Available in white or red embossed variant covers, Fantastic Four #371 has perhaps one of the most 90s covers ever. The plasticky feel of its cover is fantastic though, there’s no denying that; as is the melting effect of the cover’s logo and other elements of its design.

It sort of ties in to the issue’s contents too, with one element of its story being Johnny Storm forcing himself to go nova when he finds himself outmatched and alone against three powerful villains.

Yet there’s much more in this overstuffed, over plotted issue, which breathlessly tries to cover way too much ground.

Alicia Masters has gone missing, with Reed Richards (aka Mister Fantastic) and her father, Puppet Master, teaming up to try and find her. Meanwhile, Sue is feeling neglected and tries to feel less frumpy by designing herself a new costume. Then there’s hints about Franklin Richards and his burgeoning powers, along with the Johnny Storm stuff at his university. Oh, and a Captain Marvel I wasn’t aware of appears (what can I say? I skipped lots of 90s era Marvel), amongst many, many other threads (including a Rogue Watcher!) and cameos.

It’s enough to give you whiplash. In picking up random, cheap old 80s and 90s comics recently, I’d noticed that Sue Storm had started to wear a super revealing new outfit and often wondered where and when it debuted; now I know.

And just look at it! With its ridiculous cleavage window (in the shape of a 4, no less!) and its lack of much else in the way of material, it’s probably even more 90s than the gimmick cover. It certainly sums up the very ‘boys club’, male gaze tropes of the decade all in one misjudged outfit. The topic of the marital argument Reed and Sue have is even weirder with Franklin eavesdropping too. Of course, this does lay some ground for a massive event that wasn’t far off at this point.

It’s difficult to enjoy an issue like this in isolation, and it’s one that feels awkwardly trapped in the past, while still trying to be edgy, cool and modern at the same time (even Johnny Storm has a bit of a meta thought process, name-dropping numerous edgy heroes who were enormously popular in the early 90s).

I think that’s always been a tightrope that Fantastic Four has found difficult to walk; the family of science-led superheroes, with the patriarchal Reed at the helm, always felt like a bit of a dated concept, and there’s only been a few writers who’ve managed to give Marvel’s First Family properly satisfying runs since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s 60s heyday.

Thankfully, the upcoming Fantastic Four movie looks like it’s striking the right tone, and with a lovely retro futurist look, to ensure that they finally get the big screen treatment the characters deserve. As for Fantastic Four #371? Beyond that gloriously OTT cover and the debut of Sue Storm’s scanty costume, there’s little else to make it a worthwhile read.

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