Ultimate Fantastic Four Vol. 5: Crossover

Ultimate Fantastic Four (2003) (Collected Editions)

by Mark Millar, Greg Land (Illustrator)

Collects Ultimate Fantastic Four #21-26. Reed Richards has used his scientific genius to contact an Earth in a surprisingly familiar parallel dimension – except it's overrun by Marvel super hero ZOMBIES! Plus: This is a Namor you’ve never seen before with a vastly different agenda.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Comic Book, Superheroes, Fiction, Graphic Novels Comics

156 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

Mark Millar is the New York Times best-selling writer of Wanted, the Kick-Ass series, The Secret Service, Jupiter’s Legacy, Jupiter’s Circle, Nemesis, Superior, Super Crooks, American Jesus, MPH, Starlight, and Chrononauts. Wanted, Kick-Ass, Kick-Ass 2, and The Secret Service (as Kingsman: The Secret Service) have been adapted into feature films, and Nemesis, Superior, Starlight, War Heroes, Jupiter’s Legacy and Chrononauts are in development at major studios.

His DC Comics work includes the seminal Superman: Red Son, and at Marvel Comics he created The Ultimates – selected by Time magazine as the comic book of the decade, Wolverine: Old Man Logan, and Civil War – the industry’s biggest-selling superhero series in almost two decades.

Mark has been an Executive Producer on all his movie adaptations and is currently creative consultant to Fox Studios on their Marvel slate of movies.

Reviews

[Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one has several stories packed in it.
Starting with Reed sneaking around to continue his work to find other universes.
Luckily for him, an older version of himself is there to help him along on his journey.
Unluckily for him, he's actually being catfished by a flesh-eating Reed Richards from the Marvel Zombie universe. So, when Ultimate Reed gets boots on the ground in this new corner of the multiverse, he quickly learns that he's the answer to the what's for dinner question.



Holy shit! Kill em, Reed!
Or.
You can put them in a containment room and wait till they figure out how to get out and eat your girlfriend and her family. And, eventually, the rest of the world.



Next, Johnny & Sue's supposedly long-dead mother returns to wreak havoc on the Storm family. Does she want to be part of her children's lives or does she want to use the power of the Fantastic Four to help her in her quest to harvest technology from Atlantis?
Also, Namor pops up from the bottom of the ocean and in a classic MeToo move gets handsy with Sue. What immediately followed was a force field to the face for the aquatic asshole.



Apparently, Namor isn't exactly what he seems.
Which is pretty much par for the course in the Ultimate universe and what I love most about reading these books.



And I know a lot of people hate this art. Porn face-tracing aside, after having to look at a lot of misshapen & stupid shit over the years, Greg Land's stuff doesn't look so bad to me.

The story was very cool and I felt like this volume pumped some life into the ultimate FF.

[Bookwraiths · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvel zombies. Namor. Great art from Land and solid stories from Millar. Best Ultimate Fantastic Four yet.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first half of this book is a crossover with Marvel Zombies. If you like MZ, you'll probably like this. The second half of the book deals with the return of Sue and Johnny's long-thought-dead mother and the discovery of Atlantis, which inevitably leads to the introduction of Ultimate Namor. It was OK. I'd give both stories a 3 star rating.

Shame about the artwork. Once again, Marvel lets Greg Land do his lightboxing thing all over one of their books. This guy's got to run out of Playboys and wrestling magazines to trace at some point, surely? Sheesh... Artwork: 2 stars.

Overall rating: 2.5 stars, rounded up because I'm feeling generous.

[Subham · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was quite a fun read!

We have Reed meet his counterpart and for a second there I thought does it connect to the council of Reeds and all and is it 616 version but turns out its Marvel Zombies universe and their first appearance here and what happens when Reed goes there and has to fight off these zombiie heroes and then meeting Magneto there and what happens when Zombie F4 comes into the 1610 universe and the whole drama starts there and its fascinating and I love it the whole fight and everything and how they subdue the threats, its really well done and makes for an awesome read!

