Or is there a mix of too much damage done to them with too much crappy exposure.
Plus people think they are not with the times any longer.
Is it still possible?
>>79847297
As possibly the biggest FF fan you could ever possibly meet, the answer is NO.
It's time to let it go. I'd rather Marvel just stop publishing them and never acknowledge them again rather than keep beating a dead horse.
The only way I can think to do it right is going full-on retro futurism with it. But then again, recent films using that aesthetic haven't exactly been great successes.
>>79847297
Possible? Yes. Probable? Fuck no.
I don't read much Fantastic Four, but from what I've seen of them around /co/, it feels like things just get too cynical with them in modern times. I feel like the FF should be almost nauseatingly positive, if that's the right word.
They shouldn't really get down, especially not with each other. They're a family, and they're always looking out for each other.
Plus, they're scientists, they should go back to exploring shit.
>>79847368
We'll always have 1-102, anon. Hadly an comics get that kind of awesome. I like some of the other stuff, but nothing compares with that first run, imo.
Get the omnis, btw. They're like dreams come true.
>>79847297
>>79847368
IMO while the senior team may not work as a super hero team comic, another FF can still work. Even a FF with their kids + other chars.
The original lineup has been rolled into the cornucopia Avengers teams pre-secret wars and it was fine.
The Ultimates are like the Fantastic Four, only better
FF can't compete with a book like that
>>79848111
This is true only because in the modern MU, each of the original FF are more much interesting chars outside the FF.
>>79847297
A lot of superhero popularity is based on design, and those are outdated as fuck.
>>79847549
This is how I see it, portray them as explorers that go to some new dimension or planet each week. Not superheroes that fight crime when it shows up in New York.
Just wrap the whole story around Reed being the premiere mind on Earth and he always wants to go study something. Only that something is an alien virus, or ancient war machine, superfast evolving life form, or gateway to an eldritch monstrosity.
But make them a functioning team. With Reed in charge, Ben is the pilot/bodyguard/muscle, Sue is the girlfriend/financier, and Johnny is the annoying one that tags along for the ride.
>>79848212
That's the kind of thinking that leads to shitty designs today.
>>79847724
I could never really embrace comics from the 60s/70s but you're making them out to be the second coming of Jesus. Are they really that good?
the only good thing about the Fantastic Four is all the parodies of them in other works
nu-FF:
>Reed and Sue take time off / discuss divorce after coming back to earth616
>Reed moves to Latveria and works with Doom to solve the remaining problems on earth
>Sue Storm joins Shield and becomes a QT Facist anti-mutant agent (despites her son being a mutant)
>Ben is cured and tries to live a normal life but clashes with Sue when Shield goes after muties he knows. Becomes an activist and gets his powers back via terrigen mists. Joins up a mutie group
>Johnny tries to be an Avenger but antagonizes everybody and cant find his place in the world. Considers going out into space
>>79848224
How about having them investigate bizarre phenomena happening across the world a la X-files.
Also, I think giving Sue and Johnny more technical skills would make them more endearing. Give Sue a quarter of Reed's smarts, and make Johnny be sort of a gearhead. All the time he spends working on cars has to amount to something. Right?
Ultimates is basically what I'd imagine ANAD's FF book would be like.
>>79848618
Why would Sue suddenly become a racist mutant hunter.
Why is everyone's first response to a superhero having trouble is "GO OUT INTO SPACE SPACE ADVENTURES YAAAYYY".
>>79848618
It's shit, sempai
>>79848776
>racist mutant hunter.
because there is gonna be an even with Apocalypse, and there will be a backlash. Anyway her motivation is not racism, but her son. (If she can't help bring the muties under the rule of the law, how can she hope to help her son control himself later?)
And tonally, it seems Johnny would fit with guardians of the galaxy.
>>79848224
I think the problem the FF have is that all those crazy and bizarre places they went to and the people they met/fought just got integrated into the larger Marvel universe
Namor, The Inhumans, Kree, Skrulls, Galactus, even Doom became threats other characters dealt with
What the Fantastic Four really need is a creative team that is just going to pump out new ideas, locations, and characters. Enough riding on the back of Lee/Kirby.
The problem is Reed
Reed is OP as fuck. Its like the science superman. There's no real drama when you are in a Stardust level of super science.
Fantastic Four without Reed are a lot more interesting.
Exploring and adventure only work if there's unknown things. Reed can see a new universe and understand it in seconds.
Or make Reed stupid.
>>79849034
>There's no real drama when you are in a Stardust level of super science
Bullshit, you can have drama with anything if you put the effort in to write it. It's the same lame argument that Superman can't have good stories because he'll just beat any threat
>>79849034
There's ground between "stupid" and "so smart he has nothing left to learn".
Just make Reed have to try again.
>>79847297
the Fantastic Four lose a fundamental aspect of their character when removed from their original setting. Remember that they were the first humans in space in their original run, the worlds first astronauts. Take the FF out of the 60s and they lose something vital, pretty much the way taking Hank Pym out of the SCIENCE! 60s loses something. The way that Green Lantern loses something when he isn't a Chuck Yeager-esque test pilot.
IMO for the FF to function they need to remain in the 60s and any modern telling is with their replacements and/or children. If you do a movie you make it a period piece like Cap or Ant-Man, half the movie is the original stories, half is the modern take.
Its too bad marvel never did much storyline advancement in the books to draw from. Their two kids never age. They never bring in new blood (Johnny should've married and/or had kids of his own). The M2 Fantastic Five did some of this but it never went anywhere.
>>79849034
>There's no real drama when you are in a Stardust level of super science.
There can be plenty of drama from interactions with his family, his own loss of humanity as gives into universal concerns, and dealing with moral ambiguity.
