World's Greatest Comic: The Fantastic Four Appreciation 2023

[Reviresco]

Marvel's First Family the Fantastic Four debuted in issue #1 of their self-titled comic in November of 1961 the same year that saw John F. Kennedy take the oath of office of President of the United States. Their origins are intricately tied to the birth of the Marvel Universe that we know today. From the depths of Atlantis to the Watcher's home on the Blue area of the Moon and to the fabled kingdoms of Latveria and Wakanda, the Inhuman's city fortress of Atillan and the antimatter universe of the Negative Zone, we saw the grand tapestry unfold through the eyes of these four adventurers, or Imaginauts as Mark Waid would later call them.

When Stan and Jack weren't busy creating new characters for the FF to meet, they also made sure that any new Marvel character from another fledgling title had to make their acquaintance with Reed, Ben, Johnny and Sue. Spider-Man wanted to try out for the team. The founding members of the Avengers and the Fantastic Four joined forces to try and hunt down a wayward Hulk. Reed and Ben's former Empire State University classmate Victor Von Doom would become arguably one of Marvel's, if not comicdom's greatest villain. Johnny would have a chance meeting with a bearded stranger in a New York flop house that would lead to the return of the Golden Age anti-hero known as the Sub-Mariner. Cosmic entities like The Watcher and Galactus are on speaking terms with the Fantastic Four. Oh, and as for my mentioning JFK earlier, even President Kennedy made a cameo appearance in FF #17.

Now on the eve of the publication of FF #587, we are told that the old order shall changeth. Not that it hasn't happened before...Ben was on the verge of giving up for good quite often before he became comfortable in his rocky skin. Reed was considered dead and was absent from the title for two years. Sue was estranged from Reed and left the team when Reed had to put power dampeners on their son Franklin. She Hulk, Luke Cage, Medusa were some of the more notable replacement members. But it always came back to the original four....until now. According to Marvel, one of them will die and the Fantastic Four title, dubbed by Stan Lee as "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine" will make way for the enigmatically titled "FF" in March of 2011. Roster changes are nothing new to titles like the Avengers or the X-Men but with the FF it's always different, more personal. It will be a loss of a family member.

Well, I guess I will just end this opening post with a little contribution paying tribute to the work of Jack Kirby, who along with Stan Lee co-created the FF. If a picture is worth a thousand words, I think Kirby has about 10 thousand or so packed in to this ...

-- Iron Maiden's first post of the original World's Greatest Comic Magazine thread.

[Reviresco]

FAVORITE FANTASTIC FOUR RUNS!
According to 5717 voters


1 John Byrne 28.0% 1599
2 Jonathan Hickman 24.8% 1417
3 Stan Lee and Jack Kirby 17.4% 995
4 Mark Waid 10.1% 579
5 Stan Lee 6.7% 383
6 Mark Millar 2.5% 145
7 Walt Simonson 2.1% 119
8 Matt Fraction 1.8% 103
9 Chris Claremont 1.2% 67
10 Tom DeFalco 1.1% 65
11 J. Michael Straczynski 0.9% 50
12 Roy Thomas 0.7% 41
13 Karl Kesel 0.6% 33
14 Carlos Pacheco and Rafael Marin 0.5% 29
15 Steve Englehart 0.4% 23
16 Marv Wolfman 0.4% 21
17 Gerry Conway 0.3% 16
18 Carlos Pacheco and Jeph Loeb 0.3% 15
19 Scott Lobdell 0.2% 14
20 Doug Moench 0.1% 3

READING LIST: The Greatest "Fantastic Four" Writers, Ever by Marc Buxton@CBR

[Reviresco]

COLLECTED EDITIONS

Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v01 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v02 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v03 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v04 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v05 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v06 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v07 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v08 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v09 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v10 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v11 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v12 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v13 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v14 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v15 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v16 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v17 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v18 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v19 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v20 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v21 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v22 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v23 (
Marvel Masterworks Fantastic Four v24 (Collects Fantastic Four (1961) #258-268, Alpha Flight (1983) #4 and Thing (1983) #10 - Plus Material from Fantastic Four Special Edition #1, Thing (1983) #7 And Marvel Fanfare (1982) #15)

