World's Greatest Comic: The Fantastic Four Appreciation 2023

[Frontier]

https://aiptcomics.com/2023/06/02/ma...stic-four-8-2/

Yay! Sue and Alicia .

[Iron Maiden]

Right now the only regular titles I plan to pick up are the Fantastic Four, the Avengers (Jed MacKay's first issue was well done) and then later I will probably get JMS's new Captain America series. It's funny how some writers are coming back to Marvel, like JMS and now Hickman will be switching off the X-titles for a possible new title as yet to be announced. He does have a mini series coming up.

[JT221]

Right now the only regular titles I plan to pick up are the Fantastic Four, the Avengers (Jed MacKay's first issue was well done) and then later I will probably get JMS's new Captain America series. It's funny how some writers are coming back to Marvel, like JMS and now Hickman will be switching off the X-titles for a possible new title as yet to be announced. He does have a mini series coming up.

Marvel has managed to do something I never thought would happen; I am getting more DC titles than Marvel. I pull Fantastic Four from Marvel right now, and that's it. I, like you, will try the new Captain America comic when it shows up.

What did you like about MacKay's Avengers?

[CitizenXXX]

Please guys, this forum has its own Avengers thread and I'm sure there are a lot of threads about how bad things are at Marvel every year since the forum was created.

This is still a F4 thread and F4 is doing great now

[Oberon]

He and Perez bounced back and forth on both the Avengers and the FF in the late 70's. So yeah around 209 or a few issues before that. I didn't even notice it was him as a kid because of Sinnot's inks. His FF work looked pretty different than his Avengers and Marvel Team-Up stuff from the same era. It's amazing just how many books the two of them were doing every month back then.

Like an explosion. I loved Perez story time on FF too. He introduced Salem's 7. (right?)

[CitizenXXX]

Mortimer Q. Forbush:

Was Susan Storm Richards (616/Prime) first referred to as a doctor during the Fraction run or at some other point? Has it been established what she is a doctor of? What was the impetus for making her a doctor? It feels like a bit of a retcon that seems conspicuously absent from most of the FF's run, but I will say that I have always been an advocate of developing Sue's characterization (she got a late start compared to the boys, IMHO).

I hope her expertise is in the soft sciences. It's my opinion that by establishing her expertise as something distinct from the hard science expertise of Reed would prevent her from being relegated as "redundant" if not "less than" her genius polymath husband.

As a FF superfan (and oh yeah… Editor), what is your point-of-view on Sue's background?

Tom Brevoort:

We’ll be revealing just what Sue has a doctorate in in FANTASTIC FOUR #12 in just a few short months, Mortimer, so on that question the answer will soon be before you. But on the larger question, I would say this: the Fantastic Four were created more than sixty years ago, in another time and a different era, both for the world and for comics. As such, as with any long-running properties, there is occasionally the need to push things forward into the present a little bit. The notion that Reed and Ben take his untrained fiancé and her kid brother with them on their rocket flight to the stars is just one of those things that doesn’t really pass the smell test any longer in 2023, if it ever did, and so different creative teams have been dealing with that issue in different ways. I honestly don’t see it as any big deal that Sue got a doctorate at some point along the way, whole bunches of people get their doctorates every day. it requires work, sure, but not so much as to make such a feat unachievable for somebody in Sue’s position. I certainly get that our readership can get a little bit obsessive about canon from time to time, but to me, this is really no big deal. If I told you that Ben had a doctorate, would it bug you as well? We know he went to college and was an astronaut—how difficult would that be to accept?

Sounds like it's going to be a retcon that explains that Sue was ALWAYS a PhD. Maybe I'm wrong, but soon enough.

And let's be honest, at least Sue was old enough to be there, but Johnny?

[CitizenXXX]

About next issue:

FANTASTIC FOUR #8 is the first half of a legitimate two-part adventure with artwork by guest artist Ivan Fiorelli, returning to spell regular artist Iban Coello after the double-sized #700 and the birth of his child. It also introduces what is perhaps writer Ryan North’s greatest new character innovation, Flame-O! It’s also got the return of a monstrous race from before the Marvel Age of Comics. And isn’t this Alex Ross cover plenty cool? Having heard that most of the issue is set up as a mystery, Alex decided to evoke the sorts of images used on series mystery series like the HARDY BOYS or NANCY DREW books. That cover copy was done by him as well.

[Frontier]

Tom Brevoort:


Sounds like it's going to be a retcon that explains that Sue was ALWAYS a PhD. Maybe I'm wrong, but soon enough.

And let's be honest, at least Sue was old enough to be there, but Johnny?

To be honest I've seen people who want Sue to have more pedigree but I haven't really seen a lot of criticism for why Reed and Ben took Sue and Johnny with them, but maybe I just missed it.

