Western Animation: Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes
The Fantastic Four won't rest until they find whoever tagged The Thing (Pssst: It was Johnny!)
A 2006 animated adaptation of Marvel's First Family: The Fantastic Four, meant to market the team to a new audience who were coming off the 2005 movie and heading into its 2007 sequel (which probably ended up working against the show during its initial broadcast). Produced by French Animation Company "Moonscoop". The name "World's Greatest Heroes" refers to the comics' original tagline, "Worlds Greatest Comic Magazine".The series as a whole was Lighter and Softer, focusing much more on the Fantastic Four as a sitcom family who happened to go on adventures rather than a team of superheroes who were also a family.It was story edited by Christopher Yost.
Tropes that come in play with this series in particular:
Barrier Warrior: Susan in this continuity is a frequent practitioner, even using the edge of her force-fields to cut on occasion.
Big Sister Instinct: In "Trial By Fire" Johnny gets captured by the Kree and a very angry Susan demands that Reed find him. She refuses to listen to his reason and Technobabble. She just wants to find her brother and kick the ass of whoever's responsible.
Bluff The Impostor: To a ludicrous extreme when Skrulls impersonate everyone in the Baxter Building; Reed asks questions like "How was it we first met? Five hundred years ago...it was on the moon, wasn't it?"
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: Ronan the Accuser is disgraced and exiled thanks to Johnny in the first episode, 14 later when the Super Skull appears it turns out he allied with this Kree to become a Super Skull, Johnny's reaction even while he and the Kree fight, "You'd be surprised how many blue guys we fight." He NEVER recognizes him.
A subtle one is the girl Johnny accidentally traps in the Negative Zone who is named Frankie. Frankie Raye in the comics is also known as Nova, one of Galactus' heralds and a Flying Firepower in her own right.
Chest Insignia: Ben is the only one who doesn't have one. So Johnny painted one on his chest.
Cool Car: Johnny has many flame-decaled cars, plus the Fantasticar.
Cool Old Lady: Mrs. Monet, a tenant in the Baxter Building who gets a kick of rocketing through space and takes on alien bugs with bug spray in an awesome manner.
Cuteness Proximity: In "World's Tiniest Heroes" Sue's wrath is completely diffused by the timely appearance of a dog.
Susan: PUPPY!
Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Certain supervillians, including Doom, Trapper and the Wizard could be making a lot of money with the technology they created, which includes antigravity, various glues and energy blasts.
Foreshadowing: While the show never got another season, the Impossible Man's hope about what would happen to Earth is an obvious allusion to a big part of the Fantastic Four's Rogues Gallery, what does he say?
Impossible Man: I hope your planet gets eaten!
Gainaxing: In "Worlds Tiniest Heroes", when one of the monsters jump at Susan, if you look close enough, you can see a bit of a bounce.
I Am a Monster: Thing as usual considers himself this. In "Hard Knocks," Bruce Banner says otherwise - calling the Hulk "a force of nature," but the Thing a hero to be looked up to.
Instant A.I., Just Add Water: Bruiser in "Doom's Word Is Law." Reed insists that HERBIE isn't sentient, but it's hard to believe when HERBIE is doing things like going on strike because he feels insulted..
Killed Off for Real: Dr. Doom, apparently. The last time we see him he get's suicide-bombed by one of his former Doombots ("Bruiser") and vanishes in a great explosion.
Laser-Guided Amnesia: In one episode Reed finds a way to turn Ben back to normal, but at the cost of erasing his memories of everything that happened since he became the Thing.
Memorably subverted in one episode. Doom tells them not to obey any orders given to them by anyone, not even him. When Reed is Freaky Friday Flipped into Doom's body, he tells them to self-terminate. Aside from a minor protest, the ultimately comply because "Doom's word is law".
Mythology Gag: The show's title, and a few other references.
"Strings" has a beautiful one, with a brief gag involving several Skrulls masquerading as cows, homaging the Skrulls' very first appearance where Reed hypnotized them into believing they were cows.
A lot of the episode plots are lifted wholesale from the very early Lee-Kirby run.
Ship Tease: One of the few FF adaptations where Reed and Sue aren't a couple... quite yet. (In the Grand Theft Me episode, one of the things that tips Sue off is that "Reed" is flirting with her.)
Likewise Ben and Alicia haven't quite made the Relationship Upgrade, but she is his closest confidant.
Shout Out: Johnny calls Reed "Dr. Evil" when he and Ben think Reed intentionally caused their transformations.
When Johnny is brought to trial before the blue-skinned Kree:
Johnny:The Smurfs got big... (when he meets Ronan The Accuser) You must be Angry Smurf!.
Unmoving Plaid: The Thing's rocky skin is created with this technique.
Wasn't That Fun?: In one episode, Dr. Doom sends the Baxter Building into space. Reed has to fly it like a spaceship, using Doombots as thrusters, before crashing it into the Latverian Embasssy. Most of the building's residents are terrified by all this, but one dotty old lady wants to do it again.
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