Mike Sterling's Progressive RuinAlone, unmourned, and unloved since 1969

“There are more Things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

§ October 10th, 2016 § Filed under fantastic four § 7 Comments

So for whatever reason I started spouting off about the Fantastic Four on my Twittererers over the weekend, wondering if the concept is simply just played out and resistant to any form of forthcoming newsstand success. Now…frankly, I’m not sure what put the thought into my head, because:

1) Recent FF comics have been pretty good, actually. The main issue of late with ongoing FF titles, or any ongoing Marvel title, is that given current publishing strategies, a series doesn’t stick around for too long before being given the ol’ reboot/relaunch. And, FF titles of late, when they reach the endpoint of their “current” series, are given fairly definitive endings that wouldn’t naturally flow into a new storyline from a new creative team, thus necessitating reboot-ering.

2) There’s also the thought that Marvel is hesitant to publish comics that would provide grist for other movie studio’s mills, as film rights for the FF are held outside of Marvel Studios, which would explain the lack of a title for them right now. Of course, Marvel is still publishing X-Men comics, also not under the purview of Marvel Studios, but not publishing X-titles maybe a financial hit Marvel can ill afford, compared to the relatively small loss from not having a current FF title. Anyway, I’ve heard both support and debunkings of the “Marvel won’t publish books licensed to other studios” thing, so I have no idea what’s going on there.

Whatever the reason, I shouldn’t be saying that the Fantastic Four idea as a concept is over and done with. Pretty much any comic book just needs the right take from the right people and suddenly it’s viable again. Part of my thought process here may have come from the fact that the Fantastic Four movies have had such a hard time finding traction. I didn’t dislike the film adaptations from the mid-2000s, and even the much-maligned movie from last year had its moments (and I suspect a sequel building on that film could work a lot better). But it feels like if Marvel Studios were to get the FF back under its roof and integrate it into its cinematic universe, then the team might have a better chance of catching on. (One idea I’d heard was to make them “period” characters from the 1960s, and the rocket flight that gave them powers back then also shunted them forward to the modern day, which I think is kind of brilliant.)

There are other points, too, that brought me to the position of thinking the Fantastic Four are past their sell-by date. Chris and Matt on the War Rocket Ajax podcast often mention about the repeating of certain character/plot developments, such as “Johnny has to learn to grow up and be responsible” which has happened a few times in recent memory. And then there’s the idea that if you keep going back to Dr. Doom and Galactus and the Negative Zone and “Is This The End of the Fantastic Four?” you’re just rehashing, but if you try to do different things and switch up characters and whatnot, suddenly “this isn’t the FF.” It strikes me that Fantastic Four probably isn’t the easiest comic book in the world to write.

In the course of my Twitter-babbling (different from my blog-babbling, in that the paragraphs are shorter), I did say that while the Fantastic Four idea may be in need of rest right now, the simple fact of the matter is this:

For support of that statement, I refer you to this piece I wrote long ago as part of an article about a sadly still-forthcoming Thing graphic novel (at the end of the page, in italics). The Thing really is one of the best characters, not just in comics, but in all of fiction. Yeah, that’s right, I’d put him up there with, like, Hamlet. In fact, I bet the Thing could totally take Hamlet in a fight.

That brought me to think about how they could bring back the Fantastic Four in a way that would have a little more staying power (beyond whatever behind-the-scenes movie-stuff wheeling-and-dealings to which we’re not privy), and that gave me an idea reminiscent of my old Legion of Super-Heroes concept:

While that doesn’t remove the family-relationship drama that we may have seen over and over again in the title, presenting it from the Thing’s perspective will at least give us a slightly different angle on it. And by making it Thing-centric, the pressure is off from regularly featuring the other members of the family in the title…while possibly opening it to guest-appearances and other team-ups Marvel Two-in-One-style. Since this book wouldn’t technically be “The Fantastic Four,” that kind of character ‘n’ situation switch-up wouldn’t (hopefully) result in complaints that this isn’t the FF folks are used to.

Plus, everyone loves the Thing, so I feel like this would be one heck of a book if done right.

Oh, and someone remind me to add an “armchair publishing” category to my site. Just came to mind for some reason.