And finally a fun story where Sue's mother comes in and talks about Atlantis and all and there they meet Namor but I love the way Millar introduces him with a twist and a fight and a brawl and a love and also some old flames are lit up here, it has familiarities with 616 but different and then Namor vs F4, familiar adventures and what not happen too!

Its really well done here and I love the fight with Marvel Zombies and then Namor and highlighting Reed and Sue and what makes them different and yet similar and perfect for each other. Land's art is questionable here but then again he is that way only I guess so its fair anyways so yeah a good read. Next Story arc is gonna be great!

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Probably my least favorite volume of Ultimate FF so far. Time travel is wasted on what ends up being barely more than an aside, nobody needed the Marvel Zombies to crossover with the Ultimate universe (or 616, for that matter), the notion that the military who run the Baxter Building would just capture the zombies instead of incinerating them is laughable, and I always hate Greg Land's oversexed, copy and paste art.

[Gavin · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid 3.5 Star book that introduced a bunch of new possibilities, but docked back to 3 because it just abandoned a lot of what I loved about the series under Ellis' watch.

Mark Millar is back in control here, and that's a good thing, because Mike Carey was by far the weakest link in the chain (well, when you have Bendis, Millar, Ellis, Carey; one of these things is NOT like the other...).

I found the last volume quite a disappointment, but this one is an improvement, though I still find that Warren Ellis' run was the peak of things for me so far.
Art Duties fall to Greg Land, and while he does some good work, I believe I enjoyed the Kubert brothers stuff the best so far...for this series at least.

So the FF is back in time chasing Chrono-Bandits...yup, looks like they did have a precedent before Mark Waid threw them into Indestructible HULK's way during his run. (I KNEW I'd seen them before today!) Not the same people but the same idea. They threatened to kill the first creature that crawled out of the oceans as a precursor to Humanity....Millar wisely had Reed explain that would probably mean none of them ever exist, so we didn't completely need to savage it.

We see here that the FF now has a name, they're out and about, and working alongside the Ultimates (who don't seem to give a shit about them, ahh I miss grumpy dick Cap!)
We pick up the story after that with Reed talking to the hologram Reed that contacted him at the end of last Volume's Think Tank storyline...well Reed has a portal he's constructed here, with the help of Holo-Reed, who even lets him meet Franklin (as a hologram).

There's some problems for me by this point though...they've oversexed Sue at this point (no doubt a Mark Millar action) and Reed is slowly reverting to his driven scientist who ignores everyone persona from the regular Marvel U...
So Reed uses his machine to go thru dimensions to the other world...and finds out that he was duped...by ZOMBIE REED! and the ZOMBIE FF! On this world, the Heroes are all zombies who feast on human flesh...luckily, one "hero" still lives, who saves Reed, and then manages to explain what happened...Reed is more like our Ultimate version we love, and the rest of the story proceeds in a way that makes a lot more sense to me, just as a parallel universe activity, with a cool ending.

(Here's a hint; Jeff will NOT like what goes down between Ben and a certain someone Green).

By this time we've done nearly half the book...and jump right into the next story...the return of Mary Storm! Mother of Sue and Johnny! (who was long thought dead but was only just working on a very important research project.)

We get some stuff about her being a bit of a bitch, careerist (she's kind of a female Reed Richards from Marvel 616 but sexy, in a hot librarian way) terrible mother. I don't love the art here, as they've totally changed everyone's appearance, and not for the better.

So turns out, that Momma Storm was busy discovering Atlantis! (Ultimate U doesn't have it) and she needs the FF help to go deep in the ocean and check shit out...Sue sees right through her and I loved that Sue's not a moron, and calls her on her using them, and agrees only to be done with the woman ASAP.

Well it's Atlantis, and we can't have that without everyone's favourite Mer-Mutant-Mariner! In this version, he's still a gigantic dickhead, and still has a boner for Sue (good taste for sure, Ultimate Sue is hot hot hot!). Fighting ensues...not a surprise...But we see that Reed has built another machine (shocking how just a few issues ago he was all about the rules and teamwork, and now he's built a dimensional portal, communicated with parallel Reed, and made a gigantic robot combining all the FF powers! (called Fantastic-05 of course, because apparently Millar didn't get the memo that Ultimate FF mock the shit out of stupid names for things, and we the readers LOVE them for it!).

