At the Image Expo earlier this week, Jonathan Hickman let slip that he would be departing
Fantastic Four,
FF,
Ultimate Comics: Ultimates and
S.H.I.E.L.D. later this year. The news came as something of a shock to fans who are now speculating that he will be taking over
The Avengers from Brian Michael Bendis. Whether that is in fact the case is obviously unknown at this point, although the writer has confirmed when exactly he'll be leaving Marvel's First Family behind -
Fantastic Four #611 and
FF #23.
Talking to
Marvel, he said:
"I always had an end point in mind, but along the way I really fell in love with writing Marvel’s First Family and I also had all these dangling bits to clean up, so I agreed—[and] wanted—to stay on. Then all the gears started turning on all the [Avengers Vs. X-Men] stuff and what comes after and it just became obvious that October would be a good time to hop off."
While his work on the books (which has included killing Johnny Storm and making Spider-Man a part of the team) hasn't been to everyone's liking, Hickman is happy to look back on the experience as well as what comes next.
"Personally, I just hope that I continue to evolve as a creator—that FF was better than the things I wrote before [it], and that what I write after FF will be the best thing I’ve done. We’ll see."
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