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142-464: Following an adaptation in the episode " What If... Zombies?! " of the Disney+ animated series What If...? , an upcoming animated series of the same name is in development. While writing Ultimate Fantastic Four , Mark Millar decided to introduce an alternate Earth populated by zombies in the " Crossover " story-arc, featured in issues #21-23. Marvel Comics liked Millar's idea so, as he wrote

284-488: A "dark body horror" story in which Spider-Man turns into a real spider, taking inspiration from Franz Kafka 's 1915 novella The Metamorphosis , which Marvel rejected for being too dark for their target PG-13 / TV-14 audience. She then pitched the idea of MCU characters turning into zombies as an alternative story idea, not knowing about the existing Marvel Zombies series. Kevin Feige had previously expressed interest in

426-417: A "disjointed" way and for the inconsistent way the characters felt about killing zombie versions of other heroes. Despite his mostly negative feelings for the episode, Jorgensen was positive about the voice acting which is something he had criticized in earlier episodes. He specifically highlighted the performances of Gurira, Boseman, and Dastmalchian. Warmann, on the other hand, felt the series' voice acting

568-410: A "secret identity". In Strange Tales #106 (March 1963), Johnny discovered that his friends and neighbors knew of his dual identity all along from Fantastic Four news reports, but were humoring him. Supporting characters included Johnny's girlfriend, Doris Evans, usually in consternation as Johnny cheerfully flew off to battle bad guys. She was seen again in a 1973 issue of Fantastic Four , having become

710-584: A Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game – Promos Box, the Sentinel Strike, and the massive Marvel Zombies: A Zombicide Game – Galactus the Devourer Kickstarter exclusives, including even more Super Heroes and Zombie Heroes. The four expansions also had more Kickstarter exclusives, adding to the number of with Super Heroes and Zombie Heroes ( https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/351817/marvel-zombies-a-zombicide-game/expansions ). In addition to this

852-580: A Rulebook. The line also has four expansions in smaller boxes: Clash of the Sinister Six, Fantastic 4 - Under Siege, Guardians of the Galaxy and Hydra Resurrection, each with additional Super Heroes and Zombie Heroes ( https://www.cmon.com/product-line/marvel-zombies-a-zombicide-game/ and https://www.cmon.com/products/marvel-zombies-heroes-resistance-2/ ). Part of the Kickstarter campaign were also

994-573: A few issues with temporary teams, Mark Waid took over as writer with #60 / 489 (October 2002) with artist Mike Wieringo with Marvel releasing a promotional variant edition of their otherwise $ 2.25 debut issue at the price of nine cents US. Pencillers Mark Buckingham , Casey Jones, and Howard Porter variously contributed through issue #524 (May 2005), with a handful of issues by other teams also during this time. Writer J. Michael Straczynski and penciller Mike McKone did issues #527–541 (July 2005 – Nov. 2006), with Dwayne McDuffie taking over as writer

1136-498: A field on Earth. Upon exiting the rocket, the four discover they have developed incredible superpowers and decide to use these powers to help others. In the first issue the crew talks about Reed Richards' rocketship flying to the stars. Stan Lee's original synopsis described the crew's plan to fly to Mars, but Lee later shortly afterward wrote that due to "the rate the Communists are progressing in space, maybe we better make this

1278-653: A heavyset but cheerful wife and mother. Ayers took over the penciling after ten issues, later followed by original Golden Age Human Torch creator Carl Burgos and others. The Fantastic Four made occasional cameo appearances, and the Thing became a co-star with issue #123 (Aug. 1964). The Human Torch shared the split book Strange Tales with fellow feature Doctor Strange for the majority of its run, before being replaced in issue #135 (August 1965) by Nick Fury, Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. The Silver Age stories were republished in 1974, along with some Golden Age Human Torch stories, in

1420-478: A jar. He was surprised at Boseman's role in the episode after the second episode had been presented as a farewell to the late actor. Opie, Barsanti, Jorgensen, and Warmann all highlighted Boseman's poignant line in the episode: "In my culture, death is not the end. They're still with us, as long as we do not forget them." In November 2021, a Marvel Zombies animated series was announced, with Andrews returning to direct and Zeb Wells serving as head writer. It

1562-460: A live-action Marvel Zombies adaptation in 2013, but was not able to accurately adapt the storyline to film due to the MCU's target demographic; he encouraged Bradley to pursue the idea in animated form for What If...? . Chauncey was the one to "spearhead" the episode, initially creating a draft with more gruesome deaths. He and Bradley were hesitant to have T'Challa appear without his leg because

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1704-463: A long run through issue #32 (Aug. 2000). Following the run of Claremont, Lobdell and Larroca, Carlos Pacheco took over as penciller and co-writer, first with Rafael Marín , then with Marín and Jeph Loeb . This series began using dual numbering, as if the original Fantastic Four series had continued unbroken, with issue #42 / #471 (June 2001). At the time, the Marvel Comics series begun in

1846-552: A nearly-complete Infinity Gauntlet . By September 2018, Marvel Studios was developing an animated anthology series based on the What If...? comic books, which would explore how the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films would be altered if certain events occurred differently. Director Bryan Andrews met Marvel Studios executive Brad Winderbaum about the project as early as 2018, and his involvement

1988-626: A player comes in second place, he or she would get a card of Captain America. All participants got a copy of the Marvel Zombies card. The zombies in the game had a unique theme of destroying themselves to activate an effect. At the end of the turn, they would return to play. What If... Zombies%3F! " What If... Zombies?! " is the fifth episode of the first season of the American animated television series What If...? , based on

2130-612: A reference to the phrase "till the end of the line" from Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014); an homage to the logo of Mutant Enemy Productions , the production company of the horror television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer ; and the MCU's first mention of Peter Parker's Uncle Ben . This was included in early drafts of the script, and was kept despite Bradley and Chauncey expecting Marvel to request its removal. Jeffrey Wright narrates

2272-564: A series of posters for the series. Mira Jacobs of Comic Book Resources noted the "bleak" alternate universe depicted in the poster, as well as "a horde of zombies lurking in the darkness" and "a broken version of the Avengers logo". After the episode's release, Marvel announced merchandise inspired by the episode as part of its weekly "Marvel Must Haves" promotion for each episode of the series, including apparel, accessories, Funko Pops , Marvel Legends figures, and Lego minifigures based on

2414-588: A short-lived ongoing Human Torch series. A later ongoing solo series in Marvel's manga -influenced Tsunami imprint , Human Torch , ran 12 issues (June 2003 – June 2004), by writer Karl Kesel and penciler Skottie Young . The series was followed by the five-issue limited series Spider-Man/Human Torch (March–July 2005), an untold tales team-up arc spanning the course of their friendship. The Thing appeared in two team-up issues of Marvel Feature (#11–12, September–November 1973). Following their success, he

2556-627: A sixteen-issue run. Following the summer 2008 crossover storyline, " Secret Invasion ", and the 2009 aftermath " Dark Reign ", chronicling the U.S. government's assigning of the Nation's security functions to the seemingly reformed supervillain Norman Osborn , the Fantastic Four starred in a five-issue miniseries , Dark Reign: Fantastic Four (May–Sept. 2009), written by Jonathan Hickman , with art by Sean Chen . Hickman took over as

