Level of Difficulty: No one whose name immediately comes to mind.
5. Ghost Rider
In 1991, a small team of Skrulls took out the entire FF, leaving Walt Simonson and Art Adams (!!!!) no choice but to fill the team with the hottest, most commercial characters of the era. The Wolverine/Spider-Man/Hulk/Ghost Rider team only lasted three meta-jokey issues, which is probably for the best; having read a lot more Ghost Rider since 1991, I don’t really see Danny Ketch gelling super well with Sue and the kids in the long run.
4. Storm
Yes, thanks to some post-Civil War Richards marital strife that reeeally should have lasted longer (and involved attorneys, given that Reed built a gulag in another dimension and helped create a remote-control Thor clone, but the universe is moving on, so never mind) Storm was briefly a member of both the X-Men and the Fantastic Four. Now, she just needs to get an Avengers callback and she can punch the last hole in her Frequent Member card and get a free coffee.
3. Ant-Man (II)
Comics of the nineties are responsible for a lot of things you wish hadn’t happened. A lot of questionable Avengers lineups; a lot of questionable X-Men costumes. And then there were the FF, who needed a “technical consultant” during a Reed Richards disappearance and went with Scott Lang, the Ant-Man who stole Ant-Man’s costume from Ant-Man (although, actually, now that I think about it, that is how most people become Ant-Man). Scott did his duty and proved himself admirably, and to honor his service, the FF replaced him and kicked him out the first possible moment they could. Some years later, he died pointlessly. So… good times.
2. She-Thing
It’s the Thing!… No, not that one. She used to be Ms. Marvel… No, not that one… actually, you know what? Just forget it.
(The Skrulls knew who she was. Although they may have had some outdated intel when they decided she was important enough to grab.)
Medusa was a member of the FF
1. Medusa
During a period of (stop me if you’ve heard this one) Richards marital strife in 1973, Mrs. Black Bolt stepped up and kept the team at a round number four. Sue had recently left the team after the birth of her son, whose brain had been shut down by her husband for the ostensible good of mankind. How do you intervene in that argument? Awkward. Anyway, Medusa did a great job.
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Nice list Jimski, I woulda had She-Hulk number 1, but you cant win em all. How is Reed Richards not universally hated by mankind? On a technical note, the tagging system sort of defeats the premis of this feature, by telling who is in your top 5 before you read the article.
“the tagging system sort of defeats the premis of this feature, by telling who is in your top 5 before you read the article.”
I thought the same thing when I saw this article. LOL! I also agree there shoulda been some She-Hulk love.
Those issues with Wolverine, Hulk, Ghost Rider, and Spider-man are some of my favorite!
I remember reading those Hulk/Ghost Rider/Wolverine/Spider-Man FF issues and having my mind blown as a kid. That was a dream team right there. But yeah, rereading those issues years later shows that the whole concept really didn’t make much sense. Still, we got Art Adams drawing all those characters, so I’m not complaining too much.
That was a story that is worth a re-release. It was collected in a short little TPB, but I would love to see that gorgeous Adams art “remastered” or whatever it is they do.
As a rule, I don’t like it when old art is recolored. However, perhaps I’d make an exception for Art Adams.
I have the “Longshot” trade paperback that came out in the eighties (back when they didn’t do that sort of thing all that often) and, believe me, I would dearly love for it to be recolored. You take that eighties coloring and put it on some nice paper in a real book, and it really stands up and says, “Hey! I am not great!”
Now, I have absolutely no proof to back this up with, but I tend to think that artists know the type of coloring that is going to be put over their work and they create work that goes with that process. By changing that coloring, you’re disrupting the artist’s original intent. Had they known a different coloring process was going to be used on their work, perhaps they wouldn’t have taken the same artistic choices that they did. Perhaps they wouldn’t have left a certain space white or shaded it or a million different other things. It’s best to leave the original works as is and use them for inspiration for later artistic innovations.
After saying all that, let me point out my own hypocrisy by admitting that I already preordered my copy of the recolored Chris Claremont and Jim Lee X-Men #1 but that’s mainly for nostalgia’s sake.
I guess one more issue with the new site layout is that the tags give away the content of the articles before you click on them now.
Good point. Slightly annoying for a Top 5 article, but I can foresee disaster with an article like: “SPOILER: THE END OF FEAR ITSELF, DONT READ IF YOU DONT WANT TO KNOW. Tags: buckyrisesfromthegraveandrevealsthattheserpentisactuallyauntmay”
@mrlogical: 😀
@mrlogical that ending may be the only way left to redeem the series for me at this point … does anyone have Matt Fraction’s email address?
I have to go with my Power Man (luke cage) as my fav fantastic four member. Back when he was still wearing the yellow and sporting a awesome headband!
I have always wanted to write a comic that was a team composed of She-Hulk, She-Thing, and She-Venom.
More Thundra!
Great list. It’s easy to forget how many members the FF has had over the years. My favorite alternate was probably Crystal. Or Lyja.
I would be totally down for a Society of Super Skrulls with Lyja, Khn’nr, Crusader, Hulkling & Jazinda (and possibly Paibok or Titannus). A Justice League of Tarnax or Legion of Skrull Heroes.
man, how good is Art Adam guys?
She-Hulk is the greatest “alternate” FF member of all-time, She was on the team for YEARS and really feels like an actual member, not just a fill-in member.