Ultimate Fantastic Four isn't as good as it used to be

Here's a review I completely agree with.

Here's a couple of key points:

1. It doesn't help that artists Tyler Kirkham and Sal Regla overwhelm each panel with oppressive detail. Nothing in this issue has room to breathe, as each moment is cluttered with heavily inked detritus.

I think the art suffered from clutter as well as muddy coloring, which has plagued this book for a long time. As a Fantastic Four reader since 1978, I can honestly say that the art hasn't really suited the book for a long time.
I grew up looking at Joe Sinnott's clean lines and consistent look and the more I look at anything he inks, I am convinced that he is an absolutely superior artist. I wish the FF had been the beneficiary of an artist who could draw well and give the book a consistent sense of identity that he could.
Oddly enough, one of my favorite FF art teams in recent years was Paul Ryan and Danny Bulandi, who were unfortunately burdened with some truly awful writing by Tom deFalco. They were different than Joe Sinnott, but had a clean style in which the characters were all on model.

2. Ultimate Fantastic Four" #53 reads less like a Fantastic Four story than like a late-period Chris Claremont X-Men tale. It's overburdened with insignificant detail and lacks the human moments that would make it worth reading. For all of Mike Carey's cleverness (and there are a couple of clever twists in the plot), there's just not much of a Fantastic Four story here. The essence of the main characters remains, but their struggle feels as artificial as it looks.

Ouch. Here, the reviewer hits the nail on the head. The characters who make up the Fantastic Four have disappeared in recent issues, giving way to cosmic battles and universe-destroying villains. It's important to remember that the FF should be a character driven book, despite the science fiction type adventures that have. Carey is placing all his focus on plot to the deletion of character. I have to admit, the segment with The Thing and Thanos' daughter in the previous issue was pretty interesting, but even that gave way to action action action.

At any rate, I have read every issue of this book so far, and maybe two years ago, it was always on top of my list. Now, I am reading it more on inertia than anything else.

Just for the record, "She Hulk" is the same way. As much as admire Peter David as a writer, Dan Slott's run on the book was much more charming and fun. And, the artists since David took over as writer have been one step below awful. Shawn Moll. Bleah. Bad anatomy, poor storytelling; there's almost nothing in his work on this book to like.