"Fantastic Four" May Live On-Screen, Disappear From Comics

[Omega Alpha]

Did people saying it's a Bleeding Cool lie read the part in which CBR confirms most of it?

My thoughts exactly. If Marvel wasn't above snuffing out books that they don't own the movie rights to, then why are X-Men comics still being made?

Because without X-men, the comics division would be bankrrupt.

I'm seeing a lot of posts about BC, BC, BC, Rich, Rich, Rich, and nothing about how CBR seems to have confirmed it with their own anonymous insiders, giving the story some non-gossip site validity.

Funny, that.

Yep.

[Alvarez]

Did people saying it's a Bleeding Cool lie read the part in which CBR confirms most of it.

Or we could see what was actually said.

CBR cannot confirm the exact future of "Fantastic Four" and "Ultimate FF," but has confirmed with multiple industry sources speaking on the condition of anonymity that a hiatus for the property is planned, at least as of recently. Plans can change, something that's potentially more likely now that the situation has been made public. The Fantastic Four characters are said to continue appearing in other Marvel titles, just not in a specifically branded "Fantastic Four" series.

There is a huge difference between cancellation and hiatus.
When Fantastic Four became FF, it was on hiatus, not cancelled.

And if you read again CBR says they themselves can not outright confirm this.

[urmyth]

If Marvel wanted to stick it to Fox, then they would go the other way.

Fox have made it clear that their FF will be different to the books, both in terms of race and age. Also I suspect origin story of how they get powers.
Recent comments from the production talk of "gritty" and "realistic", and a focus on the personal trauma of physical change (I actually think they are going for the emo/twilight audience that's coming of age.).

So if Marvel wanted to undermine the Fox film they would be putting advertising throughout mainstream media to say "THIS is the FF, this is what they do, and why" so as to reframe expectations and dissuade FF fans from going in the first week if at all(because marketing of a films success is so heavily dependent on those initial figures, rather than eventual DVD sales etc.).

[KurtW95]

I Marvel wanted to stick it to Fox, then they would go the other way.

Fox have made it clear that their FF will be different to the books, both in terms of race and age. Also I suspect origin story of how they get powers.
Recent comments from the production talk of "gritty" and "realistic", and a focus on the personal trauma of physical change (I actually think they are going for the emo/twilight audience that's coming of age.).

So if Marvel wanted to undermine the Fox film they would be putting advertising throughout mainstream media to say "THIS is the FF, this is what they do, and why" so as to reframe expectations and dissuade FF fans from going in the first week if at all(because marketing of a films success is so heavily dependent on those initial figures, rather than eventual DVD sales etc.).

I agree 100%. Fox is not doing an FF film, and if Marvel makes the comic version so great or makes an animated series more like the original, that will stick it to them.

[Spidey616]

If true, I hate to think what this means for Slott/Allred's Silver Surfer title.

[Dev]

This is Marvel's own fault these kind of rumors are even considered. Year in year out they have been pushing all the characters they have the movie rights to. And sort of sidelining all other characters. With the exception of spiderman, but as somebody said before, Marvel has a more advantages deal with Sony and Spiderman is the poster boy for marvel. It would be like DC snubbing all Batman books. It would never happen no matter what kind of movie deal.
So if Marvel wants to stop these rumors they should show the fans that they still care just as much about the x-men and FF as they do the Avengers and GOTG. Let them make next years big summer crossover with the X-men and FF as the main characters while the Avengers have their own mini summer crossover. Everyone on this site knows, that will never happen!! Every single event is revolving around the Avengers. For more than a decade now. That is the main reason for these rumors!

[Bluebolt1967]

Hey Marvel - you probably don't monitor discussion boards too often but just wanted to let you know that, if this happens, I drop all Marvel comics from my pull list the next day. I've been buying comics since FF#190 and you need to keep the comics separate from the movies and the various studios that own the characters for movies. I've got plenty of back issues to read and could put the $100 or so that I spend each month on Marvel comics to other uses.

[Bluebolt1967]

This is really all that needs be said.

Um, that's a pretty round-about way of not really confirming anything, wouldn't you agree? If the rumors weren't true, wouldn't he have said so and that the FF comic was going to continue to be published? Talking with James Robinson at a comic convention several months ago, he seemed to have pretty long term plans for the title but I'm not getting that vibe from Brevoort's posting...

[the Dagman]

The only explanation I have heard that makes any sense about shelving the F4 is that Fox gets to use any new stories they want that have appeared within the book. Basically, they do not wish to continue giving Fox more free intellectual properties they are contractually allowed to do from stories appearing within the pages of Fantastic Four. Which is why they still plan on using the characters elsewhere in the Marvel Universe. Reed has already been appearing in New Avengers, for instance. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. But from my experience with reading Bleeding Cool since it was started and Rich's column here on CBR that preceded the site, he is generally right a lot more often than he is wrong.

[RobertMacQuarrie1]

This seems a bit too far fetched. FF is too much of an icon at Marvel for them to cancel it.

Even if the directive did come down from the top, I doubt that there wouldn't be people at every level of the company to disagree with the directive and fight it every single step of the way.

Hell, if this was true, I wouldn't be surprised if writers and artists would agree to work for the book for free in order to keep it published.

[frostywontons]

Ridiculous as this may be, if this actually did come to fruition I would not be disappointed. Frankly I found Hickman's F4 run to be a suitable "stopping" point as far as being an ongoing title. Fraction's run was meandering with the sole high point being FF, which really had little to do with the F4 proper. Robinson seems to be doing fine so far but if no one takes over after him for a few years, then I'd be perfectly happy.

[RobertMacQuarrie1]

The only explanation I have heard that makes any sense about shelving the F4 is that Fox gets to use any new stories they want that have appeared within the book. Basically, they do not wish to continue giving Fox more free intellectual properties they are contractually allowed to do from stories appearing within the pages of Fantastic Four. Which is why they still plan on using the characters elsewhere in the Marvel Universe. Reed has already been appearing in New Avengers, for instance. Whether this is true or not remains to be seen. But from my experience with reading Bleeding Cool since it was started and Rich's column here on CBR that preceded the site, he is generally right a lot more often than he is wrong.

That is kind of true. Rich does hit on the truth some of the times, but many times it's not entirely accurate.

For example, he did post an image regarding rules about artists not doing FF images on Marvel sketch cards. That may be the end all be all of where this story lies. That there is some politics going on with it, but it just extends to artists not being allowed to do those images on sketch cards. Nothing more.

But I guess we'll have to wait and see on this.

[Rosebunse]

I don't know. I just don't see this fully happening. Maybe Marvel won't want to advertise the FF as much as they did, but look at the character list they gave. That's a HUGE list with too many characters that do in fact bring in money for Marvel. It's silly, and wouldn't make any sense to put all of those characters on hiatus, especially given how fans can only take so much Avengers. Why do you think people don't mind Marvel toning down on covering the X-Men? We were all getting sick of them. Avengers can only last so long.

I think Marvel won't be advertising the FF as much, and I'm sure they're going to be trying to expand them onto other properties, but I don't think they'll be going as far as this article suggests.

[Phoenix Egg]

This is hilarious.

They'd cancel the X-Books too and replace them with Inhuman characters if anybody wanted to read about the Inhumans. I've always said the people at the top of Marvel were childish and petty.

[Rosebunse]

This is hilarious.

They'd cancel the X-Books too and replace them with Inhuman characters if anybody wanted to read about the Inhumans. I've always said the people at the top of Marvel's editorial board were childish and petty.

But new is good. Too little change stagnates a line, and comic books need both new lines and old ones if they want to keep and attract new readers.