Wow! Is 2003 turning into a banner year for the FF or What? They start the year off with Unstable Molecules (and I've yet to see a better mini so far this year). Now Waid brings us Unthinkable. I can't remember when Doom was this bad. What a bad bad man! I guess 2099 is a dream now.

Human Torch is on fire too! And I usually hate anime style.

I can't wait for Richard's to pull this one off.

Forget the letter X, it's all about the number 4!

Yah FF been great this year. I so getting Unthinkable when it comes out in TP format! I assume they will do a trade paperback..
Writing on comic (we'll some anyway) have gotten alot better.

Totally agree Briel, looks like yer as big a FF fan as I am, yeah i dunno how Reed's gonna deal with this one, but both Reed and Sue tend to get a little more violent when anything goes wrong with Franklin or Val, just from marvel.com though apparently somethin "tragic" happens in the conclusion of Unthinkable, or FF #500!!! They finally made it, and I'm pretty proud of em since the FF kinda slipped into the background of marvel comics for a while.....

I took a sneak-peek at issue #500... it looks to be good. Nice to see them put Doom back on top again, though in many ways like Big Boy he never left. Just sucks that they're giving Waid the boot on FF, and when he goes Weringo goes. And when Weringo goes, I go.

I know we're only half way through the year, but this looks to be the best story from Marvel for 2003. Heck, if it wasn't for Ruse, this just might be the book of the year from any company! I'm not kidding. It's that good.

What's the deal with Mark Waid? I've heard that he's leaving the book now (after 500) and I've heard that he's leaving after 508?

Any clues?

I heard, Jemas wanted to take over, but someone convinced him to stop being stupid. I'm hoping it ia al jst viscious rumors going around. I would hate for Waid to ge burned three times. But then again, they thought nothing of tossing John Byrne out the door either.
I think it's funny how they are putting out all this sugar for Gaiman and K. Smith who turn out like four issues a year, and alienate guys who turn out two to three books a month every month. That seems like bad economic math in the long run.

At Pulse news they had a brief interview with Waid. Jemas fired him after issue 508. Gotta agree with you about sugaring up Smith and Gaiman. That's kinda wrong to shaft the bread n butter guys like that. Though I remember seeing in that interview that Wieringo said he was gone if Waid was off it. Weringo's artwork was the only reason I picked up FF again, only to discover that the book was well worth reading. The rumor I heard was that Jemas wanted to make FF into a dramedy type book.... that guy is totally 50/50 with what comes out of him.

FF has been a strong book for years now with Claremont and Waid. Even the Loeb/Pacheco run while suffering from poor execution pulled through, because you could feel the love for the project. The FF went through many wilderness years between Byrne's run and the beginning of new greatness with #4 of the current run. I hope Marvel's first family will not suffer from neglect again. I once quit the X-Books in protest of The Punisher getting the shaft for reasons that had nothing to do with sales (basically you couldn't make a Saturday cartoon with tie-ins based on Frank). I hope I won't have to do that again.

Sweet Aunt Petunia! It's gonna be clobberin' time!

"Unthinkable" concluded with the first surprise ending to actually surprise me in like five years. I won't give it away. You have to read this book!

If the rumours about Waid leaving are true, Jemas must be insane. This was the best FF story since Byrne's Hate Monger storyline. That was 18 years ago. The only thing that could justify a change would be if Morrison jumped ship from X-Men to do FF with the same care he gave to Doom Patrol and "1234".

I picked up Unthinkable conclusion. Wow! That's a great story! The ending is indeed surprising. Nice to see Reed using his brain...

Wow. Maybe I shouldn't have stopped after the first two. I found the first issue after the prolouge unreadable and uninteresting. I had only picked them up to kind of get an idea of what the FF were about, since I havne't read them in 30 years, and have enjoyed using them while clixing.

Yeah that story arc rocked my sox. I haven't liked a FF arc since those couple of issues where Spiderman, Ghost Rider, Hulk, and Wolverine filled in for them Grant it, not the best story, but it had the best illustrator: Art Adams. I wish they give Dr. Strange his own series. Hopefully he'll get some attention after this one.

Yeah that story arc rocked my sox. I haven't liked a FF arc since those couple of issues where Spiderman, Ghost Rider, Hulk, and Wolverine filled in for them Grant it, not the best story, but it had the best illustrator: Art Adams. I wish they give Dr. Strange his own series. Hopefully he'll get some attention after this one.

Am I really the only person who thinks the new FF stuff is lame, contrived, antithetical, and not at all worthy of Earth's Greatest Heroes?

I mean - really.

Dude made me feel reeeeeally old, reminding me that the Hate Monger arc is actually 18 years old; so maybe I'm just a codgery ol' coot that ain't "with it" but in my day, the FF wasn't about fait accompli, deus ex machia, tremble-before-our-collective-weakness, yet-aNOTHER "all-powerful" villain (really, now! couldn't we have a nice Manslaughter back? or even just anyone without Cosmic Perception): it was about Intrepid Do-Gooding and Honoring the Noble!

The point at which my annoyance turned to disgust was Doom controlling Mindless Ones. Maybe just an illusion, whatever, but YO: doesn't "Mindless" mean "lacking a mind", i.e. cannot "obey" or even comprehend orders, cannot be controlled, will not reason, are not thinking. Also! dangit - they's supposed to be unstoppable. If flippin' Dormammu couldn't do it, I don't care if an ARMY of Doombots and clones comes knockin'. That bit irked me more than somewhat.

Grumble, grumble grumble.