Worst Era of Fantastic Four

[Omega Alpha]

It all feels so poor in comparison to Hickman's push forward of the concept. Plus we've been without the FF for a long time! I was really fond of Fraction/Allred's FF and the Robinson/Bagely Fantastic Four, they at least attempted something new.

I'm not a fan of Slott's writing but even so, the current title tries nothing new.

But that's Slott's problem, is that he believes "fans are entitled to the classic/most recognizable version of the characters", whatever that is, because apparently reading back issues is impossible. If he ever gets to write X-men, it will have them on the mansion, led by Professor Xavier, Cyclops as a boyscout, together with Jean Grey as a couple but in a triangle with Wolverine, Magneto as the #1 enemy, etc.

[mogwen]

The De Falco/Ryan era with Reed dead, the grown-up Franklin aka Psi-Lord, and that horrible Sue Costume were just plain ridiculous. The 90's in all their glory!
Ryan Invisible Woman.jpg

[gurkle]

I think the basic idea behind the Englehart run, of moving Reed and Sue over to the Avengers and having Ben in charge of a partly-new FF, wasn't a terrible idea. It could have given the team new places to go and opportunities for soap opera without having to threaten the Richards' marriage to do it.

Of course it fell apart for a lot of reasons but mostly because Englehart just was not the writer he had been in the '70s. His story and character ideas were not good and he had taken to ending every sentence with an exclamation point! (even though he didn't write that way in the '70s). These story and dialogue problems were something you could live with on a satellite book like West Coast Avengers but on FF he needed guidance he either wasn't getting or wouldn't accept.

[Chris0013]

I would have been fine with this run, if the whole She-Thing mess never happened.

there are other powers that cosmic rays have manifested in people...imagine if Sharon Ventura had gotten Vector's TK instead of She-Thinged.

[danielsan52]

Ryan Invisible Woman.jpg

Nita.jpg

Tht costume would be great for Nita tho'!

[danielsan52]

there are other powers that cosmic rays have manifested in people...imagine if Sharon Ventura had gotten Vector's TK instead of She-Thinged.

I really hope Dan Slott "fixes" Sharon.

[ArthurCurry]

But...why?

Sincere question. I'm interested to know what makes makes the little stuff we've gotten so far the worst ever.

That's what I want to know also. It's not great but I don't see the argument of it being one of the worst. It's pretty generic, which IMO get it to be ranked, so far, as middle of the pack.

[Iron Maiden]

I can only speak for myself but I know I'm not alone in thinking that there is a lot of discontent on how Slott handled two the aces in the deck of Fantastic Four supporting characters, namely Doom and Galactus. They are more than just run of the mill villains. And if you can't get them right, your run is in trouble from the start.

I also thought that several times in the early issues he seemed to always have one of the characters spout how the FF always win because they are a family.......boring. They shouldn't have to make such pronouncments....just show it in the story. Stan and Jack sure didn't get that corny. They would bicker and get on each others nerves at times.

[ArthurCurry]

I can only speak for myself but I know I'm not alone in thinking that there is a lot of discontent on how Slott handled two the aces in the deck of Fantastic Four supporting characters, namely Doom and Galactus. They are more than just run of the mill villains. And if you can't get them right, your run is in trouble from the start.

I also thought that several times in the early issues he seemed to always have one of the characters spout how the FF always win because they are a family.......boring. They shouldn't have to make such pronouncments....just show it in the story. Stan and Jack sure didn't get that corny. They would bicker and get on each others nerves at times.

I can understand being disappointed in Doom and Galactus's characterization- specifically coming off of a high point for the character under Hickman. Which is all the more hilarious because there seems to be a group of people who say Hickman doesn't do character-driven stories when his FF and Secret Wars was all character-driven. His Doom was excellent.

I just disagree with the current run being considered the worst FF of all time. Maybe there's a bit of hyperbole from some people when they say that and I'm missing it. When I'm personally thinking of worst FF I'm thinking of issues that are a chore to read and I don't even really understand what's going on-Claremont.