Epic Collections FF v1: The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine (Collects FF #1-18)
Epic Collections FF v2: The Master Plan of Doctor Doom (Collects FF #19-32 & Annual 1-2)
Epic Collections FF v3: The Coming of Galactus (Collects FF #33-51 & Annual 3)
Epic Collections FF v4: The Mystery of the Black Panther (Collects FF #52-67 & Annual 4-5, material from Not Brand Echh (1967) #1 & 5
Epic Collections FF v5: The Name is Doom (Collects Fantastic Four (1961) #68-87, Annual (1963) #6; material from Not Brand Echh (1967) #6-7)
Epic Collections FF v6: At War With Atlantis (Collects Fantastic Four (1961) #88-104, Annual (1963) #7; Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure (2008))
Epic Collections FF v7: Battle Of The Behemoths (Collects Fantastic Four (1961) #105-125)
Epic Collections FF v8: Annihilus Revealed (Collects Fantastic Four (1961) #126-146 and Giant-Size Super-Stars #1)
Epic Collections FF v9: The Crusader Syndrome ()

Epic Collections FF v17: All in the Family (Collects FF #296-307 & Annual 20 and Fantastic Four vs. The X-Men #1-4)
Epic Collections FF v18: The More Things Change…: (Collects Fantastic Four (1961) #308-320 & Annual 21; Incredible Hulk (1968) #350; and Marvel Graphic Novel: Hulk/Thing – The Big Change)
Epic Collections FF v19: The Dream is Dead ()
Epic Collections FF v20: Into the Timestream (FF #334-346 & Annual #23 Also includes Days of Future Past material from New Mutants Annual 6, X-Factor Annual 5, and Uncanny X-Men Annual 14)
Epic Collections FF v21: The New Fantastic Four (FF #347-361, Annual 24, and material from Marvel Holiday Special #1.
Epic Collections FF v22: This Flame, This Fury (Collects Fantastic Four (1961) #362-376, Fantastic Four Annual (1963) #25-26, Adventures of the Thing (1992) #3)
Epic Collections FF v23: Nobody Gets Out Alive (Collects Fantastic Four (1961) #377-392, Fantastic Four Annual (1963) #27, Namor the Sub-Mariner (1990) #47-48, Fantastic Four Ashcan Edition (1994) #1)

Epic Collections FF v25: Strange Days (FF #403-416 Also collects Fantastic Four: The Legend, Onslaught: Marvel Universe, and material from Tales of the Marvel Universe)

Fantastic Four Omnibus v1 Lee & Kirby (
Fantastic Four Omnibus v2 Lee & Kirby (
Fantastic Four Omnibus v3 Lee & Kirby (
Fantastic Four Omnibus v3 Lee & Kirby (

Fantastic Four Visionaries: George Perez v1 (
Fantastic Four Visionaries: George Perez v2 (

Fantastic Four Omnibus v1 John Bryne (
Fantastic Four Omnibus v2 John Bryne (

Fantastic Four Visionaries: Walt Simonson v1 (
Fantastic Four Visionaries: Walt Simonson v2 (
Fantastic Four Visionaries: Walt Simonson v3 (

Fantastic Four v1 Waid & Wieringo (
Fantastic Four v2 Waid & Wieringo (
Fantastic Four v3 Waid & Wieringo (
Fantastic Four Omnibus Waid & Wieringo (


Fantastic Four Mark Millar


Fantastic Four v1 Jonathan Hickman (
Fantastic Four v1 Jonathan Hickman (
Fantastic Four v1 Jonathan Hickman (
Fantastic Four v1 Jonathan Hickman (
Fantastic Four Omnibus v1 Jonathan Hickman (
Fantastic Four Omnibus v2 Jonathan Hickman (

Fantastic Four Omnibus Matt Fraction (


Fantastic Four James Robinson


Fantastic Four Dan Slott



The X-Men vs. The Fantastic Four (
Classic Thing v1 (
Classic Thing v2 (
Thing () by Dan Slott (
Thing Freakshow (
Fantastic Four Unstable Molecules (
Fantastic Four 1234 (
Fantastic Four True Story (
The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine (
Fantastic Four: Foes (
Fantastic Four Full Circle