So Namor is subdued, but turns out, not for long, and long story short, he agrees to leave things in one piece if he gets a piece...of Sue! Dude, I kinda like your borderline rape-y creep blackmail style (this is Mark Millar, so don't be at all surprised kiddies, at least this isn't as sick as that) This just happens to be for a kiss, not a Lono special with Cheese.

So all's well again...except we've totally abandoned most of the characteristics of the personalities, they don't look the same, they are becoming more Ultimates(y) ie. dickish...reverting to stupid things, and we don't get the same science or explanations, and the relationships are put to the backburner by Millar, who is more in his Michael Bay form here than I'd like...however, he does do that stuff well, and the Zombies & Namor stuff is fun, so it's not a total mess.

All in all, I'm worried that the series peaked with Ellis' ending, I just hope they can level things off and not regress much more...if they turn to in-fighting and acting like assholes, I'll just stop reading...plus, we need more DOOM!

[Shadowdenizen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Surprisingly, one of the best volumes to date of this saga.

[Jedhua · Rating 2 out of 5]

Other Useful Reviews: Sesana's review

Book Info: This collection contains Ultimate Fantastic Four issues #21-26.


OVERALL RATING:

ABSOLUTE RATING: {2/5 stars}

STANDARDIZED RATING: <2/5 stars>

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Review for Crossover:

ABSOLUTE RATING: {2+/5 stars}

STANDARDIZED RATING: <2/5 stars>



The Fantastic Four has recently gone public. So whenever Reed isn't in the lab working on government-funded research projects, he and his team are out saving the world alongside big-shot superheroes like The Ultimates. Reed's current project at the Baxter Building involves building a teleporter capable of transporting matter between his universe and an alternate reality called the "N-Zone." Using a hologram-based form of inter-dimensional communication, Reed's extensive collaboration with an alternate version of himself has allowed him to complete the teleporter and cross over into the N-Zone. Expecting to meet his counterpart and the alternate Fantastic Four, Reed is horrified by what he discovers: it seems he had been cleverly manipulated into building a machine that might act as a bridge allowing a world of superhuman zombies to spread their infection in Reed's own dimension!

Just coming back from reading volume one, it's shocking to see how weak Millar's writing remains after his two-and-a-half volume break. I'd like to think this was because he was too busy or didn't bother to plan out his return, but he's not the greatest writer in the world, so maybe it shouldn't be too hard to consider this a serious attempt. First and foremost, the characterization is almost entirely nonexistent here, with Ben and Johnny being the worst two; Reed and Sue meagerly play their roles as obsessed scientist and neglected love interest, respectively, while Johnny just flies around looking like a dumb jock. Typically there primarily (if not solely) to provide comic relief, Ben Grimm just has the chance to make 3-4 jokes, and only one of them turned out to be any good. It wasn't that his jokes were too corny or anything, and they definitely weren't too high-brow, but it was more like they were painfully unfunny.

As antagonists, the zombies are extraordinarily uninteresting. While they're not quite as stupid as your usual zombie, they're still not very smart, and are easily outmaneuvered. Their power lies in their sheer numbers, and beyond that, they're merely talking zombies dressed in superhero costumes. And since the story is so bloodless, humorless, and without suspense, it's just as forgettable as 90% of the zombie stories out there. Even as a work of shameless fan service, Crossover barely manages to hold up.


[This battle is resolved within two more panels. Hard to imagine how this could have been satisfying to even the most wide-eyed of comic book fanboys.]

Apparently, this volume of Ultimate Fantastic Four serves as the birthplace of the Marvel Zombies title. When I first sat down to read an issue of that series, it was too gruesome and dispiriting to complete. But when I finally felt I was ready to handle it, I realized that it was written by Robert Kirkman – a writer who, despite his immense popularity, I really dislike. I can't believe I'm saying this, but even though it's probably worse than The Walking Dead (which was pretty weak), combined with the fact that he's an inferior writer compared to Millar, I still believe I would have enjoyed Marvel Zombies more than I enjoyed this. The only reason I didn't give it 1.5 stars was because it was a little too short to be *that* painful a read.


