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Ultimate Fantastic Four Omnibus
Ultimate Fantastic Four Omnibus, Vol. 1
Collects Ultimate Fantastic Four #1-32 and Annual #1.
Reimagining Marvel's iconic quartet! When high-school genius Reed Richards enrolls at a secret government-sponsored school for the most gifted minds in the world, he unwittingly embarks on the journey of a lifetime! And the experience will be transformative for Reed and his Ben Grimm and Susan and Johnny Storm! But before they can even begin to get accustomed to their incredible new abilities, former classmate Victor Van Damme - forever altered by the same experiment - returns to exact his revenge! The nascent FF explore the N-Zone, meet Namor the Sub-Mariner and the uncanny Inhumans and discover another reality very much like their own. Is it the Marvel Universe we know and love - or home to a deadly threat set to lay waste to the Multiverse?
Reimagining Marvel's iconic quartet! When high-school genius Reed Richards enrolls at a secret government-sponsored school for the most gifted minds in the world, he unwittingly embarks on the journey of a lifetime! And the experience will be transformative for Reed and his Ben Grimm and Susan and Johnny Storm! But before they can even begin to get accustomed to their incredible new abilities, former classmate Victor Van Damme - forever altered by the same experiment - returns to exact his revenge! The nascent FF explore the N-Zone, meet Namor the Sub-Mariner and the uncanny Inhumans and discover another reality very much like their own. Is it the Marvel Universe we know and love - or home to a deadly threat set to lay waste to the Multiverse?
856 pages, Hardcover
Published March 18, 2025
7 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
Brian Michael Bendis
4,413 books2,576 followersA comic book writer and erstwhile artist. He has won critical acclaim (including five Eisner Awards) and is one of the most successful writers working in mainstream comics. For over eight years Bendis’s books have consistently sat in the top five best sellers on the nationwide comic and graphic novel sales charts.
Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.
Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.
Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.
Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.
Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.
He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.
Though he started as a writer and artist of independent noir fiction series, he shot to stardom as a writer of Marvel Comics' superhero books, particularly Ultimate Spider-Man.
Bendis first entered the comic world with the "Jinx" line of crime comics in 1995. This line has spawned the graphic novels Goldfish, Fire, Jinx, Torso (with Marc Andreyko), and Total Sell Out. Bendis is writing the film version of Jinx for Universal Pictures with Oscar-winner Charlize Theron attached to star and produce.
Bendis’s other projects include the Harvey, Eisner, and Eagle Award-nominated Powers (with Michael Avon Oeming) originally from Image Comics, now published by Marvel's new creator-owned imprint Icon Comics, and the Hollywood tell-all Fortune and Glory from Oni Press, both of which received an "A" from Entertainment Weekly.
Bendis is one of the premiere architects of Marvel's "Ultimate" line: comics specifically created for the new generation of comic readers. He has written every issue of Ultimate Spider-Man since its best-selling launch, and has also written for Ultimate Fantastic Four and Ultimate X-Men, as well as every issue of Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, Ultimate Origin and Ultimate Six.
Brian is currently helming a renaissance for Marvel’s AVENGERS franchise by writing both New Avengers and Mighty Avengers along with the successful ‘event’ projects House Of M, Secret War, and this summer’s Secret Invasion.
He has also previously done work on Daredevil, Alias, and The Pulse.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 22, 2025
The Fantastic (#1-6). Bendis & Millar's reinvention of the Fanastic Four is, well, fantastic. Reimagining them as a think tank of genius kids (and friends and family) is great, not just because it offers a whole different take on the FF, but also because it empowers Sue in a way mostly not seen in 616 and because it links in to the younger dynamic of the other Ultimate comics.
Stepping away from the old spacecraft origin story is also a good choice, because it allows modernization of the origin and once again makes Sue and Reed believable as young geniuses. Further linking it with both the Mole Man and Doom is perhaps a bit color-by-numbers for Ultimate reimaginations, but nonethless effective.
The fact that the mystery of Doom is still hanging over the comic as it concludes its first arc promises that the whole first year is going to be fantastic ... if only the next author can hold up to these standards [5/5].
Doom (#7-12). The new author for UFF is Warren Ellis, and he's a great writer, but the question is, "Is he right for the Fantastic Four?" Unfortunately, the scripting lags when compared to Bendis' light script for the previous volume, and I'm not a fan of his pushing Doom to the weird side of things, with cloven hooves and maybe other biological augmentation? It's hard to tell, but it goes again the scientific foundation of the comic.
