The First Family of Marvel: The Fantastic Four Appreciation 2019

[JudicatorPrime]

The dialogue in the issues so far has been contradictory. Both Franklin and Val are now teenagers, and since Val's last known age was 3, and Frank's 8, that would require them to now be 13 and 18. However, only five years have passed, which would make them 8 and 13. Slott seems to have narrowed the age gap, retconning Val's birth to be further back in time. She's at least 13, and I think Franklin is about 15.

Thanks. The sliding timescale thing always throws me off. At some point it would be nice if Franklin was old enough to date Rachel, even it's a May - December type romance. But if he's only 15ish, that won't happen any time soon.

[Shadowcat]

I personally don't think his costume has aged well and needs a bit of an update. However I find the Contest of Champions costumes too modern for someone from the Middle Ages.

I think my perfect costume for Diablo would be a happy medium between his classic suit and this more modern one. I hope Slott or a future writer does something interesting with him and upgrade him to being a big threat again. I've always found his concept interesting.

Me too. I hope Slott does something with his vampire status, that Carlos Pacheco had made him. I hope he also resurrects Gilded Lily too. That would be amazing.

[JudicatorPrime]

What's everyone's thoughts on Diablo's design for the Contest of Champions game?

Would you like if were to be his new costume for the comics?

Hmmm...not sure.

Diablo is a master of alchemy, which although a forerunner of chemistry and other scientific disciplines, was enshrouded in arcane, quasi-mystical airs. Couple that with his nom de guerre, I'd probably lean more toward him looking like that guy from the beer commercials, "The Most Interesting Man in the World." Perhaps more wiry, like an addict that doesn't eat much because he's hooked on his own elixirs. He wouldn't display beakers and vials out in the open. No, a modern day Diablo would have a bit of a creepy factor to him. He'd be in that rare group of people who were born with two livers, only Diablo would remove one of them and instead insert a device in its place that housed most of his base chemicals and potions. He would use extreme science to rewire his body so that he could secrete the chemicals that he needed on demand. Whenever he did so he'd be enveloped in a purple mist with green bioluminescent wisps, in part to hide what he was doing to onlookers, but mostly as a result of those concoctions interacting with one another at room temperature. I'd definitely give him a long coat, and crazy looking goggles and wicked long black hair that looked tame in the light, but when you looked at his shadow, it appeared that he had daemonic horns.

[Crimz]

Hmmm...not sure.

Diablo is a master of alchemy, which although a forerunner of chemistry and other scientific disciplines, was enshrouded in arcane, quasi-mystical airs. Couple that with his nom de guerre, I'd probably lean more toward him looking like that guy from the beer commercials, "The Most Interesting Man in the World." Perhaps more wiry, like an addict that doesn't eat much because he's hooked on his own elixirs. He wouldn't display beakers and vials out in the open. No, a modern day Diablo would have a bit of a creepy factor to him. He'd be in that rare group of people who were born with two livers, only Diablo would remove one of them and instead insert a device in its place that housed most of his base chemicals and potions. He would use extreme science to rewire his body so that he could secrete the chemicals that he needed on demand. Whenever he did so he'd be enveloped in a purple mist with green bioluminescent wisps, in part to hide what he was doing to onlookers, but mostly as a result of those concoctions interacting with one another at room temperature. I'd definitely give him a long coat, and crazy looking goggles and wicked long black hair that looked tame in the light, but when you looked at his shadow, it appeared that he had daemonic horns.

That's a really interesting way to go.

[SuperiorIronman]

What's everyone's thoughts on Diablo's design for the Contest of Champions game?

Would you like if were to be his new costume for the comics?

Speaking objectively, It looks fine. I can still recognize it as Diablo and I can understand the removal of the cape or tassels or whatever if only to cut down on animation costs.

Speaking artistically that's a good looking mask.
In practice though I'm not sure if this is the best outfit for him if he may mix chemicals on the fly. Even with simple things like Darkroom Photography chemicals you don't want that to get on your skin or nice clothes and in this case we're talking things for attacks. In this case I think the jumpsuit might make a bit more sense if only for the ease of cleanup and or removal. Essentially that if he was to have a spill, he only has to take one thing off. That looks like a fairly complicated looking outfit.

If I had it my way he would be in the jumpsuit but with a higher level of detail. Sometimes the best redesigns is just accentuating what is already there. However coming from someone who works in gloves, a sturdy pair of tighter fit gloves would work better. I get that it kind of adds to the theatrics but in practice with larger gloves (especially leather) it makes it harder and harder to grip things. So basically a higher level of detail on the original outfit and either incorporate the gloves into the jumpsuit or just make them a tighter fit.

[Iron Maiden]

I had started a bit of research on Diablo a few months back but didn't have time to get to far into it. Aided by Marvel Unlimited, I found a great polishing up of the character done by Abnett & Lanning in a 4 part series called Iron Man /Thor back in 2011. Never did see much mention of this series but it's worth looking into. They did revisit his origins and with the art by Scot Eaton (BTW why doesn't Marvel have more of this style art these days??), made it quite epic IMO. I like the addition of El Cid to his early stages. There was also that link to Dracula that came up in the Loeb/Pachecho/Marin Fantastic Four run.