Review for Tomb of Namor:

ABSOLUTE RATING: {1.5+/5 stars}

STANDARDIZED RATING: <1/5 stars>



After 15 years of faking her death, Mary Storm (i.e. Susan and Johnny's mother) suddenly re-enters the the lives of her children. She explains that, for almost two decades, Mary has been working on a top-secret project to locate the lost city of Atlantis. The location was discovered by her team only six months prior, but due to the extreme depths of the undersea find, conventional divers and equipment are not cut-out for exploration. The FF agree to assist, and during their expedition, they unwittingly awake King Namor from his nine-thousand-year slumber. Evidently, he's not looking too happy about being disturbed!

I've thought about it, and there's no nice way to say what I'm about to say, so I'll just come out and say it: this story arc was horrendous. The primary (but not only) problem had to do with the relationship between Mary Storm and the rest of her family. I'll have to leave a more detailed criticism for the postscript, but I'll just say that this dynamic was terribly rushed and completely unconvincing. Even aside from this, there was also a more general attempt to emphasize interpersonal drama, but since the writing here was just as bad as it was for the previous arc, this half of the book was significantly more painful to get through. And to top it all off, all the previous setup leads to a big, dumb, and messy fight at the end of the book, as well as a cliffhanger that is much too obscure to be effective.

------------------------------------------------

As a whole this volume was far too compressed, and none of the conflicts were given the chance to cultivate my interest. Plus – and as most readers would attest – Greg Land's inexpressive, dull, and repetitive artwork only added to its failings. And in the case of both arcs, Millar's feeble feigns at science fiction really stand at odds with what the Fantastic Four franchise represents. I'm actually too ashamed to disclose the rating I gave this book following my first reading of it years ago, but it does serve as a glaring indication of just how far I've come since then.

Postscript:


As horrible as it sounds, Mary Storm abandoned her family for years and faked her death just so she could pursue fame, fortune, and discovery. Now, after 15 years without a call or a letter, she's back, and everyone seems to be okay with that. Take a look:


[Always walking around with that stupid smile on his face, Johnny seems to be cool with anything, so there's no surprise here.]


[With Susan, things don't seem to be so bad, do they? That hug looks like the first step on the inevitable road to reconciliation.]

While it's true the most obvious perpetrators are Sue and Johnny, Franklin seems to be surprisingly fine with this development as well. Even if he had forgiven her for the hurt she caused *him* at some point off-screen, I don't really see how he could act as if his wife's absence was legitimate enough to excuse the emotional pain she has caused the two children. But whatever... The point is that although things seem to be going great, Sue suddenly throws a tantrum just one page after the hug. See below:



As far as I can tell, there was no reasonable trigger for this response. Then, later on when her mother finds Susan crying in her bedroom, she admits to her directly that her Atlantis project "means more to [her] than [Susan], [her] brother, and [her] father combined." It's a cold statement, but it does little to make Mary interesting, and I wasn't convinced that her contempt would have a lasting effect on Susan anyway; she's gotten along just fine without her for 15 years, and she has enough emotional support from her friends and father to get her through it. But next, for some strange reason, Millar perpetuates this tiresome farce by revealing that Mary did care after all, and was even jealous of her husband's relationship with the kids. And in the end, Susan makes up with her mother for no reason at all. I'm sorry, but I just don't understand any of it.

------------------------------------------------

Next up we have the romantic melodrama surrounding Reed and Susan. For some reason, Reed has been neglectful of Susan beginning in the first volume. If there's some explanation for his behavior other than his obsession with work, it's not even hinted at, and I'm left to conclude that Millar was just being lazy again. Anyways, this neglect forces Susan to begin flirting with Namor. Look below for Reed's response to this:




[What the fuck? Does Millar honestly think I'm not capable of understanding the roots of Reed's jealousy on my own? This admission sounds so damn clumsy for somebody to say out loud.]

