The Fantastic Four Appreciation 2021

[CaptCleghorn]

It sure is.
Hopefully this aspect of the FF will translate well to the MCU, whenever.

I think you really need to get the four major pairings the team has:

Reed/Sue - love and marriage
Ben/Reed - long time friends
Johnny/Ben - immature super buddies
Sue/Johnny - siblings growing up together

Reed, Ben, and Johnny are easy to get individually; Sue not so much. The big separation of OK from very good would be the relationships between characters.

[Shalla Bal]

I think you're right, a lot of the issues after the last Doom arc, Kirby was treading water, maybe?

But we did get the introduction of Agatha Harkness, and also the Thing's abduction to fight on the Skrull world was pretty good.

It's possible, but that Skrull story was pretty good. It certainly didn't seems like someone scratching at the door to get out. As for the late 90s (issue numbers), didn't Marvel have a short-lived single issue story thing going on then? Needing to do stories in done-in-ones may have had a lot to do with style crimping.

The Skrull arc wasn't bad, but at the time fans noticed it was a mash-up of two consecutive Star Trek episodes and wondered if Kirby had run out of steam. And similarly, the Doom #84-87 arc had been based on TV's The Prisoner. He was in talks with Infantino during this time and his focus was on hammering out a deal with DC. He'd been disgruntled with Marvel for awhile; remember he felt that Stan changed/ruined the intent of the Him story (#66-67) in 1967 and this was followed by the assigning of the Silver Surfer book to Buscema. So yes, during this time he probably felt why bother -- it was easier to look to TV for story ideas!

[Frontier]

Fantastic Four: The Forever Gate Thoughts:

- I feel like they could have stuck with the black suits a little longer, since they looked really good, but the blue was probably always coming back. They're definitely not bad FF costumes. It reminds me of their Marvel Adventures looks.

- Oh hey, Slott bringing up Sue's spy job for SHIELD! That's nice (and a Fury Jr. cameo for anyone that cares). And then it finally kind of blows up to her family when Doom catches her, as you do.

- You know it's serious when Reed and Doom team-up.

- Well...now the FF own the Baxter Building again...or at least the place where it used to be. I guess Slott or a next writer could just have it rebuilt again lickety split if they feel like it. Sucks for the Fantastix, though.

- So we had to go through a bad mini dealing with the X-Men and FF coming to blows over Franklin only for it turn out he was a fake Mutant all the time? Feels like a ripoff.

- Did Valeria's hair having more...volume, I guess, happen in the last arc? It seems new. I guess it helps her stand out more from her mom beyond having shorter blonde hair.

- Now Valeria, it's probably perfectly valid in the prince's world for him to have a Harem that he loves equally. You can't really fault him for that much just because you didn't know about it at the time...although I guess emotionally she wasn't prepared for it. At least Bentley won't stop making googly eyes at her.

- I love the idea that you know you've made it when a major villain yells out "Richards!" At the same time, the Griever arc felt kind of anti-climactic when Reed just goes "Well, why not go to the end of the universe through this portal?" It was nice seeing her without the mask.

- Why were the Power kids shaded black when they got back? It's like the artist didn't know what they were going to look like or couldn't show them, but then they showed Rikki fine. And their parents knew where they were which kind of contradicts them still being in the dark about the kids being Superheroes in their Outlawed mini...and I'm overthinking it.

- Well, Slott is definitely incorporating the Kree/Skrull kids as much as he can, even if all they do is become something for Ben to mention or just have a line or two acknowledging their existence.

- Man, it's nice to have Uatu and the real Nick Fury back. Although Fury's bald now too...

- I don't know if it's hilarious or sad that Sue admits she's tailed/stalked Johnny on his dates before and he's only finding out about it now.

- I wonder if the future where Ben kills Reed has anything to do with Alicia?

- The idea that Sue is very self-conscious as a sister and mother because she feel like Johnny's emotional issues are her fault for not raising him right is...actually kind of interesting. Not sure if they'll go anywhere good with it, but still.

[Oberon]

You sum it up well. This would be the best way to go.

[Hypestyle]

Solo book for Ben!
https://www.marvel.com/articles/comi...1-announcement

hopefully Mr. Mosley gets to do more work for Marvel after this.

[Digifiend]

Textless preview for #36
https://www.cbr.com/fantastic-four-3...ew-status-quo/
spoilers:

Poor Johnny. HERBIE's apparently been to McDonalds, but when Johnny tries to eat a Big Mac, it burns up in his hands. And then he blows up and the heat destroys HERBIE! He's a melted pile of goop. Sue has to protect Frank and Val with a forcefield - Ben and Reed can survive the blast just fine.

end of spoilers

[Frontier]

Textless preview for #36
https://www.cbr.com/fantastic-four-3...ew-status-quo/
spoilers:

Poor Johnny. HERBIE's apparently been to McDonalds, but when Johnny tries to eat a Big Mac, it burns up in his hands. And then he blows up and the heat destroys HERBIE! He's a melted pile of goop. Sue has to protect Frank and Val with a forcefield - Ben and Reed can survive the blast just fine.

end of spoilers

spoilers:

Oh hey, HERBIE came back?

end of spoilers

[Ravin' Ray]

spoilers:

Oh hey, HERBIE came back?

end of spoilers

You mean
spoilers:

potty mouth HERBIE? From the whole Robot Revolution thing? Looks like it, and seems like he's back to his old self.

end of spoilers

[Shadowcat]

Solo book for Ben!
https://www.marvel.com/articles/comi...1-announcement

I’m ready for this. I wish we had a FF companion book. Like Marvel 2 in 1, with a rotating cast of current and former members as the lead stories.

[Frontier]

I’m ready for this. I wish we had a FF companion book. Like Marvel 2 in 1, with a rotating cast of current and former members as the lead stories.

Or maybe get Zdarsky back to write the FF...

[CitizenXXX]

No F4 35 preview? It comes out next week.

[Shadowcat]

Or maybe get Zdarsky back to write the FF...

I’m enjoying Slott’s run, but wouldn’t be adverse to that.

[Airtrap]

No F4 35 preview? It comes out next week.

It got pushed to the 15th of September and #36 will be the 22nd of September. So two issues back to back in September

[Crimz]

Mentioned this in another thread, but Sue should be the leader of the team. Reed doesn't need to lead and the way he constantly keeps life-threatening secrets from everyone makes him a bad one. Sue is constantly put in the background and being the leader would benefit the character and give her actual story arcs. While Reed honestly doesn't need the role, it doesn't negatively impact the character or what he does at all to no longer lead the team.

[Frontier]

Mentioned this in another thread, but Sue should be the leader of the team. Reed doesn't need to lead and the way he constantly keeps life-threatening secrets from everyone makes him a bad one. Sue is constantly put in the background and being the leader would benefit the character and give her actual story arcs. While Reed honestly doesn't need the role, it doesn't negatively impact the character or what he does at all to no longer lead the team.

Reminds me of how Paul Tobin basically wrote his Marvel Adventures FF run with Sue as the leader...and I think she was like co-leader of his Avengers team with Cap?

Although I feel like even if they made Sue the leader Reed would still probably be the one driving the plot the most or coming up with what everyone has to do to save the day.