Editor's Note: Fantastic Four #557 arrives in stores tomorrow, May 21.

"World's Greatest: Part Four of Four"

The fourth issue of Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch's Fantastic Four provides a climax of sorts for their first arc on the book, bringing one or two plot strands to a conclusion with a showdown between Mr. Fantastic and "CAP," the malfunctioning robot created by one of Reed's well-intentioned old flames.

Anyone who has been enjoying Bryan Hitch's artwork on Fantastic Four so far will find plenty more to enjoy in this issue. From the strangely elegant opening image of The Thing encased in an underwater force-field to the giant full-page spreads of Mr. Fantastic's anti-Galactus suit (a design that's bound to appeal to any fans of the Gundam or Transformers series), it's difficult to fault the book's visuals. Fantastic Four works best when dealing with big ideas, and there's no doubting the sheer scale and scope of the book under Hitch's pencil. The artist applies realistic details and proportions to Millar's larger-than-life comicbook concepts, and it bridges the gap between fantastical escapism and relatable verisimilitude well.

However, despite the quality of Hitch's artwork during the bigger moments, there's still something about the issue that feels lacking and anti-climactic. The opening buildup works quite well to generate tension for the inevitable showdown between Mr. Fantastic and CAP, but doesn't really show us anything that we haven't seen before. In fact, it doesn't really show us much at all, with Millar again choosing to have characters tell us about how dangerous the robot is rather than showing him doing anything really scary or impressive. And when the big clash between Reed's robo-suit and CAP finally comes, it's over far too quickly, with the twist that enables Reed to defeat his enemy coming off as too simple and obvious to feel satisfying (and making me wonder whether Reed's gigantic "anti-Galactus" exoskeleton was really necessary in the first place). It feels as though this arc has lacked a really strong antagonist to provide some decent drama to underpin the action sequences, and they have felt a little hollow as a result.

However, Millar's writing is far more satisfying during the more character-based scenes (leading me to wonder whether he's being overly reliant on Hitch's great artwork to carry the more action-based sections of the book). I'm still enjoying the silliness of Johnny Storm's relationship with an attractive super-villainess (although I'm convinced that there's more to this subplot than meets the eye--the Human Torch isn't really that amoral, is he?) and there's a delightful scene between Reed and Sue that mixes a couple of neat sci-fi concepts with a more straightforward romantic tone as the pair celebrate their anniversary. Maybe this issue caught me at a weak moment, but I found the scene to be very touching and emotionally weighty without coming off as slushy or overly sentimental, striking the perfect balance between the fantastical world of the FF and the very human personalities and relationships that keep the team grounded in the real world. Millar has succeeded in making Reed and Sue's relationship feel well-balanced and believable in this first arc, and I hope that we'll see him extend this knack for authentic-feeling characterisation to the still fairly cartoonish Johnny and Ben in future arcs.

All things considered, I've enjoyed this first arc of Millar and Hitch's Fantastic Four a little less than I expected. Whilst the big outlandish ideas and great visuals that I had hoped to see have been present, I feel as though these four issues have lacked a sufficiently dramatic and engaging core premise to really make me care about the outcome of the story. I don't want to labour the comparisons to Millar and Hitch's Ultimates too much because their Fantastic Four deserves to stand as a separate piece of work without being constantly compared to the team's previous big success, but the last couple of issues' fight between the FF and the CAP robot just hasn't given readers the same kind of dramatic hook that the personal conflicts and well-developed relationships of that book provided. This issue's final-page teaser for the next storyline has me slightly more excited, promising a far more characterful and enjoyable villainous presence that should give the team someone a little more interesting to spark off, but I'm still yet to be convinced that this is book is going to reach the same heights that Millar and Hitch's previous collaborations did.

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