History ComicBook / FantasticFour1961

* ''ComicBook/TheAmazingSpiderManLeeAndDitko'' (1963-66)

!Stories from this era with their own pages:

* TenMinuteRetirement: Johnny was the first to (briefly) get out of the team, tired of the Things's bursts of violence against him. He returns when Namor returned and attacked New York.
* ActuallyADoombot: Right there in his first appearance, even. When his first scheme with the FF goes a little cropper, the Thing tries walloping Doom, only to find it's a lifelike robot. The ''real'' Doom is elsewhere, watching them. (Curiously enough, for the next several appearances of Doom, this tropes was averted. Doom usually just legs it whenever his plans fail, rather than it turning out to be a Doombot.)
* AlasPoorVillain: The destruction of the Kree Sentry is done with surprising poignancy, as it stays at its post even as the place is exploding all around it, with no idea whether the Kree are even still out there.
* AliensStealCable: The Skrulls living on Kral heard of Earth via a 30s gangster who wound up there by accident. Since then, they've been watching gangster movies, and have become an entire ''planet'' of [[LoonyFan Loony Fans]], acting like your cliched Chicago mob at all times. Nyeah!
* AllYourPowersCombined: The Super Skrull has all the powers of the Fantastic Four, but ''stronger'' (well, except Sue Storm, since it's impossible to be ''more'' invisible).
* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: The Thing had never met anyone he couldn't defeat in hand-to-hand without a hand tied to his back, until he fought Hulk in FF #25.
* ANaziByAnyOtherName: The Hate-Monger and his minions. Possible bonus points for ''actually'' being led by ''the'' Nazi, Hitler himself.
* AndIMustScream: Doom uses the stolen Power Cosmic to slow Ben down to a crawl, and leaves him standing frozen in Central Park.
* AndNowYouMustMarryMe:
** Namor becomes a movie producer, lures the broke FF out to LA, then lures Reed, Johnny and Ben to isolated areas to kill them, and then tells Sue she must marry him. An outraged Sue refuses, telling him if he hadn't bothered with the whole "murder her friends" thing, she might've actually considered it.
** Rama-Tut tries to make Sue Storm his bride. Consent is not something he's bothered with, as Sue's zapped with a hypno-ray to make her compliant.
* AppropriatedAppellation: In the first story, Sue was the first person to call Ben a "Thing".
* AristocratsAreEvil: The whole reason for the origins of one Victor Von Doom. Once, Victor was an innocent Romani child, living in rural Latveria, when a local baron demanded his father use his medical talents to heal the man's dying wife. Father Doom tried explaining there was nothing that could be done, but the baron refused to believe him. Knowing the baron would lash out when she died, Doom tried fleeing his wrath with his son, ending up in a snowstorm, where he died of exposure. And so, Victor Von Doom swore vengeance upon the world (and presumably, the baron as well).
* ArtEvolution: It takes a few issues for Ben's look to develop into his usual "monobrow" appearance.
* ArtisticLicenseBiology: No, the many weird fish that Namor has at his beck and call are not real. Giganto, a whale that can simply stand up and rampage across the city, Godzilla-style? The wondrous Mento-Fish, which can sense human thougths and transmit them to any point on Earth thru mental electro waves? The hypno-fish, a fish with a single eye that can hypnotize people in seconds, and also create a bubble to transport them underwater? A giant clam that can eat a whole ship? The ravenous, unthinking flame-eater? All that is completely made up by Jack Kirby... as you would realize if you just thought about it for a second.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: The inhabitants of Ancient Egypt sure do look pretty damn ''white''.
* AsYouKnow:
** When an episode continued the action of a previous one, the characters make a full recap of it.
** In issue #2, the first Skrulls we meet get together to recount how they've framed the FF, then remind one another about how they're Skrulls, gifted with shapeshifting abilities, sent to Earth to prepare the way for the invasion.
** The Inhumans are a serial offender for this one. For several issues, they're stuck inside their city, and the story will often cut away to them standing around reminding one another how they're ''still'' stuck there.
* AuthorAvatar: Stan Lee and Jack Kirby frequently inserted themselves into the stories. One of the most famous cases is the wedding of Reed and Sue, where Nick Fury acts as the {{Bouncer}} and removes them from the party.
* AvengersAssemble: Takes place in the very first issue. Reed calls together the team to repel the Mole Man, but as it's very early in their superhero careers, they don't have much in the way of quick transportation. Sue (whose powers are still developing) has to take a taxi, Ben has to stomp through the sewer, and Johnny's attempt to fly to the rendezvous point results in him being mistaken for a hostile enemy aircraft, causing him to be fired upon by the American military.
* BadBoss: Doom. One plot has him empower a bunch of minor criminals to defeat the Fantastic Four. When he's done, he "rewards" them by banishing all three to another dimension. ''Forever.''
* BattleStrip: Ben Grimm, in the very first issue, had the habit of ripping off a trenchcoat, pair of pants, sunglasses, and a fedora every time he went into battle.
* TheBeastmaster: Namor employs weird fish and sea creatures to help him in his fights, as he can control them with his mind.
* BeatThemAtTheirOwnElement: During Super-Skrull's first appearance, he manages to produce flame hotter than the Human Torch can create, overwhelming him.
* BeenThereShapedHistory:
** Blackbeard is actually Ben.
** The FF time travel to ancient Egypt and meet Pharaoh Rama Tut, another time traveler who came from the future to rule with his futuristic weapons. He was forced to leave his ship behind when he escaped in a pod... a ship that looks like a stone Sphinx.
* BigBadDuumvirate: Namor is the villain of FF #4, and Dr. Doom of FF #5. What can we do for FF #6? Namor and Dr. Doom join forces, starting a long on-again, off-again not-quite-frenemies situation between the two! (Doom betrays Namor at the first chance, naturally.)
* BluffingTheAdvanceScout: In the Skrulls' first appearance, the FF bluff them into thinking that Earth is crawling with giant monsters by [[http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/10/10.jpg showing them pages from a comic book]], pretending they're real photographs.
* BluffTheImposter: When Doom swaps his mind with Reed, Reed is unable to conclusively prove this has happened (like, say, saying something Reed would know and Doom wouldn't). Johnny solves the problem by getting some dynamite and setting it off. Reed-in-Doom's-Body jumps on the dynamite, while Doom tries to run for it.
