Bedlam in the Baxter Building

In this blog, we'll take an overview of the last two decades of the FF's publishing history, which culminated in the team's two big screen adventures. Interestingly, having had two animated series, in the sixties and the late Seventies, the FF returned to the small screen in the 90s with all four original members:

But let's back up a year or so. This issue sported one of Marvel's first die-cut covers and it appeared to be the end of the story of Lyja, the Skrull spy who had impersonated Alicia and married Johnny Storm- a towering retcon of Byrne's arc for the couple.

Ah, the early Nineties: the era when superheroes sported beard stubble, pony tails, leather jackets, automatic weapons and lots of pouches- often all at the same time. The wellspring for an inundation of four-colour funnybooks was probably the stratospheric sales of Liefeld's X-Force and Jim Lee's X-Men. Then those artists, along with Todd McFarlane, Erik Larsen  and Marc Silverstri, decamped from Marvel and formed Image.
Even though I was a mostly-umempoyed actor in bedsit-land between 1991 and 94, I bought a shedload of Image books- Wildcats, Youngblood, Brigade, Savage Dragon- and some of the more obscure Valentino comics: the Pact and the Alliance, before throwing in the towel with Union, Tribe and Shaman's Tears. I also bought Valiant's Magnus, X-0, Shadowman and Rai, which were better-written in the main and certainly better-drawn.
Marvel's fortunes rose and fell spectacularly in this decade. In the first half of the 90s, the adventures of the FF were uninspired, with a very long and workmanlike run by Tom DeFalco. Sue also appeared in one of the worst, most inappropriate outfits in comics.

 Ms. Marvel II , Dr. Doom's mole, gets a better outfit than Stripperella here.

Roy Thomas and Herb Trimpe reunited for a Fantastic Four Unlimited series but the results were quite ugly. The spin-off Fantastic Force was even worse with a dull and generic teaming of FF hangers-on.

 DeFalco mutilated the Thing's face-after an encounter with Wolverine; apparently killed off Reed and Doom to replace them with Namor and the Scott Lang Ant-Man; and aged Franklin (again) into a teenager.

 Whatever happened to black, handicapped heroine Wildstreak?

 DeFalco's run almost challenged Stan's in terms of longevity and many of his chaacters would resurface at the end of the decade. But the boom and bust of comic book speculation hit the House of Ideas very hard indeed.
Marvel tried to reverse its fortunes by outsourcing four of its Silver Age properties out to Image creators Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. The Heroes Reborn project had very mixed fortunes: Captain America is infamous for poorly-proportioned art and the Avengers misfired. Iron Man's origin was tied to that of the Hulk- a touch that appealed to me because it gave the Golden Avenger a distinct mission and it reduced the number of Marvel accidents by one. This was similar to Lee's approach to the FF, who gain their powers after contact with Galactus:

 The FF uniforms have a faintly militaristic vibe but they are completely recognisable.

Still couldn't resist an Inhumans cover

The book had a widescreen feel and a dizzying pace. It introduced the idea of Johnny as an irrresponsible, thrill-seeking playboy, ( a la the deeply unlikeable movie version) and an increased role for Sue. Reed's greying temples received an application of Just For Men. Perhaps the underlying problem with this reboot was that too much was introduced too soon: the FF, the Mole Man, the Avengers, Namor, the Panther, the Surfer, the Super Skrull and Doom- all in the first five issues!
 In any case, the reboot ended after about a year of publication. Cap, Iron Man, the Avengers and Thor were realunched again as Heroes Return(ed) with new creative teams and a solid grounding in the Bronze Age Marvel U.

By now, I had my own home in the East End and was working in the call centre sector.
Alan Davis drew lots of little Easter Eggs, like a mobile with the Tardis and Dan Dare's Anastasia (in Franklin's bedroom) and mailman Willie Lumpkin's curvy niece, Billie. The FF got a new pierside hq and new villains like the Ruined and the Iconoclast.
A new subplot with the Red Ghost's super-apes foreshadowed sinister cosmic-ray-related developments for the Four. At the same time, the 1998 annual featured a timewarp story "The Best of Families". Karl Kesel introduced us to a new identity for Franklin as the Zero Man, his Wakandan wife Zawadi and Johnny's son Cosmic Ray and stepdaughter Luna (Crystal's troubled daughter).

But after only three issues, the Davis/Scott Lobdell team had been replaced by X-Men emeritus Chris Claremont and his collaborator Salvador Larocca.
 Claremont introduced a number of his Excalibur characters but many of his other innovations were, in true 90s style, little more than an intriguing name and visual. However, his most lasting contribution is probably the second Marvel Girl, Sue's daughter Valeria, who was later de-aged to infancy.

Val was, like Rachel Summers, a time-lost waif with vast powers; the current Val is a scary child super-genius. I preferred the original. Claremont also worked with Kirby enthusiast  Jose Ladronn to pit the FF against a new Hellfire Club that included the Son of Satan. This annual also introduced a mysterious new character called Mechamage. Doom and Agatha Harkness notwithsatnding, I don't feel magick works well in the FF however.

