Marvel officially cancels Fantastic Four

Screen Crush has revealed the series that first began the Marvel cornerstones of the Silver Age is being cancelled before any new movie comes out. So what was originally thought impossible turns out to be factual, with the last issue marked 645. There will be no inclusion in the 75th Marvel anniversary project's art, and not only that:

...new reports that Diamond Toys has been forbidden from licensing any Fantastic Four merchandise (“Right now we are not able to make characters from the FF, but as soon as that changes we will consider them.”) and that Mondo, the Austin-based boutique poster firm, has also seen any and all FF-themed art kiboshed by Marvel (“Marvel straight up rejected it. No reason. They just said no to anything Fantastic Four in general.”)

Well if they want to shoot themselves in the foot, I guess it's their loss. Their scriptwriting's become so bad this past decade, most Marvel fans won't see it as such a bad thing, because there's nothing to miss. It'll certainly keep James Robinson from messing with them for a while.

We have to wonder if this is an omen of things to come: FF was the first superhero comic of Marvel's Silver Age. Now it may be the first one to come to an end - and a very sad one at that - as superhero comics writing becomes less in quality and more in cover price. It might hint at the eventual closure of Marvel's publishing arm, no thanks to some of the worst writers and editors ever to pollute the products they were managing.