‘Fantastic Four’ Comics Were Really Canceled Over The Film Rights, Says Marvel Writer
By Hoai-Tran Bui/Aug. 7, 2017 10:30 am EST
Once Marvel surged to success in 2008 with Iron Man and the launch of its famous Marvel Cinematic Universe, the company sought to regain its most popular characters once again — to no avail. It did successfully get back rights to popular superheroes like Daredevil and Ghost Rider, but they’re certainly not Fantastic Four or X-Men when it comes to being recognizable.
Without that cinematic sway over the characters they created, we started to see a shift in the in-comics universe. The X-Men started to lose prominence in favor of Inhumans, which were being built up to be a pseudo-replacement for the X-Men in Marvel TV shows like Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D and the upcoming Inhumans. And what of Marvel’s First Family? Their comic was unceremoniously canceled in 2014.
Marvel Comics cited poor comic book sales for the cancellation of Fantastic Four. Hickman told Newsarama that’s not the case:
Unfortunately, Fantastic Four isn’t doing too well cinematically either. Its last big screen adaptation, 2015’s Fantastic Four directed by Josh Trank, was critically panned and rejected by audiences as well. The first two adaptations in 2005 and 2007 were just as critically thrashed, though they didn’t fail as spectacularly at the box office.
It seems like Marvel truly left the Fantastic Four, once one of its most beloved properties and its first series dedicated to a team of superheroes, out to dry. And Hickman was vocal in his disapproval of that:
“That kind of thinking runs contrary to everything I believe in as a professional storyteller. It comes from a place of manipulation where an attempt is made to make the reader desire something through denial. It’s hacky. It’s suboptimal. It’s the central tenet of all sh—y dating advice. If you want someone to care about a book, write a story they care about.”
Who do you think is in the right about the Fantastic Four cancellation?