* BrainwashedAndCrazy: The Thing is brainwashed into killing Reed Richards by both the Frightful Four and the Mad Thinker.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: A memorable moment in Issue #10, from a series not known for breaking the fourth wall on a regular basis. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, struggling to write a plot for that issue, reflect on the mistake of sending Doctor Doom into space. Then, almost as if on cue, Doom barges into their office and threatens the pair to call Mr. Fantastic to "discuss a new plot". Then, at that moment, Johnny answers the phone, telling Reed that it is Lee and Kirby, wanting to discuss a new plot, to which Richards questions it, stating that they just discussed working on a plot the previous day.
* BrokeEpisode: Issue #9 had a bit of RippedFromTheHeadlines going on, as it was written shortly after the stock market crashed in 1962. Reed lost most of the team's money to bad investments, forcing them to participate in a humiliating and hilarious movie-making scheme put together by [[ComicBook/SubMariner Namor]].
* BroughtDownToBadass: The Fantastic Four are caught in an explosion arranged by the Frightful four. They survive, but lose their powers... and Doom invades the Baxter Building!
* CannotTellFictionFromReality: Reed convinces the leader of the Skrull invasion to leave Earth at once, because it's protected by powerful warriors... and the proof is some panels from "Strange Tales" and "Journey into Mystery".
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: The Inhumans would gladly dispose of Maximus after his attempted coup, but they also want to bring down that barrier he's trapped them in, and have no way of prying the secret out of his mind.
* CantTakeAnythingWithYou: The FF travel to ancient Egypt to retrieve some herbs that, somehow, can restore people's vision, in hopes of helping Alicia Masters with it. They get them, but lose them during the journey back, which Reed figures is something to do with Doom's time-machine being unable to transport anything radioactive.
* CharacterizationMarchesOn: Stan and Jack mostly hit the ground running with Doom, but his first few appearances do have some oddities in there, such as Doom using the occasional bit of casual language, and even cracking a joke, something unheard of from the poised and proud Doom readers are more familiar with.
* ConflictBall: One of the things that set the FF apart from some of their contemporaries was they bickered. Oh, how they bicker. Usually it's Johnny and Ben at each other's throats, but sometimes it's Ben and Reed, or Reed and Johnny, or Reed and anyone who's in the room.
* CrazyJealousGuy: One issue has Ben attack the Silver Surfer in a paranoid rage, think he's trying to make time with Alicia. Norinn isn't interested in her, but never thinks to ask what the Hell Ben's even on about.
* CrazyPrepared:
** Reed has all his gadgets rigged so if someone presses a special button down in the Baxter Building's lobby, they all stop working.
** One of Doom's schemes has him get swept out into space. On his reappearance, it turns out his armor is, naturally, space-proof and had just enough air for him to last long enough for Rama-Tut to rescue him.
* CreatingLife: In Issue #15, Reed had created a primitive, single-celled lifeform that lived for a few seconds. The Mad Thinker's Awesome Android is a {{Mechanical Lifeform|s}} created from Reed's notes.
* CreatingLifeIsBad: Jerome Hamilton of the Enclave comes to feel this way about the group's rogue creation, Him, and decides the best solution is kill Him before he's properly born. We did mention the Enclave are a team of [[MadScientist Mad Scientists]]?
* CrossThrough: One two-part storyline is a cross over between the Avengers and the Hulk, as the not-so-jolly green giant heads to New York to smash the Avengers a new one, and the Fantastic Four get in his way.
* CutLexLuthorACheck: The logic of this trope is what drove Reed to figure out that [[spoiler:the Miracle Man]] was not what he claimed to be. If he was he wouldn't need to steal any money, he could simply create it from nothing.
* DeusExNukina: When Namor first reappears, he attacks New York with a gigantic, whale-like creature. The Thing carries a nuke into the creature's stomach in an attempt to kill it. He escapes [[JustInTime with seconds to spare]].
* DidntSeeThatComing:
** A recurring problem for the Mad Thinker. He plans everything out in ludicrously over-precise detail, but is always foiled by something he didn't plan for (like, for example, Reed Richards managing to overpower his duplicate).
** Reed gets sucked into the Negative Zone at one point. As he's drifting to his apparent death, he sees a spaceship pass by, and is surprised to realize the Zone has inhabitants besides Annihilus, or he could've tried contacting them for help.
* DidntWantAnAdventure: Sue often complains how she didn't ''want'' to have superpowers or go on bizarre adventures, but would be much, ''much'' happier spending her days doing normal girl stuff.
* DirtyCommunists: This comic was written during the Cold War, so many villains were communists, such as the Red Ghost.
* DiplomaticImpunity: As ruler of Latveria, Doom is free to walk away from attacking the FF in his third go-around, because apparently drugging people isn't ''actually'' a crime, and he's got diplomatic immunity.
* DisproportionateRetribution: Why is the Hulk so hell-bent on smashing the Avengers? Rick Jones became Captain America's sidekick, so he's ''obviously'' betrayed the Hulk. Somehow. Note that this isn't the DumbMuscle Hulk, this is the early, intelligent and eloquent Hulk, who is clearly a raging paranoiac.
* DamselInDistress: Happens to Sue a ''lot''. A lot a lot. This was the 60s, so there wasn't much chance of her being an ActionGirl for a while. But even the readers got pretty annoyed about it soon enough, even writing in to complain.
* DoAndroidsDream: The Kree Sentry may look like a robot, but it demonstrates a full range of emotional capacity, and gets very annoyed whenever anyone calls it a robot.
* DontYouDarePityMe: While Ben is not remotely above moping about being stuck in his rock-like form, he tends to lash out physically whenever any of the others try offering him sympathy.
* DoppelgangerDating: In the first issues, Thing likes Sue, but she's the designated love interest of Reed, causing his usual explosions of anger. Then Alicia Masters enters the scene... a girl so similar to Sue that the similarity is used as a plot point in her first issue.
* DramaticIrony: In issue #12, the Fantastic Four take a trip to New Mexico to help hunt the Hulk. While there, they run into Doctor Bruce Banner, who is very terse and disinterested with this. The FF don't know that Doctor Banner ''is'' the Hulk yet.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** Ben gets called "Thing" almost all the time. Before too long, the other three members called him "Ben" and "The Thing" was more or less just his call-sign.
