Editor's Note: Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1 arrives in stores tomorrow, May 14.

"No-one gets back alive! Part 1: Negative Energy"

The first chapter of this crossover-tie-in miniseries recaps the events of Secret Invasion #1, plunging the Baxter building into the negative zone portal as the Skrull infiltration threatens the Marvel Universe's first family, before showing us what happened to its occupants when it appeared on the other side.

After reading the first issue of the core Secret Invasion title, I didn't have particularly high hopes for this tie-in book. The appearance of the FF in that issue served to shuffle the team off to the sidelines, trapping them in the Negative Zone and suggesting that they didn't really have a place in Brian Bendis' larger plans for Secret Invasion, regardless of their long history with the Skrulls. Despite that, the existence of this book suggests that somebody thought that there was a Fantastic Four story worth telling amidst the chaos of the Skrull invasion--but after reading this first issue, I'm not really convinced that there is.

One of the most appealing elements of the Fantastic Four is the family dynamic of the team, but the constraints of Secret Invasion's larger story prevent Aguirre-Sacasa from really exploring that dynamic. With the events of Secret Invasion #1 already having taken Reed and Sue Richards out of commission, the writer is left with only Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm to play with, and whilst he's able to have some fun with both characters, it's not really enough to sustain an entire story. The Thing is tasked with protecting Franklin and Valeria, and Johnny is left to deal with the Skrull impostor who impersonated Sue in order to sabotage the Baxter Building in the first place. Whilst there is a small amount of action and a reasonable dramatic premise, it all feels a bit pedestrian and a little too straightforward and predictable to be a really compelling story.

It's a particular shame that Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa doesn't have the whole FF family to play with here, because I was quite a fan of the writer's Marvel Knights Fantastic Four title from a few years ago, which managed to focus on the more grounded and human aspects of the characters without losing the appeal of their fantastical lifestyle. Unfortunately, the story concept here is just too restrictive to allow for that kind of focus on the characters, and it feels like the writer can't exploit one of his greatest strengths as a result. That said, the final-page reveal adds a slightly more personal element to the story, giving the FF's battle against their Skrull adversary a more emotional dimension than a simple battle against an army of generic Skrull soldiers would provide. However, I feel as though it's a development which will only really mean anything to longtime readers who are familiar with FF history, rather than the casual Secret Invasion reader who seems like the most likely audience for this book.

Barry Kitson's artwork is more than serviceable here, presenting a take on the FF that's in keeping with their subtle redesign in the pages of the ongoing Fantastic Four title without losing the classic feel of the characters. I was a fan of Kitson's work on The Order recently, and he brings the same aptitude for facial expressions and body language that he showed in that title to the pages of this book. Unfortunately, it's not quite enough to redeem a story that doesn't really get going until the second half of the issue, and that doesn't manage to make much of an impression even then.

This book feels like a fairly inconsequential tie-in to Secret Invasion, albeit one that will probably keep Fantastic Four fans happy enough. You can't blame Marvel for trying, and it's far from being an offensively bad comic--but neither is it a particularly good one. It's difficult to escape the feeling that this is a title that has been created for the sake of having a Secret Invasion/FF tie-in, rather than because anyone had a particularly good story to tell, and I doubt that I'll be interested enough to pick up the next issue.

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