r/FantasticFour

Random rant guy here again. I feel like recently as F4 (and wider range of Marvel characters tbf) have grown in popularity due to Marvel Rivals, I have seen this one take that pisses me off. The take being that Reed is an ugly or mediocre at best guy who has married way above his weight. Now, I will go ahead and say, yes, Reed is probably not as good looking as Susan, but there is no shame in that. The woman is very beautiful, most people aren't as good looking as her. Doesn't mean Reed is ugly. The guy is more than 6 feet tall (adjustable, technically he can be as tall as Wemby or even taller) and to me he looks pretty decently well. Specially with the moustache, I do love a Reed with moustache. I don't know which Doombot spread this fake info, but my guy looks good. Let's not even bring in the fact that he is super supportive of anything his wife does and is his wife's biggest glazer, which we can make a whole new talking point about. And she didn't even marry him because of how he looks.

He hasn't always been the best husband or father, but let's not pretend like he doesn't try. He does. And he looks decently well too. Let's remove this Doombot psyop from our heads and appreciate our autistic genius more. Maybe he is a bit corny, but that ain't no crime...

This might be kind of controversial but I think North’s run has been kind of overrated

I want to preface by saying that by no means do I hate it, if anything it’s been my favorite fantastic four run since Hickman and it breathed much needed fresh air into these characters

However that being said, I loved the more intimate/slice of life single issue focused storytelling of this run in the beginning. Moments like doom trying to save Val and realizing he simply can’t, Sue and Reed having a personal braille based language and just the general focus on Alicia have been highlights for me and it was great

But that being said the more single issue focused storytelling kind of tiring after we, we didn’t really much of a villain developed by north other than doom during the one world doom which for me fell really flat and was a weaker point of the run. The next villain north would give proper focus to invincible woman (which I haven’t read the last handful of issues for this so I won’t personally comment on this) from what I’ve heard was a mixed bag too

In retrospective in made more sense why north didn’t have a multiple issue arc focused on a singular villain in the beginning of the run because it doesn’t seem to be strong suit

Val, Franklin and the rest of the kids have been heavily underdeveloped during this run. At first, I didn’t mind much because they were trapped in the Baxter building time dilation shenanigans and it was nice to see the focus shift back to the four and Alicia in the beginning of the run

But after they came back they just felt really one note and in general much to be desired. Val and Doom’s relationship during the whole event was just boring to me. It retreads their relationship from how it in the Hickman but honestly after all the events that have transpired since their relationship shouldn’t stay stagnant

In conclusion, I personally enjoyed the first half of this run but since then it’s just been getting tiring. As someone who has read every single fantastic four issue from the 60s till the few issues of the north run I’m missing.

In my opinion 2012-2026 has just been a really stagnant era for this comic franchise

Though Matt Fraction’s FF was great, his fantastic four run just regressed the characters and their arcs right after the Hickman which was a slap in the face. James Robinson run was just very haphazardly written and easily one of my least favorite runs for team and Slott’s run wasn’t really the grandiose return of the fantastic four as we were promised and falters after the 6 issues with Dan slott just being Dan slott

So in comparison Ryan north’s run felt like getting a droplet of water as someone who was dying of thirst. To me despite it being a enjoyable run, it fails to meet the high highs of the great runs such as Hickman, Waid, Byrne, Lee Kirby, Pacheco or McDuffie and i genuinely find it insane when people call it one of best fantastic four runs because it really isn’t there

And there is definitely nothing wrong with that, not every run needs to be some groundbreaking piece of art and I understand if people think I’m being too hard on it. That doesn’t come from a place of hatred but love. The fantastic four are my favorite characters in all of fiction and have such a big impact on my life and it’s just sad we haven’t gotten another defining run since the Hickman run

https://preview.redd.it/rbpfn7x62f2h1.png?width=600&format=png&auto=webp&s=5337567239098eac9ce7bf647d472c4fee924349

10/10

Came across this and thought people here might want to know you could get your hands on this.

War Child UK, a children's conflict charity are running a sweepstake with one of the prizes being a personalised film script from The Fantastic Four signed by the cast.
The personalised part is a nice touch as it's made out to whoever wins it.

Not free to enter but the money goes to War Child so it's essentially a donation with a chance of landing something pretty special.

As always, spoilers