When a big-name writer/artist team takes over a long-established book, it’s always important to strike a balance between keeping the existing fans happy, but making the series accessible for the spike in new readers that their appointment will bring, in the hope of keeping as many of them as possible. As someone who’s never really engaged with the Fantastic Four at any point, but drawn by the curiosity of Millar and Hitch tackling a monthly, main-universe title together for the first time, I naturally fall into the latter camp. So as far as I’m concerned, there are two questions – is it accessible enough to enjoy without prior knowledge, and will it keep me around beyond the first arc (or even the first issue)?

The answer to the first is a resounding “yes”. Say what you like about Millar, but he’s a good storyteller who can be economic with the necessary bits of exposition – even a reader unfamiliar with the most basic tenets of the FF setup is informed, over the course of the issue’s dialogue, that the family are beloved celebrity superheroes, Reed and Sue are married, Johnny is Sue’s brother, and Ben is “that guy [Reed] disfigured in that cosmic ray accident”, in simple and effective fashion. Beyond that, the issue feels like something of a slate-clearing – I had no idea of the team’s post-Civil War status (the last I’d seen, Sue and Johnny were leaving), but beyond a token mention of the marriage being on rocky ground, this is very much a jumping on point with the status quo as “classic” as can be. I guess this might be as galling to long-term readers is Brand New Day is to Spidey fans (well, not quite as galling, but you get what I mean) – but for a newbie like me, it works just fine.

Admittedly without being particularly up on my FF knowledge, I’ve always seen the inherent style of the book as revolving around comedy/drama family interactions, and… well… fantastic scientific wizardry and concepts. Millar may not exactly be Warren Ellis when it comes to technobabble, but he certainly squeezes in plenty of the latter, from a time-travel opening scene to the arc’s main plot of a “nuclear bunker”-esque second world for the planet to be evacuated to. And there are enough smirksome moments to carry it along – a couple of good lines from Ben (although, why is he the only person in the entire Marvel universe to have that particular accent?) and a brief appearance from Johnny the main highlights. Millar even gets to indulge his customary habit for redefining the role of a “superhero team”, with the subplot of Sue (and the Wasp and She-Hulk) setting up a group to deal with the aftermath of “superhuman incidents”.

Hitch’s work here, one of the other main draws beforehand, is solid rather than spectacular. There’s something of a rushed feel to quite a few panels, meaning that even though the character design is strong all-round (particularly with regards to Reed and Sue), it suffers from inconsistent application. You get the sense that he’s aware that, on a book like this (i.e. one which has to come out every month), people would rather have his work be a little off-key than suffer through lengthy delays for Ultimates-level precision. His real strength, though, remains in his ability to draw the “big” images with a good level of technical detail – and you suspect Millar will be giving him plenty of those in the coming months. Speaking of Ultimates, meanwhile, purists may scoff at the redesigned costumes, but I think they work well; and the same can be said for the new cover dress, its “magazine”ish stylings well-suited to the FF’s status as celebrities.

All-in-all, it’s a decent first issue, that never blows you away but gives you enough to keep you reading (I wonder, though, if subsequent issues will feature movie references as blatant as the Back To The Future III-style opening sequence, or indeed a closing page that seems to owe more than a passing debt to the Hitchhiker’s Guide film). Like I say, I can’t speak for the die-hard FF fan – but they’ve at least succeeded in making me vaguely interested in the characters. I don’t know if it would survive the sort of delays that plagued this team’s last work (and I know everyone keeps mentioning that – but it is a point worth making), but for now, it’s got an old-fashioned, Marvelish superhero feel to it – perhaps moreso than anyone who underestimates Millar might have expected from him – that’s enough to keep me onboard.