Bento Review: Fantastic Four/Inhumans Atlantis Rising

I read a lot more comics on a weekly basis back in the 90s than I do today.  And yes, the Fantastic Four written by Tom DeFalco and drawn by Paul Ryan (the artist, not the Speaker of the House) was one of them.

But I don’t have much recollection at all for this crossover from that period called Atlantis Rising.

It’s, uh, not very memorable.

Actually, the full title on the cover says this is a Fantastic Four/Inhumans story, which is weird because the Inhumans, who are not now nor will they ever be a thing, didn’t have their own book at the time.  Namor did.  His book crossed over with this story.  There was also an FF spin-off featuring an adult Franklin Richards called Fantastic Force that was also involved.  The Inhuman Royal Family sit the story out for a while, especially Crystal since she was on the Avengers at the time.  Heck, Thor has more to do than the Inhuman Royal Family.  And the Inhumans are not a thing despite Marvel’s best efforts.

So, anyway, Morgan Le Fey, reincarnated in a descendant’s body, raised Atlantis from the ocean floor, killing scores of Namor’s people while he’s off doing other things, and at the same time, the Inhuman city of Atilan needs to be moved because Reed Richards’ shifty time-traveling father Nathaniel did something in the Watcher’s house that destroyed the Blue Area on the moon with the breathable atmosphere.  Fortunately, the moon city was saved by the FF, consisting of the Invisible Woman, the Thing, Ant-Man Scott Lang, the Human Torch, and Dr. Doom’s ward Kristof (making a five-man roster for the Fantastic Four) because Reed was believed dead with Doom at the time.  Seriously, there’s a page recounting the plots to the FF, Namor’s book, and a few others and the Fantastic Four had the longest explanation because things were that weird and screwy at the time.  As the Inhuman Royal Family have been somewhat deposed, they’re living in a circus sideshow on the Jersey shore while the Inhuman Genetic Council running things in the Royal’s stead has fled in advance.  But, as it is, Morgan raised Atlantis because that was her home before it sank, plus the Inhumans claim it was their home long before that, so the whole thing involving the Fantastic Four, Fantastic Force, Namor, a lot of Inhumans and for some reason Thor is basically a giant real estate scheme.

Am I ragging on this?  Yes, I am.  This was completely unmemorable in every possible way.  The Fantastic Four didn’t have an overly memorable book back then.  There’s a reason it gave way to “Heroes Reborn”.  Why Marvel decided to put this thing together into a trade is beyond me aside from their eternal efforts to make the Inhumans a thing.

They will never be a thing.  Forgettable storyline, average to awful artwork, yeah, thanks Comics Bento.  Six out of ten royal families living at the circus moments and that’s me being generous.

NEXT BOOK:  Well, back to some pirates from the looks of things, as we get an Oni trade called The Crogan Adventures.  If it’s Oni, it’ll at least be different and that’s a good thing.