Fantastic Four Remake Their History in 'Fantastic Four: Life Story' ANNOUNCED

[Frontier]

I will read it because it's FF related and from what I hear of the writer, it will have interesting elements to it. However I'm tired of FF runs and stories being so enamoured with the past. The team should be all about exploring the new and rarely doing the same thing twice, but too many writers are stuck on trying to homage the original run or whatever rub they enjoyed.

Well, I can't say for sure how "enamored" Russell might come off with his use of the FF's history, but with this kind of work it's kind of to be expected.

[JudicatorPrime]

One thing I am looking forward to. If The FF age then so does Doom. What is a Doctor Doom like after 50 60 years?

If the recent Doctor Doom series is any indication, Doom has an intrinsic, irremediable flaw that he can't seem to evolve beyond, no matter how many years, level of knowledge, or life experiences he has. I expect him to be the same, just older and more hardened.

[PCN24454]

It's not in the same continuity as Spider-Man Life Story.

I'm glad. If we get more of these (and I really hope we do), each creative team should have free reign on how they craft it instead of being restricted by their life story predecessors.

While I like the free reign aspect, it feel like a waste considering what happened to Reed in Spider-Man's story.

[JudicatorPrime]

Why is a non-canon story not touching on things outside it's focus a bad thing?

Like I said, I'm sure Marvel readers will enjoy it. But for my tastes I require a more holistic retelling, canonical or not. I realize people take nostalgic strolls down memory lane all of the time, culling details as necessary to benefit the narrative. That's the enduring appeal of all of our myths, legends and folktales.

[CaptCleghorn]

Well, I can't say for sure how "enamored" Russell might come off with his use of the FF's history, but with this kind of work it's kind of to be expected.

When Russell did Snagglepuss Chronicles, he made mention of the Snaggletooth character so I feel confident he is going to handle this with a knowledge of the FF's actual history. Now Russell has a reputation for relevance and political content so I'm really not sure what to expect. I love Russell's stuff, but he's one of the last writers I'd imagine on an FF project like this.

[markhyperion]

My only fear of going back is the inevitable Namor/Sue nonsense that will permeate the book. I hope it isn't more than a page

[Crimz]

I think Johnny would be the one to benefit most from this type of story. With time passing like in real life his character may develop beyond being the immature one. It will be interesting to see what's done with him.

[Frontier]

I think Johnny would be the one to benefit most from this type of story. With time passing like in real life his character may develop beyond being the immature one. It will be interesting to see what's done with him.

I smell some failed marriages...

[Crimz]

I smell some failed marriages...

Almost certainly.

[CaptCleghorn]

My only fear of going back is the inevitable Namor/Sue nonsense that will permeate the book. I hope it isn't more than a page

As much as I am not a fan of any modern, more recent Namor/Sue pairings, The triangle with her, Reed, and Namor was a huge subplot in the early days of the book. I wouldn't mind seeing a more open discussion of it between characters since details were clouded by the Comics Code. But anything remaining after the marriage besides platonic moments of friendship would be unnecessarily soap opera.

[Hypestyle]

hopefully Doom doesn't finally take over as earth's monarch.

[Snoop Dogg]

My only fear of going back is the inevitable Namor/Sue nonsense that will permeate the book. I hope it isn't more than a page

Namor doesn't age, therefore that concept has new life

[bat39]

Surprised to see there isn't much discussion on this after the first issue!

I'm not much of an FF fan, and I'm mostly familiar with them through the 90's cartoon and the first two Fox movies (though I'd read some of the early Lee/Kirby stories a while back). But I loved Spider-Man: Life Story and I have a passing interest in the FF, so I decided to check this out.