2698-461: A spy named Lyja . Once discovered, Lyja, who herself had fallen for Storm, helped the Fantastic Four rescue Masters. Ventura departed after being further mutated by Doctor Doom. Although some fans were not pleased with DeFalco's run on Fantastic Four , calling him "The Great Satan", the title's sales rose steadily over the period. Other key developments included Franklin Richards being sent into

2840-534: A still-living Black Panther . The Panther has escaped from the lab of the zombie Giant-Man, who has been keeping him alive as a food source, as a result of which the Panther is now missing an arm and a foot. Zombie Wasp gets into an argument with her husband when she discovers he was hoarding the Black Panther. He promptly decapitates Zombie Wasp by biting off her head, which remains sentient. After observing

2982-516: A studio assistant to Jack Kirby in the 1970s, says that the considered opinion of Lee and Kirby's contemporaries was "that Fantastic Four was created by Stan and Jack. No further division of credit seemed appropriate." The release of The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961) was an unexpected success. Lee had felt ready to stop working on comics at the time, but the positive response to Fantastic Four persuaded him to continue with comic books. The title began to receive fan mail and Lee started printing

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3124-518: A three-issue stint drawn by Arthur Adams , Simonson remained in all three positions through #354 (July 1991). Simonson, who had been writing the team comic The Avengers , had gotten approval for Reed and Sue to join that team after Engelhart had written them out of Fantastic Four . Yet by The Avengers #300, where they were scheduled to join the team, Simonson was told the characters were returning to Fantastic Four . This led to Simonson quitting The Avengers after that issue. Shortly afterward, he

3266-669: A woman) led by a Professor travelling to the Earth’s centre and encountering giant monsters while contending with a human protagonist who is also from the surface world. Although neither Lee nor Kirby ever mentioned the 1959 film Journey to the Center of the Earth as a direct inspiration, publisher Martin Goodman was well known for following popular entertainment trends to attract sales in his comics line. Comics historian R. C. Harvey believes

3408-791: Is a continuation of the reality first introduced in this episode of the series, that "look[s] at that universe with a different lens", following a group of survivors who must fight former heroes and villains. Marvel Studios began development on the spin-off series after the positive fan response to the episode and its cliffhanger ending. Several actors reprise their MCU roles in the series, including Awkwafina as Katy , David Harbour as Alexei Shostakov / Red Guardian , Simu Liu as Xu Shang-Chi , Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch , Randall Park as Jimmy Woo , Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova , Hailee Steinfeld as Kate Bishop , Dominique Thorne as Riri Williams / Ironheart , and Iman Vellani as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel . Marvel Zombies

3550-648: Is also a Marvel Zombies: Heroes' Resistance from 2022, not a full core game, but a stand-alone game with 6 Super Heroes and 4 Zombie Heroes, as well as Bystander and zombie cardboard standees, and 4 Experience Dials instead of the plastic dashboards ( https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/366023/marvel-zombies-heroes-resistance ). The game is played much like the standard Zombicide game, however either playing as Super Heroes against Zombie Heroes and zombies, or Zombie Heroes against Super Heroes and SHIELD. Missions are either in Hero Mode or Zombie Mode. The gameplay in fact follows

3692-650: Is en route to devour the planet. The zombies attack the Silver Surfer, who is overpowered and devoured by several of the former superheroes: Captain America , Iron Man , Giant-Man , Spider-Man , Luke Cage , the Hulk , and Wolverine . After acquiring a portion of the Power Cosmic, they slaughtered most of the remaining zombies, intent on satiating their hunger despite the latter's unpalatability. The Acolytes return to Earth to find Magneto, but instead, discover

3834-708: Is killed by the Red Skull , and then proceed to devour Galactus. Giant-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Wolverine are then infused with Galactus' power cosmic', the group thus becomes collective Galacti. Five years later, Black Panther, the Acolytes, and the Wasp, restored with a cybernetic body, return to Earth to find the planet depopulated. Unknown to them, the Zombie Galacti have taken their hunger to

3976-512: Is merely a distraction to keep Doom occupied while Reed Richards targets Doom's power source. There are several trade paperbacks collecting the various stories: Other related collections include: There is a range of supporting merchandise based on the characters. Diamond Select have produced Marvel Zombie Minimates , action figures and a number of mini-busts. Wizkids ' HeroClix has had appearances of zombie versions of Spider-Man , Captain America, Hulk , and Wolverine as Chase figures in

4118-626: Is reverting to its original numbers, and the book is going away for a while. I'm moving towards the end of Fantastic Four . I just want to reassure people that you will not leave this book with a bad taste in your mouth." In the aftermath of the " Secret Wars " storyline, the Thing is working with the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Human Torch is acting as an ambassador with the Inhumans. With Franklin's powers restored and Reed having absorbed

4260-610: Is scheduled to debut on Disney+ on October 3, 2025, and will consist of four episodes. Fantastic Four The Fantastic Four is a superhero team appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The team debuted in The Fantastic Four #1 ( cover-dated November 1961), helping usher in a new level of realism in the medium. It was the first superhero team created by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and editor/co-scripter Stan Lee , and through this title

4402-455: Is settled and they finally made peace. As the Fantastic Four are about to depart Spyre after helping its citizens clean up the Planet (as well as Reed providing the mutates with a variation of the temporary 'cure' he has created for Ben), Skye join them to learn about Earth and every unseen galaxy. When the incoming Kree-Skrull Empyre occur at the same time as teen heroes are being outlawed ,

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4544-528: Is the three-part " Galactus Trilogy " that began in Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966), chronicling the arrival of Galactus , a cosmic giant who wanted to devour the planet, and his herald, the Silver Surfer . Fantastic Four #48 was chosen as #24 in the 100 Greatest Marvels of All Time poll of Marvel's readers in 2001. Editor Robert Greenberger wrote in his introduction to the story that, "As

4686-552: The Cloak of Levitation kill the zombies, saving Banner. Another survivor, Peter Parker , brings Banner to meet the rest of their group— Bucky Barnes , Okoye , Sharon Carter , Kurt , and Happy Hogan . The group travels to Camp Lehigh in New Jersey , where they believe a cure for the virus is being developed, but are attacked by a zombified Steve Rogers , Clint Barton , and Sam Wilson , who infect Carter, Hogan, and Hope before

4828-660: The Fantastic Four title, FF continues publication as a separate series. Starting with issue #12, the title focuses upon the youthful members of the Future Foundation, including Franklin and Valeria Richards. In the graphic novel Fantastic Four: Season One , the Fantastic Four is given an updated origin story set in the present day instead of the 1960s. The hardcover compilation debuted at number four on The New York Times Best Seller list for graphic novels. As part of Marvel NOW! Fantastic Four ended with #611, ending Jonathan Hickman's long run on FF titles, and

4970-461: The Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Sue's younger brother, who can generate flames, surround himself with them and fly; and the monstrous Thing (Ben Grimm), their grumpy but benevolent friend, a former college football star, Reed's college roommate and a skilled pilot, who possesses tremendous superhuman strength, durability and endurance due to his stone-like flesh. Since their 1961 introduction,

