The Fantastic Four is coming to an end to be replaced with....The Future Foundation! The recent death of Johnny Storm sets up a new direction for Reed Richards and the other former members of the Fantastic Four. The Future Foundation seem to be a larger group. In addition, the roster has some superstar characters. I think the new title will bring a lot of attention to classic and new characters alike.
I know that many people questioned the value of killing Johnny Storm. Fantastic Four 587 was the best selling comic in the last six month, so Marvel got exactly what it wanted. Still, fans and critics had every right to gripe. The value of any death (whether the character stays dead or not) is reflected in those characters left behind and the where the story goes in the future. I was curious how FF writer Jonathan Hickman would set up the death and who would die. Anyone familiar with Hickman's work knows that he is a careful plotter with fantastic scope that draws on art, literature, history, philosophy, and politics to tell a story. In his creator owned work, this can be difficult to follow, but I would urge anyone interested in an engaging comic experience to pick up The Nightly News. Despite Alan Moore's suggestion there are not any new ideas in comics, there are in fact plenty of new ideas and new creators bringing quality material to comic fans.
This fact explains why studying comic is worthwhile endeavor. The superhero comic is a unique artifact of the American experience. In our new media saturated environment, comics operate at the center of a "cross narrative bleed" where traditional high culture and low culture mix to produce an intertextual experience. This is why someone(me) can read comics and explore urban space and place, the comic is created and define by a web of social, political, and economic factors that serve as the foundation for stories of the fantastic. Comic book reflect as much as refract the content of the past, future, and present to produce the stories we read today.
We can argue about the aims of the creators, but this is not the point, the complete product is an artifice of the cross narrative bleed. The goals creators had for the end products may or may not be achieved, but the collective action of the comic as fusion of the real and imagined is there for our consideration.
Hickman's turn toward the Future Foundation is a perfect example. We know that Fantastic Four was created in the 1961. Kicking off Marvel's Silver Age renaissance, the FF was as much about Cold War symbolism as family drama. We forget, but the decision to test Reed Richard's rocket was driven by a need to beat the Russian to the moon. With classic post Sputnik zeal, Richards the patriotic scientist wanted to demonstrate American ingenuity. The often noted family dynamic of the Fantastic Four is true, but the pro-capitalist enterprising nature of the Fantastic Four is overlooked. They were out to explore and create, but they needed money and some classic Lee and Kirby stories were about money problems. For scholars looking back, the Cold War domestic concerns are clear and sharp in these stories.
Looking at it now, I think Hickman's decision to create the Future Foundation plays to contemporary fears about the United States. With concerns about education and U.S. competitiveness in the air, his run has introduced Reed Richards effort to "solve everything," the creation of think tank with talented kids from all across the Marvel Universe (think multicultural allegory) and now the abandonment of the classic organization structure in favor of a foundation model.
We hear much about the impact of private foundation affecting education, policy formation, and economic policy. We may not agree on government action, but most people seem to like the idea of foundation philanthropy designed to deliver big change to society. The Gate Foundation is a perfect example and there are countless others. There are also questions that can arise. Conservatives question foundations like George Soros' Open Society Foundation and progressives are suspicious about groups such as the Koch Family Foundations. The nature of the complaint is same, what right does this private institution, with views I do not agree with, have to shape policies, influence decision, or perhaps even provide service that shape society?
These concerns are real (from both perspectives), but in the real world our charged political atmosphere make discussion difficult. I suspect Hickman's new Future Foundation will give these real world concerns a forum to play out. After all the tagline says a lot, "Their mission is simple: save the Marvel Universe from its greatest threats and prevent future dangers from arising. But even with knowledge of what’s to come and one of the most powerful teams ever assembled, just what villainous force could stand in their way?
It is a good question whether we are talking about imaginary or real world foundations.
Comments