Marvel Needs to Do This If It Wants the Fantastic Four to Succeed

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With The Fantastic Four primed to become more popular than ever before when their latest live-action adaptation, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, hits theaters, Marvel Comics has announced a brand-new series for the First Family titled Fantastic Four Fanfare. This series, featuring work from past and present Fantastic Four creators like Mark Waid, Jonathan Hickman, and Dan Slott, is aimed at bringing the classic feel of The Fantastic Four to more fans than ever before.

Featuring brand-new stories from across the FF’s long history, Fanfare is designed to get fans on board with the team if they haven’t already checked out their stories, as well as act as a perfect jumping-on point for fans curious about the team and their upcoming film. The Fantastic Four is one of Marvel’s most iconic teams, and their popularity hasn’t been what it once was for some time, so a new series like Fanfare might be just what Marvel needs to get The Fantastic Four to be as beloved by the average fans as they deserve to be.

Marvel Needs To Show People How Exciting Fantastic Four Books Can Be

New Fans Need an Introduction to The Fantastic Four’s History

The Fantastic Four have become somewhat of a punchline among casual superhero fans in the last few decades. Numerous attempts at live-action adaptations have left die-hard fans wanting and pushed casual fans further away from reading more about the heroes. Once as popular as the X-Men and even more popular than the Avengers, The Fantastic Four may now be less well-known than the Guardians of the Galaxy due to the popularity of the MCU. This reality has devastated FF fans, who know just how good the team can be when given the chance.

This reality has devastated FF fans, who know just how good the team can be when given the chance. The Fantastic Four have some of the most exciting, compelling, and whimsical stories in the Marvel Universe. They are explorers first and superheroes second—a fact that makes many of their adventures uniquely different from what Marvel readers typically see. Their stories span galaxies, dimensions, realities, and timelines.

The Fantastic Four are the furthest thing from boring that a comic book super team can be, yet casual fans often assume otherwise. It’s a frustrating truth—one that needs to be rectified for the team to succeed in the MCU. Some of Marvel’s most important canon and history come from the pages of Fantastic Four, and many aspects of what fans have seen on the big screen owe their existence to Marvel’s First Family.

The team is so much more than a boring group of superheroes with different power sets. They are the beating heart and soul of the Marvel Universe, and their dedication to goodness and a better future for all is something that is incredibly powerful for so many fans. Whether The Fantastic Four is facing off against the deadly Doctor Doom, exploring the unknown reaches of some far-off galaxy, or simply relaxing in the Baxter Building, the core of their stories is always rooted in positivity, something that is in short supply in many contemporary artistic circles.

What might come off as basic or lame at first glance is so much richer and deeper than people ordinarily expect. The team is far more powerful than many fans realize, and their stories showcase that fact wonderfully over and over. The Fantastic Four’s stories are complex, heartfelt, action-packed science fiction bonanzas, and they deserve to be talked about in the same sentence as any of the best comic books of all time.

Marvel Needs to Get Casual Fans To Pick Up a Fantastic Four Comic

The New Fantastic Four Fanfare Series Should Get Fans of the MCU to Jump Into the Comics Universe

The four-issue Fantastic Four Fanfare series is primed to focus each issue on a different member of the super team, and that is the perfect recipe for getting new readers acquainted with the team and their stories. Curious semi-fans or brand-new readers should be able to simply pick up an issue of Fantastic Four: Fanfare and read a wonderful story about a hero they aren’t particularly familiar with, and in doing so, glean some sort of new knowledge about the Fab Four. The team was Marvel’s definitive super group for decades, and it is time that the general public understood why.

It seems that Fantastic Four Fanfare is designed to draw in curious casual fans, and that is a genius move for Marvel right before the Marvel Cinematic Universe versions of these iconic characters are introduced. A difficult aspect of the MCU and its fans, however, is the fact that they seem to be moving further and further away from the comic books that have inspired them for years. While the new projects from DC Studios seem to have reverence and respect for the comics that came before (with many DC projects directly promoting what comics inspired each film or television series), the MCU has struggled recently with die-hard comic fans. Series like Secret Invasion were panned by fans because of their refusal to embrace the comic book source material. This is something that The Fantastic Four cannot afford to do.

The best part of The Fantastic Four and their stories is how “comic booky” they often are. A grounded, more realistic portrayal of the superhero team would be a major mistake—something that was proven with the disastrous Fantastic Four film from 2015. Comic books are goofy, and The Fantastic Four are the definitive comic book team. They should embrace the silliness of the source material. They should embrace the campiness. They should embrace the heart and family-oriented stories. The Fantastic Four is not an inherently difficult idea to adapt faithfully in live-action or any other medium, but what came before has fundamentally misunderstood the importance and idea of the team and what makes their stories so good.

Marvel Needs To Integrate The Fantastic Four More Into The Current Marvel Landscape

The FF Used To Be a Pillar of The Marvel Universe, and They Should Be One Again

Ever since the popularity of the Marvel Cinematic Universe began, characters and teams which live-action adaptation rights didn’t rest with Marvel were put on the back burner in their comics to allow for Marvel-owned characters to take the spotlight. This led to the Fantastic Four virtually completely missing from major Marvel comics for a span of a few years. The team had been disbanded and their team comic had been canceled — leading to no new fans engaging with their exciting catalog of stories. This time for the Fantastic Four really damaged their public perception, leading to many fans of Marvel Comics leaning away from the importance of the team. The rivalry between Reed Richards and Doctor Doom alone is one of the best relationships Marvel has ever developed, and it is a shame that it is so often brushed aside in contemporary discussions of Marvel Comics.

So many aspects of the Marvel Universe are rooted in Fantastic Four stories. From Galactus and the Silver Surfer to the Inhumans and their stories to characters like Black Panther, The Fantastic Four’s books have always been at the forefront of introducing new ideas and characters to the Marvel Universe. Reed Richards has been a key player in most of Marvel’s biggest events, and the rest of the team is never far behind. This should be the case again, even though it currently doesn’t feel like it is. Despite the fact that The Fantastic Four have their own ongoing book again, they don’t feel as integral to the universe as they once did. This is in part due to the damage dealt during their time out of the spotlight and in part due to their previous lukewarm live-action adaptations. Characters that once were the faces of Marvel have drifted to the back of the pack, and that is something that should be remedied hastily.

What Fantastic Four Fanfare—along with the upcoming live-action movie—could do is set things right for the team in today’s superhero landscape. With so many major MCU characters seemingly gone for good, the arrival of The Fantastic Four could reinvigorate the franchise, but only if they’re done well. If the team is treated with the love and respect they once had, The Fantastic Four have the potential to be bigger than the Avengers. Marvel has a chance to bring back the spirit of the golden age of its stories, and Marvel’s First Family is the key to it all. They are a core pillar of what Marvel was built on and should be treated as such.

“}]] With a new film on the way and a brand-new series releasing, the Fantastic Four have a chance to be bigger than ever with comic book fans.  Read More