Writers: Stan Lee, Jack Kirby & Vince Colletta.
Artists: Aco, Cafu, Neal Adams, Michael & Laura Allred, Mark Bagley, Alessandro Cappuccio, Stefano Caselli, John Cassaday, Elsa Charretier, Marco Checchetto, Olivier Coipel, Erica D’Urso, Mattia de Iulis, Terry Dodson, Steve Epting, Jorge Forns, Ron Frenz, Sanford Greene, Ray-Anthony Height, Bryan Hitch, Adam Hughes, Kim Jacinto, Daniel Warren Johnson, Leonard Kirk, Nic Klein, Aaron Kuder, Greg Land, David Lapham, Pepe Larraz, Salvador Larroca, Paco Medina, Simone Di Meo, Albert Monteys, Mike Del Mundo, Kate Niemczyk, Leonardo Ortolani, Carlos Pacheco, Tom Reilly, Rod Reis, Javier Rodriguez, John Romita Jr., Walt Simonson, Chris Sprouse, Luciano Vecchio, Federico Vicentini, Lucas Werneck, Leinil Francis Yu, Kei Zama, Patch Zircher.
Cover Artist: Steve McNiven, Dexter Vines & Frank D’Armata.
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Reviewer: StoryBabbler
The Fantastic Four, the first family. They’re one of the first superheroes in Marvel Comics, a pillar of the entire Marvel Universe that led to the existence and exploration of many great and wonderful characters and stories. Now many artists collaborate together to bring some of the original seminal tales of the family superhero team from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby to life in Fantastic Four Anniversary Tribute #1.
Review:
Normally, comic book anniversaries and tributes from Marvel and DC comics don’t really excite me, but this one caught me by surprise. The framework of this comic has many artists collaborating together to redraw two of the Fantastic Four’s most important and entertaining stories in Marvel Comics history. The stories featured in the comic are the very first issue of the FF and the issue where Reed Richards and Susan Storm get married.
Past comic books like this one often had the words as well as the art radically changed for modern audiences, but this comic is different. They actually kept the dialogue and plot virtually the same as the original comics. So it reads almost word for word like the original comic but with new art, almost like a video game remaster but with comic books.
With all of these artists working together, it would seem like there’s no visual connection between them. But the comic does the opposite and has the artists be similar enough in style yet have each individual page distinguished from each other. It helps that the book has artists whose styles largely compliment the original story and each other. There will definitely be some pages that look more striking and dynamic than others, while some look a little more cartoonish and vibrant to match the original comic stories.
Of course, there’s the matter of who the audience for this anniversary tribute could be. My theory is that it’s just as much for longtime fans and new fans to see the classic comic book stories reinvigorated with new art styles, with some of the best drawing the more iconic moments. This feels like a good comic for new comers to give a try and for older fans to see two of the best Fantastic Four stories redrawn by modern artists.
Final Thoughts:
Fantastic Four Anniversary Tribute #1 delivers a solid comic remake of some of the Fantastic Four’s seminal stories. It provides a comic where readers can enjoy the original stories by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby with modern artists redrawing the stories in new and striking ways. It’s a comic book that both new and longtime fans of the Fantastic Four can appreciate.