** For the first two issues, the team just wears street clothes. And yet, Reed is able to make the clothes stretch with his body, and Johnny does not incinerate his clothes whenever he uses his powers. Even after they get uniforms in the third issue (designed and sewn by Sue, of course, as it was the sixties and only women did stuff like that), it's mainly to promote team spirit than to accommodate their powers. During this time, they also operated out of Central City instead of New York City--which is still canon as Reed's hometown.
** For the first twenty (or so) issues, the Invisible Girl can't, or at least doesn't, make force-fields. Her only displayed power was invisibility, which in the earliest comics she primarily used to...hide. Just hide, so the bad guys wouldn't get her. It was only starting with the third issue that she started using her power for espionage as well, and even then she tended to be given away by things like dogs barking at her, and was generally the DamselInDistress for the other three.
** Nobody shall ever mention Doom's helicopter with the face of a shark, from FF #5!
** Reed and Ben are WWII veterans. It made sense back then, since the war was not that far off. Nowadays nobody mentions that. Unlike Captain America or Red Skull, it's not something that defines them as characters.
** The Molecule Man uses a wand to channel his powers, and had a weakness against organic material.
** Nick Fury's earliest appearance, aside from him being CIA and not SHIELD, also has him with two perfectly healthy eyes.
** The notion of Doom ruling Latveria is established early on, but for whatever reason it's kept a secret until the Fantastic Four discover the mysterious master of Latveria is their sworn nemesis.
** Speaking of which, the fact Doom even ''is'' Latverian doesn't come up until the second annual.
** It may be weird for modern readers of ''Future Foundation'' to see Dragon Man as a brainless brute.
** A lot with Wakanda. For one thing, they're not quite as futuristically advanced as they will be later. Also, the people are called "the Wakanda", rather than Wakandans. Also, T'Challa's outfit in its first appearance has visible irises. He's also called their chieftain, rather than their king. And the super-advanced jungles of Wakanda? T'Challa made that all by himself.
** In Ronan's first appearance, he's pink. Later appearances of the Kree establish some Kree are Caucasian-looking, but Ronan ain't one of them. He also calls himself the "Public Accuser", rather than just "The Accuser".
* TheEndingChangesEverything: Issue #3 is against the Miracle Man, a villain that can do basically anything, ''anything'' he wants. He has all superpowers he can imagine at his beck and call. [[spoiler:Actually, he simply hypnotized everybody into thinking he did all that.]]
* EnemyMine: Although Namor has been the villain most of the times he appears, Attuma would have been worse. The FF attacked his forces laying siege to Atlantis, making sure that Namor didn't notice it.
* EntitledToHaveYou: Namor's attitude towards Sue is roughly "I want you, ergo you're mine."
* EvenEvilHasStandards: Sandman by his own admission is a crook and villain, but he draws the line at hurting the infant Franklin to get at the Fantastic Four. Seems the Wizard agrees with him, since he even stresses during their plan that they shan't harm the baby.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Namor may rage about how much he hates humans, but when brainwashed by the Puppet Master he fights against it to stop himself killing the four. Of course, afterwards he has no memory of this.
* EvilIsPetty: A theme.
** You DARE suggest DOOM is petty? Foolish troper, Doom merely desires vengeance on that accursed Richards for the crime of disfiguring his face! WHAT? You claim Richards had nothing to do with it?! INSOLENCE!
** The Super-Skrull's first act on being freed from a volcano? Abduct Sue and Johnny's dad, replace him, pretend to be a supervillain and go on a rampage, making the Fantastic Four look bad. Because Kl'rt's just kind of a dick that way.
* ExactWords:
** In issue #5, Mr. Fantastic, Thing, and Torch are sent back in time to retrieve Blackbeard's treasure or Doctor Doom will kill Sue. Mr. Fantastic decides to dupe him, saying technically they promised to bring back the treasure ''chest'', so even if it's a chest filled with chains they've fulfilled their word.
** A Wakandan envoy tells the FF they've been invited to a ''special'' hunt. They see nothing remotely suspicious about that phrasing, but it turns out they ''are'' the hunt.
* ExpertInUnderwaterBasketWeaving: Willie Lumpkin the mailman jokingly suggests that he should join the Fantastic Four because of his special ability to wiggle his ears.
* TheFaceless
** Stan Lee and Jack Kirby frequently appear, but most times we don't see their faces.
** The Yancy Street gang always sends mail or shouts and throw things from afar, we rarely see any of them up close and personal.
** Doom's face is hidden behind his mask.
* FakeoutEscape: In issue #2, Sue turns invisible when government officials come to check on her, then runs out the doorway during their confusion. (This act is repeated in the ''ComicBook/{{Ultimate|FantasticFour}}'' version as well as the movie ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer''.)
* Fiction500: T'Challa is so rich he can actually buy an entire island, just like that.
* FingerInABarrel: When the Fantastic Four first encounter Prince Namor, the Submariner is preparing an invasion of New York to combat "the human filth." At one point, some Atlantian soldiers are preparing a large gun for firing when Ben Grimm stuffs his whole arm down the barrel, causing the weapon to explode. Ben then brings four dazed and unconscious Atlantians to Reed's laboratory, saying, "Hey, Reed: I found ya four volunteers."
* FreakyFridayFlip: Dr. Doom used a power he learned from aliens to exchange his mind with Reed Richards.
* FrontlineGeneral: T'Chaka always faced any danger to Wakanda head on, and T'Challa is the same.
* FrothyMugsOfWater: One of Doom's early plans has him drug the FF with laced "berry juice". The Comics Code Authority forbade any depiction of alcoholic consumption at the time.
* GenreSavvy: Having apparently read every ''Tarzan'' story, Ben interrupts T'Challa telling the Fantastic Four his origin story to say he knows how it'll go. Fortunately, T'Challa's just bemused and carries on with the story anyhow.
* GivingSomeoneThePointerFinger: A usual scene of Jack Kirby is to show someone pointing his finger to the others as he talk, from the speaker's back point of view
* GoMadFromTheIsolation: In the first annual, Namor is abandoned by his fellow Atlanteans. When he reappears, the time alone without anyone to talk to is making him go a little nutty.
* GooGooGodlike: The entity known as Him, who gives off terrifying amounts of power before even being born.
* GrandTheftMe: Doctor Doom forcefully switches bodies with Reed Richards in issue #10.
* GreaterScopeVillain: Ronan is TheHeavy of his first appearance, answering to the Supreme Intelligence, who can't do anything because it's just a head.
* HatePlague: The Hate-Master, as one might expect, causes one with his Hate-Ray.
