The Fantastic Four Appreciation 2020

[Snoop Dogg]

What do you guys think would be the best move forward for bring back the magic to the FF? What needs to change, what needs to stay the same? How do you make these characters, and their stories, actually be vital again instead of living in the shadow of their own legacy?
(I'm not talking MCU)

STEP 1: Release comics again.
STEP 2: One artist per story arc.
STEP 3: Introduce some new stuff, which has happened, but now make other books use it. In the 60's, most of their discovies were important to other books, and therefore important to the universe. Why are we waiting until Griever shows up in FF again? There is an entire cosmic line of books! Find some weird thing on Earth and have it show up in Avengers! The reason they were so prominent in the 60's was because as Stan and Jack's biggest and best-selling book, the line orbited around it (really helped that the line was smaller and they were involved in most of it, but we saw this happen in a modern context with Bendis' Avengers). That stopped when they left, and if you want to recreate that you need to do the reverse, where you manually coordinate the line to orbit around FF. This requires a lot of work, but the key thing is that this has to be an active Marvel editorial goal, and with how disparate the line has become under Cebulski we don't really see this happening with any book except Hickman's X-Men for other X-Books. But I don't think profit should be a factor in putting out books that stand on their own but are more than just in the same setting as others, but a line where most of the books are building towards a single narrative for their own corner for a few years.

And you know, I typed all of that before I remembered that the FF is headlining Empyre which does most of what I just said, so maybe we should just focus on Step 1.

[Storm17]

Remember when Johnny was a singer? They should bring that back. I know Slott kinda hinted at it in his 1st issue, but still

[Doombot]

I kinda wish Johnny would keep some of his maturity that he gained after his "death" in the Negative Zone and would become the team's unofficial leader. Everyone's still on the team, but Reed and Sue can take a step back and do parenting/science things while Johnny takes the lead. Maybe Sue and Reed could be the ones coming up with the things that need investigating while Johhny takes leadership in the field. It could even cause some ruffling of feathers between the team members as Johnny asserts himself more as a leader. I love Johnny, but I'm tired of the cocky teen/20something playboy shtick. Peter Parker was able to keep his fun personality while still maturing as a character. Johnny's development over the years never seems to stick.

[Storm17]

I kinda wish Johnny would keep some of his maturity that he gained after his "death" in the Negative Zone and would become the team's unofficial leader. Everyone's still on the team, but Reed and Sue can take a step back and do parenting/science things while Johnny takes the lead. Maybe Sue and Reed could be the ones coming up with the things that need investigating while Johhny takes leadership in the field. It could even cause some ruffling of feathers between the team members as Johnny asserts himself more as a leader. I love Johnny, but I'm tired of the cocky teen/20something playboy shtick. Peter Parker was able to keep his fun personality while still maturing as a character. Johnny's development over the years never seems to stick.

I like his cocky youthful self. His whole personality is basically that he's a playful kid.

[Snoop Dogg]

Remember when Johnny was a singer? They should bring that back. I know Slott kinda hinted at it in his 1st issue, but still

[Crimz]

I kinda wish Johnny would keep some of his maturity that he gained after his "death" in the Negative Zone and would become the team's unofficial leader. Everyone's still on the team, but Reed and Sue can take a step back and do parenting/science things while Johnny takes the lead. Maybe Sue and Reed could be the ones coming up with the things that need investigating while Johhny takes leadership in the field. It could even cause some ruffling of feathers between the team members as Johnny asserts himself more as a leader. I love Johnny, but I'm tired of the cocky teen/20something playboy shtick. Peter Parker was able to keep his fun personality while still maturing as a character. Johnny's development over the years never seems to stick.

I think that wouldn't work. Just looking at real life family dynamics don't change in such a way. What I mean by that is to the others Johnny is always the kid brother and they wouldn't take him seriously as the leader, plus it messes up their dynamic if Johnny has to be the responsible one. He definitely should be more mature, but he shouldn't lead the team. If anything I think he should lead a different team. I think the FF should expand, having associated teams like the Avengers and X-Men do. Johnny should lead a team like that.

[Snoop Dogg]

John needs a real job.

[Doombot]

Family dynamics change all the time, especially as people age and/or new members are added, like children or spouses. No one would be kicked out or demoted, people grow and mature and so do families. I love the FF, but I think these characters being forever stuck in their original portrayal is part of the reason so many modern readers find the FF stale or boring. Sue seems to have changed the most and had the change stick. Even so, that was quite some time ago.

[Ravin' Ray]

Waid made Johnny the CFO of FF Inc. if I remember correctly. And Hickman made him the leader of the Light Brigade and ruler of the Annihilation Wave. And in the AU FF: The End, he even lead the Avengers. Johnny can assume a leadership role on an as-needs basis.

[Doombot]

I do remember that from "The End" storyline, I really liked that book.

[CaptCleghorn]

At this point, Johnny needs to grow the F (pun intended) up. Franklin is a teenage boy and making Johnny out to be the immature one is more embarassing than him being the youngest and a kid in the others' eyes. Sure, he and Ben can still do guy stuff, but Johnny's scheme need to be more Ralph Kramden and Fred Flintstone than Greg Brady.

[Crimz]

I do remember that from "The End" storyline, I really liked that book.

That had really interesting paths for the team. I really like Sue being an archaeologist and Val learning some magic. I hope these aspects are introduced into main canon.

[Ravin' Ray]

I really like Sue being an archaeologist and Val learning some magic.

Interestingly in the FF Annual 1999 by Claremont, the issue that introduced Mechamage, Val von Doom though while not using magic is able to discern magical energy. And of course in Marvel Knights 4 Diablo taught Val and Franklin an incantation to help defeat Shuma-Gorath and Nicholas Scratch.

[Crimz]

Interestingly in the FF Annual 1999 by Claremont, the issue that introduced Mechamage, Val von Doom though while not using magic is able to discern magical energy. And of course in Marvel Knights 4 Diablo taught Val and Franklin an incantation to help defeat Shuma-Gorath and Nicholas Scratch.

It's time it became a canon ability for 616 Val. A great way to make her stand out more while increasing her connection to Doom. Just bring in Agatha Harkness as her tutor and the stories almost write themselves.

[Michael Watkins]

Sure. Teach Val magic. It’s not like it thoroughly corrupts everyone who uses it. An already responsible and in no way impulsive individual like Val shouldn’t have any issue with it. Same people worry about Franklin being around other mutants.