5112-763: The Kree Empire 's ruthless and tyrannical enforcer Ronan the Accuser ; the Negative Zone 's ruler Annihilus ; the sea-dwelling prince Namor ; the spacefaring Silver Surfer ; the Skrull warrior Kl'rt ; and the Molecule Man . The Fantastic Four has been adapted into other media , including several video games , animated series , and live-action films . Apocryphal legend has it that in 1961, longtime magazine and comic book publisher Martin Goodman

5254-608: The Marvel Comics series of the same name . It explores what would happen if the events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) films Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) and Avengers: Infinity War (2018) occurred differently, with members of the Avengers becoming zombies and initiating a worldwide zombie apocalypse , while a group of survivors search for a cure. The episode was written by story editor Matthew Chauncey and directed by Bryan Andrews . Jeffrey Wright narrates

5396-617: The Ultimate Fantastic Four and survivors escaped back to the Ultimate universe. After a battle with the zombies, Magneto learns that the Acolytes and Forge are still alive on Asteroid M . However, before he can reach them, he is attacked once again, killed and eaten by the zombies, though he manages to behead the zombified Hawkeye . The Silver Surfer arrives on Earth and informs the zombies that his master Galactus

5538-428: The first episode , in which he had replaced MCU star Chris Evans . Several characters appear in non-speaking roles, including Tony Stark / Iron Man , Dr. Stephen Strange , Wong , Cull Obsidian , Hank Pym , Janet van Dyne, Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow , Clint Barton / Hawkeye , Sam Wilson / Falcon , Wanda Maximoff, and Thanos ; many of these characters appear as zombie versions of themselves. Animation for

5680-493: The " Marvel Method ", worked so well that Lee and Kirby used it from then on, and the Marvel Method became standard for the company within a year. Kirby recalled events somewhat differently. In a 1970 Fanzine interview he confirmed Lee's involvement in the creation of the Fantastic Four but took credit for the main characters and ideas, stating "It was my idea. It was my idea to do it the way it was; my idea to develop it

5822-625: The " Marvel method " style of production came into prominence. The four characters traditionally associated with the Fantastic Four, who gained superpowers after exposure to cosmic rays during a scientific mission to outer space, are Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards), a scientific genius and the leader of the group, who can stretch his body into incredible lengths and shapes; the Invisible Woman (Susan "Sue" Storm-Richards), Reed's girlfriend and later wife, who can render herself invisible and project powerful invisible force fields and blasts;

Marvel Zombies - Misplaced Pages Continue

5964-521: The "Deadpool" set. Additionally, a generic Skrull, Super-Skrull , Mole Man , Morbius , Gladiator , Red Skull , Magneto , Doctor Doom, and a Zombies Team Base were released in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" set. The "Wizkids Marvel" set contains a zombie Galactus colossal figure, which does not have the same Z-Virus keyword as the rest of the Marvel Zombie characters. These newer Z-Virus figures are all of rare 'Chase' or 'Convention Exclusive' with

6106-421: The "Supernova" set. In the "Mutations and Monsters" set, there was an Iron Man, Giant-Man, Spider-Man, and a Galactus-Powered Wolverine. There was also a Janet Pym bystander token in the "Mutations and Monsters" set. More recently HeroClix released a Zombie Villains series of figures. These included Deadpool , Kingpin , Rhino, Green Goblin , Electro , Doctor Octopus , Venom , Sabretooth , and Juggernaut from

6248-407: The 1960s, such as Thor and The Amazing Spider-Man , were given such dual numbering on the front cover, with the present-day volume's numbering alongside the numbering from the original series. After issue #70 / #499 (Aug. 2003), the title reverted to its original vol. 1 numbering with issue #500 (Sept. 2003). Karl Kesel succeeded Loeb as co-writer with issue #51 / #480 (March 2002), and after

6390-619: The Challengers and the FF have a minimum of decoration. And of course, the Thing's skin is a kind of decoration, breaking up the monotony of the blue uniform." It is important to note, however, that the Fantastic Four wore civilian garb instead of uniforms, which were only introduced (along with the Baxter Building Headquarters) in the third issue of the series following readership feedback. The original submitted design

6532-492: The FF. It is an absolutely vital dynamic between the characters." [emphases in original] Byrne was followed by a quick succession of writers: Roger Stern , Tom DeFalco , and Roy Thomas . Steve Englehart took over as writer for issues 304–332 (except #320). The title had been struggling, so Englehart decided to make radical changes. He felt the title had become stale with the normal makeup of Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny, so in issue #308 Reed and Sue retired and were replaced with

6674-418: The Fantastic Four for a fanzine in 1968, during which time Jack Kirby was also working at Marvel (Kirby himself is interviewed separately in the same publication). When asked who conceived the team, him or Kirby, Lee responded "Both – 'twas mainly my idea, but Jack created characters visually". In the 1974 book Origins of Marvel Comics Lee described the creative process in more detail, stating that he developed

6816-419: The Fantastic Four has been portrayed as a somewhat dysfunctional, yet loving, family. Breaking convention with other comic archetypes, the members squabbled, held grudges both deep and petty, and eschewed anonymity or secret identities in favor of celebrity status. They are also well known for their recurring encounters with characters such as the villainous monarch Doctor Doom ; the planet-devouring Galactus ;

6958-501: The Fantastic Four was a continuation of the work Kirby previously did, and so "more likely Kirby's creations than Lee's". But Harvey notes that the Marvel Method of collaboration allowed each man to claim credit, and that Lee's dialogue added to the direction the team took. Wells argues that Lee's contributions set the framework within which Kirby worked, and this made Lee "more responsible". Comics historian Mark Evanier ,

7100-587: The Fantastix with Ms. America taking the codename of Ms. Fantastix. Following the staged bank robbery that the Wrecking Crew committed and their involvement of being hired to humiliate the Fantastix in public, the Fantastic Four gave the Fantastix their blessing to continue using the Baxter Building while the FF operate in a house on Yancy Street with a dimensionally-transcendental interior. In

7242-464: The JLA's strong sales, did direct his comics editor, Stan Lee , to create a comic-book series about a team of superheroes. According to Lee, writing in 1974, "Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the titles published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The [ sic ] Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes. ... 'If

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7384-534: The Justice League is selling', spoke he, 'why don't we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes?'" Lee, who had served as editor-in-chief and art director of Marvel Comics and its predecessor companies, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics , for two decades, found that the medium had become creatively restrictive. Determined "to carve a real career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books", Lee concluded that, "For just this once, I would do

7526-652: The Living Vampire , Werewolf by Night , and Mephisto among others). Marvel Zombies 5 is a five-issue direct sequel to Marvel Zombies 4 , published in June and ending in October 2010. Marvel Zombies Return is a five-issue miniseries begun in September 2009, and is a direct sequel to Marvel Zombies 2 that wraps up the original zombie plotline. Several other sequels and spin-offs have been produced. In 2006,

