The Creators – Dan Slott – Writer, CAFU – Artist, Jesus Aburtov – Colours, Joe Caramagna – Letters

The Players – Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, The Thing, Alica Masters Grim, Joanna Jeffers

The Story – Reed Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four have just saved the universe from The Reckoning, a mistake the Watchers made eons ago. Now Reed is reflecting on his life and what he has and believes it is time to start putting family first.

The Take – Dan Slott’s time with the Fantastic Four comes to an end with this issue and while it is not the biggest of bangs to go out on, it is as close to a perfect note as one can get. This is a story about family, about the sister Reed never knew he had, though thanks to his father, he does so now and tracks her down. They go on a bit of an adventure, Ben and Sue and Reed and Joanna – here and there and back again until they finally head to Spyre to see Johnny and to find out if the cure that has been discovered will indeed do its job on him. Luckily, said cure does work and Johnny is once again the Human Torch and able to be with his family without fear of killing them all. As for Joanna, Slott imbues a hefty bag of doubt within her as to Reed and his intentions until he finally breaks down and tells her everything, about how he wants to make his family his priority and that includes Joanna. She turns down his invitation but by the end of it all, the two of them come to see eye-to-eye and so it is that the Richards family has grown by one which opens up a whole new world of possibilities. With no villains to beat down, other than a wee tussle with the Molecule Man, this was a fun outing for the Fantastic Four and an even better character spotlight that focused upon Reed Richards, not the scientist but the man who after coming so close to death realizes that family is everything. While one cannot expect the man to ever give up exploring or creating or discovering, he will hopefully be slightly more focused on his wife and kids rather than his inventions. Drawing Slott’s last exploit is the artist known as CAFU and the book looks great, with artwork both uncluttered and clean while providing some fantastic visuals to capture readers’ attention. As a whole, the entirety of Slott’s run was a lot of fun with some very good stories and is well worth picking up either in trade or back issue for those that might have missed it.

Worth It? – Yes.