When it was first reported that Marvel would cancel Fantastic Four next year I was sceptical. After all, it made no sense! A movie featuring the characters would surely help increase sales (especially as the publisher have a habit of launching a new #1 each time a film based on one of their properties is released), but Disney's highest single shareholder and Marvel CEO Isaac Perlmutter doesn't see it that way. According to Bleeding Cool, he's so angry with Fox over previous negotiations about the movie's rights - possibly when Marvel Studios offered to allow them to keep Daredevil in exchange for Galactus and the Silver Surfer - that he would rather cancel the comic book series and scrap merchandise and licenses to avoid promoting Josh Trank's upcoming reboot in any way. Why not do the same to Spider-Man and the X-Men? Well, Marvel own the merchandise to the former and the latter simply sell too well, though you'll be hard pressed to find much in the way of action figures or collectibles for the mutant characters these days.
The Fantastic Four though isn't a big seller. It certainly does better than the majority of titles on the verge of cancellation. Of course, those love sales likely aren't helped by Mondo being forbidden to use the characters on any of their posters and Diamond Select Toys being banned from making any Fantastic Four action figures. Anyway, Bleeding Cool have come across a solicitation which confirms that the book will indeed be ending around next April (months before the release of The Fantastic Four in theaters) with James Robinson and Leonard Kirk's Fantastic Four: The End Is Fourever.
THE END IS FOUREVER! Witness the closing act on the First Family of the Marvel Universe! THE INVADERS meet the FANTASTIC FOUR as the hunt for REED RICHARDS and the missing kids of the FUTURE FOUNDATION continues. Meanwhile the mastermind behind everything unveils his ultimate plan. But how does FRANKLIN RICHARDS factor in? And how does this all lead to…The END?! Collecting FANTASTIC FOUR #642-644 and the Triple Sized Final Issue 645!
Recent Avengers comic books (the "Time Runs Out" storyline) have shown Sue Storm as a member of The Avengers and the characters could find a place elsewhere in the Marvel Universe. There's always a chance that the team will return with a new #1 and that the site are jumping the gun by declaring this the end of the heroes who kicked off the Marvel Universe, but I'm inclinded to believe them. I stopped reading the title when Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch left, though the decision to wipe away the iconic team still disgusts me for the most part. It seems like a petty and personal choice which wil ultimately only see fans suffer and deprive new readers of getting to know Marvel's First Family. What do you guys think? Share your thoughts on the matter below.
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