s being spied on by Nick Scratch, who puts the asteroids back on their original course. The Fantastic Four (and Alicia Masters, for some reason) live out Franklin’s forecasted adventure but find a solution to stop the asteroids by drawing inspiration from the Asteroids video game and a whole lot more pseudo-science.
The issue ends with a rowdy Fantasti-Breakfast and the tease that SHIELD (weren’t they disbanded?) is cataloging all of the Fantastic Four’s experiments for some larger purpose.
![](https://weirdsciencemarvelcomics.files.wordpress.com/2024/03/fantastic-four-18-p2.jpg?w=527)
What’s great about Fantastic Four #18? It’s nice to see Franklin Richards in all his glory again, and I have to admit a brief bit of amusement in his declaration that he was/is indeed an Omega-level mutant. Further, the wonkiness of the story and Ryan North’s penchant for badly integrated science in a story still look cool.
What’s not so great about Fantastic Four #18? Oy! Where to begin? Again, the fundamental flaw in Ryan North’s approach to this series is in using each issue as a vehicle to present one or more science lessons. That’s not necessarily a problem as long as a) the story comes first, and b) the science is presented in a reasonable facsimile of how the science would/could work. Here, we get neither, and several plot points come up as nonsensical or silly, which devalues any dramatic tension in the story.
For example…
Why did the Fantastic Four ride out to meet the police at the site of the first asteroid strike on invisible horse constructs when they flew in and landed the Fantasti-Car not more than 150 feet away?
Why is Ben Grimm taking his wife, Alicia Masters, into incredibly dangerous situations?
If Franklin had the reality-bending powers of a god, how did he not foresee what the Fantastic Four would really do? And why didn’t Franklin investigate the asteroids, or better yet, destroy them to prevent their return if they’re following a gravitational orbit?
Why on Earth would Reed ask Johnny to explain the historical particulars of the asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs?
Why would Reed stretching his eyes out of his head make him see farther if his lenses remain the same size?
When the danger passed the second time, why didn’t Sue, Reed, or anyone else investigate the origin of the asteroids and why they’re invisible? I don’t know about you, but invisible asteroids pointed at Earth could be the harbinger of an attack.
And so forth and so on. You get the impression Ryan North is trying very hard to make science cool by working as much science as possible into an adventure story. Unfortunately, the story has to come first (it doesn’t), and the science has to make sense (it doesn’t).
About The Reviewer: Gabriel Hernandez is the Publisher & EIC of ComicalOpinions.com, a comics review site dedicated to indie, small, and mid-sized publishers.
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Bits and Pieces
Fantastic Four #18 is yet another botched attempt by Ryan North to make science cool by wrapping a half-baked adventure story around an ill-presented science lesson. The concept of making science cool by using a “fantastic” application is noble, but the execution falls abysmally short.
5/10