Fantastic Four: 1234

Fantastic Four: 1234 by Grant Morrison
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As Dr. Doom picks off the members of the Fantastic Four one at a time with help from Namor and the Mole Man, Reed Richards is cooped up in his lab. Can he find a way to stop Doom? And will he stop him if he can?

For a Grant Morrison story, 1234 is pretty straight forward. Dr. Doom is manipulating reality and trying to destroy the Fantastic Four. The Thing ends up human minus an arm, Sue gets entangled with Namor, and Johnny falls victim to the Mole Man.

Despite being pretty well written, I didn't find the story to have much substance. Grant Morrison's known for throwing a lot of big ideas around and that's what I expected from this one. Besides hints that Dr. Doom is part of Reed Richards' subconscious, there was very little of that here. Reed's role in the story reminded me of a condensed version of what Blackbolt did in the Inhumans miniseries by Jae Lee and Paul Jenkins.

The artwork was pretty good but I've seen better from Jae Lee both before and since. I guess my main gripe with 1234 is that neither creator really lived up to my expectations. It was still enjoyable but really nothing special.

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