I know The Thing had his own series, and Invisible Woman currently has a solo mini out right now, but can any of the Fantastic Four really stand out as solo heroes? Because personally I find it really hard to dissociate any of them from the team. Like when you think of any of them, you don't really think of them as individuals, but "Oh yeah one of the Fantastic Four". Or am I just crazy here? Is this a flaw of the F4 dynamic? Moreover, what are your thoughts on Sue's current series?
I know The Thing had his own series, and Invisible Woman currently has a solo mini out right now...
Isaac Ortiz
Josiah Turner
Ben is the only one of the 4 who's interesting enough to carry his own series.
Juan Morris
They all have a fairly rich history. Ben and the Torch especially have had plenty of action outside of the team.
Adrian Fisher
The biggest difficulty why they aren't written as solo heroes much is because they each don't have their own personal rogue's gallery
Cameron Campbell
Human Torch had a solo series very early on so he's more tuned for it
Jordan Stewart
Just Ben kinda works on his own.
Austin Hill
It's not really a matter of what their character is or developing a rogues gallery, but more about them being a packaged deal since day one. It's like when a famous band breaks up and they go separate ways, you instinctively think "hey it's that guy from that band" instead of what they're doing now. Which there isn't anything wrong with that. It's not like people are demanding solo books of each Metal Men member or whatever. Plus what with their theme of family it's no wonder why their solo outings aren't really done very often.
Evan Reyes
I'll give a serious reply because superhero meta talk like this always fascinates me.
None of them barring Thing as mentioned are big enough and interesting enough to carry their own book per se, and even then Thing himself still works best in mini-series or the FF rep in simple crossovers. They were created to be team heroes, simple as that. Same goes for the X-Men barring Wolverine, and even the Titans - both O5 and New - barring Robin (who essentially headlined Star-Spangled Comics).
It's not a flaw at all, and it's interesting to compare "ensemble-on-purpose" teams' dynamic - like the FF, X-Men, and Teen Titans - with "solo heroes come together" teams - like the Justice League and Avengers, whose membership or at least charter/iconic rosters were heroes meant to support their own books and associated-themed heroes, villains, and supporting casts and theoretically don't NEED the team book to really function. It's also interesting to ask if "solo team standby" members like the JL's Martian Manhunter or Avengers' Ant-Man and Wasp who have all the nominal trappings of a solo book hero (unique gimmick and powerset, usually some unique villains or supporting cast) but de-facto existed in the team book as a selling point and pure ensemble hero would fare truly on their own.
Jose Hall
I would argue the team dynamic is fine for Fantastic Four but for X-Men it has aided in stagnating the IP. Some of Marvel's most popular heroines are lumped into the X-Men, and as a result none of them really have escaped the group to stand out. It's half the reason why Captain Marvel got such a push
Juan Collins
None work alone, at least not in the long term, the fantastic four are essentially a family of adventurers, not superheroes, that's why it is called the "Marvel's first family."
Reed is the father.
Sue is the mother.
Ben is uncle
Jhonny for his nonsense is basically a son with Valeria and Franklin.
They only work as a family.
Isaiah Clark
I agree, and even Wolverine in many ways works better as an ensemble hero than the solo hero he eventually became - can you really name multiple major villains of his besides Sabertooth or iconic Wolvie-family heroes or supporting cast - especially those that aren't already "X-Men Proper"-universe characters? Not really. He's the major star of the X-Men like Robin headlines Teen Titans when it comes down to it.
I agree on Captain Marvel but there's an odd problem they have. I don't know if it makes sense, but here goes nothing:
It's that they have a nice assortment of core/quintessential solo book heroes ALREADY in the founding Avengers plus Spider-Man and there wasn't a strong solo book hero-INE from the beginning. Ant-Man and Wasp are Martian Manhunter-tier belonging more properly as "solo team standbys" than solo book heroes and Ant-Man headlined that duo anyway in the beginning, and you have five solo book heroes otherwise in the early days (Cap, IM, Thor, Hulk, Spidey) vs Justice League's six (Supes, Bats, Wondy, Flash, GL, Aqua), but you have to balance them with the Fantastic Four and the core/quintessential X-Men or else the core universe becomes too big and unwieldy. So Storm works better as an X-Woman, Wasp was never really a solo character at all, and Captain Marvel probably COULD have slid into the core like the All-New X-Men did but she didn't get truly huge till the 2010s vs the X-Men truly blossoming about fifteen years after the universe began, old enough to blend into the "early days". In a lot of ways the core Marvel universe just never had a major solo book heroine and to shove one in now is like shoving a Superman equivalent into the fabric, it just feels weird.
