FANTASTIC FOUR #12 is a good old-fashioned breather issue with Mr. & Mrs. Ben Grimm finally getting to take their honeymoon.
***SPOILERS LIE AHEAD***
After preventing Dr. Doom from wielding the power of Galactus and their roles in War Of The Realms, the Fantastic Four get some time to themselves. More importantly, Ben and Alicia get to take their belated honeymoon.
Reed fixes Ben with a device that will revert him to his human form once a countdown concludes. It doesn’t take long for the honeymoon to be cut short as the Hulk shows up for a beach brawl under the control of The Puppet Master, Alicia’s father.
Writer Dan Slott pens himself a short and sweet script that’s full of delightful little moments. He shows off his very-fitting voice for The Thing in this issue. In addition to the usual banter with Johnny, Slott also treats us to a hilarious couple of exchanges between Ben and the hotel bellboy.
The Thing tipping people with a signed autograph of himself is absolutely hysterical.
There’s a really sweet moment between the newly weds on the beach concerning how Ben’s wedding ring is going to fit once he transforms back to his tiny, human form. These two are one of the best pairings in all of Marvel history, it’s satisfying to see them get legitimately touching moments handled with such care.
Artist Sean Izaakse and colorist Marcio Menyz deliver a very warm issue. The use of light on this beach landscape make for a wonderful contrast once the sun goes down and the attack commences. We’re in the era of Immortal Hulk, it’s only appropriate that he arrives at night.
We’ve seen Hulk and The Thing fight each other countless times, but Izaakse and Menyz keep it fresh. The action sequences hit the notes that they need to. Izaakse even does a pretty good job with specifying that this is Immortal Hulk that we’re dealing with.
By issue’s end, we see Mr. Grimm has less than a minute before he turns back into a useless sack of flesh. It’s a layered comic book scenario that doesn’t require any extra thought, it’s just a classic tight spot for a pro like Grimm to be in.
Fantastic Four #12 is a breather issue done right. It’s highly entertaining, loaded with plenty of heart. There’s no treading of water, it doesn’t feel like a waste of time issue that readers would be better off skipping.
