I will be the first to admit that the Fantastic Four is not the best selling book on the market, or even something talked about each month. Marvel's first family has a long history of critical and commercial success and failure, but something that I've always found interesting is the long list of talent the series has attracted. Some of comic's greatest creators and collaborators have contributed to the series, including Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, John Byrne, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis. Now, up-and-coming super star Jonathan Hickman (The Nightly News, Pax Romana, and Secret Warriors) is taking over the book following a year-and-a-half run by Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch -- who previously collaborated on Marvel's hugely successful Ultimates. Yet, for all of my excitement surrounding this new writer, I'm so far not impressed.

OK, so I'm not being entirely fair. Issue 570 is the first of Hickman and artist Dale Eaglesham's new run, and it is always hard to judge someone's work by their first issue. For instance, while Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four issue 1 was a huge seller, it would take a dozen or so issues before they really began to shine. The same goes for John Byrne, one of the best writers on the series and my personal favorite, who was writing on the series for almost a year before it was considered epic. So, I'm still holding hope for Hickman, but I'm also a little skeptical.

There is a reason why people have been talking about Jonathan Hickman. The writer has an interesting world view and his early work, most notably The Nightly News, featured a unique blend of gritty art with graphic design that I was absolutely floored by. Another staple of Hickman's work is his ability to mix smart exposition with razor sharp dialog, and he's continued to try to keep this aspect in his work on Secret Warriors, another Marvel book. So far I'm not seeing these elements in Fantastic Four. Judging by his first work on the limited series Dark Reign: Fantastic Four, it seems Hickman's genius is being is being stifled by one of the biggest follies in super hero comics: the need to fight. Hickman can do action sequences, but his real strengths lie in his ability to create conflicts and resolutions. Luckily the FF usually run their stories with an violent or action packed opening, resulting in Reed Richards solving everything - and “solve everything” is what Reed intends to do in this first arch.

I should get to my real complaints with the series so far, which are based almost primarily in the artwork. Dale Eaglesham is an artist that I've come to admire based on his work on DC titles including Green Lantern, H-E-R-O, and JSA. He has a fairly standard art style that has a nice blend of traditional American pencils with a subtle hint of Japanese influence, ala super-star artist Jim Lee. His new run on FF is like nothing he has done before. Eaglesham seems to be changing his style to a blend of Bryan Hitch and Alan Davis -- a long time artist on the series. This style is at times hard to look at -- with scratchy pencils and over-muscled heroes -- especially Reed and Johnny, who are typically thin. Even Susan looks bulkier than normal. I was also disappointed with the decision to change out their costumes. For years the FF wore their classic blue spandex with the “4” logo on the front and white or black gloves and boots, however Bryan Hitch gave the team a striking makeover when he worked on the series that resembled costumes worn by heroes in Marvel's Ultimate Universe.

Now the team wears a strange short-sleeved combination, which includes a large belt and gloves. It's terrible and I don't know why Marvel signed off on it. For all of the strange looks the team has had over the years, this is by far their worst.

I suppose what upsets me is that they went for this amalgam of art work from Eaglesham instead of sticking with artist Sean Chen, who worked with Hickman previously on the Dark Reign series. Chen's work is stylistically inline with Hickman and is visually very interesting. I'm not saying that Eaglesham is a bad artist; I just don't think that this is the book he belongs on -- at least not right now.

Bearing in mind all of my fears, I am looking forward to this story arch and hope the best for the creative team. The second issue of their run came out this month, and I have high hopes for it. Then again, maybe all of my complaints are unfounded and this could be the best run for the series yet. Here's hoping.