Camden Young
The problem with Marvel is that they never had such an iconic female character as Wonder Woman, now they lament for that, that's why they try to force Carol to become her own Wonder Woman.
Blake Adams
How about an ongoing that rotates who the focus is and covers smaller 1-2 issue stories? F4 has always been about family so why not one that allows each one some time to shine on their own?
Daniel Campbell
>can any of the Fantastic Four really stand out as solo heroes?
No. I say this as someone who has read almost every Fantastic Four comic ever published. They, arguably more than any other Marvel characters, were created as a unit and only really work as a unit.
>but more about them being a packaged deal since day one
This guy gets it.
Jeremiah Carter
F4 is supposed to be like Swiss Family Robinsion + superheroes and science. Family and unity is the core component.
Levi Sanchez
The fantastic four only have one iconic villian and he's so good that he's the villain of everyone else in marvel.
Wolverine's villians are Sabertooth, Striker, Silver Samurai, Moriko and uh...his children. HIs many many many bastard children.
Juan Nguyen
Wonder Woman is PUSHED as an iconic heroine by boomers and the queers.
But in reality, she's not.
She's just well known.
Quinn
Storm
Elza
Raven
Them?
They are all iconic.
WW is just that character old women and lesbians cosplay as.
Jaxson Morales
user Wonder Woman has been an iconic heroine and symbol of female empowerment since the 19 fucks 40s. Quit acting dumb. Raven isn't even iconic
Grayson Rivera
Sue solo series work only if she's with Namor.
Bentley Hall
Reed had more than enough arcs that could have been sold as Mr. Fantastic with a supporting cast, almost like Wolverine's solos
Benjamin Peterson
>The fantastic four only have one iconic villian
most big marvel villains were introduced in F4. The only older marvel character is Namor.
Adam Lopez
>The only older marvel character is Namor
Johnny is the first legacy character.
Brandon Moore
Hammond was a fucking badass and they only transformed him into a teen legacy character because it wasnt easy to sell the idea of an android who spent his time setting nazis on fire.
Brody Gray
johnny is 60s, jim is golden age
Lucas Sullivan
>most big marvel villains were introduced in F4.
Not just Villains, there where a lot of characters that first showed up in FF for there first outing.
>The Inhumans
>Sliver Surfer
>Uatu
>Galactus
>Black Panther
You get the point, So I say the F4 is very important to Marvel overall.
>Fought the Nazis
>This guy btfo the Sentry at one point
>His pal Thomas Raymond would later become an Inhuman
This dude probably got many stories to tell.
Oliver Rogers
>it wasnt easy to sell the idea of an android who spent his time setting nazis on fire
That sounds easy to sell.
Landon Stewart
I love Ben but doesn't he basically have only one solo story repeated ad nauseum?
>Some kid gets scared of Ben
>Rockman sad
>"Reed pls help"
>"I can't Ben, I'm busy inventing science"
>"YOU DICK!"
>Rockman walks in the rain
>Rockman meets someone new, more or less normal and who treats him normal
>Rockman happy
>Rockman's new friend gets fridged because of him
>CLOBBERIN' TIME
>Rockman sad, goes back to Baxter Building
>"Sup Reed?"
>"Sup Ben, were you out or something?"
Josiah Bell
Nah, you got it the wrong way around, user's got it right, characters like Storm, Jean, Jubilee, Emma, Rogue, even Kitty were just not built to function as solo acts from the get go. It's not that they didn't get the opportunity, it's that they're not worth the opportunity. It's like thinking a place kicker would be a good boxer.
X-23 was actually developped as a solo character from the start and she's hindered by X-Men dynamics (although she was always kinda shit).
What the fuck are you even going to do with a solo about any of these people?
Sebastian Wilson
>Storm
Ninja please. She's literally just some chick with a decent design.
Leo Rivera
The most iconic "Wolvie only" supporting cast members are probably from his weeb era like Mariko and Silver Samurai. And I guess the whole Weapon X thing is really mainly about him up until Kelly's Deadpool and later Morrison's X-Men make it more relevant outside of Wolverine.
Best bet for an iconic solo Marvel heroine is She-Hulk but there are a lot of contextual reasons not to make her a flagship character.