Alex Ross waited a long time for the chance to tell his Fantastic Four story. When the opportunity finally arrived, the superstar artist was ready to shoot his shot and challenge himself like never before. The result is Fantastic Four: Full Circle, an original graphic novel that debuts on September 6. It is the debut title from Marvel Arts, a brand-new publishing team-up between Marvel Comics and Abrams ComicArts.
Full Circle is the first graphic novel written and illustrated by Ross, who rose to prominence in the 1990s as co-creator of limited series such as Marvels, Kingdom Come, and the ongoing series Astro City. Get a taste of this stylish new FF adventure in the slideshow gallery below, and read on to learn more about why Full Circle has been decades in the making and how Ross wants to see the FF integrated into the MCU.
The Evolution of Alex Ross' Art
Ross’ painted artwork in 1994's Marvels and 1996's Kingdom Come grounded Marvel and DC’s superheroes in hyper-stylish realism, and his distinctive style still makes him one of the most in-demand cover artists in comics. That’s why it was a surprise to learn he changed up his art process for his newest project. Ross created the art in Full Circle using pencil and ink and flat coloring to capture the retro Pop Art vibe he sought with his original story.
“I knew I would have to change myself to really get it across in a way that maybe connects the dots a little bit more for the contemporary reader,” Ross tells IGN during an interview via Zoom. “Doing traditional pen and ink and having flat color was essential. If I just did my typical painted process, I don't think I would have gotten across any of the notions of that time period successfully. “
The artist did make one concession as he shook up his creative routine. He used jet black gouache paint for the inking stage, mainly to provide some breathing room for corrections.
“I wasn't really using ink,” he clarifies. “If I really made a screw-up, I could use layers of water and pull up what I just put down. It’s not the problem you have with ink where you basically are gonna have to put white down on top of it to then draw something.”
The Origins of Fantastic Four: Full Circle
In Fantastic Four: Full Circle, a swarm of parasites from the Negative Zone prompts the FF to return to the anti-matter dimension to investigate. While there, they encounter a figure from their past. Ross’ story hearkens back to one of the high points of the legendary run by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, “This Man…This Monster!” From Fantastic Four #51. The idea for it dates back to the mid-90s, when Ross, fresh off the huge success of Marvels with Kurt Busiek, was offered a golden opportunity.
“After I'd worked on Marvels for them, I was pitched by the then Editor-in-Chief, Tom DeFalco, that I could take any story from the Marvel pantheon and then revisit it. We would retell a story, expand it and tell new things that happened within that historical context. And he mentioned “This Man…This Monster!”
DeFalco even suggested pairing Ross up with Stan Lee for the project.
“He was pushing Stan on me, saying you could be working with Stan Lee on this. And I thought, oh, that's the Jack Kirby experience where I'll do all the work, figure it out and then Stan will come in and dialogue it,” Ross recalls. “Like, yeah, I don't know that that's the right way to repeat history here, you know?”
The idea went nowhere.
Two decades later, when Marvel was prepping to relaunch the Fantastic Four comic title after an extended hiatus, Ross made a pitch to helm the revival. That didn’t happen, either. Partnering up with another writer was out of the question, as well.
“It just wouldn't fit if I was following someone else's direction,” Ross says. “The thought I had is that Jack Kirby didn't get this thing carved out for himself the way he needed to when the amount of plotting he was doing was pretty much directing the run of the books back then. I can't do that to myself. I have to learn from his example and make sure that whatever the work I'm committing to, that I’m getting the credit I'm due.”
The unfulfilled ambition continued to nag at Ross. When the Abrams Books opportunity presented itself, the years-long quest could finally be completed
“I had always remembered this idea that was brought up to me. And I thought, just about the most audacious thing you could do is go back to what is commonly considered one of the most famous stories that [Kirby and Lee] ever did and do a sequel to it.”
"Just about the most audacious thing you could do is go back to what is commonly considered one of the most famous stories that [Kirby and Lee] ever did and do a sequel to it.”
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This standalone story set in a time period that Ross describes as “contemporary-ish.” The artist wanted to place his tale in between the previous FF volume and the book’s current status, where Franklin and Valeria Richards are now teenagers. Ross portrays the team as space explorers (complete with new costume designs) as much as superheroes, and the book gives Ross ample room to pay tribute to Kirby’s era-defining work on the FF. The artist wanted to sync up with the bombastic art Kirby was doing on the Fantastic Four during the title’s '60s heyday, but he didn't want to do a purely nostalgic period piece.
“I was trying to somehow get in tune with what Jack Kirby was doing artistically and the time period that they created this book in,” Ross says. “It’s not as easy to do, especially today.”
