Fantastic Four / Iron Man: Big in Japan

Written by Zeb Wells
Art by Seth Fisher

When I buy super-hero books, I usually prefer them to be more serious than this, and in-continuity. I completely dismissed this book when it came out, but have since come to appreciate the art of the late Seth Fisher, and decided that it was worth giving this title a shot.

The story is silly - the Fantastic Four are invited to the grand opening of a monster museum in Japan (Tony Stark just shows up), and then, of course, all the monsters go nuts, and a bunch more show up and attack the city. The heroes all jump in, and hilarity ensues. After Reed talks to one of the monsters (with the help of the mummified trachea of a 3-million year old monster mummy), they learn that there is a much larger creature coming from another dimension to destroy the Earth. From there, of course, the action moves to Antarctica, and then Monster Island, with a nice guest appearance by the Mole Man.

Like I said, the story is silly, but it's just a vehicle for Seth Fisher's insane artwork. The strange locales provide him with the opportunity to create some amazing backgrounds. His monster museum is incredible, with its monster-benches and strange design. This is topped though by tooth, finger, and eyeball-heavy design of an old temple the heroes discover in Antarctica, and by his cut-away drawing of Monster Island, which is actually a large syringe.

Fisher uses a number of strange perspectives in his drawing, occasionally reducing the main characters to a scale usually used on the X-Babies, to show the size of the monsters they are facing. His Moloids are awesome too.

This was a light read, but a very enjoyable one at that. It did make me wonder though - if both Marvel and DC gave Fisher the opportunity to play with some of their most iconic figures, why haven't they extended the same offer to Brandon Graham? I could see him doing just as good a job on a book like this...