Spider-Man Joins The Fantastic Four. Again.
When I was a kid one of the joys of the character of Spider-Man is that he was a loner. Because the Daily Bugle labeled him a menace and because of the unique psychological profile of Peter Parker, Spider-Man was never much of a team player. Sure, he tried to join the Fantastic Four in the first issue of his comic, but he soon saw the error of his ways.
Nowadays Spider-Man is a clubby sort of dude. He joined The Avengers, one of the worst decisions for the character ever, in my opinion - living in Stark Tower? What the fuck version of Peter Parker is this - and now he’s joining the Fantastic Four, after the death of Johnny Storm.
Spidey was actually in an ersatz version of the FF once upon a time, along with Hulk, Wolverine and Ghost Rider, but that was sort of a joke. Now, however, he’s really on the team.
This will be taking place in the pages of FF#1. No, not Fantastic Four. Rather it’s ‘Future Foundation,’ and they have new, ugly costumes to go with the name. FF #1 will hit at the end of March.
I don’t mind change in comics, but we all know that Spider-Man will be out of that costume in about six to twelve months, and that Johnny Storm will be back in two years tops (but probably less, as there’s an anniversary coming up for the team). These kinds of stories wouldn’t be so irritating if the company didn’t go to the media with them - this announcement came in the pages of the New York Times. It’s a winking game of pretending that this change is anything more than an attempt to boost sales. Maybe it’s a great story, but treat it like a story, not like a press event, because no one reading these comics believe these events will have any impact at all in the long run.
By the way, looking at the cover of FF #1 it seems that the team has an intriguing new cast beyond the headliner grabber Spider-Man. Dragon Man, Power Pack and I think Karnak of the Inhumans are in there as well.
