Fantastic Four is a Marvel Comics Comic Book Run launched in 2014 during the Marvel NOW! initiative. The series is written by James Robinson, with pencilling by Leonard Kirk, inking by Karl Kesel, and colors by Jesus Aburtov.
The series details a plot to take down the Fantastic Four.
The Original Sin Crisis Crossover takes place during the series.
The first issue was published February 26, 2014. The series ran for 14 issues, with the final issue publishing December 17, 2014.
Fantastic Four (2014) provides examples of:
- But for Me, It Was Tuesday: During the series, the mysterious villain known as The Quiet Man has been doing everything in his power to ruin the Richards family. When Reed finds out who he is, he's confused, as the villain is some random guy he barely remembers. Turns out his whole motivation was that Reed ended up winning over Sue Storm the day the guy decided to get the balls to finally talk to her, something Reed couldn't possibly know.
- Cool Helmet: The new Bulldozer has one that shows her face, unlike her father's, although it still partially obscures her vision.
- Costume Evolution: The Fantastic Four have switched the colors of their uniforms from blue to red.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Basically defied; according to the Quiet Man, he owns everything from corner shops to Fortune 500 companies, and he still blames Reed for the fact that he’s miserable.
- Dark Secret: During Original Sin, it's revealed that Johnny Storm broke a device that could have cured Ben Grimm of his Thing form. Why couldn't it be rebuilt? Johnny had randomly wandered into the machine, throwing everything off. It could only be used once because the radiation in Ben was changing.
- De-power: Johnny loses his powers during "The Fall of the Fantastic Four''.
- Didn't See That Coming: The Quiet Man pulls off a massive plot to turn the public against the FF, have the Thing in jail, the Human Torch depowered and Reed and Sue split up, all aided by the Psycho Man. His plan is to open portals to other worlds to flood Earth with demons, aliens, and alternate heroes and then be seen as the big hero himself by shutting the portals down. When Reed tells him to go ahead and shut the portals down, the Quiet Man tries...and can't. He's totally stunned as Reed openly points out how stupid an idea it is to allow THE PSYCHO MAN to have ultimate power over two worlds. ("Seriously, the name alone...")
- Didn't Think This Through: The main reason the Quiet Man’s plan fails in the end; as Reed observes, trusting a villain who proudly proclaims himself to be ‘the Psycho Man’ to keep his word and abandon power over two Earths was a very stupid move.
- Disproportionate Retribution:: The Quiet Man's reasons for attacking the FF make Doom look justified and rational. He frames the Thing for murder, causes Johnny to lose his powers, has the city of New York kick the FF out of the Baxter Building, their children taken away and ultimately intends to frame Reed for launching a massive attack from another dimension. Why? Because back in college, the Quiet Man had a massive crush on Sue but never got the guts to tell her before Reed asked her out and thus is seeking revenge for Reed "stealing" a girl who had no idea this guy existed. Even Reed himself points out how incredibly stupid it is to launch an entire crusade over that.
- Everyone Calls Him "Barkeep": The villain introduces himself as ‘the Quiet Man’ and explains that he has developed so many other aliases over the years that he doesn’t even remember his original name.
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Part of the reason the Quiet Man failed was that he underestimated the better nature of some of the villains he’d recruited to assist him, such as the Wizard sparing his clone, Bentley, whom he acknowledges as a son.
- Evil Is Petty: The Quiet Man claims that he developed a cure for cancer and decided to destroy it because there were too many people anyway and he saw no point in letting them be happy when he couldn’t be.
- Hidden Villain: The Quiet Man only reveals himself half-way through Robinson’s run.
- Legacy Character: The new Bulldozer recieved her father's powers and training when she became the new Bulldozer.
- Man Behind the Man: The Quiet Man has claimed to be this to some of the team’s other villains over the years, although it’s hard to be sure how seriously this claim should be taken.
- Master of Disguise: Uses holograms and other advanced technology to disguise himself, to the extent that he can’t remember what he originally looked like.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: The new Bulldozer might be a young girl, but she's capable of moving the Thing in a fight and survive the destruction of a building which fell on top of her.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Downplayed, but despite being high-functioning enough to make a fortune and become a Villain with Good Publicity, his motivations for targeting the Fantastic Four (and if his claims are true, orchestrating the rise of several other villains that have antagonised the Four over the years) shows that he’s still ultimately an entitled, resentful brat at heart.
- Revenge Before Reason: Even if the Quiet Man is exaggerating the scale of his influence on the FF’s history, he definitely goes to ridiculous lengths to destroy the team when they never deliberately did anything to hurt him in the first place.
- The Smurfette Principle: The new Bulldozer's the only female member of the Wrecking Crew.
- Unknown Rival: A scientist who calls himself the Quiet Man embarks on a massive plan to tear the FF apart, capturing Reed with the intent of framing him for an alien invasion of Earth. Why? Because the Quiet Man had been madly in love with Sue in college but never got the courage to ask her out before Reed did and had wanted payback ever since. Even Reed points out how incredibly stupid that is.
- Villain: Exit, Stage Left: In the end, the Quiet Man gets away in another disguise while Reed and Valeria are distracted cleaning up his mess, and he hasn’t been seen since.
- Villainous Crush: Everything the Quiet Man has done can be traced back to an inability to get over his crush on Sue, when Sue never had any idea he even existed.
- Would Hurt a Child: The Quiet Man’s plan required him to not only endanger Franklin and Valeria’s lives, but also use Franklin to basically recreate ‘Counter-Earth’ and attack the FF with its forces.