This is ancient spoilers but the final battle involves a greatly enhanced Diablo who has also stolen the Destroyer armor with the help of his ally, Ulik the Troll. The game design is interesting in that it adds kind of bandolier with vials of his potions instead of bullets. But it also gives me flashbacks of the 90's when everyone, including the FF had jackets with pouches and or bandoliers.

I think you can still keep basic elements like his headpiece and the one from the game looks too insect-like to me. Armor has gotten to be pretty prevalent in comics but in Diablo's case, it's something he would be accustomed to considering the century of his origin.

[Crimz]

That's really interesting, I'll have to check it out. Looking at Diablo in the destroyer armor makes me think that part of my problem with his costume is that Dr Doom does the medieval look a million times better. They also have really similar color schemes. I just don't know what it is but his outfit has never clicked for me.

Outside of his appearance I think Diablo should be kind of obsessed with Johnny. He transforms into living flame and as an alchemist I think Diablo would be most interested in that.

It could be a way to give Johnny his own villain.

[CaptCleghorn]

Diablo and The Frightful Four both had nice first appearances and stormed out of the gate. However, subsequent stories failed miserably to show them as potent, impressive villains. With Diablo, a simple fight with the FF fails to come up with anything but a quick story. Diablo's skill set and style is to use prep time to set the stage for his plans. I need to reread that Doom Marvel Super-Heroes story to see where and how the Doom/Diablo rivalry started.

I think with guys like Diablo, the mistake is focusing on them trying to beat the FF and not having them try to avoid the FF in order to fulfill whatever plans they have.

[The BaRoN]

What's the news for today?

[Crimz]

Having gone through the character bio's on the Marvel website the lack of personal villains really sticks out.

https://www.marvel.com/characters/th...rimm/in-comics
https://www.marvel.com/characters/hu...torm/in-comics
https://www.marvel.com/characters/in...oman/in-comics

They try and say Doom is their villain, but that doesn't really work. Doom is Reed's villain and he views the other members as secondary.

Who would you have as each members villain? It could be villains from both in out of the FF's rogues.


For me it would be:



Johnny

Diablo - as I said earlier

Lyja - Also went more into detail about this earlier

Annihilus - After the events in the Hickman run, Annihilus should loathe Johnny. He usurped him, stole his cosmic control rod (where is that thing by the way?), and kept him as a pet. There is more than enough set-up here for him to constantly be after Johnny.



Sue

Psycho-Man - He already kind of is, but needs a bit more refinement and a push imo. Have him more like the Marvel Knights one where his emotional control was a power instead of a gadget as well as having telepathy. He was extremely powerful in that and I'd change him to a being that feeds off negative emotions.



Ben

Puppet Master - With Ben now married to Alicia and the situation with asking him for his permission sets this up quite nicely. Puppet Master is now family to Ben and you can really play around with that and what it means to have a supervillain in the family.



Reed already has many villains and rivals who target him, some need refining, but I decided to leave him out of my list.

It's difficult to think of enemies that not only could have motivation, but also be a real threat for Ben and Sue. I can think of many that are a threat but have no real motivation.

For them I think new characters should be created or a decent writer can create motivation for characters outside of the FF's usual villains.

[Iron Maiden]

Diablo and The Frightful Four both had nice first appearances and stormed out of the gate. However, subsequent stories failed miserably to show them as potent, impressive villains. With Diablo, a simple fight with the FF fails to come up with anything but a quick story. Diablo's skill set and style is to use prep time to set the stage for his plans. I need to reread that Doom Marvel Super-Heroes story to see where and how the Doom/Diablo rivalry started.

I think with guys like Diablo, the mistake is focusing on them trying to beat the FF and not having them try to avoid the FF in order to fulfill whatever plans they have.

The MSH story starts the Doom/Diablo rivalry when Diablo abducts Valeria (the first appearance of Doom's first love and childhood friend) to force Doom into using his time platform as a means of world conquest.

[Snoop Dogg]

Doom is more of a Reed/Ben guy honestly because Victor and Ben are such good foils with a rich dynamic. Conceptually, it's actually more compelling than Vic/Reed.

Also, Ben can have Sandman. The Spider-Office doesn't even have much to do with him.

[danielsan52]

It’s time for them to finally face The U-Foes.

[Snoop Dogg]

It’s time for them to finally face The U-Foes.

DIS, to be quite honest

[CaptCleghorn]

It’s time for them to finally face The U-Foes.

The U-Foes were an obvious attempt to copy the FF. However, their origin was the same as the Red Ghost and his apes and their position is the same as that of the Frightful Four. The story's already been done with better designed characters and settings and the U-Foes offer nothing but a far more blatant copying.