![]() Of course, not everything has worked out perfectly. That potent mix of new and familiar, set against a backdrop of celebrating and embracing what makes the FF great, has created a run for the ages. Throughout his tenure, he’s been frantically adding new pieces to the FF’s cosmic puzzle with a zealous streak of creativity matched by very few writers in modern times. Doom’s armor transparent for all the world to see? You can bet Victor did.īut the secret ingredient to Slott’s run wasn’t just a nostalgia romp. Remember the time Invisible Woman rendered Dr. And all of them have made appearances (some more than once) throughout Slott’s four-year run, and all of them have been used in fun and creative ways. Doom, Galactus, Psycho Man, Kang, Annihilus, Namor (some days), the Skrulls, the Kree, and so many more. Oh, and the villains: the Fantastic Four boasts one of the finest rogues’ galleries in the annals of comics – Dr. ![]() No, Slott did exactly what Marvel should have done in the first place: lean in hard to what makes the team great in the first place: family, exploration, and big drama. ![]() It wasn’t in trying to make them “hip and cool” to appeal to new readers, or give them flashy new costumes, or have them team up with Wolverine, or whatever flash-in-the-pan short-term solution other minds came up with. Michael Straczynski, and even Mark Millar (not to mention a much-ballyhooed but misguided attempt at Ultimate-izing them), the team just couldn’t quite catch readers’ imagination again.ĭan Slott, though, knew the key to success wasn’t in trying to reinvent the wheel. If nothing else, they’d lost their cache and standing, and despite robust showings from the likes of Mark Waid, J. Changing times and shifts in generational attitudes had rendered the FF on the verge of being considered obsolete. It was a sweet send-off, but the undercurrent that maybe they’re going away because Disney and Fox are at daggers drawn with each other loomed omnipresent: Was the FF being shelved because Disney and 20th Century Fox were cinematic competitors? Was Marvel purposefully not publishing a Fantastic Four book out of spite, or to not provide a competitor with free advertising? Hell, what would a Marvel Universe even look like without the FF?īut over the previous couple of decades, the Fantastic Four had lost their prominence as the cornerstone of the Marvel Universe, and the X-Men and then the Avengers became the company’s standard-bearers. Jonathan Hickman, architect of the book’s last great run, brought their prominence to a crescendo in Secret Wars in 2015-16, which ostensibly ended with Reed, Sue, and their kids sailing off into the forever skies of tomorrow to explore the infinite. Previous creative teams had tried to find new creative sparks with hum-drum success. ![]() When the FF was put on the shelf for three long years, it was a devastating indictment that Marvel, for whatever reason, couldn’t figure out how to connect that core concept with fans anymore. But it’s true, and it’s what sets the FF apart from their superpowered peers for over six decades now. Corny? In the eye of a cynical beholder, perhaps. They always come together at the end of the day, because no matter what the universe throws their way, they know they’re stronger together than apart. At their cores, Ben Grimm, Johnny Storm, Sue Storm, and Reed Richards are one big, dynamic, dysfunctional, loving family. That’s a concept that might seem quaint or passe in modern times, but it’s at the heart of Marvel’s First Family, right there alongside being Atomic Age space explorers.
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