>>79849130
But anon... Superman dont have good stories
>>79849307
>the Fantastic Four lose a fundamental aspect of their character when removed from their original setting...Take the FF out of the 60s and they lose something vital
You say can this of any marvel IP from the 60s and 70s
>>79849307
There was a whole huge arc about the Fantastic Four training a bunch of potential future FFers called the Future Foundation.
>>79848556
They're my personal preference, but tastes vary. I seem to like them more as time goes on. They' is a freshness to them that I feel is lacking in many modern cape comics.
But a lot of people think they're too text heavy (some are, no doubt) or silly (I don't mind silly). I prefer the art too.
Further there wasn't the desire to make sense of things or connect things- or 'modernize' stories that had gone before.
You can only do something for the first time once.
I like stuff from the 80's and 90's too, just not as much of it.
>>79849034
But he is possibly the only supergenius scientist in comics that is not insanely evil.
All the other guys that can build portal generators out of a few things found in a gass station in half an hour are evil and want to kill Superman or something. Reed is possibly that one guy who does not gear all his science towards defeating some super powered guy.
>>79849501
Yeah I mostly enjoy capes from the 60, 70's, and 80's.
I feel like the great 2nd or 3rd generation writers/artists were the ones that held a respect for the past material, but also had a desire to build on it. Byrne and Simonson's Fantastic Four runs are the only other ones I enjoy after the original because of those feelings
yeah just make them explores and advisers again
they can go both in space and the multiverse then and explore cool things
but during events and such they can be called
THEY not just reed
an they give advice referencing another adventure
make them cosmic Pulp
>>79849605
The good news is there are a shit ton of cape comics from those decades. I'm always finding something I have not read before.
>>79848255
Probably, I'm just saying that's certainly part of the reason people think they're lame, more than the characterization or the stories.
>>79847297
They were never major mainstream. They're comics never sold well and their movies were never huge box office success. Ask any random person on the street if they can name any one of the 4 and they won't know.
Christ, why are you guys spelling doom and gloom when we're not even 5 years apart from one of the top 3 best FF runs of all time with Hickman? And don't fucking tell me those sleek as fuck FF outfits and cosmic adventures are outdated, now in times of Spidergwen and 2/3 of Marvel's line being cosmic focused.
Also, all of the "fixes" you numbnuts proposed are just lame Ultiamte Fantastic Four storylines, which were not only super outdated more than a decade ago, but belonged to easily the worst book in the Ultimate line.
>>79848556
They are pretty good. Stan Lee's dialogue can be a bit much at times, but this and Thor had Kirby going full throttle with his efforts. The Lee/Kirby run of FF probably introduced more characters and ideas to the overall Marvel Universe than any other single run did in both DC and Marvel history.
>>79856196
Maybe it's a bit old by your frame of reference, but Fantastic Four literally prevented Stan Lee from quitting comics because of how well it did in it's early years.
>>79847297
the movie rights belongs to Fox so no
>>79856823
because >>79849605
these /co/ grandpas dislike the hickman stuff because its not goofy and silly enough and funnybooks should be funny
Honestly this shit about family is a bit bull. Yeah they treat eachother like senpai but they are explorers first. It was their curiosity that led them to space. That led to all these adventures.
Family just bought in the kids and that domesticated them. Made them uninteresting. The less focus on them the better. FF can still work with kids in them tho.
Make Susan be some agent of SHIELD riff raff doing her own adventures, have Reed have his own adventures as well ala Council of Reeds stuff. Then Ben and Johnny can have ACTUAL regular superhero adventures leading some new FF team or something.
ALSO make Franklin fucking interesting by giving him a PERSONALITY. His little sister is a bitch but she is so much better than that overpowered idiot. Make his personality like Johnny or something, a careless prankster. It makes sense since his parents aren't always taking care of him.
Also stop making Ben a pussy. Old Ben would teach punch first and ask questions later. New Ben is some softy that loves baby sitting Reeds kids. WTF. Make him a badass uncle that takes them to dangerous adventures instead.
>>79849034
There used to be a time when he wasn't a super scientist. When he just tinkered with alien tech and see what worked. Otherwise he was just some glorified expert astrophysicists.
HELL there was a time when marvel geniuses had certain fields they were expert in... Tony was engineering, Beast was Biology...but now everyones a ubergenius. Fuck.
Go dark with it. A dysfunctional family, every one of them gradually sliding further and further out of touch with reality.
>It's Always Sunny in the Baxter Building
Make new F4
Future Valeria (leader of the group)
Doctor Doom
The Thing
Iron Lad
Remember Thor Disassembled? Remember how he came back too boost his popularity? Same will happen.
>>79858165
>Hickman's FF
>not goofy as fuck
Uh-huh.
>>79858258
Yeah, the family bit is extremely overrated by /co/ compared to the old school adventuring in ridiculously diverse settings.
>>79852669
That may be true but the problem is that a lot of modern comic (and in some other media) design doesn't feel like it's up to the task of making a better costume. And then we end up with things like New 52 Armor Superman or those Fant4stic suits.
>>79856196
>Ask any random person on the street if they can name any one of the 4 and they won't know.
There's no way this is true, most people at least know the general characters even if they don't care about them at all.
>>79856196
>I'm underage
>>79858296
Bullshit, Reed and Doom were always #1 and #2 smartest people on Earth. That's why the FF were the first humans on the Moon.
>>79858987
But to be fair as pointed out earlier the Future Foundation suits look pretty good.
>>79847297
Make them more like The Four, except benevolent and not retarded: Apex superheroes on a grand scale.
Unconcerned with race politics like the X-men or police actions like the Avengers.
>>79858258
Ben needs to be the Brock Samson of the F4
