I was at Comic Expo yesterday and Tom DeFalco was there. While some didn't like DeFalco's FF run, with Ben's helmet, Sue's boob window and other things, I actually loved the DeFalco run. Many disliked what DeFalco did, but I found it amusing and interesting. The FF was fun during his run.

Tom spoke fondly of the FF and we briefly lamented Marvel's handling of the FF and lack of an FF title. Tom said that people who don't like what Marvel is doing should write Marvel and let them know. He says that if enough people do it, they will eventually listen. Whether or not they do something is another story.

I have DeFalco's Fantastic Four Guide (DK) and his "Comics Creators on Fantastic Four" - both are great acquisitions for any FF fan. The latter is one of the most insightful books available on what went into the thought processes behinds various runs on the FF.

Overall, DeFalco is nice guy and it was very interesting to hear his perspective on Marvel and the FF.

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I was at Comic Expo yesterday and Tom DeFalco was there. While some didn't like DeFalco's FF run, with Ben's helmet, Sue's boob window and other things, I actually loved the DeFalco run. Many disliked what DeFalco did, but I found it amusing and interesting. The FF was fun during his run.

I hated the run. But loved that Paul Ryan art and how colorful it was.

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Tom spoke fondly of the FF and we briefly lamented Marvel's handling of the FF and lack of an FF title. Tom said that people who don't like what Marvel is doing should write Marvel and let them know. He says that if enough people do it, they will eventually listen. Whether or not they do something is another story.

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I have DeFalco's Fantastic Four Guide (DK) and his "Comics Creators on Fantastic Four" - both are great acquisitions for any FF fan. The latter is one of the most insightful books available on what went into the thought processes behinds various runs on the FF.

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Overall, DeFalco is nice guy and it was very interesting to hear his perspective on Marvel and the FF.

Finally I find another person who enjoyed the DeFalco years. I really loved the idea of the FF as an extended family in that run and to me overall it just felt fun and energetic to me. It's where I first learned about Scott Lang. I'd love to see Lyja again too don't think we've seen her since Secret Invasion.

That must've been a fun experience.

I'm a fan of DeFalco's FF. I always find his work entertaining though not often great. The Torch fugitive and Reed missing stories kept me coming back for more. He's just a solid comic book writer.

I wonder if letter writing would still work nowadays?

I was not a huge fan of the Lyja story, but I really enjoyed his run up until Reed and Doom's deaths. I thought it was a lot of fun up until then. At that point, the quality of the stories went downhill until he brought them back. The low point being the bad "Nobody Gets Out Alive" story which I thought was absolutely terrible and a waste of paper.

So for me, I have both good and bad opinions depending on which part of his run is being talked about.

Exactly. DeFalco's run was marked by standalone issues that could be enjoyed on a per issue basis. He still had serial story arcs, but I liked that there were resolution at the end of most of his issues. He ushered in alot of ideas - not ideas that everyone liked, but his mind was active and creative. For that, I have to give him credit.

I also agree that his extended family concept was a logical evolution of the FF and one that was later pursued by other writers. It is the one thing that I felt was lost in the last run prior to the hiatus.

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For me, the art is equally as important as the writing. Maybe more so. But the best combinations have both strong art and writing.

Paul Ryan was a great artist and I felt he really made DeFalco's run look good.

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I think he meant email and social media also when he said "write them a letter". I have to admit. Based on the way Brevoort and Alonso handle social media interactions, I have doubts that writing an email or sending a letter would get any reaction. Maybe. Maybe not.

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I think I could say I have good and bad opinions on every single FF run there was, including Jack and Stan's run.

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Finally I find another person who enjoyed the DeFalco years. I really loved the idea of the FF as an extended family in that run and to me overall it just felt fun and energetic to me. It's where I first learned about Scott Lang. I'd love to see Lyja again too don't think we've seen her since Secret Invasion.

Reed was dead, Sue was grieving and sorta dating Namor, Johnny's life was turned up side down with the alien who tricked him into marriage, faked a pregnancy and later stalked him plus arson charges for destroying a college, Ben's face was disfigured by Wolverine, Franklin was kidnapped and replaced by a teen version, Shary gets horribly mutated, Sue attacks Agatha, Nathan jerks everyone around for months in Clone Saga era Jackal levels of obfuscation...you guys have a different idea of fun than I do

I tend to agree with your take on DeFalco's run.