* HesBack: Timely Comics published superhero comics during the Golden Age. Years later they canceled all those titles and moved to other genres, until they returned to the superheroes with the FF (and now under the name of Marvel Comics). Namor was the first superhero from Timely to return, in FF #4.
* HeelFaceTurn: Medusa is introduced as an evil member of the Frightful Four. Later on, we found out that she had amnesia, and that she was actually the Queen of the Inhumans.
* HiddenElfVillage
** The Inhumans, a whole city of people with superhuman powers, hidden in the Himalayas.
** Namor is the king of Atlantis, an underwater kingdom. Only Namor can breath at both air and sea, the Atlanteans only breath underwater.
** Wakanda is a highly advanced nation in Africa, hidden behind an artificial jungle.
* HistoricalInJoke: What was Blackbeard's true identity? Find out in ''Fantastic Four'' #5! [[spoiler:It's Ben Grimm/The Thing]].
* HoistByTheirOwnPetard:
** In issue #10, Doctor Doom develops a ShrinkRay device with the intent of using it on the Fantastic Four, but he ends up getting shrunk down to nothingness by it.
** After Doctor Doom steals the Surfer's powers and goes on an unprecedented four issue rampage, Reed is able to defeat him by figuring that stealing the Surfer's power also means the drawbacks that come with it, such as Galactus's conditions. He tricks Doom into flying into the atmosphere, at which point there's an almight kaboom.
** In issue #100, the Puppet Master and the Mad Thinker build a robot Hulk to destroy the FF. Unfortunately, for whatever reason they decide to give it the Hulk's personality as well. So it immediately refuses to do what they say, and starts smashing everything in sight, defeating the two before the FF get anywhere near them.
* HopeSpot: During the early days of the series' run, Ben would periodically revert back to his old human self for a few minutes before turning back into The Thing again. Not only did this give Ben hope that the power of the cosmic rays were weakening on him, but it gave the rest of the four hope it might do the same for their powers.
* HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: The Ovoids, a highly advanced and pacifistic race, save Doctor Doom and allow him to wander around their spaceship. He steals their advanced mind-swapping technique before they return him to Earth.
* HumansAreBastards: The Silver Surfer spends his time ranting about how humans are just ''the worst''. In fairness, being tricked and mugged of his powers by Doctor Doom, then held captive by his space-racist flunkies would make anyone bitter.
* HypnoRay: Rama-Tut uses one on the team. It eventually wears off on Ben, who had been turned into an ordinary human, when his mutation reasserts itself, and from there Rama's plan falls apart.
* HypocriticalHeartwarming:
** Johnny and Ben may often fight one another (and quite possibly with the intent of ''actually'' killing one another sometimes), but if someone else hurts them, they respond in kind.
** The Yancy Street Gang endlessly prank Ben, but intervene in the fight with the Hulk because Ben's their guy, no-one else's.
* IdentityAmnesia: Namor was found in a slum by the Human Torch, having forgotten his identity.
* IHaveYourWife: Magneto manages to force Namor into going along with his plan to take over New York by holding Lady Dorma hostage, and tries to get the FF to back off by holding the Invisible Woman as well.
* IKnowKungFu: In one encounter with Doom, he tries grabbing Sue, only for her to reveal Reed has taught her some judo.
* InsignificantLittleBluePlanet: The Kree had all but forgotten about the Kree Sentry they'd left on Earth, since it was an unremarkable planet way off their beaten tracks, so they're quite surprised when one day the Sentry sends a report and then gets destroyed by the locals.
* InvincibleVillain
** The Impossible Man is an alien who can counter all the powers of the FF, but he just wants to play pranks. [[spoiler:Reed instructs everyone to ignore him, and so he leaves when he felt bored]]
** The Enfant Terrible is an alien with great reality-warping powers, and they can't do anything to stop him. [[spoiler:Reed noticed that he acted childish (not as a ManChild but as an actual child), so he sent a warning to the space about this. The alien's parents soon show up to retrieve him.]]
** And of course, Galactus. He can't be defeated just by fighting, all the times he showed up he had to be tricked in some way to leave the planet and go away.
* ItAmusedMe: Why did T'Challa turn so much of Wakanda into a technological jungle? For a lark.
* JerkassBall: Could be passed around the team like a football, really, but Reed has a tendency to hug the damn thing for dear life, often being an outright ''dick'' to his supposed family.
* JustIgnoreIt: The first time the four fought the Impossible Man.
* {{Kaiju}}: The Fantastic Four fought a lot of these within the first issues of the series.
** Issue #1: Mole Man's massive army that he managed to train while on [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin Monster Isle]].
** Issue #2: A giant snake, a massive, spike-covered golem made of iron, and an enormous bird, all of which were actually Skrulls in disguise.
** Issue #3: A papier-mâché statue of "The Monster From Mars", which was brought to life by Miracle Man.
*** Lampshaded during the Fantastic Four's cameo in Creator/JossWhedon's ''Comicbook/AstonishingXMen'' when they helped the X-Men battle one of Mole Man's monsters:
---->'''Thing''': ''We'' do big monsters! Big monsters in Manhattan, it's our signature piece!
** Issue #4: A massive whale-like creature with legs called [[MightyGlacier Giganto]], summoned and controlled by Submariner.
* KillerRobot: Our first introduction to the Kree is via their giant robot, the Sentry, left buried on Earth and accidentally woken up by two archaeologists. Later on, the Four face another Sentry sent to prevent the first moon landing.
* KneelBeforeZod: "Kneel before the Invincible Man!" Also known as Super-Skrull.
* KryptoniteIsEverywhere: Unfortunately for Johnny, most villains have fire-proof materials for their stuff.
* LargeHamAnnouncer: As written in the inimitable, hyperbolic style of Smilin' Stan Lee! No issue can begin without at least one overly dramatic narration by the most loquacious man in comics! Nuff' said!
* LaserGuidedAmnesia: One of Reed's many (many, many, ''many'') attempts to cure Ben turns him human, at the cost of erasing all his memories, leaving a semi-naked Ben wondering what the hell's going on. Reed restores him to his rocky state, in the hopes it'll restore Ben's memories.
* LeaveHimToMe: Happened in issue #27, as shown [[https://web.archive.org/web/20150528001046/http://www.superdickery.com/the-thing-loves-sloppy-seconds/ here]]. Mr. Fantastic tells The Thing to leave Namor to him.
