Jonathan Hickman Confirms Marvel Cancelled The FANTASTIC FOUR Comics Over Film Rights
Marvel has denied for the longest that they cancelled their long-running Fantastic Four comic series over a dispute with 20th Century Fox about film rights but Jonathan Hickman is saying otherwise.
Before he was an all-star writing talent at Marvel, many comic book readers first discovered Hickman's brilliance during his modernizing run on the Fantastic Four which also mangage to respect the core values that have always defined Marvel's First Family (something the films have failed to do).
However, the Fantastic Four comic books were unceremoniously cancelled in 2014 and its characters were eventually put in comic book limbo (aside from a brief appearance in Secret Wars II) - a move Bleeding Cool attributed to Marvel Studios (chiefly Ike Perlmutter's) unhappiness with Fox retaining the Fantastic Four film rights.
Marvel Comics has denied that was the case, citing poor comic book sales as the catalyst for the decision to cancel the FF books but after years and years of speculation and denials we finally have confirmation from Hickman that film rights are indeed the reason why the Fantastic Four are largely absent from the Marvel universe right now.
"I think it’s pretty common knowledge at this point that Marvel isn’t publishing Fantastic Four because of their disagreement with Fox. While it bums me out, I completely understand because, well, it isn’t like they’re not acting out of cause. Fox needs to do a better job there." said Hickman to Newsarama [via Bleeding Cool].
But Hickman wasn't letting Marvel off the hook either. "That kind of thinking runs contrary to everything I believe in as a professional storyteller. It comes from a place of manipulation where an attempt is made to make the reader desire something through denial. It's hacky. It's suboptimal. It's the central tenet of all sh---y dating advice. If you want someone to care about a book, write a story they care about."
Just last month, Marvel Senior Vice President of Publishing Tom Brevoort told comic book retailers that the only reason there's no Fantastic Four comics right now is because the books don't sell. Who do you believe?