FANTASTIC FOUR #496-500 - "UNTHINKABLE"

This is the first time I tried an issue of Marvels first family. With a story that promises to tell the Unthinkable though, how can you not pick it up. The whole premise is to leave Reed Richards a changed man, and DOOM - the FF's greatest adversary - completely redefined for the 21st century! Can this be achieved though or is it just hot air?

From the outset of this arc I was intrigued with what would be the Unthinkable outcome of this story. Waid has done a great job of giving you the feeling of a close knit family unit with Reed, Sue, Ben, Johnny and the kids. The whole thing was set off really well with the Doom prologue and the way it ended was a good basis for things to come. There were plenty of gems in the arc, but my favourite had to be Valerie's first word :) One of the big things that came across was the fact that Reed had to be able to believe he was the smartest guy in a room. A problem was though; the whole way Reed saw this flaw in his character. It just seemed a little fast and rushed and would have worked better over a couple of issues. And the other slight flaw I thought was the whole ending. This was supposed to be the big payoff, but no one really brought it to the forefront to create the big bang impact.

Wieringo's pencils were pretty good all the way through this story. He made Reeds stretchiness and Johnnie's flame-on effects really come alive. He also created a fun backdrop for all of the goings on in the story. His covers for the prologue, issue 497 and both covers (normal and directors cut) for 500 were great, but the other two (498, 499) seemed a little sluggish. Other things that seemed a little off was the fact that Reed, Johnny and Sue all looked the same age most of the time. This seemed very odd. The Haazareth looked very messy rather than scary and Dooms new armour looked rather cumbersome. Even though, the idea of the magic glyphs on it was a nice touch. The biggest let down though was similar to Waids down playing of the ending. As when we finally see the Unthinkable act, it isn't as horrifying as we'd expect it to be.
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