7668-493: The MCU films. Animation for the episode was provided by Squeeze, with Stephan Franck serving as head of animation. The episode drew inspiration from the Marvel Zombies comic series. "What If... Zombies?!" was released on Disney+ on September 8, 2021. The episode received mixed reviews from critics, with differing views on its tone, writing and story logic, and voice acting. A four-episode animated miniseries based on

7810-514: The Marvel Zombies is called the Deadlands where it, Ultron's domain, Perfection, and Annihilation's realm, New Xandar, all are separated from the other Battleworld domains by a wall called SHIELD, which is mostly made from Ben Grimm. The zombies and Ultron's drones spent several years battling until they formed an 'alliance'. They start by targeting the Deadland resistance, led by surviving heroes

7952-533: The Mind Stone so the others can cure the world with it. While Parker, Lang, T'Challa, and the Cloak escape in a quadjet , Banner also sacrifices himself to stay behind and turn into the Hulk to battle Maximoff and an oncoming zombie horde. In the hopes of broadcasting the Mind Stone's energy around the world, the survivors head to Wakanda , unaware that the country has been conquered by a zombified Thanos wielding

8094-466: The October issue of Wizard magazine featured a one-page Marvel Zombies comic by artist Sean Phillips called "Eat the Neighbors". It parodied Hostess pastry advertisements featured in the Marvel titles in the 1970s, which showcased Marvel superheroes defeating villains by offering them snacks. In this instance, Spider-Man, Captain America and Iron Man serve two children as "Hostees Meat Pies" after

8236-438: The Thing's new girlfriend, Sharon Ventura , and Johnny Storm's former love, Crystal. The changes increased readership through issue #321. At this point, Marvel made decisions about another Englehart comic, West Coast Avengers , that he disagreed with, and in protest he changed his byline to S.F.X. Englehart (S.F.X. is the abbreviation for Simple Sound Effects). In issue #326, Englehart was told to bring Reed and Sue back and undo

8378-654: The Vision and Wonder Man to make the machine work (although Wonder Man's android lover is reconfigured so that she can die in Hammond's place). During the core Secret Wars miniseries, Black Panther uses the zombies as an army to attack the now-all-powerful Doctor Doom in the final stand, using his new 'King of the Dead' status and the Siege Perilous to take the zombies directly to Doom's castle, although even this number

8520-473: The Vision, Wonder Man, and Jim Hammond, who gather those exiled beyond the Wall into a secure city they have established. At the time of the attack, the three heroes have managed to rescue a version of Hank Pym exiled from a Wild-West-era zone, who is able to use his counterpart's notes to devise a means of shutting down the hive mind of Ultron's drones despite his more primitive background, at the cost of sacrificing

8662-621: The Wasp's head begging for the flesh, Black Panther reasons that hunger is more psychological than physical. Meanwhile, the zombies have decided that the flesh of other zombies just isn't satisfying. Galactus then arrives on Earth and is attacked by the zombies, but he repels them easily. Giant-Man, Iron Man and Bruce Banner create a device that amplifies the powers they gained from the Silver Surfer, and together with Captain America, Luke Cage, Spider-Man and Wolverine they are able to injure Galactus. The cosmic-powered zombies fight off zombified versions of several supervillains, although Captain America

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8804-463: The aptly titled "Back to the Basics", Byrne began his run as writer, penciller and inker, the last under the pseudonym Bjorn Heyn for this issue only. Byrne revitalized the slumping title with his run. Byrne was slated to write with Sienkiewicz providing the art however, Sienkiewicz left to do Moon Knight , and Byrne subsequently became writer, artist, and inker. Various editors were assigned to

8946-540: The basic characters as well as a story synopsis for the first issue penciller Jack Kirby to follow. Lee noted the involvement of both Kirby and Publisher Martin Goodman prior to preparing his synopsis: "After kicking it around with Martin and Jack for a while I decided to call our quaint quartet the Fantastic Four. I wrote a detailed first synopsis for Jack to follow and the rest is history." Kirby turned in his penciled art pages to Lee, who added dialogue and captions. This approach to creating comics, which became known as

9088-478: The blood of the victim, usually through a bite by an infected individual. The zombie superheroes largely retain their intellect, personality and superpowers, and are able to function regardless of the damage to their brain, although they are consistently driven by the "Hunger" for human flesh. The series begins where the Crossover story-arc ended, with Magneto destroying the cross-dimensional transporter after

9230-409: The character's disregard for human life in trying to save Maximoff. He was mostly positive about the action sequences, but felt they were hindered by the episode's unclear logic for why the zombie characters could use their superpowers. Amon Warmann agreed with Jorgensen's sentiments in his review for Yahoo! News , finding the overall episode to be unsatisfying and the weakest of the series so far. He

9372-467: The characters' personal lives, having the married Sue Storm and Reed Richards suffer a miscarriage and the Thing quitting the Fantastic Four, with She-Hulk being recruited as his long-term replacement. He also re-emphasized the family dynamic which he felt the series had drifted away from after the Lee/Kirby run, commenting that, " Family —and not dysfunctional family —is the central, key element to

9514-529: The children mistake them for legitimate superheroes. Another humorous one-shot comic book was also published in 2007 featuring the alternate universe animal hero Spider-Ham and titled Ultimate Civil War: Spider-Ham . Spider-Ham accidentally crosses over into Earth-2149 and becomes, as J. Michael Straczynski puts it, "Undead Ham". The Marvel Zombies universe was featured in the 2015 Secret Wars storyline where it also had its own tie-in miniseries, Age of Ultron vs. Marvel Zombies . The Battleworld domain of

9656-513: The comic books and the game feels very thematic all in all. However, like in the standard Zombicide games, the plastic game figures are not painted as the HeroClix figures. In the Vs. System trading card game , the Marvel Zombies have three cards in the tournament Promo set Age of Apocalypse. If a player won the tournament where they came from, he or she would get a copy of Spider-Man as a Zombie. If

9798-405: The comic; eventually Bob Budiansky became the regular editor. Byrne told Jim Shooter that he could not work with Budiansky, although they ultimately continued to work together. In 2006, Byrne said "that's my paranoia. I look back and I think that was Shooter trying to force me off the book". Byrne left following issue #293 (Aug. 1986) in the middle of a story arc, explaining he could not recapture

9940-517: The dialogue after the story was pencilled. Kirby also sought to establish, more credibly and on numerous occasions, that the visual elements of the strip were his conceptions. He regularly pointed to a team he created for rival publisher DC Comics in the 1950s, the Challengers of the Unknown . "[I]f you notice the uniforms, they're the same... I always give them a skintight uniform with a belt...

10082-425: The episode 5 out of 10. Jorgensen criticized the episode's tonal inconsistencies and comedy, feeling the latter was overused and detracted from the realism of the story's MCU connections. He also took issue with the virus being explained only as a "quantum virus", which he felt was lazy writing. Jorgensen enjoyed how the outbreak affected Vision, but was disappointed that the episode quickly moved past its exploration of

10224-764: The episode as the Watcher , with Marvel planning to have other characters in the series voiced by the actors who portrayed them in the MCU films. The episode stars the returning voices of Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner / Hulk , Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa / Black Panther, Paul Bettany as Vision, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier , Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne / Wasp , Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man, Jon Favreau as Harold "Happy" Hogan / Zombie Happy, Danai Gurira as Okoye , Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter , David Dastmalchian as Kurt and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Ebony Maw . Tom Holland does not reprise his role as Peter Parker / Spider-Man from

10366-430: The episode title was a "jokey take" on the series' established naming convention, but was "also indicative of how much thought went into selling a zombie apocalypse that works in the MCU". This what if concept was chosen for the season over a Christmas-themed episode exploring what if the Avengers had showed up during Iron Man 3 (2013), told in the style of Love Actually (2003) vignettes. "What If... Zombies?!"

