Four years ago, the Fantastic Four called it quits. Or rather, rumor had it Marvel gave up on them, supposedly thanks to the fact that they didn’t own the movie rights. But, after months of teasing, it’s official. The original superteam is back together and will be exploring the cosmos.
Written by Marvel’s in-house superfan Dan Slott, drawn by Spider-Men II artist Sara Pichelli, and arriving in August, the story will pick up after the team reunites. A few years ago, they went their separate ways thanks to internal pressures: Johnny went off to hang out with his Inhuman girlfriend; the Thing went to space to join the Guardians of the Galaxy; Reed and Sue Richards went to explore alternate dimensions, or maybe that was Sue’s excuse to teach Reed some remedial social skills. Either way, the team is back together.
The question for many is whether this is a decision by Marvel editorial to bring back their first family on their own, or if it’s driven by outside concerns, such as Disney’s imminent buyout of Fox. It’s certainly not implausible that Marvel editorial knows something we don’t about how the Fantastic Four fits into the MCU, but it’s worth remembering the comics function independently from the movie unit, something that was the source of considerable drama within Disney a few years ago. So don’t get excited for a movie until we see the Avengers nearly get run over with the Fantasticar.