Fantastic Four #601-611 (+605.1)
Originally released in 2011
Written by Jonathan Hickman
Art by Steve Epting (#601, 604), Barry Kitson (#602-603), Ron Garney (#605-606), Mike Choi (#605.1), Giuseppe Camuncoli (#607-608), Ryan Stegman (#609-611)
This is the end of Jonathan Hickman's run on the Fantastic Four... sort of. (several stories and plot points, as I found out, are covered in the FF series, which led to a bit of confusion when the series referenced recent events that I hadn't seen) I'll finish off FF another day, but it feels like I'm making significant progress towards Secret Wars.
Issues 601 to 604 cover the end of the War of the Four Cities, the plot involving the Mad Celestials that attacked the Council of Reeds, and even bringing the future versions of Franklin and Valeria back to the story. It feels like a grand finale, with call-backs to Hickman's first Fantastic Four issue... except it's not quite done yet.
The remaining issues wrap up plot points from other series, seem to build towards developments that Hickman wanted to include later (such as T'Challa becoming the Black Panther again - he is Bast's representative as the King of the Dead, while his sister Shuri is still the queen and is also the Black Panther), and in the case of issue 605.1, go into the backstory of the Council of Reeds. That issue reveals that one of the founding members of the Council of Reeds is a Nazi who accidentally destroyed his entire galaxy while using the Infinity Gauntlet. (I'm not sure if this was a decision made because people sympathized with the death of the Council of Reeds - it kind of comes out of nowhere, and the numbering of the issue makes it feel like it was shoe-horned in)
After issue 604, the series goes through a lot of different artists, as seen above. It happens at an even faster rate than usual for this series, so I'm not sure what was going on there. I didn't have any issues with the art from what I recall; it was easy to follow what was going on, and the faces and proportions were fine. (there are times where one or both of those have stuck out to me in a bad way, though that's not the case here)
Franklin takes on a greater level of importance towards the end, with his future self serving as a preview for the heights that he could reach. Even three thousand years in the future, he is one of two people from the 20th century who is still a member of the Fantastic Four. (With the other one being Ben Grimm)
Hickman brings back the theme of fathers and sons from the first few issues, though in this case, it's Reed and Franklin rather than Nathaniel and Reed. I'm curious about what will happen to the future versions of Franklin and Valeria, since a Franklin who's in full control of his powers and a Valeria who has intelligence surpassing Reed's and experience to support it seem like they'd be difficult to include without making everyone else feel redundant.
I feel like I'll need to finish FF to "properly" finish Hickman's run, as it seems like many stories either start out or conclude in that series. Still, the last six or seven issues of Hickman's run on Fantastic Four work well as epilogues, giving focus to supporting characters or allies of the team even if they haven't appeared in this run. (Such as T'Challa, the Black Panther or Willie Lumpkin, the Baxter Building's mailman)
Even the final issue (for real this time - the numbering stops after this one) places more of a focus on Doctor Doom, with the Richards family needing to step in and save him after he sets out to play God in another universe using the discarded Infinity Gauntlets from the Council of Reeds.
It's taken me a while to reach this point, and I still have quite a ways to go given that Hickman also wrote two intertwining Avengers series, but I'm enjoying the ride towards Secret Wars so far.
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