Fantastic Four I

304-332

This page: 304-321

FANTASTIC FOUR, Marvel's flagship title, was one of those books that had had periods of greatness but was floundering when Marvel asked me to revive it. Perhaps because it is the flagship title, the trends this run shows exemplify some larger truths.

One thing to note is that the writer has nothing to do with the cover; that's the province of the editor, and shows what he thinks of the book. So even though I started a radical new storyline as per usual, the early covers in this run remain pretty uninspired, even generic.

But that radical storyline involved changing the composition of the Fantastic Four. The FF was always the "real life" adventures of superheroes, but as the series atrophied many people forgot about the real life part; growth and change went out the window. I identified the hermetically-sealed group of Reed & Sue & Ben & Johnny as a main reason the book has grown stale - and Reed & Sue had been saying for years that they should pay more attention to their perpetually 6-year-old son Franklin - so I let 'em. Thus, Ben & Johnny had to find two new members and do new things. And as soon as they did, in #308, the covers begin to reflect a much more interesting reality.

So it was that the series developed into something as rich and unpredictable as its earliest days, and regained all the lost readership - up through issue #321... [To Be Continued on the next page]

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IWritten by Peter David
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ICollection: FF 320
ICollection: FF 316-319

COMICS

FANTASTIC FOUR 322-325


NOTES:

There's a preview of this series in MARVEL AGE ANNUAL 3.

308: When I created a villain named "Fasaud," it was only because the name was cool. Who knew then that almost all the terrorists involved in 9/11 would be Saudis?

310: A wonderful cover!

318-319: Editor Ralph Macchio had always hated Jim Shooter's Beyonder, and asked me to write the guy out of the Marvel Universe. I did not hate the character so I wrote him out with, I hope, some heroism and grandeur.

320: A crossover with Peter David's HULK - the Thing vs the Hulk - followed by...

321: ...the "She-Thing" vs the She-Hulk.

A Peter David retrospective's an odd place to find a Steve Englehart story, but hey, any royalty's a good royalty.