Fantastic Four Appreciation 2018

[Rheged]

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.