FANTASTIC FOUR #587

Wizard magazine comes poly bagged these days, as do some of the video game magazines out there, so kids these days probably do know what a poly bag is, but I doubt they remember when the craze in comics was the “special” cover. They had die-cut covers, foil covers, embossed covers, and hologram covers. Those were the days, right? Eventually comics stopped that and went to the variant cover craze, which is realistically ludicrous for the regular fan, but this week's issue of Fantastic Four brought back memories. This issue, released on a Tuesday, came poly bagged so that you couldn't flip through the book at a comic store to see which member died in it. Does it matter that the AP broke the story of who died on Monday night before the book even hit stands? I guess we'll see. I picked up the book Wednesday afternoon and there were about ten copies left. Comic books aren't really worth money anymore. Superman #75, which was bagged and featured the “death” of Superman, now goes for around $20 on Ebay. That book came out in 1992 and was sold out when I attempted to buy it. Nineteen years later it's only worth $20. What will Fantastic Four #597 be worth in nineteen years? Probably around the same if not a little bit more. In 1992 more copies were printed and comics were more popular, so there are a ton of copies of Superman #75 out there. You can also the fact that Superman didn't really die. If you forget about all of that, the real question is: is this book any good? I will say that the art by Steve Epting is exceptional, especially the moving final page. The story, though, by Jonathan Hickman, isn't as good as it should be for such a monumental issue. The idea behind this five part storyline is to have every member of the Fantastic Four team in peril. Reed Richards is dealing with Galactus and Nu-World, Sue Richards is dealing with Namor in an underwater kingdom and The Thing and Johnny Storm are facing an onslaught of bug creatures from the Negative Zone. In a perfect world, a major character's death wouldn't be spoiled before it happens, but going into this storyline, titled “Three,” Marvel admitted that someone was going to die. The death might be heartbreaking if I was a super big fan of this book or if Hickman had been writing it for years. What happens is not unlike the death of Charlie in the TV show Lost. Personally, I'd rather have seen Galactus or Dr. Doom be the one killing someone, not an armada of bugs that was just introduced an issue or two ago. Was I surprised about who they killed off? No, but I will be surprised if he stays dead. If you're sad, well, he's still alive and quite amusing in Ultimate Spider-Man. ***