This January Fantastic Four #587 marks the end of the Fantastic Four and the last issue of Marvel’s longest running series. This ends the “Three” storyline by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting, this issue arrives polybagged in comic shops to avoid spoiling the cataclysmic ending of the Fantastic Four. The Artist John Cassaday provides a shocking “spoiler” variant cover to the issue which ships after the release of Fantastic Four #587 to help preserve the surprise events that lead to the disruption of Marvel’s first super hero team. In addition, Marvel has officially announced that there will be no overprint on Fantastic Four #587, in addition to the issue not appearing on newsstands. Pollybagged issue on 1/5/11, and John Cassaday “spoiler” variant cover On-Sale—1/26/11. These are early release dates and are subject to change.
The Fantastic Four was the first Marvel comic I ever picked up in the early sixties. The cosmic spawned characters really intrigued me. The comic was better than the Justice League and my favorite Super Group title. Jack Kirby and Stan Lee had a hit on their hands and introduced a lot of new Marvel characters in the pages from number 1-100 including Dr.
Doom, the Silver Surfer, the Watcher, Galactus the world destroyer and the reintroduction of Namor the Sub-Mariner from golden age fame, and many others. It has been the Marvel’s charter group, everyone has heard of the Fantastic Four. Starting with issue 588 the title will be officially renamed The Fantastic Three. While Marvel has attempted this in the past, they have never gone through with the change of the original four minus one. Marvel says that issue 587 will end in the loss of either the Invisible Woman, Mr. Fantastic, Thing or the Human Torch. The First Marvel Family will mourn the loss of a loved one. The drama does not get any greater than this. While no really dies in comics the title will change and one will be gone. A major change in the Marvel Universe. Right or wrong tell me what you think. Who will bite the dust? Do you think this will last? Reserve my copy at the comic shop, be there or be left out. Stay tuned comic faithful for more. 🙂 Walt
After the relatively recent “Death of the Invisible Woman” storyline and arcs about the FF traveling to Heaven to have the Thing resurrected and the presumed demise of Mr. Fantastic in the 1970s, and the exploitative trends to kill off (and usually bring back)superheroes, it seems banal, stale and uninspired to the Nth degree. If anything, the FF should proceed in the direction of expanding their cast of explorer-adventurers by having the youngsters age at closer to a normal rate, have others marry and propagate, and recruit. Certainly there have been temporary replacements over the decades (including, Crystal, Medusa, She-Hulk, Luke Cage, Black Panther, Storm) and spin-offs (The Fantastic Force, the Fantastic Five)but the status quo was soon restored. I recall an allusion in one of the alternative future stories about a Fantastic 14. Why not grow rather than contract? Now that might not only be an organic development for a viable, going concern like a superhero team but from a reader’s perspective, novel, revolutionary and significantly much more exciting, with intriguing story possibilities.
Yes comic writers are at it again kill someone off and draw attention to the title. One person involved in the story line said it would make the story better. Give me a break. Who ever they kill the Fantastic whatever will be less than it was before. What are they thinking at Marvel. Who Knows?
This is exactly why I stopped reading Marvel titles. Joe Quesada has proven time and again that the happiness of comics fans has zero bearing on how he runs the company. Remember when he swore that Steve Rogers would not come back from the dead? Yeah…publicity stunt after publicity stunt. I agree with Maurice’s post above. You want improved sales? Come up with better story arcs.