The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

There is a reason this is the greatest epic fantasy series ever written, The movies pale in comparison to the trilogy of books.  This is final volume in the Lord of the Rings is all battle should I say battles.  It starts with the armies preparing for war at Minas Tirith,  Merry & Pippin are sent their separate ways in which they are both portrayed more valiantly than they are in the movie.  The sons of Elrond & the Dunedain come bearing gifts for Aragorn & join him on his quest along the paths of the dead.  A great many things happen during the siege of Gondor's capital city in the book it seems more of a brutal & desperate battle than it does in the movie.  Denethor's betrayal is a much darker revelation in which he has been deceived by Sauron.  The march to the black gate & that subsequent battle are pretty much the same as the movie.  There is really not a lot of focus on Legolas or Gimli in this book compared to the other characters of the fellowship.  The true gem of this book is the rescue of Frodo by Sam as this was the cliff hanger of the second book & isn't followed up on until the reader is two thirds through this book.  The finale of the book focuses on the fellowship returning to their respective lands following the crowning of Aragorn, King of Gondor & Queen Arwen.  There is also the marriage of Faramir & Eowyn uniting the lands of Gondor & Rohan into an even stronger alliance. The hobbits return to the Shire only to find that Saruman has beaten them there enslaving the people, hoarding the food & defacing the land.  The hobbits having come back from an incredible journey rally & unite the hobbits to fight for their land which ends in the death of Saruman at the hands of Grima Wormtongue.  Time passes Sam gets married Merry & Pippin are knights of the Rohan & Gondor respectively & Frodo finishes documenting the journey before setting off on one last adventure.  On Bilbo's birthday which will make him one year older than the Old Took; Frodo asks Sam to journey with him to the edge of the Shire on his way to Rivendale.  At the edge of the Shire they come across Elrond & Lady Galadriel with their houses, Gandalf & Bilbo heading to Grey Havens over the sea.  It is here that Frodo & Sam part Merry & Pippen are also with the elves at the request of Gandalf so they can accompany Sam back to Hobbiton; so ends the third age.

FF Vol. 2

This second volume of FF sees the Reed & Spider-Man teaming up with Dr. Doom & company to take on the other Reeds from parallel universes.  The Future Foundation aren't the only ones looking to take of the Forever City & neutralize the other Reeds; Black Bolt has returned to rally the Inhumans.  This volume takes place after the War of Kings event in which Black Bolt seemingly died along with Vulcan.  Not only has he returned but he has left the Kree Empire in the hands of Ronan the Accuser who is married to Crystal.  All is not well in Black Bolts absence from the Kree throne Ronan & the other leaders of the Kree Empire have their own plans to restore the empire to its former glory.  All of these groups start to come to a head at the end of this collection.  By the end Reed Richards has found his humility & called on his friends for assistance.  Nathaniel Richards is aligning himself with an enemy.  Ronan's plan to restore the Kree empire has entered its second phase, all the while there is a looming threat waiting in the Negative Zone.

FF Vol. 1

The Fantastic Four are no more, war is looming in the four cities & the Future Foundation is at the forefront of saving the world for tomorrow.  Valerie has done something terrible, not only has she found the bridge that Reed Richards made but she went through it to the council & brought the four surviving Reeds to her world.  Now to combat this problem of having four different versions of Reed Richards that are looking to get back to their respective worlds by any means possible even if it means destroying this one Valerie has made a deal with Dr. Doom.  Now Doom has put together a council to bring down Reed Richards.  The other Reeds are building a machine & manipulating the four cities towards war for their own ends.  By the end of this volume Sue has found out what dark secrets Mr. Fantastic has been keeping from her.  Johnny Storm has fallen before the annihilation wave at the Baxter Building's gate to the Negative Zone; in his last will and testament he names Spider-Man as his replacement on team.

Fantastic Four Vol. 4

Is this the end, yes it is in a manner of speaking this is the end of the Fantastic Four as a team & the end of the line for one particular team member.  By the end of this volume someone will have died in a death that would make the Spartans of ancient Greece proud.  This collection was all action on every front to say that there was pay off to groundwork that Hickman has been laying would be a lie yes this is the end of the Fantastic Four but the story is still continuing forward.  There are a lot of great moments in this book every character gets to shine I really like the artwork that I have seen in this series so far.  This book feels a lot like an homage to Stan Lee's & Jack Kirby's creation & I am not just saying that because they're in it.  Just look at the characters involved in these stories look at how Hickman has mined the history of the Fantastic Four to bring things back to the forefront.  This book will pull at your heartstrings by the end from the Star Trek II reference before the impending showdown to Spider-Man & Franklin sitting on a rooftop.

Fantastic Four Vol. 3

In this third volume of Hickman's Fantastic Four run we see the initial creation of the Future Foundation.  In fact the Baxter Building becomes a home & a school for several new characters.  This book gives a chance for each member of the Fantastic Four to shine in little one-shot stories.  The over arching story of this entire collection is that a mysterious individual has broken into the building to talk to the children.  There is a nice little flash back story at the end of this volume that goes into Reed's relationship with his father.  I am looking forward to what Hickman is doing with his Multiverse idea & this emerging pocket universe.