Fantastic Four #588

It's impressive when a comic book touches your heart.

Now, I must admit that the cynic in me knows that we have not seen the last of Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. But here we have the surviving members of the Fantastic Four dealing with their grief, each one in their own way - and it's a series of touching and heartfelt vignettes.

The story is told with minimal dialogue - and certainly, until the final chapter (a discussion between Franklin Richards and Spider-Man), none is needed.

This is supposedly the final issue of this title (yeah, I'm not buying that, either), and it looks like the team will be moving into interesting directions.

Jonathan Hickman has done amazing work on this title - managing to build on the rich history of the team while setting up new and exciting directions for future stories.

The art in this issue is by Nick Dragotta, whose work I'm not familiar with, and Paul Mounts on color. I like the art in this issue, although there are a few panels that seem bit distorted. But the storytelling is clear and he's quite good at depicting the emotion on the faces of the characters - and that's the real focus of this issue.

So from here it's a new direction and a new look, with lots of amazing challenges to be confronted.

The FF comic has always my all-time favorite, although it's gone through some rough patches over the years.

It's great to see it back at the level it once occupied: "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine."

It's about time.

Grade: A

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