Marvel announced through CBR today that writer Matt Fraction will exit Fantastic Four and FF in order to focus on Inhumans, Hawkeye and other ongoing projects. The upcoming Fantastic Four #12 and FF #11 represent Fraction’s final issues with sole writing credit, though his name will remain on each a title a little longer, alongside incoming writers Karl Kessel and Lee Allred respectively.
Fraction acknowledged on Twitter that the decision is a bummer for him as well, though it sounds like writer and publisher have a mutual concern for keeping the workload manageable and Fraction less divided. Fraction’s last full issue of FF arrives later this month, and the relevant Fantastic Four issue follows in September. Ironically, Fraction made a cameo appearance in the most recent issue of FF along with editor Tom Brevoort and artist Mike Allred, presumably the first episode in an intended serial story line.
Find us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
Subscribe to our RSS Feed
Some rights reserved.
I dropped his Fantasitc 4 awhile back but love his Hawkeye.
Same here, intuitively FF and F4 felt like the first things I should drop when I needed to start culling the enormous Marvel bookload to save my wallet some pain. I was enjoying it but it looks like the right call to have jumped ship.
FF is cool but I don’t really see nothing that great on the Fantastic Four series.
I like the concept of Fan Four, and getting them exploring again as a family has been a welcome change. But yeah, FF is great, Fan Four is good.
Oh sh*t, Karl Kessel on Fantastic Four? Sounds tempting. Has he written FF before? Like back in the 90s? Or did he help draw Waid’s FF run? He did something previously with FF I think.
Kessel is like the official fill-in man for FF. He does a couple issues here or there every now and again…quite honestly I like him a lot better than Fraction, JMS, or Mark Millar’s extended “superstar” comic writer runs. He’s got a lot of love for these characters and it shows.
Agreed, he did a awesome “World’s Finest” maxi-series which I never get tired of rereading. He should get his own series to write for awhile.
I’ve been loving FF. With Fraction leaving I’m tempted to drop it. But, I’m interested to see what an all Allred family book reads like.
Keeping my fingers crossed FF #12 will literally be written in only shades of red.
It might read like an old Madman issue. 🙂
It’s a shame. His FF has been great.
Yup. I’m hoping the Allred family can keep the momentum going.
The storyline for each book wraps at issue 16. I’m more interested to find out who’s doing issue 17. New creative team hopefully, Fraction hasn’t been at his best here, with only Allred saving FF.
Completely disagree. Fraction`s story telling and scripting melds perfectly with Allred`s pop art style. I`m going to give it a shot after Fraction leaves, but if Allred is gone soon after, so am I.
As long as Allred’s staying on FF you’ll get no complaint from me…
Hey I might actually pick up FF now. Fraction FF never appealed to me. The fact that Reed would conceal something as big as what was happening from the rest of the team makes no sense considering all the battles they have gone through.
Bummed about FF, that was one of my favorite Marvel books going. I’ll stick around and give the Allred brothers a shot, though.
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Well, at least Karl Kessel on Fantastic Four is always a pleasure. Why hasn’t he had an extended run yet?
Seriously though, Inhuman better be fucking fantastic and/or Casanova Vol. 4 is coming within the year. Especially the latter.
Hopefully I’ll be able to read Fantastic Four again, it’s a bummer for the people who are loving fractions FF though.
That sucks. I love FF.
That headline is in my top ten of the year and a strong contender for best headline of the year.
Hahahaha
I just dropped fantastic four recently I felt it wasn’t doing much for me but I still love him on hawkeye though.
Mike Allred also announced his departure in a recent tweet. His last issue will be #16, but he said he is doing a new Marvel series launch.
I guess I’m announcing issue #16 will be my last as well, unless they have a really kick-ass team coming on to take their place – but I can’t think of anybody right now who’d want to see next.
Jeff Parker, Jonathan Case and Joe Quinones would be a nice, fun team to keep the energy moving in FF. Their take on Batman ’66 would transfer over quite nicely to FF.
I’m just stoked to see what the Allreds have in store for us.
NOOO!!! I’m loving his run on the FF! I actually dropped Hawkeye but I was loving his work on these books.
::Standing ovation for the front page article summary.::
I’ve been curious to check out FF, but it simply hasn’t been in the budget. It will be interesting to see who takes over after Fraction/Allred — it’s hard to imagine the title continuing without an A-List creative team . . .
This half-sucks. I’ve really enjoyed his FF, but his F4 has been the height of meh. I’m betting Darla Deering will now go the way of any number of other Fantastic Four castoff characters: Lyja, Noah Baxter, etc., and just not get mentioned again.
I was planning on jumping off at around #12 for both books.
Might hang around till about issue 16, but then I’m out.
Fraction’s FF was great, but Fantastic Four was just OK.
Along with Hawkeye I think FF is one of the best books at Marvel right now. Hopefully the Allred’s can keep it up. As for Fantastic Four, I’m looking forward to Kessel.
Sad to see FF go but I needed to cut my pull list and this helps me postpone a difficult decision for another day. I will stay on until #16 where it seems Fraction’s plotting will end and Allred will depart. Wasn’t reading Fantastic Four. Psyched for Inhuman.
Perhaps Allred will be joining Peter David for an X-Factor Statix relaunch?
On paper, his approach to both books looked pretty good, but man, did it just not click or what?
After reading Remender on Captain America, I sort of wish he had been given the reigns to Fantastic Four for the Marvel Now relaunch.
That’s a shame because its usually a good thing when a comic works on paper.
I’m bummed. I really love both titles. I wish they put another writer on the Inhumans book. And with Allred leaving after #16 I can’t see how can FF carry on.
On the other hand, I’d be totally happy with a long Kesel/Bagley run on Fantastic Four.
Overlooked point: Fraction is also writing three ongoing series for Image (Satelite Sam, Sex Criminal, Ody-C) and is also writing for season two of the TV series Davinci’s Demons. I find it interesting that he is taking on more work outside of Marvel while dropping off of his titles with the company. Extrapolate that with some of the veiled criticism he has had toward corporate comics and there pricing on word balloon and I wonder if he might be setting up the runway for the Brian K Vaughn/Ed Brubraker route. Or I could be reading too much into it. With that said I really hope he stays on Hawkguy for as long as he has a story because if this announcement was for that title I might have cried a little a bit in all seriousness.
I tend to think the same way when this kind of announcement is made. He was going strong with both titles only to suddenly just tap-out like that is an interesting move.
FF and Hawkeye are some of his best super hero work since early Iron Man IMO. Its very strange and sudden and I’m also curious as to why he has’t commented on the situation at all via twitter or tumblr other then that it sucks. It’s weird. I am hoping this isn’t fuckery on Marvels part.
This is a big bummer for me, I’ve loved FF and Fantastic Four. Also listening to Fraction’s recent Word Balloon interview he had long term plans for the books that I was excited about. This seems more like a thing I would expect to see happening at D.C.
I dropped Fantastic Four pretty early on…but I’ve really been digging FF. Ah, well. At least Hawkeye is still awesome.