Let it be known that I am a HUGE Fantastic Four fan. They are my favorite super hero team, yes, even over the X-Men. The group has always had great chemistry with each other, even in the early years when it seemed they could barely get along. For those who don't know, The Fantastic Four (or FF for short) are a group of heroes who received their powers when traveling to space to study cosmic rays. The team consists of;
- Reed Richards, leader of the team and resident big brain, given the name Mr.Fantastic, who has the ability to stretch and bend his body into any shape desired.
-Susan Storm (Richards), given the name Invisible Woman, who has the ability to make herself invisible and produce force fields and powerful fields of invisible psionic energy which she uses for a variety of offensive and defensive effects, making her the most powerful member of the team (thank you, wikipedia).
-Ben Grimm, given the name The Thing, known for his big rocky, inhuman appearance. Has super strength and durability. Loves to fight and saying the phrase "It's clobberin' time!". My avatar on twitter.
-Johnny Storm, given the name The Human Torch, has the ability to engulf his entire body in flames and is able to fly, absorb
fire harmlessly into his own body, and can control any nearby fire by
sheer force of will. (thanks again, Wikipedia).
Created in 1961 by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, the FF became icons of the comic industry with their adventures into unknown parts of the world and beyond, all while getting to know these four characters as they grew closer into a family (though Susan and Johnny are brother and sister and Susan would go on to marry Reed). Everyone loved these four characters and so it came as shock when in 1984, the group, except for Susan were transported to Battleworld, along with other Marvel heroes for the Secret Wars (I'm not going into it, just look it up). When the team returned, they had somehow changed.
Gone was the Thing, who decided to stay on Battleworld after discovering he could control his transformations from Thing to Ben Grimm on the planet. Now there was Jennifer Walters, the She-Hulk. Cousin to the Incredible Hulk, she has strength, durability and stamina close to his and great lawyer skills. I don't know what the audiences initial thoughts were when this happened in 1984 but when I first saw it, in 1990, long after she left the FF, I hated it. I thought there was no way the Thing could be replaced by a girl, let alone a female version of the Hulk. But I was 8, in that '"girls sucks" era in my life and also in the stage where I mostly looked at comic books, not read them. When I began actually reading comics, years later, I actually picked up a few issues of the FF when "Shulkie" (her team nick name) was in the group and surprisingly, I didn't hate them. I think a couple things helped; one being the art and stories of John Byrne, who quickly became my favorite comic book artist. The other thing being that the more I read back issues featuring She Hulk, the more the team felt balanced. With the original line up, the team was great but Susan Storm was mostly know as "the girl" in the group. With Shulkie, the group was now equal and more fun, especially since the strength of the team was a woman. From 1984-1987 (I think), She Hulk battled along side the FF until she decided to rejoin The Marvel team the Avengers, while the Thing rejoined the FF.
Today, I have most of the FF issues with She-Hulk, including some very important issues and not only did her time make me more of a Fantastic Four fan but it made the "Shulkie" one of my favorite super heroes, period.