The Claremont/Larocca oneshot Fantastic Fourth Voyage of Sinbad is a typically overwritten fantasy from Claremont that's proved very popular with my S1 kids. Me, I like Franklin's nanny, the superheroine Caledonia:

 Since about 1970, reading in my dad's garden, I had wanted to see a Fantastic Five with Franklin on the team . I would live long enough to actually see it happen. It's curious that while DC worked hard to consolidate its parallel worlds, Marvel keeps trying to create them. One such example was the MC2 line:an imprint of all-ages book set in an alternate future.The first and longest-lasting series was Spider-Girl and a Fantastic Five series ran for five issues, then returned in 2007 for another limited series:

Unfortunately, Franklin is still labouring under the dreadful codename Psi-Lord and initially his dad was the HERBIE-style drone Big Brain. Later, we met Johhny and Lyja's (Ms. Fanatastic-yeah!) son Torus (named after Toro?) and Ben's kids with Sharon/ Ms. Marvel, Rad and Grim.
Another alternate world appeared in Englehart's 2000 miniseries FF: Big Town, a world in which the Kirbytech we were accustomed to filtered down to the average Joe Schmoe on Yancy Street. Doom, Namor, the Hulk, Magneto, the Red Skull and Ultron became uneasy allies and the Torch suffered the tragic loss of his fiancee, Sally Juarez.

Like the MC2 Universe, this was a world that ,despite its occasional darkness, was rooted in the Marvel U I'd grown up with. However, Englehart's public resentment of preceived editorial heavy-handedness ensured that a return visit to this version of NYC was extremely unlikely.

Three more miniseries in the Noughties caught my attention. The first was a charming attempt to recreate the last days of the Silver Age with a whistle-stop tour of Marvel circa 1970:

  I love seeing Original Falcon...and the FF in Asgard seems such an obvious crossover!
Grant Morrison wrote a dark, dour version of the FF that left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. Alan Davis was able to play nicely with the FF while also throwing in cameos by the likes of Her/Kismet/Ayesha in Captain Marvel drag.

 Davis's Doom also draws upon the Dr. Smith mutant from the 90s Lost in space movie

 The Ultimate FF, devised by Mark Millar and Brian Bendis was a less successful hard reboot, in my eyes, than the Jim Lee version.

Gaining their powers as the result of a teleportation accident, the team was also considerably more youthful. Their nemesis was one Victor Van Damme and their biggest contribution to the Marvel mythos was an evil FF composed of flesh-eating undead, giving rise to the Marvel Zombies imprint. I have to say though that Ultimate Crystal is extremely attractive, for an isolationist eugenics experiment.


 Mark Waid teamed with the late Mike Wieringo and repostioned the FF as "imaginauts" in a specially-priced jumping -on issue. Surprisingly, they also debunked the Yancy Street Gang as a prank pulled by Johnny and made the younger Storm sibling the Herald of Galactus, which I thought was an inspired decision.

  The high point of this run was an encounter with the Creator himself.

Having been killed in action, Ben Grimm. was rescued from the afterlife by his teammates who then confronted God- Jolly Jack in all his stogie-smoking glory. Like Chuck Jones and Daffy Duck, the King was able to undo previous harrowing events with his pencil eraser.
Meanwhile, the All-Ages arm of Marvel had been revisiting the Stan and Jack era with rather simplistic retellings of classic stories and some new tales, too:

Of course, the biggest development for the FF in the Noughties was their transition to the silver screen. While not as successful as the X-Men franchise or the bafflingly-popular Iron Man, there is a lot of heart in both films. And a lot to cringe at, not least Chris Evans' snarky man-boy Torch. I can't say anything much about the fourth cartoon series except the "4" on Ben's torso doesn't work.

In the wake of the lamentable Civil War crossover, the late Dwayne McDuffie introduced two, er, fantastic new substitute members, T'Challa and Ororo.

Not only did this couple bring a unique new power set to the group, they also lent it diversity and regality. Unfortunately, it didn't last long enough. The next creative team chose a wearisome "real world" direction.

Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch brought their infamous "Ultimates" shock tactics to the regular book, teasing the Death of the Invisible Woman and introducing Victor Von Doom's mentor, the Marquis of Death.
While I find Millar often crude and sensationalist and Hitch's photorealism unappealing, the team have to be applauded for bringing some high-concept sci-fi ideas to the book.
Current writer Jonathan Hickman has developed them further but the Fantastic Four as I knew it is now no more. The only member not to have been presumed dead before has perished (off-camera, natch) and the book went down "The Death of Superman" route with a polybagged issue. The images below show the new team and its obvious Bronze Age inspiration.

Anyone who's read any comics at all in the last decade knows that death is a revolving door, especially with a new movie mooted and a fiftieth anniversary looming. I'd be happy to see the Fantastic Five return but that fifth spot belongs to Frankin Richards. I'd also like to see Lockjaw's puppy, Caledonia, Lyja, Val/Marvel Girl, She-Hulk and Billie Lumpkin. The easiest way to get this book right is not to tinker too much with the formula. However, I think the adventurer- family concept behind the FF is probably too wholesome and nowhere near tormented enough for the curent audience's tastes...

Next: Hello Pretty.
The Legal Bit: this is a blog for nostalgia, entertainment and comment. All images are presumed copyright of their respective owner, by Agon's Genes.