i've successfully caught up with ryan north's fantastic four run and god. it's so good
aside from many individual funny moments and the very compelling way he writes the whole cast and the consistently good art, what really stands out to me is how north's fascination with actual science just leaps off of the page. if you've ever read a dinosaur comics strip that's a thinly veiled excuse for north to riff on some science factoid he learned about, it's very much got that energy. early in a story a character will often stop and explain some real scientific concept or discovery or a piece of science history, whether it's the theory of "mirror life" or the china brain thought experiment or what have you, and this will serve as the springboard for the story. even when the story doesn't rely so heavily on science, he'll at least shoehorn in something like an explanation of what a scutoid is or something about grain dust explosions
it's definitely not trying to be realistic hard sci-fi - it's still a marvel comic, and the team solves most problems with their absurd powers that break the laws of physics. but its pulpy comic adventures are riffing on real science in a way that makes me wanna go look up the things the characters are talking about and learn more, rather than relying solely on your typical made-up comic book science. seeing the team try to solve these scientific emergencies is so fun that a lot of the time there doesn't even need to be a supervillain in the story. and since the series is very episodic in nature, with every story so far lasting only an issue or two, it's always keeping things interesting by touching on a wide range of topics. it's really great
