Because publishers want you to buy their product every month, comics are typically serial in nature. However, occasionally (and more often nowadays than ever before) publishers launch a comic title that is only meant to last for one issue. While ongoing series often have multiple chances to hook in new readers, the comics highlighted in this ongoing investigations only had One-Shot At Greatness!
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Cover Date: March 2002
Cover Price: $2.25
Writer: Adam Warren
Artist: Keron Grant
The Baxter Building’s Metatalent team (including Assistant Director Agatha Harkness, Technician Alicia Masters and Acting Director Reed Richards) has detected an invading alien lifeform. They’ve codenamed it Annihilus and dispatched their field unit against it. Using their Metatalent Augmentation Suits, they attack the alien individually. Jonatha Storm destroys the alien first using her superheated gases and plasmas but Annihilus is somehow instantly reconstituted and defeats her. The same goes for Sioux Storm and her invisible force fields and then for Benjamin (pronounced Ben-Ya-Meen) Grimm and his armature made up of rocky materials. Finally, Reed uses his intelligence to figure out a way to finally destroy the alien lifeform.
As a Fantastic Four story, this book is just terrible. There’s no family interconnection to be had. The characters are totally unrelatable: Jonatha is impulsive. Sioux’s an introvert. Benjamin lacks the confidence he’s known for and Reed is a jerk. As for the villain, the once-great Annihilus is reduced to a mute, motivation-less invading alien. The manga-inspired art is pretty nice but even then, the color palette is just too dark for a Fantastic Four book. The only thing I really enjoyed was the character interviews that gave each FF member a chance to analyze the other. That part was fun but, if you’re an FF fan, I’d stay far away from this one. Adam Warren fans, on the other hand, might dig it!
On Ebay: Mangaverse | Adam Warren
On AtomicAvenue: Mangaverse