10508-413: The episode was provided by Squeeze, with Stephan Franck serving as head of animation. Andrews developed the series' cel-shaded animation style with Ryan Meinerding, the head of visual development at Marvel Studios. Though the series has a consistent art style, elements such as the camera and color palette differ between episodes. Concept art for the episode is included during the end credits, and

10650-492: The episode's horror elements despite being a repetitive trope after stories such as Zombieland (2009). Tom Jorgensen of IGN was more negative about the episode, comparing it to " What If... Doctor Strange Lost His Heart Instead of His Hands? " which had darkness rooted in Doctor Strange's character arc while the story of "What If... Zombies?!" just "shambles along" between different zombie encounters; he scored

10792-770: The exception of Headpool who is also the only figure who does not fit on the Zombies Team Base. CMON or CMON Limited ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMON_Limited ) put on Marvel Zombies - A Zombicide Game on Kickstarter in January 2022. It was funded in February 2022 and shipped in June 2023. The line is two core games Marvel Zombies - A Zombicide Game, and Marvel Zombies: X-Men Resistance, both in massive boxes each with 6 Super Heroes and 6 Zombie Heroes, Bystander figures, various cards and tokens, plastic dashboards, double-sided tiles, 6 dice and additional contents including

10934-489: The film series, with Hudson Thames voicing the character in the episode; Winderbaum attributed Holland's recasting to possible conflicts with the deal for the character's film rights between The Walt Disney Company and Sony Pictures . Though Thames sounds similar to Holland, he created his own performance so he could identify with the character. The character was marketed as "Zombie Hunter Spider-Man". Josh Keaton reprises his role as Steve Rogers / Captain America from

11076-513: The flagship series include the 1970s quarterly Giant-Size Fantastic Four and the 1990s Fantastic Four Unlimited and Fantastic Four Unplugged ; Fantastic Force , an 18-issue spinoff (November 1994 – April 1996) featuring a young adult Franklin Richards, from a different timeline, as Psi-Lord. A 12-issue series Fantastic Four: The World's Greatest Comics Magazine ran in 2001, paying homage to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby 's legendary run. A spinoff title Marvel Knights 4 (April 2004 – August 2006)

11218-589: The following issue, and Paul Pelletier succeeding McKone beginning with #544 (May 2007). As a result of the events of the " Civil War " company-crossover storyline, the Black Panther and Storm temporarily replaced Reed and Susan Richards on the team. During that period, the Fantastic Four also appeared in Black Panther , written by Reginald Hudlin and pencilled primarily by Francis Portela. Beginning with issue #554 (April 2008), writer Mark Millar and penciller Bryan Hitch began what Marvel announced as

11360-459: The fourth year of the Fantastic Four came to a close, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby seemed to be only warming up. In retrospect, it was perhaps the most fertile period of any monthly title during the Marvel Age." Daniels noted that "[t]he mystical and metaphysical elements that took over the saga were perfectly suited to the tastes of young readers in the 1960s", and Lee soon discovered that the story

11502-563: The fun he had previously had on the series. One of Byrne's changes was making the Invisible Girl into the Invisible Woman: assertive and confident. During this period, fans came to recognize that she was quite powerful, whereas previously, she had been primarily seen as a superpowered mother and wife in the tradition of television moms like those played by Donna Reed and Florence Henderson . Byrne staked new directions in

11644-597: The future and returning as a teenager; the return of Reed's time-traveling father, Nathaniel, who is revealed to be the father of time-travelling villain Kang the Conqueror and Reed's apparent death at the hands of a seemingly mortally wounded Doctor Doom. It would be two years before DeFalco resurrected the two characters, revealing that their "deaths" were orchestrated by the supervillain Hyperstorm . The ongoing series

11786-529: The gathered heroes assisted the Fantastic Four into causing so much damage to the Griever's equipment, she is forced to retreat in her final telepod or be trapped in that universe. This left the heroes to salvage components from the broken ship to create their own teleport system to return to their universe. The Fantastic Four and their extended family returned to Earth where they find that Liberteens members Ms. America, 2-D, Hope, and Iceberg have come together as

11928-605: The group kill the zombies in turn. Before she succumbs to her infection, Hope sacrifices herself to bring the others to the camp, where they meet Vision , whose Mind Stone can reverse the virus's effects, exemplified by Lang's cured head being kept alive in a jar. However, the group also learns that Vision has been keeping a zombified Wanda Maximoff captive due to her resisting the Mind Stone and has been feeding other survivors to her, including T'Challa . Maximoff breaks free and kills Kurt, Okoye, and Barnes while Vision, unwilling to live without Maximoff, sacrifices himself to give up

12070-644: The group, due to an overwhelming fan response in the affirmative (93.47%). Stan's comment of ' Nuff Said would from here become an ongoing phrase in Lee's communications with fans. While the early stories were complete narratives, the frequent appearances of these two antagonists, Doom and Namor, in subsequent issues indicated the creation of a long narrative by Lee and Kirby that extended over months. According to comics historian Les Daniels , "only narratives that ran to several issues would be able to contain their increasingly complex ideas". During its creators' lengthy run,

12212-488: The huge character cast Kirkman assembled. Within the Marvel Multiverse is an alternate Earth designated Earth-2149 , which contains alternate zombie versions of Marvel superheroes. The story begins as an unknown superhero from another dimension, brought by the "Hunger", crash lands before infecting the Avengers , X-Men , Fantastic Four and almost all other superheroes. The infection spreads by contact with

12354-519: The issues, Marvel sought out pitches for a spin-off miniseries featuring that world entitled Marvel Zombies . To revisit the zombie world, Marvel hired Robert Kirkman to write and Sean Phillips to illustrate it. Kirkman was Marvel's first choice to write Marvel Zombies , an offer Kirkman immediately accepted because of his love for zombies and Marvel comic books, feeling that he couldn't pass up such an opportunity. He also expressed excitement upon learning which artist would be in charge of illustrating

12496-503: The last page of #27 first, and encounter the Earth-616 Fantastic Four. A sequel to the original series, the five-issue Marvel Zombies 2 , was published from October 2007 to February 2008, and Marvel Zombies 3 a four-issue series, commenced October 2008. Marvel Zombies 4 is a four-issue limited series published over the summer of 2009, and features characters from Marvel's horror comics ( Man-Thing , Morbius

12638-537: The letters in a letter column with issue #3. Also with the third issue, Lee created the hyperbolic slogan "The Greatest Comic Magazine in the World!!" With the following issue, the slogan was changed to "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" and became a fixture on the issue covers into the 1990s, and on numerous covers in the 2000s. Issue #4 (May 1962) reintroduced Namor the Sub-Mariner , an aquatic antihero who

