Fantastic Four Returns

[Anthony W]

Well all the characters and teams that everyone has been complaining about have been removed/replaced are back.... So we can expect to see a surge in Marvel sales since all the people who claimed they stopped reading Marvel because of all the changes got what they wanted, right?

I doubt it. Do you remember New Coke? People didn't like New Coke so Coke changed it back. Marvel served New Coke and people didn't like it. Then everyone said that the problem was with them and not New Coke. Maybe the fans have moved on to other things. If so that puts Marvel in a tough spot because they wouldn't be changing things back if they were happy.

[Mike]

I'm not a fan of Slott’s writing in the least.
But the FF is my favorite comic book and I will give it a try.
I always give a new writer a chance.
But he better impress my really quick.

[macattack]

About time.

Slott isn't my cup of tea though, but I'll give the first issue a shot if nothing else.

[DragonsChi]

While it is nice to hear the Fantastic Four is back for their fans and for Marvel, I hope the company has something big plan them team for the long term. Just bringing them back will not save the book from cancellation again and a team that iconic should never had to worry about it to begin with.

Fingers crossed that this absence will be their last.

[Sensational C]

Super excited to pick this up asap between the Fantastic creative team as well as getting the first family back together!

[Michael Watkins]

Scott Lobdell did work reforming him in an issue of Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD and a serial in Marvel Comics Presents. Slott was building off of that.

hmmm. was he really reformed in those issues? it's been awhile since I read them. but I just remember them introducing the angle that he was a SHIELD agent who got a little too wrapped up in his undercover work. I guess that it made him seem more sympathetic. but I don't think that any of that really played into his depiction in Avengers the Initiative. he was reforming for Diamondback's benefit (or because Nighthawk was paying him in the Thing mini).

[Thor2014]

I doubt it. Do you remember New Coke? People didn't like New Coke so Coke changed it back. Marvel served New Coke and people didn't like it. Then everyone said that the problem was with them and not New Coke. Maybe the fans have moved on to other things. If so that puts Marvel in a tough spot because they wouldn't be changing things back if they were happy.

The interesting thing was the whole New Coke thing was a bit of a ruse. When Coke was changed back it wasn't the exact same formula-tweaks were made, but many didn't notice it.

Always preferred the sweeter taste of Pepsi anyway.

PS: Yay Fantastic Four!

[The Whovian]

WOOOHOOO!!!

[jyamen]

the book will look pretty, at least that's a guarantee. but I agree, I want high concept sci fi odysseys....not the writer of clone conspiracy. Ill give it a shot though.

[FreshGuy]

This is awesome, it makes sense as the 2-in-one series has been running

[WebLurker]

I doubt it. Do you remember New Coke? People didn't like New Coke so Coke changed it back. Marvel served New Coke and people didn't like it. Then everyone said that the problem was with them and not New Coke. Maybe the fans have moved on to other things. If so that puts Marvel in a tough spot because they wouldn't be changing things back if they were happy.

I agree. You can't please everyone. Heck, some of the feedback I'm seeing is not "Yay! The old characters we like are coming back," but "Hey! Why are we loosing the new characters we like?" (Purely anecdotal, but it seems like the original Wolverine coming back has had an underwhelming response, while more readers are vocally protesting X-23 giving up the Wolverine mantle so Logan can have it all to himself.)

As far as the F4 coming back, I'm completely underwhelmed. I've never found them enjoyable and feel that they have as much relevance to modern-day Marvel as the Model T does to the auto industry. (I've also found Slott to not be a writer I like, so I'm further unimpressed.) Hope for the F4 fans out there that it does well, though. I may not like that specific comic, but I do know what it's like when your favorites end and disappear.

[The Whovian]

Promo art announcing the new series:

[Orbus]

I doubt it. Do you remember New Coke? People didn't like New Coke so Coke changed it back. Marvel served New Coke and people didn't like it. Then everyone said that the problem was with them and not New Coke. Maybe the fans have moved on to other things. If so that puts Marvel in a tough spot because they wouldn't be changing things back if they were happy.

Not sure that analogy fully works. Isn't it largely accepted that New Coke was a deliberate way boost the regular Coca Cola? To some degree that was always plan with Marvel too. They were never going to sideline many of their traditional characters forever and the (temporary) sales boost of their return was always going to be the end game, they just needed the right time to spring it.

Where your comparison falls down is that New Coke was always designed to fail whereas not only where Marvel's legacy characters not designed to fail but most of them didn't. I don't think we need to go over again how all round successful Jane Foster has been and the likes of Miles Morales, Kamala Khan, Lunalla have been big sellers in things like digital and trade and Scholastic all of which make Marvel far more many than traditional direct market sales. Marvel makes more money now in their publishing than it did ten years ago when their floppies were selling better because of these new outlets and if it's the legacy characters that seem to work better in those outlets then surely they should still have a place in the market.

If they are doing so well then why are they making some effort to scale a lot of it back you might ask? I would imagine that there's still a lot of problems with understanding these new outlets that they yet to iron out and they don't want to alienate the direct market audience even if it is a dying one. More than that I imagine that the sustained attacks by people and organisations that want to promote an anti-diversity agenda have finally gotten to them and they've choked. Not that this wasn't the plan, like I said the anticipated sales boost of a whole bunch of relaunches of classic characters (even if it will likely be very temporary) is a big incentibe.

But I'm not sure this is really a good idea at this time. Marvel's attempts to appease both audiences has been messy so far. They gave traditional fans exactly what they cried for three years they wanted with Falcon and Waid's Captain America and it's backfired. Seems that the people who wanted Sam Wilson as the Falcon and a traditional Captain America book didn't turn out for them. But hey you've got a ready made excuse for that - it's not that some of these characters were never reliably huge sales draws in the first it's diversity that pushed fans away even when there's little diversity anymore.

Anyway about the Fantastic Four.

I generally like Dan Slott's work on Spider-Man even if I can see why he's not everyone's cup of tea. I'm not sure he's be a good FF writer...actually scratch that I think he will be a great FF writer, the team has been a well written fixture of his work for a long time and he clearly has love for the characters but I'm not so sure he's a great writer to relaunch the FF and address some of the problems with why the book wasn't selling in the first place.

He'd be great at character interactions, comedy and the family aspect of the team, I imagine his run will be closer to Waid's run than Hickmans which is fine but I think something akin to the latter is more what is needed for the FF to have some staying power but we'll see. I'm sure I'll personally enjoy it and Pichelli's art is a definite draw.

[Ying Ko]

Slott, eh?

I've never cared for his Spider-Man. Maybe I'll check this out...

[The Whovian]

Slott, eh?

I've never cared for his Spider-Man. Maybe I'll check this out...

You didn't like his Spider-Man? I loved it