EDITORIAL: The Rights Marvel Should Get Back & How Likely They Are

@MileHighRonin - He was talking about it from a mainstream perspective.

Compared to Spider-Man, Hulk, and Wolverine; Iron Man and Captain America were nobodies to most people. And without the MCU they still would be.

@FishyZombie - "Compared to Spider-Man, Hulk, and Wolverine; Iron Man and Captain America were nobodies to most people."

That's what I said....

@kong - While I would love to see Marvel's First Family in the MCU, I would love to see Feige's touch on the Fantastic Four, but if it was in a separate universe, it would be so much better. Kniberg tried to do that, but it failed. Miserably. I'm short, I agree with you, one hundred percent.

@kong - Or here's a crazy idea...

Bring tell the F4 story in a series of 1-shots that would air either before or after each of the upcoming films, and then have them pop back into current time in Infinity Wars 2 because of somthing Thanos does accidentally, which precipitates his demise.

@TomSolo - The whole timejump idea isn't even a bad suggestion, on one hand it does sound like something the MCU could pull off, but I think Kong and I are agreeing on the idea of a separate F4-verse simply because it doesn't raise those sort of questions about a continuity that you'd get more frequently with the XMCU. 13 movies in and nobody mentions those world famous explorers who were imbued with powers and disappeared into deep space simultaneously fifty years ago? And when an FF villain shows up, why would they single out one superhero team in a world populated super heroes?

How traumatized would these characters be? Everyone they knew in the 60s is now either dead or retired, they're experiencing future shock, plus Ben grimm has to deal with all of these psychological effects ON TOP of being a disfigured rock monster. It sounds like a great plan on the surface, but placed under the slightest fan scrutiny it falls apart at the seams and starts to feel like a half-baked corporate move, like some Fox execs thought it was a surefire success and pushed it past legislation, past the people who actually deal with story oversight.

@WeddingTux - Ok... I like this discussion, as it allows me to elaborate a bit and brings up some issues I didn't think of. Let's look at a few things here:

13 movies in and nobody mentions them because they were a blip on the screen in history. How often in everyday life do we bring up the Challanger explosion? Almost never. So I think this rocket ship the F4 were on could be treated as having thought to have exploded. The world would briefly morn the loss of 4 brave souls, never knowing that their ship actually survived and and that they were imbued with crazy powers.

As far as the F4 villains? Well, the cool thing here is that on their journey trying to get home, they could accidentally run into some of these villains who then track them to earth, or maybe they help out some poor planet that is under Blastarr's rule, and while never knowing this or meeting him, he's now pissed off and comes looking for them. The movie(s) could really showcase them doing good deeds while inadvertently and unknowingly pissing off a bunch of big bad wolves who will eventually come to blow their doors in.

As far as them being traumatized, Ben in particular, that's actually one point that could make this scenario work. They are lost in the middle of nowhere with only the 4 of them to get them out of this awful situation. It could be what binds them together so strongly as this family team that is so rock solid. If you introduced them straight away into a shared MCU, one might ask, "Why is Reed not spending time with Stark and other geniuses? Why isn't Ben seeking solace with someone like him, like Bruce or (depending on the release date) the Inhumans? Why is Sue attracted to this selfish duchebag with Aspergers?" In my scenario, all these things can happen when they return, but for now, they have to stick together to survive. And it makes them a fully functioning team. Ben would be mentally scarred and should be, but he the team would be running into alien races that would look at all 4 of them as strange, so it could help lessen his isolation a bit. Sue could fall for Reed because he's the only dude who is a human and not related to her.

The idea came from my love of campy sci-if and the early F4 books were full of that stuff, so I thought it could fit. I also really liked the First Avenger, as it gave Cap time to be 40's comic book Cap before putting him in the current time. I also enjoyed how so much in that movie was just explained as "science", and it worked, as the focus was on characters and not on "science". I think, with the right writers, this could work the same way, as this movie, more than most, should focus on the characters. And it could really allow them to be that fun crazy campy sci-if thing that they had going in in the books in the 50's and 60's before getting thrown into the current day with it's accords and super-serious nonsense.

Marvel has done some ballsy stuff, and while their movies aren't Oscar-caliber, they are really fun and they seem to be able to handle multiple characters and crazy comicbook sciencey stuff well enough. I trust that they could make a fun movie out of this idea. I mean, I realize they won't, but I think it would be cool to see. I feel that Fox has not handle the F4 well, and I also don't feel like they manager multiple characters in the same movie well either. I trust Marvel could make this work. And again, like you and @kong want, this gives them some time to be in their own stand-alone universe so to speak (for a while), so everybody wins!