Do people miss the Fantastic Four yet?

[Carabas]

Weird poll. How can you possibly vote for any of the choices?

Some people missed them a day after they were gone, and some people won't miss them in a million years.

[Ken Ashcroft]

It is kinda weird. You sorta do miss them or you do notice that they are gone because well, they have always been around yet when they were around, I never was that interested in their book.

[Stryfe8]

i miss the family fantastic four. but with all the character butchering of reed, i dont especially miss him

[Grim Ghost]

I miss them a lot. The MU just feels wrong without them. When they return I would like Reed portrayed as a guy who has learned some stuff and move past the whole "Reed is a jerk" thing so many writers seem to obsess over.

[KingsLeadHat]

It is interesting that the FF haven't been a big seller since the mid-80's. I think most of this has to do with the X-Men eclipsing them in popularity and perceived cultural significance in the 80's and early 90's. Now the Avenger's have taken prominence. The X-Men still have a rabid, loyal fan-base that skews progressive left, which I'd wager is a large chunk of the remaining fan-base, while the Avengers of today are popular mainly because Marvel put all their most popular characters on team for many years in the 2000's and of course the movies. In this day of over-inflated comic prices, fans flock to it for sheer convenience.

[DDM]

Al Ewing and Alan Davis should do a book about the Richards family and friends rebuilding and exploring the multiverse.

[marvelprince]

The FF needs to come back, but not now. Do like what they did with Thor, take him off the table for a while then launch him big. When the FF comes back there's no reason they shouldn't be marvel's top seller (at least for that month).

[Doc Sonic]

file this under good news or bad news depending on your point of view, but Brian Michael Bendis has been posting a slew of Fantastic Four pictures on his Tumblr. I've a strong suspicion that he is working on an inevitable relaunch of Marvel's first family.

and yes, I definitely miss The FF and want them back as soon as possible.

[Marvel Forever]

i miss the family fantastic four. but with all the character butchering of reed, i dont especially miss him

Sadly, Marvel messed up in a major way with Reed Richards in recent decades and his image has taken a huge hit with the fans.

[DDM]

file this under good news or bad news depending on your point of view, but Brian Michael Bendis has been posting a slew of Fantastic Four pictures on his Tumblr. I've a strong suspicion that he is working on an inevitable relaunch of Marvel's first family.

and yes, I definitely miss The FF and want them back as soon as possible.

Yeah, this rumor's been going around awhile. I'm conflicted.

[Marvel Forever]

It is interesting that the FF haven't been a big seller since the mid-80's. I think most of this has to do with the X-Men eclipsing them in popularity and perceived cultural significance in the 80's and early 90's. Now the Avenger's have taken prominence. The X-Men still have a rabid, loyal fan-base that skews progressive left, which I'd wager is a large chunk of the remaining fan-base, while the Avengers of today are popular mainly because Marvel put all their most popular characters on team for many years in the 2000's and of course the movies. In this day of over-inflated comic prices, fans flock to it for sheer convenience.

Your post is interesting. While I do miss the FF on some level, since the title has been my favorite comic magazine for virtually the entire time that I have been reading comics, on another level I do not miss them as much as one would think. As far as I am concerned, the title peaked in the Silver Age and the Bronze Age (1960's and 1970's) and with the exception of the more recent digital artwork and coloring, it went downhill from the 1980's forward. Now don't get me wrong, I am not saying that there were not flashes of brilliance every now and then. I will even give my least favorite FF writer of all time, the much heralded John Byrne, some much due credit (for the first time publicly I guess) and admit that he did have at least 3 truly great issues that rank high on my list of all-time FF favorites. (FF #245, #266 and #283 ) However, very few issues from the 1980's-2010's rank high on my list of top 50 issues, let alone top 25 issues.

One thing that really upset me with the title (and all Marvel comic titles I suppose) is when they dropped the editorial commentary that used to be provided on every page. This helped to follow the story in a much easier way that we have seen since Marvel eliminated it. Just about everyone praised the Hickman run and I admit that there were things about it that were good. However, I personally found his storylines to be extremely confusing at times and this is an example of where the former editorial commentary on every page would have helped immensely. I suppose that to some extent my complaint about the FF is not about the FF itself, but about Marvel Comics in general. I will say that the one area in which I believe the gold standard held up well was in the artwork area. As much as I used to like and praise Jack Kirby, John Buscema and George Perez, most of the FF artists and colorists in the past 20 years anyway were excellent and they were the main reason that I kept buying the title, as most of the storylines were either confusing for me to follow or I did not find them overly appealing.

I must say that I am very surprised that according to the poll here, so many fans miss the Fantastic Four title already. Maybe this should give us long time FF fans a little encouragement that the title might return sooner than some of us have feared.

[OldManBrian]

I miss them being written well, like when Waid or Hickman was writing.

I don't think the answer is to bring the book back and give it to someone who isn't up to the task.

This philosophy hasn't stopped Marvel from launching, relaunching, relaunching, and relaunching again a ton of other books with someone who wasn't up to the task.

[Namor'sWrath]

I miss the Fantastic Four. It's sad that comic book movies have had this effect on the comics. I almost wish we didn't have them.

[Moriarty]

i miss the FF. but if the plan is to bring them back under the direction of Bendis then i'd rather they stay gone.

[Materiel]

Personally don't miss them yet and that's probably because they had, in my opinion, the greatest swan song I've ever read.