Hello all you beautiful people of the comic book movie world! My name is HenshinRider and allow me a moment for a ramble. Quite the controversy has stirred in the last week as it came to light that Marvel has cancelled Fantastic Four and it is ending in issue #645. Not only this, but according to Chris Claremont, Marvel have put the kibosh on X-Men creators from creating new characters. I have heard people wail left right and centre how this is stifling creativity and hampering creators. And I… tend to agree. Disappointed? Hoped a contrary opinion? Well I guess you are in luck. How you ask? Well yes, I DO agree that this stifles creativity and really sucks. But I do see Marvels point of view and can see their justifications.
The first point is that Marvel does not want to help promote the competition, sure comics are not a huge market, but any advertising from Marvel is basically free advertising for Fox’s Fantastic Four reboot in 2015. Reports are that Marvel CEO, Ike Perlmutter, was apparently furious over negations with Fox over breakdown of the Galactus and Silver Surfer deal back in 2012. A bit of a D move on Marvel’s part. But it is a little understanble considering that Fantastic Four is a low selling title and there is really not that much to loose over embargoing the title. This is something Marvel cannot justify with X-men as the titles are still selling well.
As for the X-Men character mandate, it makes complete sense that Marvel does not want to provide Fox with more characters. I personally do not find that point as bad and is completely justifiable in my opinion. So for the short version of this editorial, just know that this is not the end of the world and that although this situation sucks… It could be worse. There are a few backdoors however that Marvel could exploit to make the best out of this situation.
Let’s say upfront that this call seemingly has come from high up in the Marvel chain, so it is safe to assume that Marvel editorial may not be too pleased with these mandates – and neither will creators. But there are loopholes Marvel creative could exploit. Heck, with some creative re-jigging the mandates could bring a breath of fresh air and could bring the stories in exciting new directions.
Fantastic Four? Why not give it a name change for a year? Change the Status quo
This is an easy and very likely fix if Marvel editorial decide they want to bring back Fantastic Four. They just need to change the title of the book for a year or however long it takes. Just change to name to something that represents the team’s new status quo. Maybe they become corporate funded and change their name to match their new corporate name. Or maybe just expand the team so that they are not the Fantastic Four per say but maybe an Avengers B team that are mostly Fantastic Four. This could be a great opportunity to change up the team’s status quo. I think one of the best books Fantastic Four books in a while was the FF series by Matt Fraction and Mike Allred. This was because the status quo was changed and the Fantastic Four (although the book was not titled Fantastic Four) was a completely new team. Something similar could be done but maybe instead of a new Fantastic Four, you could expand the Fantastic Four into a bigger and greater team under a different name. A good idea could be to have the Fantastic Four absorbed into another team book, such as the Defenders or one of the 3000 Avengers books.
This one is a given considering Reed’s role in many other books such as New Avengers etc. I think spreading the four as characters in different team books would be the way to go. Assuming that New Avengers has ended by the time Fantastic Four is cancelled, Reed would be a lock to be on any Avengers team – especially if the Illuminati is involved. The Thing likewise would be good in a grounded street level Avengers or any street level team title, like a new Heroes for Hire title. Human Torch would be a nice addition for the newly announced Spider-man and the X-men title. Human Torch and Spider-man have a pre-established history and both are jokesters, so this could add to the zany funny feel of the book. Sue Storm is the only odd one in the four. If you really wanted to shake the status quo up you could split Reed and Sue up momentarily and have her shack up with Namor. Look, I don’t really know what you could do with Sue – just throw her in some sort of team or something. I think the really interesting characters that could spin out of this mandate are Franklin and Valeria. I think Marvel should re-launch an Avengers Academy type teen book they could join in. They could be great in a teen centric book. This could be the launching point to nurture them to eventually grow up and spin off into their own titles in the future. Heck, throw Sue in there too as a mentor in the Academy book. See, I’ve figured out something with Sue!
This is the easiest way for creators to bring in new characters. Most creators have two or three books under their belt as well as their X-Men titles. For example, Bendis has Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter David has Spider-man 2099, Chris Yost has New Warriors, so on and so forth. Point is that creators have a way to introduce new characters they want to have appear their X title. They can just have the character appear in their other book for a few issues or arcs and then introduce them in their X title from then on. So technically the character was never introduced in an X title. If the problem is that Fox has the rights to any mutant character then just make them a dormant Inhuman (It’s practically the same thing to be honest).
Nigtmare fuel...
Wrap up
So as I said, this situation sucks. It sucks for the creators. It sucks for the readers. But, we have to chin up and just roll with the punches. In the history of comic books there have been far worse mandates (Such as Jim Shooter’s mandate against homosexual characters or the comic’s code authority). So it is not the end of the world, in fact it could give way to new exciting directions for these characters and could really shake up the status quo. And also remember that nothing lasts forever, I guarantee in a year or two the mandates will be lifted and status quo will return. So let me know what you think – do you think these mandates spell the end for Marvel or do you not really care either way? Sound off below and share your thoughts and don't forget to hit that beautiful red glove if you liked this article. Thanks for reading and have a great day.