* LeftHanging
** The first episode with the Skrulls ends with three Skrulls turned into cows and hypnotized to believe they are really cows. Yes, that's a decent closure for the episode, but sure as hell that won't be the last time we heard about those Skrulls. They returned during the Kree-Skrull War.
** The Human Torch finds Namor in a slum, with amnesia. He restores his memory, and he immediately becomes the angry ruler of the underwater kingdom we all love to hate. But how did he get there to begin with? That was explained years later, in Namor's own comic.
* LighterAndSofter: Adolf Hitler, of all people (the real identity of [[spoiler:the Hate Monger]]). He never even mentions Jews or any people, and only directs the people's hatred towards "the foreigners" and other unspecific terms like "those we hate". Of course, it had to be this way, the CCA would never authorize something more explicit.[[note]]One of their rules is "Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible". No exceptions for the villain.[[/note]]
* LightningCanDoAnything: During a fight with Namor, Ben's zapped by a stray lightning bolt which momentarily turns him back to his human self.
* LikeRealityUnlessNoted: As of issue #20, the Fantastic Four have met several alien races (the Skrulls, Planet X, the Watcher, the Impossible Man, the Ovoids), and that's not counting the aliens that appeared in other comics of Marvel. Still, when a meteorite contains traces of a life form inside, he's as interested as any real-life scientist would be to discover alien life.
* LoveMakesYouStupid: And also violent. When Crystal is literally dragged back to the Inhumans, Johnny goes roaring after her (nearly getting shot by twitchy Soviets on the way), planning to drag her right back. When he gets to Attilan, he attacks the Inhumans, then when Crystal tries telling him to calm down, Johnny comes to the conclusion she ''never'' loved him, and tries wrecking the whole city. Only Reed's timely intervention stops him from doing anything, and fortunately the Inhumans are pretty chill about the whole thing.
* ManipulativeBastard: The final story Stan and Jack worked on has Namor find an unconscious Magneto, fresh from his most recent tussle with the X-Men. Namor rescues him, and in gratitude... Magneto tries tricking Atlantis into war with the surface again.
* ManOfKryptonite: One issue saw Doom empower three criminals so they could take on specific members of the Fantastic Four. One got SuperHearing so that he could track down the Invisible Woman even if he couldn't see her, one was made completely fireproof so the Human Torch's flames would have no effect on him, and the last one got a cosmic beam gun that could temporarily depower the Thing (as well as SuperStrength so that he actually stood a chance fighting him).
* MasterOfIllusion: The Miracle Man can hypnotize anyone into thinking he can perform amazing feats of magic.
* MediumBlending: Some of the Creator/JackKirby-drawn issues featured photographed models of objects in place of drawings.
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: In the Red Ghost's first appearance, his Super-Apes turn on him, because he never fed them (so as to ensure they were properly vicious).
* MyCountryRightOrWrong: Ronan's first appearance has him explain he doesn't really care one way or another about Earth, but since the Supreme Intelligence told him to go to Earth and see what's what, that's what he's going to do.
* NeverMessWithGranny: In Agatha Harkness' first appearance, the Frightful Four try attacking the gang while they're at her incredibly creepy mansion. Agatha, a witch, drives them off on her own, with the Four none the wiser.
* NominalHero: Though they obviously got better, the four got off to an ''extremely'' rocky start. The first issue starts with Sue, Johnny and Ben causing mass destruction just by making their way across town in answer to Reed's distress signal, with Johnny actually getting in a dog fight with the ''air force'' along the way. Ben and Johnny also couldn't seem to go five minutes without trying to beat each other senseless in the early years, while Sue was famously prone to getting captured. As for Reed, he managed to lose all the team's money on the stock market, and of course the entire story kicked off with him pushing through with a space mission absolutely everyone advised him against and it ending in disaster. Suffice to say, they all had a lot of growing up to do.
* NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine: [[https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/no-mr-bond-I-expect-you-to-dine2_ff_888.jpg The page image]] is a scene from issue #87 in which Crystal and Sue are trying to escape Doom's castle, only to run right into the dictator's personal dining room. Despite the fact that he was trying to kill them before, he now treats them as honored guests. EvenEvilHasStandards, especially when it comes to getting three square meals, apparently.
* NoNameGiven: Molecule Man, in his introductory story, to help emphasize what a nobody he was before he gets his powers.
* TheNoseKnows: In issue #52, Sue tries turning invisible to avoid fighting Black Panther. However, his sense of smell is so strong he can just smell where she is anyhow.
* NoSell: A clue that the Fantastic Four may be the stars of the book, but they're in serious trouble during their fight with ol' Jade Jaws, when Johnny's fireballs do ''nothing'' to the Hulk, nor does Ben tricking him into receiving a several million volt zap from a stray power line.
* NotEvilJustMisunderstood: A one-off villain is an alien who's crashed on Earth, and is trying to fix his ship. Compounding his problems is he either can't speak, or just can't speak English, so he attacks humans on sight rather than explaining everything. Once Reed works out what's going on, the guy's allowed to go on his way.
* NothingIsScarier: None shall gaze into the face of Doom! Not even Doom himself is willing to risk it. In one issue, he actually removes his mask, and whatever he sees has him scream in horror. Of course, over the decades, writers would go back and forth as to whether the injuries really ''are'' that horrible, or if Doom is just being... well, ''Doom'' over a comparatively minor blemish.
* NotWearingTights: For the first two issues. The four only started wearing them because of fan demand.
* NowWhat: At the end of the Black Panther's first appearance, he wonders what to do with Klaw supposedly dead and his father avenged. The Fantastic Four point out there's a lot of good someone like him could do for the world.
* NukeEm: Reed Richards gets the backers of the Invincible Man to send him away by threatening to drop a nuke on them. They do so... but see SoreLoser.
* OnceDoneNeverForgotten: In an early issue, Ben nearly crushes Doom's hands. Naturally, Doom holds a serious grudge over that one.
* OriginsEpisode: Mixed with VillainEpisode, the second ''Fantastic Four'' annual is all about Doom's StartOfDarkness.
* OutOfCharacterAlert: The Thing destroys a tower, the Invisible Girl steals a gem, the Human Torch burns a marble statue, Reed causes a city-wide blackout... "Can we believe our startled eyes? Is it really possible that the Fantastic Four have really perpetrated those criminal acts? Or is there more to this than meets the eye??" It's the Skrulls, framing the Fantastic Four.