Its a okay-ish read, though a very different beast from Spider-Man: Life Story...

spoilers:

Spider-Man's LF series was basically six turning points in Peter Parker's life across six decades...with each issue serving as a reimagining of an iconic story or event from the respective decade. This series seems like its going to be more of an overview of each decade, rather than telling one specific story. It feels a lot more like Grand Design or the History of the Marvel Universe than what Chip Zdarsky did with Spider-Man. The issue was therefore pretty light on actual story. We get a pretty standard retelling of the origin in the beginning, followed by a bunch of vignettes of the Fantastic Four and their lives through the sixties - with Reed's fear/obsession with Galactus and the potential threat to earth being the major throughline. The idea that JFK personally commissioned Reed to build the spaceship, and that he named them the 'Fantastic Four' was a neat one. The idea that the mission was supposed to be called 'Cassandra 4' and that's why they had the '4' logo on the uniforms was a bit too coincidential, but also a nice explanation for, well, why their spacesuits were the iconic FF uniforms. I think the biggest deviation this issue makes from existing canon is the nature of Reed and Ben's relationship. Here they aren't college buddies, and its Johnny who knows Ben (its never explained how) and gets him on board the mission. The lack of this pre-existing friendship is probably what contributes to Ben's years-long hatred of Reed for turning him into the Thing. In fact, if there is another throughline in this issue apart from Reed's obsession with Galactus, its Ben dealing (not very well) with his transformation over the years. Which ultimately culminates in the climax, where Dr. Ricardo Jones steals his powers to try to murder Reed and then...gives up and saves Reed at the cost of his own life because Reed's the only one who can stop Galactus? And somehow Jones' death causes Ben to become the Thing again (they seem to treat being the Thing almost like a literal mystical curse, which doesn't make much sense IMO, unless Jones was lying to Ben about the permanent nature of the power transfer!) But when it comes down to it, this issue doesn't really give us any serious stakes or lasting changes, unlike the first issue of Spider-Man: LF which made a serious change to the ending of a key story and showed us the ripple effects from that. This issue feel like part overview of the Fantastic Four in the 60's and part prologue to a Galactus Saga retelling that I assume is coming next issue. The worst part is that the issue hints at other more interesting stories that we never get to see. For instance, what was the impact of Sue participating in the Civil Rights movement, if any? How did the Four react to the escalating Vietnam War or troubles at home? Hell, we don't even get to see much of how Johnny spent the sixties (when you'd think that him growing up would be a major focus of a real-time FF retelling. Now the 70's issue, judging by the power, seems like it might deal with some interesting stuff - Sue being involved in Women's Lib, and the coming of Namor. It seems like they're sprinkling characters and concepts from the original run across the decades, since Dr. Doom doesn't even get a mention here (shocking for an FF story set in the 60's).

end of spoilers

On the whole, I'm interested to see where this goes, but yeah, it is a bit of a disappointent compared to Spider-Man: Life Story, or even the sheer potential of such a series for the FF...

[Oberon]

As much as I am not a fan of any modern, more recent Namor/Sue pairings, The triangle with her, Reed, and Namor was a huge subplot in the early days of the book. I wouldn't mind seeing a more open discussion of it between characters since details were clouded by the Comics Code. But anything remaining after the marriage besides platonic moments of friendship would be unnecessarily soap opera.

Thanks Capt. I wrote a screed and then deleted it, but you hit it well.
I'm a proponent that eventually (longer for Namor of course) this attraction channeled into something else, more altruistic. There is the one scene from a Sinkewicz (sic) issue of FF, so v.1 earlier 200s ?, where Sue and Namor have a moment and the verbiage suggests this; He sees the best of humanity in Sue, and quite frankly that is an important quality of Sue's.
She was the one who tamed Dragon Man, originally and there must be other examples.
Sure, it's the old '60s playbook, beauty and the beast.

but it always works for me, because Sue was the first heroine of true Marvel and the heart of it all too.
Well, I guess I did a screed anyway?

[Iron Maiden]

Surprised to see there isn't much discussion on this after the first issue!

.

I believe we discussed it in the ongoing Fantastic Four appreciation thread. I may create a separate review thread for further issues as the come out.

Here is a variant of issue #2