Lyja didn't fake a pregnancy. It was worse than that.....she produced a golden egg which turned into some kind of killer bird creature. I'm not too keen on going back to see exactly what it was. I believe her Skrull masters implanted that in her as part of the plan when they had her impersonate Alicia.

DeFalco should have simply had Johnny and Alicia break up instead of making it worse with the I Married a Skull from Outer Space gimmick. He created that Editor story practically out of the gate just so he could screw over part of Walt Simonson's Fantastic Four where Doom removes the overwrite of Kristoff's memories where he thought he was Doom. And of course, after Simonson had Sharon return to her human form, DeFalco put's her right back even more hideous than before. He pretty much made her unusable after that. She reappeared in Robinson's Fantastic Four but she was more like a hardened criminal.

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Yes, but in hindsight that sounds awesome! Especially after Fraction's dreary run.

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I'd like to interview DeFalco, but it's hard to find a place to contact him.

I can't say I was a fan of his FF run (to say the least) but his work on Spider-Man was great, and I'm sure he's a nice guy.

Oh, I agree. DeFalco's run was not the worst. Fraction and Steve Englehart's run are at the bottom. Some runs are kind of forgettable like Doug Moench. JMS was disappointing but later I read in interview where he was getting tired of Joe Q insisting on tie-ins with Civil War. He left the FF and was given Thor as a peace offering I think. Fraction was more interested in his alt-FF with Scott Lang, dreary Darla, Medusa and She-Hulk. I would be on board with an FF team with the gender ration reversed but not with Darla Deering

I feel much the same as Dakota. Really enjoyed the work up until the death of Reed and Doom. After that it took way too long to bring Reed back. Seemed to drag on forever. I really don't care for stories with replacement members for such an extended period; including She-Hulk's replacement of Ben during Byrne's run. DeFalco's work on the future stories (two five issue mini series that came out a decade apart) was excellent and was titled Fantastic Five. Really enjoyed seeing a more mature Johnny as well as the kids older and viable parts of the team. DeFalco's characterization was really strong and usually sharp in regard's to the members. Paul Ryan's artwork was exceptional. One of my favorites in the genre.
Like the Count says there's good and bad in almost every run of any superhero title. Seeing what been done to the FF over the last decade, I've come to appreciate DeFalco's work much more.

IT'S PONDERRIN' TIME

I have to admit that Lyja is one of my favorite characters to come about on the last 30 plus years, and my absolute favorite partner for Johnny. It was a pretty crazy way to clear up the marriage but the end result made me happy.

She Thing on the other hand.. blek.

Pull List: Fantastic Four-Savage Dragon-TCopperhead-The Terrifics-X-Men Gold(trade)-Immortal Hulk-Amazing Spider-Man-Capt America-Dr Strange-Iron Man-Champions

Fraction’s FF team of subs was an extension of the FF family. Deering was the weak link, but the circumstances of her participation started out as a joke. But to be honest - I liked Darla. She was interesting, feminine, yet thrust into unknown territory. Her powers were “On loan” due to Johnny being in full Stifler mode at the time.

Sadly, Marvel missed out on Darla. She had alot of interesting possibilities. I'm not sure why people disliked her so much. She was a complete antihero thrust into an odd situation, and yet she was able to fit in with seasoned super-heroes over time and contribute to the team.

That's not all that bad if you ask me. But there could be a Femtastic Four in the future. I could see Valeria and Franklin in a team with two female heroes. That would be cool.

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We mostly agree on this.

But the end result did not make me happy. I won't be happy until Johnny mans up and realizes Lyja is the only woman for him.

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From what I've heard, he probably didn't mean email or social media. Those forms of communication really don't have the impact that a paper and pen letter does. Yes, even in 2017.

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Fraction’s FF team of subs was an extension of the FF family. Deering was the weak link, but the circumstances of her participation started out as a joke. But to be honest - I liked Darla. She was interesting, feminine, yet thrust into unknown territory. Her powers were “On loan” due to Johnny being in full Stifler mode at the time.

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Sadly, Marvel missed out on Darla. She had alot of interesting possibilities. I'm not sure why people disliked her so much. She was a complete antihero thrust into an odd situation, and yet she was able to fit in with seasoned super-heroes over time and contribute to the team.