[Iron Maiden]

I can understand being disappointed in Doom and Galactus's characterization- specifically coming off of a high point for the character under Hickman. Which is all the more hilarious because there seems to be a group of people who say Hickman doesn't do character-driven stories when his FF and Secret Wars was all character-driven. His Doom was excellent.

I just disagree with the current run being considered the worst FF of all time. Maybe there's a bit of hyperbole from some people when they say that and I'm missing it. When I'm personally thinking of worst FF I'm thinking of issues that are a chore to read and I don't even really understand what's going on-Claremont.

I think it is because of a couple of things....

We were spoiled by the Hickman run, which when you think about continued in some respects in his New Avengers. His ideas were fresh and gave the title new life with concepts like the Future Foundation, the Bridge, The Council of Reeds. I loved how he used the theme of the relationship with Fathers and sons, Nathaniel and Reed, Reed and Franklin and to a smaller extent, Doom and Kristoff. If the Torch will ever have a final death scene, I think they will have a hard time topping the one Hickman gave him. But of course, it didn't stick.

Slott needs to up his game, if he's capable, to match that.

Slott did give us a new villain with the Griever but the jury is still out on that one about whether or not she she catches on. If the new wrinkle of a new Fantastic Four HQ is not so new. Been there, done that with Four Freedoms Plaza and Pier 4. Doom is back to creating death traps for .....whatever. He really tried particularly with Ben in Infamous Iron Man. He had grudgingly accepted Ben and to a smaller extent Johnny as comrades in arms in MTIO. IMO he's regressed Doom to 1960s. I am also disappointed that he seems to have forgotten all about the relationship between Val and her Uncle Doom.

[Crimz]

I think the current run has potential with some of it's ideas.

The kids being teens
Griever
Ben and Alicia finally married.

But that's not many.... I still have no clue what he has planned for Reed, Sue, and Johnny. It's still seems to be in the 'set-up' phase, which is not ideal 9 issues in.
It's still to early for me to compare it to other runs as it hasn't ended yet, but other than the 3 things listed it's too run-of-the-mill.

As CaptCleghorn said, the worst era was the 3 years they were gone.

[Gaastra]

I liked the she-thing era. Shook up the long time title and let reed and sue join another team and gave the thing a leader role. Had a great thing vs hulk story, X-Men vs fantastic four, and used comet man. Liked the spikey thing also. reed and sue in another team was a nice change like beast in avengers and she-hulk in ff.

The trouble was the marvel heads kept messing with the story. Yanking crystal off the book, forced reed and sue off the avengers and wanted the team "back the way it used to be" not wanted to change things. Sound familiar? They just did that with doom. This lead to the dream story that pretty much attacked marvel over not wanting to change things. The book like the storm and black panther ff changed it up and added some new stories after over 300 issues.

Have a soft spot for that era.

[Zero Hunter]

For as much as people bag on Claremonts run I will give him credit for doing something new with his run. It was not just Doom and Galactus rinse and repeat. He was pulling in stuff from all over the Marvel U as well as the FF lore.

[Gaastra]

Used some stuff from Excalibur as well.

[Iron Maiden]

For as much as people bag on Claremonts run I will give him credit for doing something new with his run. It was not just Doom and Galactus rinse and repeat. He was pulling in stuff from all over the Marvel U as well as the FF lore.

I think the Claremont/Larocca run is underrated myself. I think it allowed him to stretch his legs a bit and get out of the X titles for a while. I remember he used to post on a MB that isn't around any more and one of his favorite characters from that era was Samantha Dunbar aka Doom's bodyguard Lancer. Claremont was given the task to bring Doom back into play after the Heroes Return and he created a mini series to accomplish this. He became marooned on the Heroes Reborn planet and had to figure out how to get back to Earth Prime. Too bad I read somewhere that Lancer was later killed off in the Exiles but never have found that issue.