While the two recent feature films may make The Fantastic Four seem like a current fad or recent phenomena, the truth is that New York City's greatest super-heroic foursome has been around since November of 1961 when Marvel Comics unleashed the first issue of this Stan Lee/JackKirby co-creation upon the world. The series was a hit and aside from the two recent films over the year we've seen action figures, toys, spin off comics, and a couple of different animated series which brings us to Fantastic Four - World's Greatest Heroes - The Complete First Season.

This recent series, which started in September of 2006, features the four core characters of the series: Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mister Fantastic, a scientist whose body can stretch like rubber and the brains behind the operation), his girlfriend Susan Storm (a.k.a. The Invisible Woman), her younger brother Johnny Storm (a.k.a. The Human Torch), and of course, Benjamin Grimm (better known as the ever lovin' blue eyed Thing), a rock encrusted strong man. These four live inside the mammoth Baxter Building in the middle of Manhattan where they also have their base of operations and a wide array of technical gadgetry courtesy of Richards' incessant inventing. They use their powers for good, to protect the people of not only New York but of the world against many different antagonists, specifically their arch-enemy, Doctor Doom.

Marvel, in conjunction with Moonstone Animation, has done a very good job with this series. While the animation is obviously very influenced by Japanese manga and anime, the show is very much in the spirit of the early Lee/Kirby comic book masterpieces and it turns out to be a lot of fun. The fact that the Fantastic Four do more than just square off against Doctor Doom each week leads to encounters with familiar villains such as The Mole Man, The Puppet Master, and even the Super Skrull! Guest appearances from instantly recognizable heroes such as The Hulk, Prince Namor The Submariner, and Iron Man add to the fun but what makes this series work is the way that the writers have nailed the team dynamic so important to the comic book's success. The stories may be a little simple by some standards and you could make the argument that they're geared towards a young audience than they maybe need to be but they really are in keeping with the early episodes of the comic books that inspired them and for that reason they turn out to be quite enjoyable doses of action and escapism.

As mentioned, the animation has been inspired by Japanese culture and so the characters don't always look as Kirby-esqe as purists will probably want them to. Likewise, some of the CGI used in the backgrounds doesn't blend as flawlessly as it could. That said, Kirby's sense of grandeur and design is apparent throughout the series in the gadgets, the villains, and many of the backgrounds in the series. The voice actors suit the characters well with Brian Dobson as The Thing really standing out/p>

The complete list of episodes (nine of which haven't been seen on American television until now) contained in this set is:

Doomsday / Molehattan / Trial By Fire / Doomed / Puppet Master / Zoned Out / Hard Knocks / My Neighbor Was A Skrull / World's Tiniest Heroes / De-Mole-Ition / Impossible / Bait And Switch / Annihilation / Revenge Of The Skrulls / Strings / Imperius Rex / Doomsday Plus One / The Cure / Frightful / Out Of Time / Atlantis Attacks / Shell Games / Johnny Storm And The Potion Of Fire / Contest Of Champions / Doom's Word Is Law / Scavenger Hunt

Ultimately this material isn't going to blow your mind. It isn't deep or particularly Earth shattering in any way but it does feel in tune with the source material and as far as superfluous bits of animated entertainment go, it's just a lot of fun. Here's hoping if the series returns to television that the writers are able to introduce some of the more interesting characters from the Fantastic Four universe. While it was nice to see the Silver Surfer show up in the second film, he and Galactus could have very easily worked in this series as well and with the massive rogues gallery of villains to choose from it would seem like there are a lot of avenues future episodes could explore. This is also a much nicer way to enjoy the series than to go through the three single disc releases that Fox had previously put out.

Video:

The episodes are all presented in 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen and for the most part they really look excellent on DVD. There isn't any print damage to complain about and the colors are nice, bright and bold. Detail is good for the style of animation used and there aren't any compression artifacts to complain about. A little bit of shimmering can be seen on some of the fine lines here and there but aside from that there's really nothing to complain about at all, the picture quality is surprisingly strong on this release.