Ross even kitbashed his own custom action figures of Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm, which he then photographed for reference as he worked on the book (You can see him drawing off the photos on his YouTube channel). He averaged 10 pages a month, while still doing his regular cover assignments for Marvel.
The book is crammed with jaw-dropping art pieces, including a double-page splash featuring the Crossroads of Infinity (seen above). He jokes that his take on the Fantastic Four will hopefully catch the attention of one notably important Marvel fan. “As you say, it's about a vibe and it's a vibe I was hoping come somehow could infect readership as well as maybe one particular reader, which would be Kevin Feige,” Ross adds, punctuating the comment with a laugh. “Now, will that make any difference? Probably not.”
Bringing the Fantastic Four to the MCU
Marvel has confirmed a Fantastic Four film is coming in November 2024. How would Ross like to see Marvel’s First Family introduced into the Marvel Cinematic Universe?
“I’m like most fans where they keep saying - set them in the '60s and then you can do whatever amount of material you want with them being the only superheroes in their own time period,” he says. “And then you can have them time travel if you want to cross them over, but you don't need that. But to have them in that time period would be wonderful, because of the aesthetics of stuff like we watched on Mad Men. Can you imagine if that was brought to life in a contemporary [film] with the Fantastic Four?”
Ross crafted his story in a way that could be used as a roadmap by filmmakers, if they wanted to.
“You have this chance to make a grand new first impression [with the new film],” he says. “We know that contemporary movies are very influenced by the most recent things done in the comics…I wanted to put forth a way of seeing the group that's focused on the four members that if they do an adaptation, that they're kind of getting the core version of it first in their minds.”
Ross’ comics fandom has been an integral part of his career. His fondness for the heroes of comics’ Silver and Bronze Age informed his work on Marvels, as well as the tabloid-size specials he did for DC Comics with Batman: The Animated Series writer Paul Dini. He points out he is a fan of the Marvel films, but wishes they were more faithful to the source material.
“I've liked so much what they do and even things that I don't really like, the stylistic choices they might make, I don't hate it. I can always appreciate it for being the vision they bring to it,” Ross says. “But I would love it if I looked at the characters and just said, 'That's who Jack Kirby was drawing.' And I don't think that Jack's work was that abstract, which is why I try and give my own take on it here that says, does that not look like the face Jack was drawing for Reed?”
For most of the past quarter-century, Ross has based his rendition of Reed Richards on Russell Johnson, who played “the Professor” from Gilligan’s Island. For Full Circle, he found new inspiration. “Here I switched off to a different guy from a different sixties TV show, and luckily he's still around and was cool with it,” he says.
Ross contacted actor Gary Conway, who starred in the series Land of the Giants, to get his blessing to base his new take on Reed on him. “When I first saw a picture of him, which was within the last 20 years, I was like, “Oh my God, that's Reed's face. Holy cow! And it made me think, have I been doing it wrong this whole time? Because that's what Jack was drawing. And so I slowly made my adjustment over,” Ross says. “He really embodies the character wonderfully. But the thing is, there's a roadmap there. There's a face style that you could say, there's people that look like this. This is what that archetype was. And I would love to see that captured in casting.”
The launch of the Abrams ComicArt imprint is certain to more stand-alone projects. Ross says talks are already ongoing with other comics talent. “They’re reaching out to people that you really think of as unique author-artist types and giving them the platform with the Marvel properties, but in a form that's more artistically extravagant,” he says.
Is he ready to write and draw another project?
“The ideas are percolating,” he answers cryptically. “I’m thinking about what I might like to try next.”
Ross has said this book was about challenging himself artistically. But in talking with him, one gets the sense he did this for another reason. For a great number of fans, the Kirby-Lee FF run is the pinnacle of comics. Fantastic Four: Full Circle gives Ross the chance to remind people why Kirby was known as the “King of Comics.”
“Trying to somehow get in tune with what Jack Kirby was doing artistically in the time period that [Kirby and Lee] created this book in, is not easy to do, especially today,” Ross explains. “Not too many people really emulate the style that he did. If we go back to the 1970s, you do have people that were influenced by looking at Jack Kirby comics. Nowadays he seems like a much more distant memory, but his style is embedded in this group of characters, in this particular book [which] he created a hundred issues of content for. I wanted to somehow be the transmission of that in a way, by taking my style of realism and filtering it through that influence while trying to say, “Hey, what Jack did still works in a context.”
Fantastic Four: Full Circle is available to order through Amazon and various other retailers.
For more on the Fantastic Four's MCU future, find out which director has been tapped for the upcoming reboot, and see everything announced during the Marvel Studios panel at SDCC.
![Fantastic Four [1961]](https://comicsmedia.ign.com/comics/image/object/039/039223/fantastic-four--v1-1_cover-art.jpg?width=114&auto=webp)