12780-468: The miniseries depicting how they deal with their hunger and how they interact with each other. Like other types of zombies, it was decided to establish how the zombified Marvel characters could specifically be killed in the story's context. Kirkman also added some black comedy to the story, and included some gore like most zombie stories do, expressing some shock at how Marvel allowed him and Phillips to incorporate those elements. An early idea Kirkman had for

12922-406: The miniseries, Phillips used an art style similar to that he used on Ed Brubaker 's Sleeper . As the story was a sequel to the Ultimate Fantastic Four story featuring the zombie infested world, Phillips kept the look of the characters consistent to how Land drew them, with Phillips drawing them with the same costumes Land gave them but with Phillips' own style. He particularly liked to illustrate

13064-478: The mutates who are unable to retain their original forms in the same manner as the Thing, accusing the mutates of being "villains and imperfects"; as a result, through his own paranoia and xenophobia , the Overseer himself is responsible for the fateful creation of the Fantastic Four and mutated his entire race to face a non-existent threat. Revos challenges Mr. Fantastic to a fight over their differences, until it

13206-519: The offices of Marvel Comics and met numerous comics creators . Marv Wolfman and Keith Pollard crafted a multi-issue storyline involving the son of Doctor Doom which culminated in issue #200 (Nov. 1978). John Byrne joined the title with issue #209 (Aug. 1979), doing pencil breakdowns for Sinnott to finish. He and Wolfman introduced a new herald for Galactus named Terrax the Tamer in #211 (Oct. 1979). Bill Mantlo briefly followed Wolfman as writer of

13348-482: The original Fantastic Four went to space with Avengers to stop this Empyre, leaving Franklin and Valeria being backed by Spider-Man and Wolverine to defend Earth. In August 2022, Marvel announced that writer Ryan North and artist Iban Coello would launch a new volume of Fantastic Four in November of that year after Slott had concluded his run on the title with issue #46. Ancillary titles and features spin off from

13490-535: The other changes he had made. This caused Englehart to take his name entirely off the book. He used the pseudonym John Harkness, which he had created years before for work he didn't want to be associated with. According to Englehart, the run from #326 through his last issue, #332, was "one of the most painful stretches of [his] career." Writer-artist Walt Simonson took over as writer with #334 (December 1989), and three issues later began pencilling and inking as well. With brief inking exceptions, two fill-in issues, and

13632-521: The power of the Beyonders from Doom, the Richards family is working on travelling through and reconstructing the multiverse, but Peter Parker has purchased the Baxter Building to keep it "safe" until the team is ready to come back together. A new volume for the Fantastic Four was released in August 2018, written by Dan Slott , as part of Marvel's Fresh Start event. The first issue of the new series

13774-476: The published version. However Earl Wells, writing in The Comics Journal , points out that its existence does not assert its place in the creation: "[W]e have no way of knowing of whether Lee wrote the synopsis after a discussion with Kirby in which Kirby supplied most of the ideas". It is also notable that the Fantastic Four's first adventure in 1961 depicts a team of four adventurers (three men and

13916-480: The racial implications of "a white couple [ Vision and Wanda Maximoff ] basically feasting off a man of color", but decided to include it as a reference to a significant part of the Marvel Zombies comic. They rationalized that losing a limb in a zombie apocalypse was "getting away easy" when compared to someone like Scott Lang , who ends up with his head in a jar. Other Easter eggs in the episode include

14058-468: The reality of the episode, Marvel Zombies , is scheduled to debut on Disney+ in October 2025. Hank Pym enters the Quantum Realm to retrieve his long-lost wife Janet van Dyne , but she has been infected with a quantum virus that has turned her into a zombie . She infects Pym before both return to his lab, attacking Scott Lang while their daughter, Hope van Dyne , escapes. Within 24 hours,

14200-484: The regular team of writer and Marvel editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco , penciller Paul Ryan and inker Dan Bulanadi took over, with Ryan self-inking beginning with #360 (Jan. 1992). That team, with the very occasional different inker, continued for years through #414 (July 1996). DeFalco nullified the Storm-Masters marriage by retconning that the alien Skrull Empire had kidnapped the real Masters and replaced her with

14342-422: The series and wrote a crossover with Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #42 (May 1980). Byrne wrote and drew a giant-sized Fantastic Four promotional comic for Coca-Cola , which was rejected by Coca-Cola as being too violent and published as Fantastic Four #220–221 (July–Aug. 1980) instead. Writer Doug Moench and penciller Bill Sienkiewicz then took over for 10 issues. With issue #232 (July 1981),

14484-476: The series as the Watcher , with this episode also starring the voices of Mark Ruffalo , Chadwick Boseman , Paul Bettany , Sebastian Stan , Evangeline Lilly , Paul Rudd , Jon Favreau , Danai Gurira , Emily VanCamp , David Dastmalchian , Hudson Thames, and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor . The series began development by September 2018, with Andrews joining soon after, and many actors expected to reprise their roles from

14626-426: The series involved Luke Cage surviving the zombie plague as the sole human protagonist, given the character's unbreakable skin and that Millar's scripts didn't explicitly identify some characters separately. However, after seeing the finished art for Millar's issues, Kirkman discovered that Greg Land had already drawn Luke Cage as a zombie, and the idea was dropped, which Marvel originally objected to. To illustrate

14768-592: The series produced many acclaimed storylines and characters that have become central to Marvel, including the hidden race of alien-human genetic experiments, the Inhumans ; the Black Panther , an African king who would be mainstream comics' first black superhero; the rival alien races the Kree and the shapeshifting Skrulls ; Him, who would become Adam Warlock ; the Negative Zone and unstable molecules . The story frequently cited as Lee and Kirby's finest achievement

14910-624: The series re-imagined the team as young adults. It ran for 60 issues (Feb. 2004 – Feb. 2009). The issues were repackaged into four-issue graphic novel volumes. The characters continued to appear in other Ultimate Marvel franchises, including Ultimatum . Ultimate Reed Richards became a mainstay of both the Earth-1610 and Earth-616 continuities as the villain the Maker . In 2008, they also launched Marvel Adventures: Fantastic Four , an out-of-continuity series aimed at younger readers. Although it

15052-490: The series regular writer as of issue #570 with Dale Eaglesham and later Steve Epting on art. In the storyline "Three", which concluded in Fantastic Four #587 ( cover date March 2011, published January 26, 2011), the Human Torch appears to die stopping a horde of monsters from the other-dimensional Negative Zone . The series ended with the following issue, #588, and relaunched in March 2011 as simply FF . The relaunch saw

15194-480: The series; Kirkman was a longtime fan of Phillips' work, like in DC Comics ' Sleeper . Kirkman also didn't fear being typecasted as "the superhero guy" or "the zombie guy" due to his work on the series, feeling that there was enough variety in his superhero work to keep things interesting. Kirkman wrote the series in a way that would work for readers who hadn't read the Ultimate Fantastic Four issues featuring