As you can see, there are hints of a mutual attraction between Namor and Susan. And even after he savagely beats on her after she rejects him, she still seems to fancy him. Up until now, there has been no incarnation of Sue Storm I'm aware of where the phrase "dumb blonde" would be an appropriate description of her character.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

Score: 3.75 out of 5
Grade: 75% (B) | Great

I'm always a sucker for Marvel Zombies! It's nice to see the Ultimate Universe expand in new and exciting ways, especially with the introduction of Namor. It was a bit odd that all he wanted was a kiss from Sue, then he'd lay off taking over the world... just a lazy conclusion for a super overpowered character (but it was still entertaining watching him get the snot beat out of him).

[Eli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ehhhhhh... It was pretty good, but not amazing. I wasn't crazy about the art. Or the plot. Or the dialogue. Or even the characters. However, it was still pretty good.

But it did have the zombie Avengers from a parallel universe. And Namor: Lord of Douches. Oh, Namor.

[Robert · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series has taken a pronounced turn toward the Goofy.

Can’t entirely blame Reed for Sarah Palin Fetishizing his Mother-in-Law, though- certainly fits as she is an indisputably awful See-You-Next-Tuesday.

[Craig · Rating 2 out of 5]

Way back in the day, Marvel invested (wasted?) considerable effort in trying to explain their "Ultimate" line in a way that would make sense with the continuity of their existing titles. It was ultimately (see what I did there?) unsuccessful, but if you just read the books with the idea that it's all happening in an alternate universe/timeline it's all good. In this iteration, the FF work for the Baxter group after having acquired their famous super powers via a ill-fated teleport expedition to the N-Zone. This particular book is notable for introducing the Marvel Zombies, and the U-version of Namor. I liked Land & crew's art, though many people did not. It's like a whole volume of covers. The art is very definitely either love it or hate it; it's very slick and colorful and the characters are very much idealized beautiful icons. Susan, in particular, looks like she should be in a 1980s Playboy video rather than a super hero magazine. The writing is not bad in and of itself, but some of the second story is just downright dumb. For example, years back Dr. Mary Storm was offered a new job, which she saw as a good opportunity and she decided to accept. Did she tell her two kids that she was going to be gone for a while at work? Nope, she arranged with her husband to stage a car crash, had him tell Sue and Johnny she'd died in a car crash, and had him pack them off to her funeral. A few years later she needs some help with a project so she pops back and says, "Guess what? Just kidding!" and they accept her and agree to help her out. What?!? I don't care if they are superheroes, people don't do that. Namor, in this universe, has been in suspended animation for a zillion years, but he's still a jerk so the FF have to fight him. Reed has a helmet that reads his mind and takes whatever he's thinking about and produces a three-dimensional construct of it, so he uses it to face Namor. And what is Reed thinking about? Naturally, the "dirty little snot" is thinking about a giant version of his girlfriend's mother towering over the street wearing skimpy lingerie. Oh, dear... The Zombie story is pretty good, but the Namor story is just not. The book has some good bits, and the art is really lovely, but it wouldn't play on Yancy Street.

[Graham Barrett · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Read in 2007, review from 2024)

Read this one in middle school while in my Fantastic 4 period. 3.5 but I'm rounding up to a 4 because of the first half. Even if Marvel Zombies was kind of driven into the ground due to overexposure (like all zombie content in the late 2000s) it was still a fun twist that the promised crossover with the main Marvel universe turned into a horror movie where they found the Marvel Zombies universe instead. There were some fun story beats I appreciated, like Magneto being unequivocally a good guy in the zombie apocalypse.

I remember not giving a crap about the Namor story in the back half of this volume.

[Shane Stanis · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Ultimate Year #12

Story: 3 stars for the zombies, 1 star (generously) for Namor
Art: painting-slide-show isn’t my favorite style, and the thirsty depictions of women are awful 1 star

Read for zombies (yay!), Namor (should have been yay), sexy teenage Sue Storm (boo!), MILF Dr. Storm (barf)

[Dan Burkard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Zombies!!! And there is also Magneto fighting for the last of the human race. Oh and an odd version of Namor is in it too.

[Keegan Schueler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Marvel zombies and Namor are both great stories thrown into the Ultimate universe.

[Luke Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Namor punching Sue for rejecting him and then extorting her for one single kiss is crazy but pop off I guess

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Collects Ultimate Fantastic Four issues #21-26

I really enjoyed this volume in which Mark Millar makes his return to writing the series.

The collection is split into two distinct parts.

The first part features the Ultimate Reed Richards creating a bridge between parallel universes. Unfortunately, the bridge leads to a universe in which Earth has been ravaged by a zombie plague. This storyline is the first appearance of the "Marvel Zombies" universe in Marvel Comics.

The second part of the book is about the Ultimate Fantastic Four's first encounter with the Ultimate Namor.

Great artwork. Fun writing. This one is a winner.

SPOILERS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE ULTIMATE UNIVERSE:

It may be that hindsight is 20/20, but I felt like seeds were planted in this book that hinted that Ultimate Reed Richards is going to grow to become a villain rather than a hero.

[Marloges · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm REALLY surprised this volume is rated this high... The art made me want to gouge my eyes out, I did not want to look at these faces... And story-wise we got a zombie spin-off that had an interesting idea but simply ended rushed and boring. The other arc had Namor, who had the potential to be an interesting character and powerful villian but that part also ended abruptly and in the dumbest way possible. On top of that we have Reed who regularly invents the most insane devices that make every other character useless... Just going ahead and developing a robot who has the powers of all four fantastics combined? Seriously? And that one's not even the most ridiculous one.

Man, I don't know. I might even skip the next volume since I don't want to see more porn faces and suffer through Mark Millar's bullshit anymore.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

Basic Plot: Namor & world-hopping & more Inhumans.

I bought/read these books as they came out, so it's been a hot minute since I read them. The art and storytelling were both very solid, even if I find the Inhumans to be confusing and there were a LOT of outside-Ultimate-Universe references here. Luckily I had read Marvel Zombies, so I got that bit. I also knew the X-Men/Ultimate X-Men, too, so this volume could have been a lot more overwhelming.

[Adam Stone · Rating 1 out of 5]

The origin of the Marvel Zombies is a moderately disappointing story, and to couple it with Greg Land's porn tracing disguised as artwork is just an insult to anyone who wanted to read the story. This volume also includes Namor's origin which ties into the reveal that Sue and Johnny Storm's mom is actually alive and really, really, really stupid.

[Garrett Ballendine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Goodbye sense of continuity and sense!

Also beware Greg Land for he is at his worst here.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

When this Millar run came out I read it gleefully, loving how Millar’s bag of edgelord tricks took the decency of the FF and tried so desperately to up antes when throwing zombies and an overpowered Namor at the screen.

And shock value has some play when written to the expectations of old-time readers who had certain expectations of these characters locked in their “always take the high road” straitjackets.

But it fades pretty quickly, leaving you feel empty and demanding the ideas build to an ever-higher crescendo. Which Millar fails to do. It’s like once the zombies have eaten someone, what’s left except “what if they retained their minds and were EVIL versions of themselves?”

Book six, the latter half of Millar’s brief stop in Sincerity Town, probably cribbing some plots from better comics and movies, at least gave us a minor worry that we didn’t know how Reed would get out of this mess - but instead of Reed outsmarting Doom, we inexplicably endure Doom fucking up and giving up?!? Yeah, that’s the million dollar arm and the ten-cent brain at work. This is the brains behind Netflix’ Millarworld eh? They deserve each other.

Not to mention pairing these stories with Greg Land’s devotion to collage (I’m sorry, I mean “layouts inspired by his favourite dozen poses and clipart“) and tracing (apologies, “facial expressions pulled from only the finest spank bank that Greg’s mom didn’t delete off his hard drive”). Talk about the inartful leading the terrible.

Turn of the Century comics, glad we’ve grown beyond you.

[OMNIBUS GOD · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one I struggled with. This volume holds issues 21-26. Issues 21-23, AMAZING! We get introduced into the marvel zombies world for the first time and it’s just awesome! Mark Millar does a great job of making the story chilling and had you at the edge of your seat. I only wish it could’ve been a longer arc. (I guess that’s what the marvel zombies mini series is for.) with Greg Lands artwork this story was just amazing. After that issues 24-26 are the introduction to Ultimate Namor who has a very huge twist to him. The story was good but I did have some gripes with it. So story starts with Sue and Johnny’s mom coming back after being in hiding looking for Atlantis. She comes back because she found it and needs the FFs help. She basically tells them she knows she’s a shitty mother for leaving and let’s them know she ONLY came back because she needed their help. Sue is mad at her from jump but then agrees to help her because she gave birth to them ? Na man. If my mother disappeared and then came back only because she needed something from me. Clearly there’s no love ! It just seemed like a way for Mark Millar to get the Four involved and it felt too easy and quick. The writing in general just felt a little too silly on my opinion and not the type of Mark Millar writing I like. It was a pretty solid read all around but the first half was for sure the best.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 5 out of 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].

[Benjamin Kimble · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is bad, very bad. Mark Millar seems to lack a fundamental understanding of the Fantastic Four and their supporting characters. The dialogue in this is very poorly written and people say many things out of character. The zombie storyline was boring and not well executed, I read it and it just kinda happened. The Namor storyline was abysmal, some of the worst comics I’ve read. Namor is taken to the extreme here. His only personality trait is being a creep, he has no honor, no sense of duty or purpose, he’s completely flat and one dimensional. Sue acts out of character just so she can throw herself at Namor (which has been taken out of context many times online and is a poor representation of these characters) and has terrible dialogue with him. Greg Lands art doesn’t do any favors either. It felt like every other page I was flipping to I could see his obvious porn traces. I don’t know how either of these two men still have work today, but this book is hot garbage.

[Colin Rapp-Ellis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first arc introducing Marvel Zombies is really good. Millar at his best. It’s dark and gritty, but not trying to be subversive, and I think that’s why it works. It’s Millar without the pretension. I honestly wish it had been a longer arc, though the storyline looks to come back into play next volume based on the cover.

The next arc, introducing Atlantis and Namor, isn't as good as the zombies arc, but is still better than most of Millar’s other contributions. I found it really entertaining. My one gripe is Namor smacking the shit out of Susan and how that’s handled with her kissing him passionately a few pages later. It’s icky in a very Mark Millar way. I enjoy the tension that is seen between Susan and Namor in most FF titles but this approach wasn’t it.

[JP · Rating 4 out of 5]

Full review / all my reviews available on my blog

After the mess of the last volume, it’s time to… turn up the wacky even more?

Time travel, parallel universes, super zombies, and Atlantis.

That is so much to fit into a single volume. No idea what will stick, but any one of those could carry a dozen volumes if not a series of their own… and they just keep doing it. Issue after issue.

Slow down!

Oy.

The zombie plague was pretty neat, not going to lie. I wonder if we’ll see more of that.

Onward!

[Rocío · Rating 3 out of 5]

Estuvo bien, no es el mejor volumen pero tampoco el peor.

La primera parte es una introducción a Marvel Zombies, en la que Reed contacta con una versión suya de otro universo (que al principio pensé que era la del 616) que lo engaña para básicamente comérselo.

Nunca leí nada de MZ, lo más cercano a eso fue el capítulo de What If, así que estuvo entretenido.

En la segunda parte aparece la madre de los Storm, que los abandonó por años para buscar Atlantis, y ahora apareció porque necesita su ayuda. Esto obviamente nos dirige hacia Namor.

Fue interesante pero hay cosas con el arte y diálogos que me molestaron un poco.

[J M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Y'know, I didn't love this. Didn't love the last one either. Not quite sure why. Also isn't helped by the fact that there's some 'crossover' with Volume 4 (both include issues #21-23), so that was tad disappointing. Also not 100% keen on what seems like a shift in Sue's character here. Anyhoo, it's all good fun, right? Also, the appearance of Mrs. Storm is as intriguing as Namor. So yeah, let's see where this goes.