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Rating: 
Summary: Great story, poor art
Review: Because of his intelligent scripts and his sympathetic rendition of the main characters, I'm sure that Mark Waid's run on the Fantastic Four will be remembered as one of the title's high points. In Authoritative action, we see comicdom's first family deal with a political crisis that they unwittingly caused. Waid's tale echoes today's headlines, but despite the grim overtones of the story he manages to make the reader smile. I particularly liked Reed Richard's comment about their (recently dead) arch-Nemesis, Dr. Doom: "We delude ourselves? He'll be back. He always comes back". It shows that good Dr. Richards knows his comics. I can't give the book five stars (which the writing would amply deserve) because of the dismally amateurish artwork. Despite his obvious enthusiasm, I found that the penciller's shortcomings in basic drawing skills (anatomy, perspective, placement of images) was very distracting. I do recommend the book, though, solely for the script.
Rating: 
Summary: Another winning Fantastastic Four epic by Mark Waid
Review: I'm a great fan of Mark Waid's current run on the Fantastic Four. Having said that, I was a bit disappointed to find that the great artist 'Ringo wasn't around for this trade. This coupled with the fact that the cover wasn't very attractive made me wait awhile to pick up this trade (petty I know). It was well worth the wait. This is a great story that details the power vacuum created by Doom's disappearance from his country of Latveria and the Four's response to it. Reed Richards is on a mission, and isn't acting himself. Its political and epic in scope, but has all of Waid's trademark "Fantastic Family" characterizations that readers have come to love. The ending is a killer, so don't skip ahead! It got me all choked up and made me anxious to read Volume 4 when it arrives. It has the feel of a blockbuster movie. I can easily see its as film 3 of a 4 film quadrilogy (Film one is primarily Sue's Story, Film two is Johnny's, Film 3 is Reed's and Film four is Ben's). This time next year the first film will be released. I'm crossing my fingers that its as good as this. The Fantastic Four are the founding fathers of modern comics. They deserve a film that does them justice. Let's hope they get it right. If not, we'll always have great comics.
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