Fantastic Four Appreciation 2018

[Mike]

I remember one old FF comic (don't remember which one) where Ben knocked out Hulk after Sue had his head in a force field for a while. ANyone remember that one?? Or, have a scan?

Fantastic Four #166
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[Mike]

I honestly believe that DeFalco was trying to parody the 90s in his run from turning Franklin into a Cable Clone via time travel right down to the psycho son from the future in the form of Hyperstorm.

DeFalco wrote the title between 1991 and 1996.

[U.N. Owen]

DeFalco wrote the title between 1991 and 1996.

Considering that's right in the heart of the Dark Age, my theory suddenly gains more strength.

[Mantis Dad]

Fantastic Four #166
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Thank you Mike! I remember this issue fondly. It showed that team work can even take down the strongest hero in Marvel. Ben was a little gloomy, but a normal hero could not knock out Hulk even with his team helping. Ben's level of power has bothered me a lot over the years. "Toe to Toe" in FF #25. He needs to be at that level all the time.

[JackDaw]

Thank you Mike! I remember this issue fondly. It showed that team work can even take down the strongest hero in Marvel. Ben was a little gloomy, but a normal hero could not knock out Hulk even with his team helping. Ben's level of power has bothered me a lot over the years. "Toe to Toe" in FF #25. He needs to be at that level all the time.

I liked Crimz’s suggestion of making him really, really fast and emphazing his durabilty and experience.

I’ve also from time to time toyed with idea...given size and “lumpiness” of his hands that he must have some form of tactile TK to allow him fine control for piloting and operating other complex machinery.

And he certainly needs to fight “clever” practically all the time. If he’s getting married he needs to take his duty to protect Alicia even more seriously than he has in past...so we could maybe have an ongoing theme of him training himself to fine tune his fighting prowess, and extend his powerset just a bit. Training under Karnak would make sense, for example.

In any event he should be up there as one of Marvel’s premier battlefield tanks. Thor, Hulk, Ben...he should be that level, and able to deal with Marvel’s other assorted “strong guys and gals” fairly easily.

[danielsan52]

Did anyone read Venom: First Host ?

Is that who i think it is? Just a lookalike?

[Crimz]

http://waitingforthet.tumblr.com

[Digifiend]

Did anyone read Venom: First Host ?

Is that who i think it is? Just a lookalike?

Yeah, that's Lyja alright!

[Oberon]

It does. I must have been weirder than, because I was excited with the idea of Nathaniel Richards possibly being Cable, in some strange way. What a weird time loop. Cable, son of Cyclops and Maddy, is Reed's father. How freaky. I guess no one at Marvel could get behind it.

[U.N. Owen]

Was it ever specified which Richards child Kang was descended from? At the time he was written, the only descendant could possibly be Franklin, but since Valeria was born and that there were rumors Kang was descended from Doom, someone Val has a special connection to, the likelihood of Valeria ultimately being the ancestor of Kang over Franklin increases exponensciablly.

[danielsan52]

Yeah, that's Lyja alright!

Was that confirmed though?

[Iron Maiden]

Was it ever specified which Richards child Kang was descended from? At the time he was written, the only descendant could possibly be Franklin, but since Valeria was born and that there were rumors Kang was descended from Doom, someone Val has a special connection to, the likelihood of Valeria ultimately being the ancestor of Kang over Franklin increases exponentially.

Nathaniel had another child that was born during Byrne's run. I don't think we've seen him since. His mother was Cassandra who turned out to be a manipulative, power hungry woman. There are some that feel that this child becomes the source of the Kang branch of the Richards family. I'd like to see someone explore that. It seems like the Richards family has some bad seeds out there...there's also Jonathan Richards aka Hyperstorm, the offspring of Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers. Nathaniel himself once hinted that he was the father of Kristoff Vernard but I think he later confessed to Sue he had told her a lot of lies. There's some evidence that the Nathaniel that shows up after Reed's "death" in FF #381 may be a Nathaniel from an alternate universe. He's shown getting killed by The Beast in Hickman's Fantastic Four where Immortus declared that all the Nathaniels had to participate in the Great Hunt. Immortus would allow only one Nathaniel to survive and it was a fight to the death.

[Abe]

I'm not against Val and Bentley 13 being the ancestors of Kang! Very funny idea...

[Iron Maiden]

Yeah, that's Lyja alright!

But the one thing throws it off is that this Skrull has stretching powers. But it sure looks like her or the Super Skrull was in deep disguise

[Iron Maiden]

I'm not against Val and Bentley 13 being the ancestors of Kang! Very funny idea...

Now that would be a novel idea! Nice to see you back Abe. Seems like you've been on vacation.