Fantastic Four #22: Stretched to the Limit

Fantastic Four #21 largely ignored the larger Blood Hunt event in favor of delivering another character oriented issue of the type that is so central to North’s run on the series. The same is true for Fantastic Four #22 where Blood Hunt’s larger story continues and North once more takes advantage of those events to tell his own, more complicated story.

Vampires are invading Madison Square Garden where Reed, Alicia, and the people they saved are hiding out. Fantastic Four #22 sees Reed push himself to the limit, tearing himself as he spreads out to protect everyone from the vampires. Meanwhile, the rest of the team are still at Aunt Petunia’s doing all they can to resist their own horde of vampires. As Blood Hunt’s vampires run rampant, it’s an open question whether anyone will survive.

Blood Hunt does provide a good opportunity for a standard action story thread in Fantastic Four #22. Even though Johnny is conducting his own kind of anti-vampire experimentation that both mirrors Reed’s and provides a contrast in their viewpoints, the action is a fun way to relieve tension between major beats in the Reed story.

North delivered one of the all time great Reed Richards stories in Fantastic Four #21. In exploring how Reed perceives the world, North was able to examine Reed’s resulting behavior in detail. Fantastic Four #22 works because that character examination preceded it. Alicia has a better understanding of how Reed’s mind works and so is able to use what she learned about him to help Reed find a way to a solution.

Alicia and Reed’s interaction in Fantastic Four #22 is an outstanding example of listening to, learning from, and understanding the way someone else sees the world. Despite the intense pressure caused by the situation, Alicia never pushes or browbeats Reed to accept a supernatural event that he doesn’t fully understand. It’s a short character arc but well done.

Fiorelli draws an absolutely tortured Reed in Fantastic Four #22, and Aburtov colors accordingly. The initial wounds are shocking. Reed’s costume is torn and uneven bloody patches mar his skin. They follow this up with misdirection, intentionally or otherwise. As Reed takes various other smaller shapes, no longer stretched to protect people beneath him, the injuries seem to vanish. Only costume tears are visible. But in the first panel showing Reed back in normal human shape Fiorelli adds dark lines to highlight multiple injuries and Aburtov fills those obvious wounds with red. It’s a moment of physical vulnerability that isn’t often seen with the character. And it’s all the more powerful because Reed has been exposed emotionally in this arc as well.

The injuries to Reed venture close to body horror territory. Fiorelli never goes there–North’s script probably didn’t call for such violence. But there is one panel that pushes that limit. Fiorelli draws a closer look on Reed’s face. Vampires pull at his skin, stretching it naturally as compared to Reed’s usual appearance. The vampires pulling at his flesh stretch open his jaw and start to pop out his eye.

Caramagna does his usual good job organizing text. Several pages are heavy with it, and the dialogue bubbles and caption boxes don’t obscure Fiorelli’s detailed art.