funnybook of the month: February 2011

In an attempt to nail down the year's best funnybook, I will whittle down the contenders by month. Why? Because the year is ending and a year-end list is what people do.

The Winner: Fantastic Four #588

What I said then: There aren't many "day after the tragedy" comics worth reading out there. This one might be my favorite one ever.



Why it's still awesome now: Comic book death is so overdone now, and the biggest problem with it is that it's normally done in service to a story's climax or to establish how powerful the event's villain is. This issue used Johnny's death as a launch pad to propel the Fantastic Four into FF and beyond, expanding the franchise and using the question "where do we go from here?" rather than "what does this mean?" as its starting point.

Was it close? The conclusion to Invincible's Viltrumite War story could have been the winner, but considering all that came out of this issue, I wasn't going to overlook it.