[Solid Snake]

I don't think it feels like a retcon at this point after so many interpretations of Sue in alternative universes, movies and origin retellings depicted as a genius level scientist. It might be argued that the character works better this way and I love that Ryan North puts an emphasis on this aspect of Sue and using that in good thought instances. Plus, I don't think this contradicts the history and the past stories of FF in a significant way either. That said, everybody, even Doom, starting to call her as "Dr. Storm" all of a sudden feels a bit over the top. I get it, but hope the use of the prefix gets more balanced in time, it does not sound sense coming from characters like Doom.

[Oberon]

Tom Brevoort:


Sounds like it's going to be a retcon that explains that Sue was ALWAYS a PhD. Maybe I'm wrong, but soon enough.

And let's be honest, at least Sue was old enough to be there, but Johnny?

Sue could have been a nurse, nurse assistant or Physician assistant, all from the probably influence of her father.

Frankly you might need a medic of some sort on this trip, LOL.

But in the months or years afterwards, she certainly could have degree'ed up to Doctor, even in another non-medical field.

Since we are putting tweaks of some sort into the timeline canon, I'd like to throw out the idea that.

Sue became involved with Shield, as in AGent of, after the Dr. Doom story circa late # 80s, when she rescued the time and indicated that she forced Nick Fury to tell her their location.

"Okay Fury, level with me, or this force field coming into your heart will level you!"

He probably bartered her usefulness as an agent at that point. Franklin was no longer a babe in arms and the idea that she would be able to multi-task fits in (more with today, LOL.)

[Oberon]

I don't think it feels like a retcon at this point after so many interpretations of Sue in alternative universes, movies and origin retellings depicted as a genius level scientist. It might be argued that the character works better this way and I love that Ryan North puts an emphasis on this aspect of Sue and using that in good thought instances. Plus, I don't think this contradicts the history and the past stories of FF in a significant way either. That said, everybody, even Doom, starting to call her as "Dr. Storm" all of a sudden feels a bit over the top. I get it, but hope the use of the prefix gets more balanced in time, it does not sound sense coming from characters like Doom.

Yeah, "Dr. Storm" shouldn't become so often.

But if you think about it

Sue may have always experienced signs of high IQ (I've never questioned this since decades ago, actually)

Her father was considered a brilliant surgeon

and Reed was attracted to her, probably as much for her looks as the fact they could in fact talk about other things.

[MichaelC]

The FF should always have been a team of scientists instead of one guy and his sidekicks.

Really, even in that first adventure, Reed doesn't know as much about radiation shielding as Ben Grimm, is too arrogant to listen to him, that incredible arrogance gets Ben mutated into a gross freak, and then Reed follows it up by calling himself Mister Fantatic, which is just mind-boggling in the face of his proving demonstrably less intelligent that Ben, at least on the subject of radiation shielding.

Really, the opening was RIGHT THERE to establish this as a team of situationally brilliant people instead of Reed and his sidekicks. But somehow that never got followed up on, and it has just been kind of quietly accepted that Reed is leaps and bounds more intelligent than his family. A huge mistake that should be rectified. And giving Sue a field in which she excels is a good start.

[Chris0013]

The FF should always have been a team of scientists instead of one guy and his sidekicks.

Really, even in that first adventure, Reed doesn't know as much about radiation shielding as Ben Grimm, is too arrogant to listen to him, that incredible arrogance gets Ben mutated into a gross freak, and then Reed follows it up by calling himself Mister Fantatic, which is just mind-boggling in the face of his proving demonstrably less intelligent that Ben, at least on the subject of radiation shielding.

Really, the opening was RIGHT THERE to establish this as a team of situationally brilliant people instead of Reed and his sidekicks. But somehow that never got followed up on, and it has just been kind of quietly accepted that Reed is leaps and bounds more intelligent than his family. A huge mistake that should be rectified. And giving Sue a field in which she excels is a good start.

You have to consider the time it was introduced. But even with that I would say that Reed and Ben make sense as the designer of the ship and an Air Force pilot. However Sue and Johnny do not as they were introduced.

[Triniking1234]

Finally finished Fantastic 4: Life Story.

I know the team couldn't just rip off Zdarsky's Spider-Man Life Story but all we get is an extended cut of the Coming of Galactus with two Doctor Doom encounters and a Cold War story that leads to a death.

Ben and Reed aren't even longtime friends but even then it worked out since Reed is so busy trying to defeat Galactus it's not like he had time for anything else.

My favourite issue was #5 which was the Franklin issue. Least favourite was #2 cuz seriously they pushed Sue x Namor into this???

I'm impressed Black Panther made it in cuz none of the Inhumans did. No wonder they decided to kill Johnny cuz his historical moments are tied with two groups who don't show up in the story.

[Digifiend]

Sue could have been a nurse, nurse assistant or Physician assistant, all from the probably influence of her father.

Frankly you might need a medic of some sort on this trip, LOL.

But in the months or years afterwards, she certainly could have degree'ed up to Doctor, even in another non-medical field.

That's what Jane Foster did. When first introduced, she was a nurse who worked with Dr Don Blake, the alter ego of Thor. Eventually, she became the Avengers' on-call doctor.