* ParentalAbandonment: Dr. Franklin Storm, Sue and Johnny's dad, went mad from grief when his wife, Mary, died in a car crash. He turned to drink and gambling, and accidentally killed a loan shark who came looking to collect. He refused to contest the judge's sentence of twenty years. Sue never told Johnny, who apparently never heard a thing about any of this, and just assumed his dad was dead.
* PerceptionFilter: Ronan uses his Universal Weapon to hide himself while he takes stock of New York.
* PoliticallyIncorrectHero: Reed Richards is astonishingly sexist a lot of the time.
* ThePsychoRangers: The Red Ghost and his super apes, who also passed through the cosmic rays and got super powers. Later the Frightful Four became a closer example, with The Wizard (an evil science guy), Sandman (with super strength and street smarts) and Medusa (an evil token female member) .
* RageAgainstTheAuthor: {{Author Avatar}}s of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby attended the wedding of Reed and Sue... and were expelled by ComicBook/NickFury.
* ReedRichardsIsUseless:
** The second issue prevents an alien invasion, and by the end of it we have three alien prisoners on Earth. The potential of that would be awesome: they can be interrogated to no end to [[ETGaveUsWiFi get technology ideas from them]] (that if they didn't keep any actual alien devices with them), and their alien biology would open whole new fields of science (no need to get to an AlienAutopsy, just some useless samples of hair and nails would be an incredible thing to analyze). But no: Reed simply hypnotized them to think they are cows, and good riddance.
** In issue #9 the FF are broke and badly in need of money as a result of the stock market crash of 1962. The team point out that they can surely monetize their powers somehow, but Reed rejects the idea: the only two ways would be joining a freak show, or crime. Never mind that previous issues had shown Johnny can and ''does'' use his power to help fix cars.
** Diablo appears to use his amazing grasp of alchemy to restore life to deserts... except he's basically an alchemical con-man, and nothing he does lasts.
* RougeAnglesOfSatin: Issue #19 keeps spelling the word Pharaoh as "Pharoah". This was pointed out in the "Fantastic Four: The Legend" special.
* ScienceMarchesOn: The Fantastic Four were, in-universe, the first humans to reach the Moon, alongside the Red Ghost. There, they met a strange alien, the Watcher. Some years later (and with Kirby still writing the comic) the first actual Moon landing took place. It was acknowledged as such, and no reference to the FF being the first ones was ever made.
* SealedEvilInACan:
** The Super-Skrull is stuck inside a volcano. His bosses use SUPER-SCIENCE to bust him out several months later (and not, say, just getting a bunch of Skrulls with pickaxes or something).
** Diablo was sealed up by the locals of the country he lived in. Unfortunately, Ben Grimm is hypnotized into letting him out.
* SecretIdentity: Averted. Contrary to the long-standing tradition of superhero comics up to that point, the Fantastic Four have public identities. Everybody knows their real names and where they live.
* ShooOutTheClowns: [[spoiler:Franklin Storm]] dies at the end of issue 32, and everybody is crying over his corpse. The narrator conceded that "the editors feel this is not the time or place for advertising our next issue".
* SitcomArchNemesis: The Yancy Street Gang are not villains, they're just jerks who love to make Ben's life miserable.
* SixthRanger: While the core line-up remains fixed, the FF are joined on some adventures by Johnny's friend Wyatt Wingfoot, and later on by Crystal of the Inhumans.
* SlaveryIsASpecialKindOfEvil: The Slaver, a Skrull who grabs aliens and forces them into death-matches. He decides ol' blue-eyed Ben Grimm would make a fine one, and abducts him.
* SoreLoser: The Skrulls, after Reed thwarts their second plan with the Super-Skrull, send Dr. Storm back to Earth... with a bomb strapped to his chest rigged to go off the minute he gets there.
* SoulFragment: In issue #51, "This Man, This Monster", a scientist uses a "duplication device" to physically model himself after Ben Grimm, but when he sacrifices himself to save Reed Richards, Reed speculates that he may have gotten some part of Ben Grimm other than his skin.
* TheSpook: In his first two appearances, Rama-Tut has a mysterious past, and the characters all wonder just who he could be, whether he's a descendant of Doctor Doom, or Doctor Doom himself. Even Doom gets in on the action, somehow wondering if Rama-Tut will one day go back in time, turn into a child and become Doom. ... we should probably point out Doom had just nearly asphyxiated when he was thinking this. When he became Kang the Conqueror over in ''Avengers'', we get a few more deets on his past, but one thing is clear: He categorically ''isn't'' Doctor Doom.
* StoryBreakerTeamUp: Namor has kidnapped Sue and takes her to his underwater kingdom. Reed uses all his high-tech sci-fi machines to locate and go after him, but insists on going alone. What can Johnny and Ben, without those magical machines, do? Easy: ask Dr. Strange for help, who locates Namor and sends Johnny and Ben to the fight just with magic.
* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien:
** The Watcher, who has incredible deus-ex-machina powers, but only ever uses them to watch... unless the threat is too high.
** And Galactus, a PlanetEater.
* SuperheroesStaySingle: In this comic the trope was subverted by the marriage of Reed and Sue. It's not the first superhero marriage (over at the Distinguished Competition, Jay Garrick, the Golden Age Flash and his long time girlfriend Joan were married when Barry Allen met them in the famous "Flash of Two Worlds", predating this story by four years) but it may well be the first super-hero wedding seen on panel with an entire Annual devoted to it.
* SupermanStaysOutOfGotham: The story from issues #102-104 deals with the Four having to fight Magneto, who takes over the Atlantean army and invades New York. At no point do his usual foes the X-Men make so much as a cameo, or even a throwaway line about what they're up to while this is going down.
* TakeThatAudience: The FF are reading mail and Sue is troubled because she's got a lot of hate mail, saying that she's useless, that she doesn't help, that the team would be better off without her. Reed and Ben are outraged and make a speech (yes, looking at you!) by pointing to the significance that UsefulNotes/AbrahamLincoln gave to his mother, even if she did not "help" to fight UsefulNotes/TheAmericanCivilWar.
-->'''Ben Grimm''': In fact, if we printed Lincoln's life in our mag, some wise guy would probably write in and ask why we don't leave his mother out of the story, because she doesn't do enough!
* TeamHandStack: Used in the origin story, when the team and members are named.