With that said, this is a fine follow-up. Ellis makes some really nice additions to the Ultimate mythology, by really playing up Sue's role as a genius scientist and by introducing the conflict between the military and the Baxter scientists. (Aggressive militarism was an Ultimate favorite, with The ultimates and Ultimate Fantastic Four both debuting in the wake of 9/11.) We also get the promised search for Doom, and it goes as badly as you might hope [4/5].
N-Zone (#13-18). Warren Ellis' second and final UFF arc is the better of his two, and I think that's because he really leans into the scientific discovery that helped to define the 1610 version of the Fantastic Four. We get a beautifully illustration excursion into the Ultimate Negative Zone (N-Zone) and a first contact with a version of Annihilus that's very scientifically believable.
The first part of this story is a little slow, with a lot of sound of fury, but once we get into the N-Zone it really takes off, with Ben's fight against Annihilus being particularly amazing. And at the end we get a game-changing finale that really opens up the story for the next authors. The question is whether they'll continue with what makes the UFF great or turn it into more typical superhero fare [4+/5].
Think Tank (#19-20). This re-invention of the Mad Thinker is exactly what the Ultimate universe was good at. Except that the whole student-who-didn't-get-into-school-seeks-revenge trope is kind of cliched. (Maybe less so in 2005?) And it also turns out that it's a pretty dull story: two issues of action-action-action, muddied by Jae Lee art that more often depicts silhouettes than characters. (Why???) It's not encouraging that this was all by Mike Carey, a usually great writer, but not here, and also the author of the back half of the UFF series [3/5].
Inhuman (A #1). Millar's back! Sadly, without Bendis' scripting, but still it's great to see the UFF's creator getting to take over the reins for a year. Here he offers an Ultimate look at the Inhumans, and they're another worthy reimagination, dark and gloomy and actually in-tune with the continuing Jae Lee artwork. A fun story, but probably a pretty skippable one. Oh, and the cover? Greg Land porn art? Not great, and he's unfortunately going to be the interior artist for the next year [4/5].
Crossover (#21-23). It's funny to remember the press for this series at the time. Marvel was teasing that 1610 was finally crossing over with 616, something that hadn't happened yet after five years of Ultimate stories. Instead, we got the introduction of Marvel Zombies. It's still a pretty great story, with Ultimate Reed really in danger for his life on Zombie Earth and Zombie Earth Magneto getting to play the hero. It's also nice to see the continued exploration of scientific realms and the idea that the Four have become reckless, nicely linking in recent stories by other authors. Oh, and Greg Land's artwork is gorgeous, other than Sue's frequent porn faces. [5/5].
The Tomb of Namor (#24-26). Millar's reinvention of Namor is amazing. Just a slight variation of the concept, but one that makes all the difference, both in Namor's attitude as a thousands-year-old remnant from a super-scientific society and his darker secrets. The introduction of Sue and Johnny's mom is also intriguing, especially the clear connection for stories still to come [5/5].
President Thor (#27-29). Connecting the Chitauri up to the Skrulls is a nice bit of (alt) continuity. As is how nasty this alternative version of the Skrulls is! But it's the timey-wimey story of trying to cure Ben that's the wonderful heart of this story, and it's quite well done. [5/5]
Frightful (#30-32). Millar's finale is a nice combination of many plot points, from Doom to N-Zone to Crossover. (Though he seems to notably ignore Warren Ellis' organic mutations for Doom, in part by never showing his feet clearly.) It's a great look at the Doom/Reed rivalry and a really satisfying conclusion to it as well. Farewell, Millar! This was another great Ultimate effort! [5/5]
_So the question will be whether Mike Carey can hold up the excellence of the first half of Ultimate FF when he tokes over._
Stepping away from the old spacecraft origin story is also a good choice, because it allows modernization of the origin and once again makes Sue and Reed believable as young geniuses. Further linking it with both the Mole Man and Doom is perhaps a bit color-by-numbers for Ultimate reimaginations, but nonethless effective.
The fact that the mystery of Doom is still hanging over the comic as it concludes its first arc promises that the whole first year is going to be fantastic ... if only the next author can hold up to these standards [5/5].
