And yet, the FF books always lag well behind the X-Men, Avengers, and Spider-Man franchises in sales. Waid and Hickman are responsible for the greatest FF runs of the modern era.

Michael Straczynski to Mark Millar to Jonathan Hickman to Matt Fraction to James Robinson. It's been a steady stream of A-List writers over the last decade, from Mark Waid to J. Fantastic Four is hardly Marvel's worst-selling book, but it also doesn't sell nearly enough copies every month considering the pedigree of the franchise and the caliber of talent Marvel brings on board. Looking strictly at the sales figures of Fantastic Four and its former sister series, FF, it's clear the reader interest isn't where it needs to be.

Ignoring all that corporate squabbling, the Fantastic Four comics need some sort of overhaul. Who knows what state Marvel or its films would be in now if that hadn't happened? I wish the current Marvel leadership would just accept the decisions made by past regimes and stop stonewalling licensees every time they want to put Galactus' face on a T-shirt. But those movie deals are pretty much the only thing that saved Marvel from bankruptcy. Thanks to those deals, there's no telling when or if we'll ever get to see Wolverine standing alongside the Avengers on screen and helping them battle Doctor Doom. Yes, Marvel made some bad movie deals in the 1990's that have prevented them from being able to bring the Fantastic Four, X-Men, and Spider-Man franchises back under one umbrella. That's not to say I support the idea of cancelling the series to spite Fox, assuming that's actually what Marvel is doing. It's not that their comic wouldn't be missed, but right now, a hiatus might be just what the Fantastic Four franchise needs. The FF have emphasized family and exploration and the thrill of adventure even at times when the rest of the superhero genre was mired in darkness and bloodshed. So many vital pieces of the Marvel Universe sprung out of that original Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run. They were the first big franchise to come out of Marvel's 1960's renaissance. I like the Fantastic Four as much as anyone.

Cancelled fantastic four 3