Ultimate Fantastic Four: the Fantastic Review by Fleur, 16/05 Johnny: Seriously, though, anyone else, like, totally freaked out like I don't know what? Ben: As I said before, I believe that this is not actually happening, so I'm fine. -- Ultimate Fantastic Four: the Fantastic (Bendis/Millar/Kubert) is the first trade paperback in the Ultimate Fantastic Four line, collecting issues one through six. Unsurprisingly, it tells the origin story of the Fantastic Four, all rebooted and ultimised for your pleasure. Ahem. This time around - remember, the Ultimate Universe is meant to give a fresh new spin on the mainstream Marvel titles, accessible for new fans and old alike - there are no cosmic rays or shuttle missions with suspiciously young passengers along. This is definitely one of the major strengths of the trade, and of this plot arc. Instead of the trip to space, the trigger incident in 'The Fantastic' is a failed experiment to teleport objects by sending them through the N-Zone. This simpler beginning is nicely done - it's built up well and you just know it's going to go terribly wrong right from when a certain Victor van Damme starts accusing Reed Richards of incorrect calculations. Just as the experiment is about to kick into action, Reed and Sue share their first kiss - and from then, things go downhill, very fast. Of course, we all know that no matter what the trigger, the four kids are going to end up with the familiar four powers - and so they do. The core four, origins aside, are generally quite similar to their main Marvel Universe counterparts - albeit younger and fresher. It works very well - while, say, Ultimate X-Men reads as deliberately making the characters edgier, Ultimate Fantastic Four seems to just be restarting the well-loved characters for fresh readers, and this approach is arguably quite superior. Sue Storm in particular is great fun - her little impatient time-out when she first sees Ben Grimm's transformation, and her face when the Mole Man announces that he loves her are both quite classic. The strength in characterisation, however, is at the same time as the weakness of this story arc. Because there are so many similarities - there's little you can really change about the Fantastic Four, all things considered - the first arc holds few surprises, and the sense of dramatic anticipation is lost. We never worry that the four might not get their powers, and aside from Doom, there's little worry that new people might gain powers from the same incident. There's no Ultimate Spider-Man style misdirection of Mary-Jane almost catching a spider-bite. It's straightforward and relatively predictable. Bendis, Millar and Kubert counter this in other ways, of course, to impress their audience. There's small moments like the four being accused of being mutants - a nod to the wider universe that I've always wondered at not coming up more often. There's typical Bendis dialogue that some people may hate, but that I personally adore. Kubert's art is brilliant - though I must admit a bias, as Kubert is one of my favourite artists. The dialogue, even ignoring Bendis's penchant for the real-life style - is sharp (and amusing! See Sue's "Aiee! Shoot, I screamed like a girl!") and without time being wasted on misleads, the plot has time to develop at its own pace. Ultimate Fantastic Four is most certainly a title more people should be following - and therefore, the first trade should be in all collections - especially because they've helpfully left out the cover pages, and the story flows continuously! 'The Fantastic' is one trade everyone should be picking up this year - if only for the frantic Johnny Storm learning to use his powers, and shouting "flames off! Flames off!!". 'Nuff said.