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That's not all that bad if you ask me. But there could be a Femtastic Four in the future. I could see Valeria and Franklin in a team with two female heroes. That would be cool.

I liked Darla a lot too.

You all like Lyja? Not that Skrull redemption isn't cool....but no one would like to see Johnny reunite with Crystal? Or is that just so over? I mean, she has been through alot of marriages I think at this point and has a kid. AND, ever since Johnny slept with Medusa.....I suppose that might be a problem, depending on how Inhumans approach these things.

Johnny Storm is truly the "Stifler" of the Marvel Universe.

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I have no opinion on Lyja as I had already dropped the book when I thought Johnny was dating Alicia.




Yeah, that's so over. I think I dropped the book for a while when Crystal and Quicksilver became an item. But the fact that she was able to switch over to Quicksilver so easily tells me she was never really in love with Johnny.




I wanted Crystal and Ronan the Accuser to stay together. That was truly an interesting relationship with lots of story potential.

Johnny dating Medusa was nauseating to me. It caused me to stop reading the Inhumans comic.

It seems I'm a bad audience for a tactic Marvel loves to use, which is drawing attention to a comic by doing something bizarre. I don't like bizarre. Ben wearing a helmet was bizarre. I didn't like it. To this day I have no idea what the creative team was thinking. Did the artist have trouble drawing Ben's face?

Crystal falling in love with Ronan the Accuser wasn't bizarre to me. Anyone who could fall in love with Pietro could fall in love with anyone. Plus the underlying scenario - an arranged marriage developing into love over time - is something that has happened very often in our real world and is actually interesting to me.

I thought The Thing's helmet was due to the damage to his face by Wolverine's adamantine claws? It was supposed because Ben felt he was even more horrific than ever and wanted to hide his scarred face - and I suspect also to prevent further damage so it could heal.

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That's the in-story reason. I'm looking for the meta reason. Why did the writer choose to go down this path?

According to Defalco's "Creators on the Fantastic Four":

Defalco asks: What did you think of the scarring of Ben Grimm's face?

Ryan: I thought it was interesting. As I recall, he stayed scarred for a long time. In the following issue, in which Ben was on the moon, I put a helmet on him to cover up the scarring and protect his face. More people complained to me about the helmet than anything else. Even more than they complained about Sue's "special" costume.

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Crystal would be best suited to a reality show on E! at this time. However, prior to Lyja she was the tops. And I fully agree, Johnny needs to go back to the negative zone and find her, she is the one true perfect 'one' for him.

Pull List: Fantastic Four-Savage Dragon-TCopperhead-The Terrifics-X-Men Gold(trade)-Immortal Hulk-Amazing Spider-Man-Capt America-Dr Strange-Iron Man-Champions

So Paul Ryan came up with the helmet? That's weird. It looks so incredibly stupid.

Does Defalco say why he had Ben get scarred?

I can't find anything on this from DeFalco. I have a Marvel Age interview that I'll pull out and see if there is anything in there. At the time, Wolverine was in a frenzy fighting Sue and Ben stepped in and Wolverine lost control and savagely wounded his face.

More than likely though, Marvel was just jobbing Ben to make Wolverine look like the uber-badass that it wanted him to be, and it added drama to the story. I know I wanted Ben to kill Wolverine after that, but there was never a satisfying conclusion, IMO. Still is was a dramatic plot device and made you want to know what would happen next issue.

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You all like Lyja? Not that Skrull redemption isn't cool....but no one would like to see Johnny reunite with Crystal? Or is that just so over? I mean, she has been through alot of marriages I think at this point and has a kid. AND, ever since Johnny slept with Medusa.....I suppose that might be a problem, depending on how Inhumans approach these things.

The final nail in that coffin was Johnny sleeping with Medusa IMO.

When Johnny married Alicia/Lyja there was still hope that one day they would get back together. Even when Crystal married Pietro there was still hope. But when Johnny slept with her sister that in my mind closed any potential of them ever working as a couple again.

I'm not negating anything Crystal did to Johnny or saying Johnny is worse than she is or even that what he did was some sort of slight. But the thought of him going back and forth between 2 sisters is just disgusting and they should never be together again IMO. Crystal and Johnny can just be great friends.

Reverend Meteor (and now Medusa's banging her husband's cousin Gorgon...bunch of perverts in that family)

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