Marvel Really Wants Fans To Forget Fantastic Four's Biggest Retcon
Who retcons the retconners? Marvel fans know that the true history of their favorite characters isn’t written by the victors of some great canon conflict. It is a much messier process than that. Continuity is ultimately what sticks out of a mess of contradictions, as Jonathan Hickman once put it, and now Marvel has effectively said, “You know what? We’re not sticking with that big change to The Fantastic Four’s origin story we made a few years ago, so forget it ever happened.”
Even the most casual Marvel fans are at least passingly familiar with the basic beats of the Four’s origin. A team of astronauts, led by Reed Richards, go on a dangerous mission into space, where getting blasted by cosmic rays gives them superpowers. In the 65 years since, a core part of Reed’s character has been the immense guilt he harbors over this inciting incident, especially for how it transformed his best friend Ben Grimm into the Thing. (So much so that it has contributed to at least one version of him going utterly insane. Looking at you, the Maker.)
Except in 2019, during a storyline appropriately titled “Point of Origin,” Marvel tried to absolve Mr. Fantastic of this progenital guilt, rewriting the very foundation of Fantastic Four lore in the process. The change wasn’t well received by fans, and hasn’t come up much, or at all, since. Now, as a divide between Tony Stark and Reed puts Marvel on the precipice of Civil War 3, a contentious callback to the Four’s first mission confirms the 2019 retcon can effectively be considered non-canon.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for “Invincible vs. Fantastic”!
Tony Stark Guilt Trips Reed Richards About The Fantastic Four’s Origin, Throwing Out The Franchise’s 2019 Retcon
Iron Man #11, By Joshua Williamson And Luca Maresca; Out This Week From Marvel
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Iron Man #11 is a masterclass in tension. Reeling from the events of the Armageddon crossover event, Tony Stark (with a civilian plus one in tow) joins Reed and Sue Richards for dinner. Which quickly devolves into a dark game of “What if?” What if the Invincible Iron Man and the Fantastic Four had to fight each other? Before that, things start getting dicey when Tony immediately goes for the low blow: “Why don’t I ask Ben Grimm how he feels about your past choices?”
“This whole life you lead now started because you launched your family into space,” he tells Reed. And neither he nor his wife go, “Wait, did we never tell you about that whole thing with the Overseer?” They accept it at face value. And for good reason. The Fantastic Four’s 2019 origin retcon was worth a shot, but it didn’t pan out. Not because the “Point of Origin” arc was bad; in fact, it’s a pretty fun story taken at face value. It just wasn’t the right creative choice for Reed Richards.
The Fantastic Four’s Origin Story Has Stuck With Generations Of Fans For A Reason
Fantastic Four, Volume 6 #14-19, By Dan Slott & Sean Izaakse; Published In 2019
In “Point of Origin,” the Fantastic Four found themselves on the planet Spyre, ruled by a character called the Overseer, whose powers were derived from the same kind of cosmic radiation as the team. In a huge reveal, it was made official that it wasn’t Reed Richards’ hubris, or his miscalculations, or the failure of his technology that led to the accident that changed everything for the Four. The Overseer directed the cosmic radiation at them to try to prevent them from reaching Spyre. He was successful, for a time, but with the side effect of empowering his targets.
Marvel meant for this to be an “Egads! Everything I knew about The Fantastic Four was wrong!” moment for readers. Instead, the reaction was much more tepid. The change was regarded as too destabilizing to the team’s lore. Especially for Mr. Fantastic, because endlessly trying to make up for his first, greatest failure is intrinsic to his character.
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So, Marvel has rightfully let that change get buried by the sands of time. At least for now. A future story could come along and reintroduce the Overseer plot point, and legitimize it if the end result is great enough. For now, though, Marvel woud clearly prefer to memory hole this particular retcon and leave the classic Fantastic Four origin story untouched.
Iron Man #11 is available now from Marvel Comics.
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