‘Fantastic Four’ Canceled? Comic Books Will Be Disappearing From Shelves For Awhile
If 2015 was already a bad year forFantastic Four, it doesn’t sound like 2016 is shaping up to be much better for Marvel’s first family. 20th Century Fox’s franchise reboot of the comic book property bombed hard at the box office and now Marvel Comics is shelving the superhero team, at least for awhile. Get the details below.
First of all, if you’re a comic book fan and you’re readingSecret Wars, there arespoilersfrom here on out through issue #9. But if you’re in the clear on that front, or you just don’t care about knowing the ending of the final issue of the series, then keep reading.
At the end ofSecret Wars #9(viaTHR), Reed Richards, Sue Storm and their kids Franklin and Valeria end up outside reality with a group of students from the Future Foundation. Their primary goal is to create new universes in an attempt to repopulate a comic book multiverse that suffered some crushing blows thanks to the events that led up to Secret Wars. And as a line that functions both as character dialogue and a hint to fans, Reed Richards says this:
No more superheroes for a while, just science. And no more Mister Fantastic, just Dad. That doesn’t sound too bad, does it?
Back in the fall of 2014, the primary Fantastic Four comic book that was still being published wasrevealed to be coming to an end, and now this is the last appearance of the superpowered quartet that will happen in the Marvel comic book universe for the time being.
There has been speculation that a touchy relationship between Marvel and 20th Century Fox had the comic book company getting rid of the team for a while, out of spite for the movie studio holding on to the rights of their characters instead of letting them fall back to Marvel Studios. That buzz wasn’t helped any by the fact that a page in one ofThe Punishercomics in 2014killed off the cast members of theFantastic Fourreboot. But Marvel executive editorTom Brevoortsat down for an interview withComic Book Resourcesand explained some different reasoning:
Fantastic Fourhas been one of those books that, for a number of years, has been effectively taken for granted. It’s been considered stodgy, or old school, or some people see it as a thing that’s there and people are comfortable because it’s there, but they’re not particularly passionate about it. So we’re not going to have that book for a while.
That certainly makes sense.Fantastic Fourhas been a staple of Marvel because it was one of the early titles. But it’s not exactly a comic book that has garnered a lot of attention or praise in recent years. This could actually end up benefitingFantastic Fourin the long run as Brevoort pointed out:
We didn’t have a Thor book for a while. For a couple of years, there was absolutely no Thor book, and when Thor came back, it was a huge book. It continues to be a huge book to this day. I think that absence was part of what made people cherish its return, and then it was just having great talent to execute that return. If the same sort of thing happens with Fantastic Four that would not be the worst thing in the world.
So if Marvel keepsFantastic Fourcanceled for a couple of years and 20th Century Fox doesn’t end up making a sequel to their disastrous reboot (they’ve already pulled it from the release calendar in 2017), then maybe the rights will go back to Marvel Studios around the same time that Marvel Comics decides to bring them back to comic book shelves. That would be something that fans would get really excited about.
So now is the time to say farewell Reed, Sue, Johnny and the Thing. Well, not the Thing, because he’s hanging out withGuardians of the Galaxyright now. And not Johnny, because he’ll still be appearing inUncanny AvengersandUncanny Inhumans. And there’s also an alternate universe Reed Richards inNew Avengersas well. You know what, don’t say bye to anyone. They’ll all be back eventually.
