LETS GOOOOOOOO (General hangout thread)

[Clancy]

been reading early Fantastic Four comics, they are certainly interesting.

They really are, aren't they? No costumes for the first couple of issues (until fan mail demanded them), Ben's dialogue is much more formal than his later Brooklyn-kid speech patterns, and the only two members who consistently get along are Reed and Sue — otherwise, they don't seem to like each other very much. Especially not Ben — heck, when they first meet Doctor Doom, they're all sent back in time to the Golden Age of Piracy, Ben disguises himself as Blackbeard and gains the acceptance of a crew of pirates, and immediately Ben turns the pirates against the other three, just so he can be around people who won't treat him like a freak. Fortunately, Ben comes to his senses, but holy hell.

It took quite a few issues until the Fantastic Four really earned their reputation as a family of sorts. I choose to believe that during the first few months after their transformation, they were all suffering from Fant4stic-style body horror, and it just took them a while to adjust. After a year or so out-of-universe, even Ben (who's in/famous for his periods of body dysmorphia and self-loathing) starts developing into his familiar "grouch with a big heart and a love of clobbering" characterization.