Is the Fantastic Four hard to write?
Listening to the podcast extraordinarrie of Awesomed by Comics, and they mentioned that the Fantastic Four must be hard to write. (Uh, I think it was them. I also listen to House to Astonish and sometimes I get confused.) But I remember the point! The point was that the Fantastic Four have so many expectations put on them by their readership and by the place it has carved out for itself in the Marvel universe-- they are science fictiony, super-heroey, and family while also being a cornerstone and tacitly involved in many if not all major crossover events… any one of these things go missing and people feel like it's not a "Fantastic Four" comic, but playing up any one of these things too much and people feel like it's not a "Fantastic Four" comic. They also feel like there have been definite movements during recent years that feature one FF cast member more than others, and often to the sidelining of the others. (All of this to point out that they are right-- recently the book has been overall more science-fictiony and more Reed-y.)
But here's where I think the Fantastic Four could be actually easy to write. (Well, admittedly that is a relative term!) What drives a plot of a FF story doesn't have to be what drives the FF book itself. That's your key. The FF book is all about the characters, and the plot comes in and shakes things up. These are comic books, and often times comic books are all about reacting to things, and in most cases, to villains. In other words, what drives an FF story is actually the villains!
Think about the awesome FF stories in the past-- they often center around the villains. And think about what an awesome rogues' gallery the FF has, as well! Galactus, Doctor Doom, Mole Man, Annhililus… etc. But where are the mighty rogues of the FF nowadays? They aren't driving any of the plots, making the characters kind of boring as they have little to react to but themselves or each other. (Small doses of that are fine, but come on! Bring on the bad guys!)
Hopefully, the very current FF stories are building to have some interesting villains-- something with this Immortus or Nathaniel Richards or an alternate Franklin/Valeria?
And no, the daughter of Psycho-Man doesn't count.
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