Marvel Age Fantastic Four #6

[awe4one]

I was perusing the newstsand today looking for various comics to pick up and for the first time saw a Marvel Age comic. I've read many, mostly bad, reviews on the Internet concerning this line. Everything bad seems to stem from the impression they were doing a disservice to the Silver Age stories they are retelling and how awful the Manga influenced art was.

 

As a lifelong Fantastic Four fan, I bought Marvel Age FF #6 to see for myself what the deal was and was truly expecting to loath it.

 

What did I think? I liked it. Alot.

 

This issue seems ideally suited to the audience Marvel's trying to reach. Kids. There no fluff. No complex storyline. Just a rollicking adventure all done in the space of one issue. I felt no need to have read the prior 5 issues before reading this one. The dialogue seemed stilted at times but it never distracted from the story. The art wasn't my cup of tea but it was clear and in some places quite nice.

 

Also, it retells the story originally told in FF V1 #6 in which Doom and Sub-Mariner team up to send the Baxter Building, and the FF, into space. It's been many, many years since I read the original story but I still remember the basic details. There is nothing in MA that would make me think Marvel was screwing with the original. And even if it did, so what? This issue wasn't geared to those with an encyclopedia-level knowledge of Marvel history. It's for the newbie and completely works for this group.

 

I wish Marvel is successful in getting these in the hands of kids. If I was a kid I would have soaked this up...

 

As a sidenote, it took me longer (double the time) to read this issue than the current FF issue on my pile. The reason was there was more text in MA (in fact there was text in most every panel) because it was as important as the art in telling the story due to the need to do it in one issue. Characters had to explain (there were no footnotes) what they were doing in tandem with it being displayed in the art. The current FF issue had multiple quarter/half/full page spreads where there was little or no dialogue whatsoever. I enjoyed the current FF issue but can truthfully say I enjoyed the MA issue more, or at least felt more satisfied, if I had to compare the two.

 

But then the current FF still hasn't recovered from the disasterous "Heaven" storyline in my opinion.

 

Jim

[Silver Surfer]

Can you post a scan of it when you get a chance?

[awe4one]

[Silver Surfer]

The Torch looks like a little ferret?