Fantastic Four Appreciation 2018

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

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.

The cornerstone of the Marvel Universe.

[Crimz]

I 'm going to post about their 55th during November as it's the month the first issue was released (and my birthday is during that month )

[Crimz]

Which writers do you associate with a particular member of the Fantastic Four?

Who did your definitive version of a particular member?

For me it's:

Byrne with Sue
Lee/Kirby with Ben
Hickman, Waid and Lee/Kirby with Reed
I don't thin Johnny has had his yet, or I haven't come across them yet.

[The Whovian]

Byrne with Sue
Lee/Kirby with Ben
Hickman with Reed and Johnny (and slightly Sue as well)

Hickman REALLY focused on Reed and did some amazing things with him. But I loved what he did with Johnny. He was no longer the wise cracking, immature young man. Hickman had him grow up and was more mature. Hickman also had his wow moments with Sue, like when she told Namor off (I can't remember the issue #).

[Abe]

What about Victor, the fifth member ?

More seriously, Hickman gave Sue a few other great moments. When she fights alone the Celestials, when all seems lost... "Look up at the sky". He was also very good with the kids - as children and adults with their future version. My favorite Franklin and, of course, a perfect Val. Sorry : TWO perfect Vals.

About "definitive versions" I can't tell. When they are well written I love them each time.

(and my birthday is in November too !)

.................

What a pleasure to read that post by Iron Maiden quoted by Rheged quoted by 616MarvelYear is LeapYear BTW.

[Overhazard]

Oh yeah, the FF got a little shout out in the ninja turtles cartoon. In the most recent episode, the turtles were talking about their favorite comic books, and Raphael's is "The Fantastic Four Food Groups." I've always wanted a ninja turtles marvel universe crossover, shame they can't do it now.

[Mike]

Which writers do you associate with a particular member of the Fantastic Four?

Who did your definitive version of a particular member?

Reed -- Marv Wolfman
Ben -- Stan Lee
Sue -- John Byrne
Johnny -- Len Wein

[The Whovian]

What about Victor, the fifth member ?

More seriously, Hickman gave Sue a few other great moments. When she fights alone the Celestials, when all seems lost... "Look up at the sky". He was also very good with the kids - as children and adults with their future version. My favorite Franklin and, of course, a perfect Val. Sorry : TWO perfect Vals.

About "definitive versions" I can't tell. When they are well written I love them each time.

(and my birthday is in November too !)

.................

What a pleasure to read that post by Iron Maiden quoted by Rheged quoted by 616MarvelYear is LeapYear BTW.

Hickman overall was a great writer for the FF. Like you said, he even handled the children extremely well. Even the adult versions of Franklin and Valeria. One of my favorite moments of Franklin from his run was when him and Galactus fought the Celestials and they dropped Galactus. But Franklin restored him saying "Rise, my Galactus". Awesome stuff!

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Fantastic Four, friends & enemies by Paul Ryan
https://cultfaction.com/2016/03/07/p...-away-aged-66/

[Marvel Forever]

For all four characters, I simply have to go with the founders, Stan "the Man" Lee and Jack "King" Kirby. When you were there near the very beginning, it is pretty hard to go against the team that made the title great! I will say that Buscema and Perez were artists who were close to Kirby's excellence. As for writers, no one can come close to Stan Lee for me. He was a genius! I have no major complaints about Stan at all, only minor ones not worth mentioning.

[Crimz]

Any mention of the Fantastic Four anywhere during NYCC?

[Digifiend]

Not yet, which is annoying as we don't know what's going to happen to Ben, since the GOTG are cutting back to just the main five.

[Crimz]

Not yet, which is annoying as we don't know what's going to happen to Ben, since the GOTG are cutting back to just the main five.

I didn't know this is happening. Is anything even going to be mentioned about Ben?

This whole thing sucks

[The Whovian]

I didn't know this is happening. Is anything even going to be mentioned about Ben?

This whole thing sucks

Tell me about it

[Frontier]

I didn't know about Ben leaving the Guardians .

Given what we've seen of Marvel Now! so far, it doesn't look like there's any place he could really fit, outside that upcoming guest-spot in Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur where he's fighting for Reed's honor .

The Unity Squad is also going to apparently become an outlaw team, so I'm not sure how that's going to effect Johnny, especially with his relations and job with the Inhumans.