Doom (#7-12). The new author for UFF is Warren Ellis, and he's a great writer, but the question is, "Is he right for the Fantastic Four?" Unfortunately, the scripting lags when compared to Bendis' light script for the previous volume, and I'm not a fan of his pushing Doom to the weird side of things, with cloven hooves and maybe other biological augmentation? It's hard to tell, but it goes again the scientific foundation of the comic.
With that said, this is a fine follow-up. Ellis makes some really nice additions to the Ultimate mythology, by really playing up Sue's role as a genius scientist and by introducing the conflict between the military and the Baxter scientists. (Aggressive militarism was an Ultimate favorite, with The ultimates and Ultimate Fantastic Four both debuting in the wake of 9/11.) We also get the promised search for Doom, and it goes as badly as you might hope [4/5].
N-Zone (#13-18). Warren Ellis' second and final UFF arc is the better of his two, and I think that's because he really leans into the scientific discovery that helped to define the 1610 version of the Fantastic Four. We get a beautifully illustration excursion into the Ultimate Negative Zone (N-Zone) and a first contact with a version of Annihilus that's very scientifically believable.
The first part of this story is a little slow, with a lot of sound of fury, but once we get into the N-Zone it really takes off, with Ben's fight against Annihilus being particularly amazing. And at the end we get a game-changing finale that really opens up the story for the next authors. The question is whether they'll continue with what makes the UFF great or turn it into more typical superhero fare [4+/5].
Think Tank (#19-20). This re-invention of the Mad Thinker is exactly what the Ultimate universe was good at. Except that the whole student-who-didn't-get-into-school-seeks-revenge trope is kind of cliched. (Maybe less so in 2005?) And it also turns out that it's a pretty dull story: two issues of action-action-action, muddied by Jae Lee art that more often depicts silhouettes than characters. (Why???) It's not encouraging that this was all by Mike Carey, a usually great writer, but not here, and also the author of the back half of the UFF series [3/5].
Inhuman (A #1). Millar's back! Sadly, without Bendis' scripting, but still it's great to see the UFF's creator getting to take over the reins for a year. Here he offers an Ultimate look at the Inhumans, and they're another worthy reimagination, dark and gloomy and actually in-tune with the continuing Jae Lee artwork. A fun story, but probably a pretty skippable one. Oh, and the cover? Greg Land porn art? Not great, and he's unfortunately going to be the interior artist for the next year [4/5].
Crossover (#21-23). It's funny to remember the press for this series at the time. Marvel was teasing that 1610 was finally crossing over with 616, something that hadn't happened yet after five years of Ultimate stories. Instead, we got the introduction of Marvel Zombies. It's still a pretty great story, with Ultimate Reed really in danger for his life on Zombie Earth and Zombie Earth Magneto getting to play the hero. It's also nice to see the continued exploration of scientific realms and the idea that the Four have become reckless, nicely linking in recent stories by other authors. Oh, and Greg Land's artwork is gorgeous, other than Sue's frequent porn faces. [5/5].
The Tomb of Namor (#24-26). Millar's reinvention of Namor is amazing. Just a slight variation of the concept, but one that makes all the difference, both in Namor's attitude as a thousands-year-old remnant from a super-scientific society and his darker secrets. The introduction of Sue and Johnny's mom is also intriguing, especially the clear connection for stories still to come [5/5].
President Thor (#27-29). Connecting the Chitauri up to the Skrulls is a nice bit of (alt) continuity. As is how nasty this alternative version of the Skrulls is! But it's the timey-wimey story of trying to cure Ben that's the wonderful heart of this story, and it's quite well done. [5/5]
Frightful (#30-32). Millar's finale is a nice combination of many plot points, from Doom to N-Zone to Crossover. (Though he seems to notably ignore Warren Ellis' organic mutations for Doom, in part by never showing his feet clearly.) It's a great look at the Doom/Reed rivalry and a really satisfying conclusion to it as well. Farewell, Millar! This was another great Ultimate effort! [5/5]
_So the question will be whether Mike Carey can hold up the excellence of the first half of Ultimate FF when he tokes over._
October 10, 2025
2000'lerin Ultimate evreni oldukça cüretkar bir girişimdi. Spider-Man ile başlayan başarılı süreçten sonra X-Men ve Fantastic Four serileri de bu evrende yer alsa da hiçbiri Spider-Man'in başarısını yakalayamadı. Hatta pek kimseler de hatırlamak istemez. Fantastic Four'un bu yeniden ele alınışı 2015 yapımı filme epey ilham olmuştur. O filmin de akıbetini düşününce seri hakkında çok iç açıcı bir fikir edinemiyoruz.