15336-470: The source of the zombie infection in the five-part limited series titled Marvel Zombies vs. The Army of Darkness (Marvel) and Army of Darkness (Dynamite). In July of the same year, a one-shot graphic novel, Marvel Zombies: Dead Days provided more story details, and the zombies also appear in a three-part storyline in Black Panther (vol. 4) #28 – 30, although they make their appearance in

15478-433: The stars. In the final scenes, an intelligent alien race on a distant planet is fearful of the coming of Galactus, as they can see the signs of his imminent arrival in the night sky. To their horror, the Zombie Galacti land on their world instead and immediately begin to consume the populace. An intercompany crossover between Marvel and Dynamite Entertainment , published from May to September 2007 provided information as to

15620-429: The storyline Point of Origin , the Fantastic Four entrust Alicia, H.E.R.B.I.E., Franklin and Valeria to protect Earth while they begin their mission to learn a further origin of the cosmic radiation that granted them their powers in the first place, piloting a new space ship called Marvel-2. While in the middle of a space adventure to find the origin, the Fantastic Four are attacked by a group who believed themselves to be

15762-608: The superheroes of Planet Spyre, the Unparalleled . Reed and Sue are separated from the Thing, Human Torch is revealed to be the soulmate of the Unparalleled member named Sky, and they learn that the Unparalleled's leader and the Overseer of Planet Spyre, Revos, was responsible for the cosmic rays that struck the team on their original trip, as he wanted to stop them coming to his planet. Revos subsequently mutated his people to "prepare for their return" before trying to eradicate

15904-535: The team assume a new name, the Future Foundation , adopt new black-and-white costumes, and accept longtime ally Spider-Man as a member. In October 2011, with the publication of FF #11 (cover-dated Dec. 2011), the Fantastic Four series reached its 599th issue. In November 2011, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fantastic Four and of Marvel Comics, the company published the 100-page Fantastic Four #600 (cover-dated Jan. 2012), which returned

16046-585: The team, Giant-Size Super-Stars , began in May 1974 and changed its title to Giant-Size Fantastic Four with issue #2. The fourth issue introduced Jamie Madrox , a character who later became part of the X-Men . Giant-Size Fantastic Four was canceled with issue #6 (Oct. 1975). Roy Thomas and George Pérez crafted a metafictional story for Fantastic Four #176 (Nov. 1976) in which the Impossible Man visited

16188-401: The title to its original numbering and featured the return of the Human Torch. It revealed the fate of the character of Johnny Storm after issue #587, showing that while he did in fact die, he was resurrected to fight as a gladiator for the entertainment of Annihilus. Storm later formed a resistance force called Light Brigade and defeated Annihilus. Although it was launched as a continuation of

16330-559: The title was relaunched in November 2012 with the creative team of writer Matt Fraction and artist Mark Bagley . In the new title with its numbering starting at #1, the entire Fantastic Four family explore space together, with the hidden intent for Reed Richards to discover why his powers are fading. Writer James Robinson and artist Leonard Kirk launched a new Fantastic Four series in February 2014 ( cover dated April 2014). Robinson later confirmed that Fantastic Four would be cancelled in 2015 with issue #645, saying that "The book

16472-404: The type of story I myself would enjoy reading.... And the characters would be the kind of characters I could personally relate to: they'd be flesh and blood, they'd have their faults and foibles, they'd be fallible and feisty, and — most important of all — inside their colorful, costumed booties they'd still have feet of clay." Lee provided one of his earliest recorded comments on the creation of

16614-496: The virus spreads across the Northwestern United States . The Avengers respond, but are infected themselves and turn the virus into a worldwide zombie apocalypse . Two weeks later, Bruce Banner is sent to Earth to warn humanity of Thanos ' threat. Thanos' lieutenants Ebony Maw and Cull Obsidian arrive, only to be turned into zombies by a zombified Tony Stark , Stephen Strange , and Wong . Hope and

16756-464: The way it was. I'm not saying Stan had nothing to do with it. Of course he did. We talked things out." Years later, when specifically challenged with Lee's version of events in a 1990 interview, Kirby responded: "I would say that's an outright lie", although the interviewer, Gary Groth , notes that this statement needs to be viewed with caution. Kirby claims he came up with the idea for the Fantastic Four in Marvel's offices, and that Lee merely added

16898-438: The world believing them to be clones of the original members of the Fantastic Four. The series ran for 8 issues (Jan. – Aug. 1996), serving as a companion to Doom 2099 —an original Marvel 2099 title featuring an individual claiming to be the original Victor von Doom . In 2021, the series was brought back for a single issue. In 2004, Marvel launched Ultimate Fantastic Four . As part of the company's Ultimate Marvel imprint,

17040-567: The zombie apocalypse was similar to the Marvel Zombies: Resurrection comic storyline and was "just as affecting". She also highlighted the Cloak of Levitation, Kurt, and Happy Hogan, and gave the episode 4.5 out of 5 stars. Writing for The A.V. Club , Sam Barsanti believed the episode had "all of the violence, black humor, and brain-chomping that you'd expect", and gave the episode a "B−". Barsanti felt Parker's interjections of pop culture references successfully undercut

17182-410: The zombie versions of Thor and Captain America . Drawing the superheroes as zombies was the most difficult part of the process for him, as he had grown accustomed at drawing characters in street clothes but was forced to draw their muscles in spandex costumes again. Overall, Phillips enjoyed working with Kirkman in the series, feeling that the most enjoyable part of the process was "playing around" with

17324-527: The zombie versions of characters. David Opie at Digital Spy said the episode "deliver[s] the goods" and was a surprisingly faithful adaptation of the Marvel Zombies comics, praising its balance of sad, comedic, and gruesome moments. Kirsten Howard of Den of Geek agreed that "What If... Zombies?!" was a fun episode, especially for fans of the Marvel Zombies comics, and felt it was full of standout moments such as Parker's "glorious zombie training video". Howard said Parker's struggle to keep hope alive in

17466-551: The zombified superheroes, despite noting that readers of that series would have more insight with spin-off's characters, especially Magneto , due to his larger role in the first issue. Comparing the protagonists with the "slow moving, mindless Romero style zombies" he used in The Walking Dead , Kirkman reasoned that the Marvel characters, either heroes or villains, retained their usual personalities and powers, only driven to devour flesh by their uncontrollable hunger, with

17608-404: Was "more mixed than ever", criticizing the performances of Ruffalo and Stan. He felt Lilly gave the episode's strongest performance, and was shocked at how close Thames' voice was to Tom Holland's portrayal of Parker. Barsanti thought Thames did a fine job replacing Holland, and enjoyed Rudd's comedic performance as well as the visual joke of the Cloak of Levitation flying around with Lang's head in

17750-402: Was Sue Storm's first solo title. Adam Hughes drew the cover for all five issues. The Fantastic Four is formed after four civilian astronauts are exposed to cosmic rays during an unauthorized outer space test flight in an experimental rocket ship designed by Dr. Reed Richards. Pilot Ben Grimm and crew-members Susan Storm and her brother Johnny Storm survive an emergency crash-landing in

