The “Fant4stic” movie dropped this weekend, and many were gratified to see their predictions of disaster seeming to come true. Questions of what will happen with the Fantastic Four property are swirling about, but the biggest test really hasn’t come to pass. Some say that, after Secret Wars, we will see a whole new Marvel Universe without the denizens of the Baxter Building, leading to the question of what long-lasting effects that might have. Given that the villain of the massively successful Guardians Of The Galaxy movie is historically a Fantastic Four foe, we could see the bits and pieces of the team’s heroic legacy split up among the heroes that Marvel still has 100% adaptation control of, leading to today’s Negative Zone query…
The MS-QOTD (pronounced, as always, “misquoted”) would love to see something entirely new in the FF’s corner of the 616 or the MCU, asking: In your view, does the Marvel Universe actually NEED a Fantastic Four?
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Sometimes crossovers suffer from the authors trying to cram in too many characters, especially if the roles they fulfil overlap. I think it’s fair enough to thin out some of the characters from the main Marvel continuity, and if the FF have reached the point where it makes sense to bring their story to an end, fair enough. They’ve been taken to some interesting places in recent years (although I’m not completely up to date) and it’s better to stop than to reset everything and start retreading old ground just for the sake of writing more FF comics.
When written by someone who really gets them, though, the FF can be amazing and pretty unique, inasmuch as anything in comics is unique. I’d still like to see the occasional miniseries that will stand up all the better on its own merits, without the need for strong ties to current Marvel continuity.
Surprise, surprise for me saying this… But it’s time that the FF’s original crew moved on. “Updating” Reed and Company’s origin for exposure to cosmic rays ends up with the misbegotten crap that was used in the FFaux movie last week (“dimensional travel v. space travel”). An aged Steve Rogers has seemed to be very popular with readers. Him shocking the hell outta “Doc Green” in that mag was priceless. Ben’s still an icon but there are now about 100+ characters in the MU that are stronger and more durable than the Everlovin’ Blue Eyed Thing. Johnny Storm should stay in the mix with either the Inhumans or the Avengers but it’s time for Reed and Sue to retire to become researchers and mentors and for Ben Grimm to enjoy being just Ben Grimm. Should there be an FF? Yes. But there are plenty of options of making it a younger group under Johnny or someone else that works with the originals.
I dont think anything is absolutely needed in Marvel Universe, but it wouldn’t be same Marvel Universe I like if they don’t notice the characters everything else is pretty much built upon. I never really got this attitude where something old absolutely cant coexist with new, cool kids. I cant see how Guardians somehow make FF obsolete. Its same as saying we don’t need X-Men because there’s Inhumans or Because of Avengers, no other high profile Marvel team is ever needed anymore. Why cant we have both?
I’ve never read many Fantastic Four comics, mainly because I strongly dislike Reed Richards. I like Ben and Johhny, I love Sue, and absolutely adore Doom. But Reed is pretty much always the character getting the most attention and he always drags the book down for me.
That said, I’m selfishly kind of happy to see the characters split up into other books. If I could just read a good Sue Storm book with little or no involvement from Reed it would make my year. Really, I hope they keep Ultimate Universe Sue and give her a solo book, but that’s probably hoping for too much.
That said, FF is one of the most iconic titles Mavel has, and it’s the one that started it all. As much as I like the idea of seeing them separate, it wouldn’t feel right if they went too long without putting them back together. Even if I’m not personally reading it because of Reed.
The Fantastic Four have been a hard fit in the Marvel Universe for decades now. And an even worse in the Cinematic Universe, where SHIELD pulls all the strings.