Marvel Knights Fantastic Four v1: Wolf at the Door (
Marvel Knights Fantastic Four v2: The Stuff of Nightmares (
Marvel Knights Fantastic Four v3: Divine Time (
Marvel Knights Fantastic Four v4: Impossible Things Happen Every Day (
Marvel Knights Fantastic Four v5: The Resurrection of Nicholas Scratch (
Complete Marvel Knights Fantastic Four v1 (


Crushing Krisis Guide to Collecting Fantastic Four comic books as Graphic Novels

[Reviresco]

RECOMMENDATIONS


Fantastic Four #4 - the introduction of Namor the Sub-Mariner into the Silver Age
Fantastic Four #5 - first appearance of Doctor Doom

John Byrne, who, in addition to helming unarguably one of my utmost favorite FF creative runs, also penned and illustrated what I, about 95% without hesitance, proclaim to be the finest FF issue and story ever conceived in FF #236/"Terror in a Tiny Town." I can't express this enough: Read FF #236 asap. You won't thank me enough when you do...it is that thoroughly splendid an issue/story.

Besides the Lee/Kirby/Romita/Buscema and the Byrne run.
A very underappreciated run is the Thomas/Wein/Wolfman run from the late '70s.
FF #160 - #220

[Reviresco]

LINKS

Jason Young's Fantastic Four 9 Project

The Science of Reed Richards

Fantastic Four Forever tumblr

INSIDE LOOK: How ALEX ROSS Wanted to Reboot FANTASTIC FOUR

Billy Maximoff's Respect Thread for the Invisible Woman

Billy Maximoff's Respect Thread for the Human Torch



CBR Threads

Susan Storm-Richards: The Invisible Woman Appreciation 2018
Susan Storm-Richards: The Invisible Woman Appreciation 2019
Susan Storm-Richards: The Invisible Woman Appreciation 2020

The Ever-Lovin Blued-Eyed Thing Appreciation
Idol of Millions Ben Grimm The Thing Appreciation 2019

"Flame On!" Johnny Storm the Human Torch Appreciation

The Original Dr. Doom Appreciation (2014)
Victor von Doom: Doctor Doom appreciation 2018
Victor von Doom: Doctor Doom appreciation 2019
Victor Von Doom: Dr Doom Appreciation 2020




VIDEOS

[Reviresco]

Happy New Year!

Looking forward to a great 2023 with Ryan North and Iban Coello's run as well as Marvel's First Family MCU news!

[CJStriker]

A Very Happy New Year 2023 to the Royal Family of Marvel, I am So Looking forward to Finally Hearing more about them in the MCU cause they will set a New Standard for the world and the meaning of heroes when they Do!!

[Doom'nGloom]

Happy new year to Marvel's First Family. They are a timeless classic in these changing times.

[Phoenixx9]

Happy Fantastic New Year to The Fantastic Four Family & Friends!

[Steroid]

Happy New Year to the First Family.

[Crimz]

Happy New Year, fellow F4 fans!

This year's seems primed to be an interesting one for the First Family

[Cruelrain]

Happy new year to first Marvel Family!


spoilers:

had to edit cause i thought it posted it on the wanda thread lol

end of spoilers

[Frontier]

Happy New Year to the First Family and their fans !

[Thundershot]

A lot of those articles are way outdated… I wonder how hard it would be to update the data..

Do we have a list of how many issues each writer has tackled the main series? I’m curious on the numbers..

Fantastic Four is my number one comic that I’ve bought consistently through the years.. (since issue 347). It has definitely had highs and lows, but I stick with it, unlike X-men, where I only picked up an issue here and there for over a decade to see if it was for me again.

What I love most about them is the family aspect (naturally), but not just the main four. I love how extended their cast becomes, but I’m often disappointed when a new writer comes in and trashes the great stuff from the previous worker. The biggest example of this is Slott wiping out the Future Foundation instead of letting them simmer in the background. I have high hopes for the new era, but I’m also nervous that the kids and remaining supporting cast will get negatively affected…. It’s early in the run, so it’s ok for now. I hope the same care and characterization established so far will be applied to Franklin, Valeria, Jo-Venn, N’Kalla, and even Bentley should he return.

[Rift]

Franklin best boy