** And in multiple repeat variations of the origin story.
* TheEndOrIsIt: In issue #52, Black Panther supposedly kills Ulysses Klaw, and his whole base explodes. The issue ends revealling Klaw is still just slightly alive, and his sound machine is still functioning. A battered Klaw decides to turn it on himself...
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodCharacter: InUniverse, Stan and Jack are discussing new villains, and regret that Dr. Doom was lost in space the last time. You don't come up with a villain like that every day!
* ThisLooksLikeAJobForAquaman:
** In the fight between the FF, the Avengers and the Hulk, who is it who has the most luck styming the green rage monster? Ant-Man and the Wasp. Hank uses his shrinking powers to dodge the Hulk's attack, then sets a bunch of ants on him, distracting the Hulk long enough for Rick Jones to slip him a de-hulking pill, ending his current rampage.
** In order to rescue Reed from imminent death in the Negative Zone, the Fantastic Four turn to Triton of the Inhumans, his physiology allowing him to survive in the Negative Zone's lack of atmosphere and recover Reed.
* TogetherInDeath: When Franklin Storm is fatally wounded in issue #32, he tells his children Sue and Johnny not to be sad, as he'll finally be reunited with his beloved wife (who'd been killed in a car accident years earlier).
* TookALevelInBadass: Initially, the Invisible Girl could turn invisible, and that was it. A good idea for [[Literature/TheInvisibleMan an H. G. Wells novel]] perhaps, but too little for superhero adventures. So she had increased powers later: she could turn other things invisible, and use [[BarrierWarrior forcefields]] in battle.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: In issue #12, all the guys brag about how they'd use their powers to beat the Incredible Hulk (Sue says nothing because she could only turn invisible at this point, and she really ''doesn't'' want to go anywhere near him). They are all completely wrong.
* UngratefulBastard: Doom's immediate first response on being saved from certain death by Rama-Tut? "How can I enslave whoever rescued me?" Gratitude ain't one of Doom's defining attributes.
* VillainBall: At the end of issue #3, Johnny leaves the FF in a huff. Issue #4 has the others go to track him down. The Thing finds him first, and then apropos of nothing attacks Johnny.
* VillainExitStageLeft: Doom has a knack for getting away from the Fantastic Four, until the second annual reveals he's actually ruler of Latveria.
* WaterIsAir: The fight between Namor and Attuma used several elements from middle ages warfare (walls, siege, catapults, burning projectiles, etc.), which should not work underwater.
* WeddingEpisode: The third annual is centered around the wedding of Reed Richards and Susan Storm. However, Reed and Sue's wedding quickly went from kink-free and blissful to a disaster of epic proportions when it was crashed by a very-pissed conga line of recurring villains who tore up the Baxter Building and a large portion of New York while fighting over who got to kill the FF, tangled with all the FF's [[ComicBook/TheAvengers Avenger]] and X-Men pals who had been invited to the wedding, and turned the event into one of the most famous [[MeleeATrois Battle Royales]] in all of comics history. It took the frickin' ''Watcher'' [[DeusExMachina popping in with a machine that threw all the villains back in time to before the attack began to end the chaos]].
* WeHardlyKnewYe: Dr. Franklin Storm, the father of Johnny and Sue, is introduced in issue #31, and then jailed.[[note]]He was a fugitive from the law, but he arrived at the hospital to cure his daughter, even knowing that the police would capture him in doing so[[/note]] And then he's killed by the Skrulls the next issue.
* WillTheyOrWontThey: The endless dance in the early days between Reed and Sue, which eventually ends with them marrying. And meanwhile, Ben and Alicia. They don't (and wouldn't for another ''six decades''. Yeesh.)
* YankTheDogsChain: So many examples of Ben's mutation wearing off, or a cure being waved in his face, and it all turns sour.
* YoYoPlotPoint: A very early plot point that kept getting recycled was Ben spontaneously turning human again (this happened in the ''second issue'') or Reed finding a cure for Ben being the Thing. No matter how permanent the change seemed, he was always back to normal by the end of the arc.
* YouAlreadyChangedThePast: The Fantastic Four go to the past, to retrieve the treasure of Blackbeard. The Thing, costumed as a pirate, leads the other pirates (amazed by his superhuman strength) to pillage another ship, and capture its treasure. Was Blackbeard in that ship? Not exactly. When they see how the pirates treat him, they realize that the Thing, with his pirate costume (including a black beard), '''is''' Blackbeard.
* YouKilledMyFather: T'Challa's father, T'Chaka, was killed by Ulysses Klaw. When he was a kid, T'Challa managed to drive him and his thugs off, ruining Klaw's hand in the process, but he knows the man is out there, and has been training since then to avenge him.

[[folder:Stan Lee and Jack Kirby Era]]

* BeenThereShapedHistory: The FF time travel to ancient Egypt and meet Pharaoh Rama Tut, another time traveler who came from the future to rule with his futuristic weapons. He was forced to leave his ship behind when he escaped in a pod... a ship that looks like a stone Sphinx.

* ExactWords: A Wakandan envoy tells the FF they've been invited to a ''special'' hunt. They see nothing remotely suspicious about that phrasing, but it turns out they ''are'' the hunt.

** In issue #9 the FF are broke and badly in need of money. The team point out that they can surely monetize their powers somehow, but Reed rejects the idea: the only two ways would be joining a freak show, or crime. Never mind that previous issues had shown Johnny can and ''does'' use his power to help fix cars.

[[folder:Tom DeFalco's Era]]

!Tropes

[[folder:Johnathan Hickman's Era]]
[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1170926_fantastic_four_by_jonathan_hickman_volume_1_hc.jpg]]
%%[[caption-width-right:350:some caption text]]

Following Mark Millar's run, Creator/JonathanHickman took over. As the FF continue with their lives, Reed Richards ponders the question of how to solve everything. His decision leads him to meet a group of alternate Reeds who've asked the same question. From there, however, disastrous dominoes begin to line up

Hickman's run also included the temporary end of the title, the story continuing in the new title of ''FF'' for near year, when ''Fantastic Four'' returned as issue #600. From there, ''Fantastic Four'' and ''FF'' continued simultaneously.
----
!!Tropes:

* AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome: A major part of Hickman's run is that while every other alternate Reed is awesome, it comes at the cost of being maladjusted, eventually leaving their families behind, something Reed is horrified by.