Bu FF'in ana evrendekiyle arasındaki en büyük fark şüphesiz ana seride mevcut olan aile olma hissinin yer almayışıdır. Buradakiler daha çok arkadaş grubu gibi bir hissiyat veriyor. Tabii bunda yaşlarının daha küçük olması ve üniversite çağlarında olmalarının da etkisi var.
The Thing'in o yumuşak kalpliliği, okurken hem güldüren hem de hüzünlendiren tavırları burada pek yer almıyor. Oldukça silik bir portre çiziyor. Ekibin okurlar tarafından açık ara en sevilen karakterinden bahsediyoruz burada. Sue ve Reed'in ilişkisi de biraz ergen ilişkileri gibi. Öyle Reed'in her şeyi mantık çerçevesinde değerlendirmesine karşın Sue'nun duygular ile mantığı sentezlemesiyle Reed'i hizaya sokması gibi şeyler yok. Ya öpüşüyorlar ya kavga ediyorlar. Johnny zaten 2000'ler gençlik filmlerindeki sarışın, havalı, zengin çocuk tiplemesi gibi bir şey. Serinin baş kötüsü Dr. Doom yani Victor Von Doom (buradaki adıyla Victor Van Damme) hakkında diyebileceğim tek şey keçi ayaklarının olması. Gerisini siz düşünün.
Tüm bunlara rağmen gerek ekibin güç kazandığı kazayı, gerek Negative Zone'u gerek de çeşitli yan karakterleri farklı işlemesiyle FF külliyatına yeni bir soluk getirdiği yadsınamaz. Bugünlerde popüler olan Marvel Zombies konseptinin de ilk kez ortaya çıkışı da bu seridir.
Hakkı bir yıldız eksik olsa da Fantastic Four serilerine her zamanki gibi kıyağımı geçiyorum.
Bu FF'in ana evrendekiyle arasındaki en büyük fark şüphesiz ana seride mevcut olan aile olma hissinin yer almayışıdır. Buradakiler daha çok arkadaş grubu gibi bir hissiyat veriyor. Tabii bunda yaşlarının daha küçük olması ve üniversite çağlarında olmalarının da etkisi var.
The Thing'in o yumuşak kalpliliği, okurken hem güldüren hem de hüzünlendiren tavırları burada pek yer almıyor. Oldukça silik bir portre çiziyor. Ekibin okurlar tarafından açık ara en sevilen karakterinden bahsediyoruz burada. Sue ve Reed'in ilişkisi de biraz ergen ilişkileri gibi. Öyle Reed'in her şeyi mantık çerçevesinde değerlendirmesine karşın Sue'nun duygular ile mantığı sentezlemesiyle Reed'i hizaya sokması gibi şeyler yok. Ya öpüşüyorlar ya kavga ediyorlar. Johnny zaten 2000'ler gençlik filmlerindeki sarışın, havalı, zengin çocuk tiplemesi gibi bir şey. Serinin baş kötüsü Dr. Doom yani Victor Von Doom (buradaki adıyla Victor Van Damme) hakkında diyebileceğim tek şey keçi ayaklarının olması. Gerisini siz düşünün.
Tüm bunlara rağmen gerek ekibin güç kazandığı kazayı, gerek Negative Zone'u gerek de çeşitli yan karakterleri farklı işlemesiyle FF külliyatına yeni bir soluk getirdiği yadsınamaz. Bugünlerde popüler olan Marvel Zombies konseptinin de ilk kez ortaya çıkışı da bu seridir.
Hakkı bir yıldız eksik olsa da Fantastic Four serilerine her zamanki gibi kıyağımı geçiyorum.
February 8, 2026
The original Ultimate Spider-man by Bendis is one of my all time favorite comics and I’m also a huge Fantastic Four fan, so with the current prominence of Ultimate Reed in his role as the Maker, I figured it was time to finally check this series out. And it wasn’t good. I didn’t mind the first arc, but the constantly switching writers and artists did this series no favors. In particular, why anyone thought putting Greg Land’s sexualized art for any length of time on a series about teenagers was appropriate is mind boggling.
May 25, 2025
Fantastic ☝🏼
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews