FF #9 Mini-Review

FF #9 (Marvel Comics)
By Jonathan Hickman, Steve Epting, Daniel Acuna

Black Bolt is leading the Inhumans against the High Evolutionary’s Ascension Engine, and the FF is attempting to avert a war that could destroy the entire universe. But – who’da thunk it – the assembly of villains they’ve recruited to help betrays them, turning against Doctor Doom, while Reed, Nathanial and Spider-Man journey to Attilan to try to stop Black Bolt. Once again, Jonathan Hickman is bringing it with this book – the characters feel like people forced into a bad situation, forced to work with people they find particularly distasteful, all without compromising who they essentially are. It’s nice to see Reed and the Inhumans interacting as well, and the last-page cliffhanger is pretty dazzling. I’m missing Sue and Ben in this story arc, but the story is proceeding just fine without them. Steve Epting‘s art once again works very well with the story, particularly the alternate universe Reeds. Even though they’ve all got the same face, Epting uses more than just the costuming to differentiate between them. They wear different expressions and different emotions – they look like different men. Great book.