Marvel comics is turning 75 this year. I am a Marvel girl and started my collection when I was a pre-teen. So to celebrate their 75th anniversary I am sharing my favorite 7.5 covers of my favorite series The Fantastic Four below.
Warning Contains Spoilers!
7
I admit it there is a certain generation on the Fan Four that’s my favorite and several of my favorite covers come from a very small range of the comics published in the 90’s. This one lands right before one of the big game changer events for the team, and I think it fits perfectly as the team appears warped and twisted. Plus you gotta love that it includes FF regulars the Silver Surfer, the Hulk, Wolverine and arch-nemesis Galactus.
6
I admit Marvel actually had me believing them this time. (I should have known better, no FF character can truly die. Reed has died every few years, but never stay dead for long.) They advertised the death of Johnny Storm as being the last issue, and then relaunched a new Fab Four featuring Spidey and Franklin as members. Less than a year later Johnny was back. Yet it’s a must own issue. The artwork inside is stellar and conveys so much with very few words. You come to understand just how much Johnny meant to so many of the characters throughout the Marvel universe. The Fantastic Four truly is the first family of comics and when a prince dies his death is felt in a lot of places.
5
So you might notice that several of these covers feature the Human Torch/ Johnny Storm. I’ll freely admit that because he’s my favorite character I’m more drawn to him in the covers. This is another issue from the 90’s. Both Johnny and Sue had transformational story arch’s during this time. This is also during a time when they thought Reed was dead and Ant Man (not Hank Pym, but Ant-Man (Scott Lang)) joined the team in his place.
4
The title on this cover is quite a bit misleading, and might lead you to think it’s connected to #6 above. It’s a beautiful cover and really captures the emotion from the story in #388, but this one-off is it’s own complete story using a familiar FF troupe- time-traveling. While the story is a stinker the cover is iconic. This is one that I’d love to have the cover artwork for framed.
3
This issue is high on my wish-list. As much as I love the “Death in the Family” cover this one is superb, and a must have piece of wall art for fans of the Fan Four. Showing not only the super powers of each of the members, but the team spirit that they have. Its just a beautiful piece of comic art.
2
A lot of critics point to this comic cover as an example of extreme gimmicks in 90’s Marvel comics. Having collected this issue as a preteen when it was originally released not only do I have the special memory of it (in fact it was art like this that drew me into comics), but the detractors fail to see how “totally” 90’s this was. I remember everything was big, bright and bold then, in my middle school we even had a limit to how tall you could tease your bangs. In perfect early 90’s excess this cover is “outrageous!”
1 and .5
The iconic red and white embossed covers mark the beginning of a game changing story line for the hero’s when Johnny Storm is attacked at Empire State University and loose control going super nova burning down most of the college and becoming a wanted man because of it.