For the three of you who will actually read this post, if you have any interest in the current Fantastic Four storyline, please wait to read this until after you read the current issue. As one of the people who had the ending spoiled for me on Tuesday, I don’t want to be the one who ruins it for someone else. And, to those of you who started tweeting & blogging who died on Tuesday, knowing full well that most of us couldn’t get our hands on a copy until Wednesday, I’d just like to say: FUCK YOU!
The Fantastic Four was never a comic I read a lot as a kid. However, as a person who grew up on Spidey & Hulk comics, I was obviously aware of Marvel’s “first family”. Two of my favorite villains, Dr. Doom & Galactus, are spawned from their pages. However, I always thought the FF were lame and cheesy. It took the start of their current run Three, where it was announced at the beginning that one of the four would die, to actually get me to buy my first issue.
However, leading into the event, it was becoming evident who WASN’T going to die. The Thing is currently a New Avenger, so killing him off in one title would mean he’d have to die in the other (at least you’d home Marvel wouldn’t create such a huge continuity hole). Meanwhile, during the run, Mr. Fantastic popped in the Avengers title as a member of the Illuminati, which already featured a plot point where one of its members has died. So we’re left with the Storm siblings: Johnny & Susan.
While one is a seemingly ancillary character, the other is a linchpin of the series. Would Marvel take it safe or return to their “dropping Gwen Stacey from a bridge” roots? Indicative of current-gen Marvel, consisting of mostly tired and uninspiring stories, the poor Human Torch is no more. Even worse, Marvel didn’t even give Johnny a creative exit! It was an Aerosmith song away from the ending of Armageddon.
Had Marvel wanted to create a compelling storyline that would keep me interested in the Fantastic Four now that I know who dies, it was the Invisible Woman who should have perished. Really, what are the ramifications of losing Johnny? Sue mourns the loss of her brother, Thing and Spider-Man are bummed about losing their friend, Reed shows 10 minutes of concern before he’s distracted by his next project, and random hot New York chicks miss out on Johnny making “flame on this” jokes.
But imagine the lingering affect losing Susan would have merely on the other inhabitants of the Baxter Building’s penthouse:
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Reed and the Kids: on the
Slacker & the Man podcast last Father’s Day, Reed was ranked as one of the worst dad's in geekdom. He’s as much of an absent father as a guy who works from home can be. How would a guy whose brain runs a mile a second be able to slow down not only to cope with the loss of his wife but also help his two children mourn the death of their mother?
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Johnny: as far as I remember, Johnny & Sue’s mother died when they were kids and their father went to jail for killing a guy in self-defense. So Sue has always had to act as a surrogate mother to Johnny. Heck, she’s the reason why he’s the Human Torch to begin with! How does Johnny react to losing pretty much the only family he’s ever known (well, other than his niece and nephew)?
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Ben: his response would probably be the most heart-breaking. Odd, since he’s the only one who’s not related to Susan. However, as overly-protective and big-hearted as The Thing is, he would likely take Sue’s death as some sort of shortcoming on his part and his response could go in several directions.
And that would be the effect on just the other members of the Fantastic Four… How would the arrogant Namor react had he been responsible for the death of the woman he desired? Since Susan was generally the only one able to talk sense into Dr. Doom (she just did in a recent issue of the somewhat off-kilter retelling of the Infinity Gauntlet story)… How would his dealing with the Fantastic Four change? In addition, he was also known to have a thing for Sue. It’s easy to see a side story where, once he finds out Namor’s responsible for her death, Doom leads the armies of Latveria in an attack on Atlantis.
Instead, we lose the Human Torch (at least for the brief period of time they decide to keep him dead). At least his funeral issue should be more entertaining than that shitty one they did for Sentry last year. Meanwhile, Marvel’s a fan of doing the “What if?” one-shots, so I can see them doing one where Sue dies instead. But, by the time it’s published, no one will care and as a one-shot there wouldn’t be time to truly flesh-out how losing Susan affects the family, the team, and the Marvel Universe as a whole.
Note to Marvel: Other than Spider-Man, your storylines lately have been crap. I followed Dark Reign expecting for it to turn into some socio-political commentary on living in a police state led by an egomaniacal madmen. Instead, it was just a bad guys-playing-good guys story that you’ve done better in Thunderbolts. Siege, even at 4 issues, seemed long because it just didn’t seem to matter. Quit focusing on the Films Division and get back to your core. Maybe you wouldn’t have to fish for amateurs to write a screenplay for one of your secondary characters if you had decent plots in the comics to draw from.
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