17892-564: Was a favorite on college campuses. The Fantastic Four Annual was used to spotlight several key events. The Sub-Mariner was crowned king of Atlantis in the first annual (1963). The following year's annual revealed the origin story of Doctor Doom. Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965) presented the wedding of Reed Richards and Sue Storm. Lee and Kirby reintroduced the original Human Torch in Fantastic Four Annual #4 (1966) and had him battle Johnny Storm. Sue Richards' pregnancy

18034-557: Was a star character of Marvel's earliest iteration, Timely Comics , during the late 1930s and 1940s period that historians and fans call the Golden Age of Comics . Issue #5 (July 1962) introduced the team's most frequent nemesis, Doctor Doom . These earliest issues were published bimonthly. With issue #16 (July 1963), the cover title dropped its The and became simply Fantastic Four . In Fantastic Four #19 (October 1963), Stan Lee announced that Reed Richards would remain leader of

18176-402: Was also modified to include the iconic chest insignia of a "4" within a circle that was designed by Lee. Given the conflicting statements, outside commentators have found it hard to ascertain who created the Fantastic Four. A typed synopsis by Lee for the introductory segment of the first Fantastic Four issue exists and outlines the characters and their origins, with various minor differences to

18318-1034: Was announced in Fantastic Four Annual #5 (1967), and the Richards' son, Franklin Richards was born in Fantastic Four Annual #6 (1968) in a story which introduced Annihilus as well. Marvel filed for a trademark for "Fantastic Four" in 1967 and the United States Patent and Trademark Office issued the registration in 1970. Kirby left Marvel in mid-1970, having drawn the first 102 issues plus an unfinished issue, partially published in Fantastic Four #108, with alterations, and later completed and published as Fantastic Four: The Lost Adventure (April 2008), Fantastic Four continued with Lee, Roy Thomas , Gerry Conway and Marv Wolfman as its consecutive regular writers, working with artists such as John Romita Sr. , John Buscema , Rich Buckler and George Pérez , with longtime inker Joe Sinnott adding some visual continuity. Jim Steranko also contributed some covers during this time. A short-lived series starring

18460-411: Was announced in August 2019. Andrews and Winderbaum executive produce alongside head writer A. C. Bradley , Kevin Feige , Louis D'Esposito , and Victoria Alonso . Story editor Matthew Chauncey wrote the fifth episode, titled "What If... Zombies?!", which features an alternate storyline of the 2018 films Ant-Man and the Wasp and Avengers: Infinity War . IGN ' s Tom Jorgensen said

18602-587: Was canceled with issue #416 (Sept. 1996) and relaunched with vol. 2 #1 (Nov. 1996) as part of the multi-series " Heroes Reborn " crossover story arc. The yearlong volume retold the team's first adventures in a more contemporary style, and set in a parallel universe. Following the end of that experiment, Fantastic Four was relaunched with vol. 3 #1 (Jan. 1998). Initially by the team of writer Scott Lobdell and penciller Alan Davis , it went after three issues to writer Chris Claremont (co-writing with Lobdell for #4–5) and penciller Salvador Larroca ; this team enjoyed

18744-543: Was given a solo strip in Strange Tales in 1962 to bolster the title's sales. The series began in Strange Tales #101 (October 1962), in 12- to 14-page stories plotted by Lee and initially scripted by his brother Larry Lieber , and drawn by penciller Kirby and inker Dick Ayers . Here, Johnny was seen living with his older sister, Susan, in fictional Glenview, Long Island , New York, where he continued high school and, with youthful naiveté, attempted to maintain

18886-466: Was given his own regular team-up title Marvel Two-in-One , co-starring with Marvel heroes not only in the present day but occasionally in other time periods (fighting alongside the World War II -era Liberty Legion in #20 and the 1930s hero Doc Savage in #21, for example) and in alternate realities . The series ran 100 issues (January 1974 – June 1983), with seven summer annuals (1976–1982) and

19028-458: Was immediately followed by the solo title The Thing #1–36 (July 1983 – June 1986). Another ongoing solo series, also titled The Thing , ran eight issues (January–August 2006). A six issue miniseries written by Walter Mosely , entitled The Thing , was released in November 2021. In April 2019, Marvel Comics announced that it would publish Invisible Woman , a five-issue miniseries written by Mark Waid and drawn by artist Mattia De Lulis. This

19170-506: Was launched by Marvel as a continuation of the Fantastic Four title in 2011, FF continued publication as a separate series after the regular series resumed in 2012. From issues #12, the title focused on the youthful members of the Future Foundation, including Franklin and Valeria Richards. A second volume was launched as part of Marvel NOW! by Matt Fraction and Mike Allred depicting a substitute Fantastic Four team starring Scott Lang , Medusa , She-Hulk and Ms. Thing. The Human Torch

19312-557: Was met with strong sales, and a positive critical reaction. When the Future Foundation is threatened by the Griever at the End of All Things, Mister Fantastic plays on her ego to convince her to provide him with equipment that will allow him to summon his teammates. When Human Torch and Thing are reunited with Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman, the other superheroes that were part of the Fantastic Four at some point in their lives also arrived, including, unexpectedly, X-Men 's Iceman . With

19454-474: Was offered the job of writing Fantastic Four . Having already prepared a number of stories involving the Avengers with Reed and Sue in the lineup, he then rewrote these for Fantastic Four . Simonson later recalled that working on Fantastic Four allowed him the latitude to use original Avengers members Thor and Iron Man , which he had been precluded from using in The Avengers . After another fill-in,

19596-530: Was playing golf with either Jack Liebowitz or Irwin Donenfeld of rival company DC Comics , then known as National Periodical Publications, and that the top executive bragged about DC's success with the new superhero team the Justice League of America . While film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan has debunked the particulars of that story, Goodman, a publishing trend-follower, aware of

19738-486: Was positive about Parker's "eternal optimism" and his relationship with Hope, and he said Hope's final act of going giant size for the first time in the MCU was "beautifully played", but he found the episode to otherwise be rushed with even more pacing issues than what he had highlighted for previous episodes. Like Jorgensen, Warmann also compared this episode to the previous one's tragic tone, criticizing "What If... Zombies?!" for trying to move between dark and comedic tones in

19880-484: Was released on Disney+ on September 8, 2021. In the episode's alternate storyline, Janet van Dyne returns from the Quantum Realm with a quantum virus that spreads throughout the worlds population creating a zombie apocalypse . The episode is a dark comedy horror adaptation of the Marvel Zombies comic series, with a number of direct references to the comics in the episode, more so than any other What If...? episode. Bradley had previously attempted to write

20022-516: Was released online by Marvel following the episode's premiere. A soundtrack for the episode was released digitally by Marvel Music and Hollywood Records on September 10, 2021, featuring composer Laura Karpman 's score. On August 7, 2021, Marvel announced a series of posters created by various artists to correspond with the episodes of the series, including a poster featuring zombified versions of Iron Man and Captain America in an apocalyptic New York City designed by Chris Christodoulou, as part of

20164-475: Was written by Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and initially illustrated by Steve McNiven in his first Marvel work. There have also been numerous limited series featuring the group. In 1996, Marvel launched the series Fantastic Four 2099 , part of the company's Marvel 2099 imprint which explored an alternate future of the Marvel Universe. The four protagonists inexplicably find themselves in 2099, with

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