* ArcWords: "Solve everything" and "all hope lies in Doom"
* BackForTheDead: Psionics, Johnny's girlfriend of the week from Millar's arc, returns during Johnny and Ben's visit to Nu-Earth, where she's gone insane, and gets her brain splattered. Johnny is remarkably unperturbed about this.
* BackFromTheDead: Black Bolt, who got supposedly blown up at the end of ''War of Kings'', turns out to have just survived, and Lockjaw finds him.
* BestOfAllPossibleWorlds: Jonathan Hickman's run shows that while Reed has made many a bad decision, and isn't necessarily the best person in the world, he's a severe step-up from all the other Reed Richards out there, who without a father turned into cold manipulators, willing to do all manner of things in the name of the greater good, and eventually left their families.
* BirthdayEpisode: Franklin's birthday, when he's... whatever age he is (Sue shushes Reed when he tries saying it out loud). Then the Baxter Building is visited by a mysterious stranger who bypasses all their defenses and seems hell-bent on getting to Franklin, before leaving. [[spoiler:Because he's Franklin's future self, restoring his powers.]]
* BrokenRecord: The Dooms captured and lobotomized by the Council of Reeds are incapable of saying anything other than "Doom".
* DarkestHour: "Three" promised one of the FF would die, and the story has Reed stuck on a planet about to be eaten by an angry Galactus, Sue stuck at the bottom of the ocean between several warring Atlanteans, and Ben, Johnny and the kids facing down an attempt by Annihilus to invade via the Negative Zone portal. [[spoiler:Ultimately, it's Johnny who dies, holding off Annihilus's troops. But he gets better.]]
* DidntSeeThatComing: One of the Council of Reeds tries manipulating the Universal Inhumans as part of their plan. He didn't know they were capable of seeing he was lying, and gets killed for it.
* DopeSlap: Future Valeria delivers one to her younger self while finding her sketching out a way to conquer the Kree Empire.
* DudeNotFunny: Having been dragged along to a meeting with Reed and Black Bolt, Spidey makes a nervous quip about his now having five wives. Reed and Black Bolt glower at him.
* EnemyMine: As part of ''FF'', Doctor Doom is invited to stay with the team to help solve the problem of the Reeds in exchange for fixing the brain damage the Intellgencia gave him.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Valeria recounts what happened when she went through The Bridge, one of the alternate Reeds comments after their lucky escape from the Mad Celestials that it's lucky they didn't combine. Toward the end of the arc, guess what happens.
** In the last issues, the time-travelling future version of Franklin drops some hints of future events that he's lived through, which would only be revealed in his '' [[ComicBook/TheAvengersJonathanHickman Avengers]]'' run and ''ComicBook/SecretWars2015''. First, Franklin stops the war between the Inhumans and the Kree by showing Black Bolt a glimpse of an upcoming future catastrophe, which he should focus on instead of waging war. We do not yet learn what the catastrophe is, but the words "everything dies" are dropped, their significance becoming clear in Hickman's ''New Avengers''. And in the final issue of Hickman's Fantastic Four, future Franklin encourages his present day child version to use his imagination and populate the pocket universe he had created (in the beginning of Hickman's run) with all sorts of fantastic beings, hinting that his boundless imagination together with his reality-altering powers would one day be of utmost importance.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: In ''FF'' issue 14, Bentley is seen saying something to Katie Powers. Whatever it is he said, she slugs him for it.
* FutureMeScaresMe: Mixed with IHatePastMe. Neither Valeria likes the other. Young Valeria thinks her future self is cold and scary, Future Valeria thinks her younger self is an arrogant little twerp-hole.
* GiverOfLameNames: When Franklin and Leech start playing in Franklin's pocket universe, Franklin uses the names "Psi-Lord" and "Hyperstorm" for their alias. Future Franklin snarks about how terrible this is.
* GondorCallsForAid: After screw-ups with keeping things to himself or asking his villains for help, Reed finally decides to just call in his actual friends for help. Of course, being Reed, he [[IgnoredEpiphany forgot this one five minutes later]].
* GoodWearsWhite: The team switches to white costumes after the formation of the Future Foundation, mainly because of angst over Johnny.
* GuileHero: Valeria Richards is this too, especially when written by Jonathan Hickman. She seems to have inherited her dad's smarts - and her mom's wits.
* HappyEndingOverride: Millar's run had the inhabitants of a BadFuture escaping their time to go to Nu-Earth, a recreation of Earth made for the rich and powerful to run to if and when things got bad. Here, when Johnny and Ben go for a visit, things have gone extremely wrong for everyone there.
* HaveYouToldAnyoneElse: The flashback showing the origins of the Inhumans has the Supreme Intelligence see the future the project will begin, and asks the scientists, who are obliviously unconcerned about the fact their god-emperor has just screamed, if this is ''all'' the information they have. Once they say yes, he tells the Accusers to get to work... however, it turns out they hadn't actually given it ''all'' the information.
* LongLived:
** Franklin's powers make him immortal. [[ImmortalityBeginsAtTwenty He stops aging as a young adult]].
** As a side-effect of the Future Foundation's serum, Ben only ages the one week a year he's in human form, meaning he will live to be thousands of years old before dying of old age.
* NeverTheSelvesShallMeet: Asked about by Sue in the final issue as to why Future Franklin has to leave. It isn't, and Franklin and Reed stare at her like she's an idiot.
* NotNowKiddo: On a visit to Nu-Earth, things go wrong. Val ends up with the planet's designer, who's trying to come up with a solution to their problem. Val tries to chime in, but he keeps brushing her off.
* OnceMoreWithClarity: The first issue of "Three" has Valeria recount what happened when she went through the Bridge, but with no speech bubbles, save ones with pictograms. It's not until ''FF'' issue #3 a few months later she gives the full details of what happened.
* TheBusCameBack:
** Kristoff, Doom's protégé / heir just sort of vanished after a while. Hickman's run brings him back with the mention that Doom had sent him in to exile for whatever reason. The same with Nathaniel Richards.
** Alicia, who'd been out of focus during Mark Millar's run in favor of a different girlfriend of the week, returns during the "Three" arc.
* TheThingThatWouldNotLeave: Johnny invites himself to live with Peter Parker. Peter gets increasingly irritated by Johnny's antics over the next few weeks, finally reaching his breaking point and kicking Johnny out when he finds Annihilus sitting on his toilet.
* TonightSomeoneDies: Advertising for the "Three" storyline hyped up how one of the Four would die, permanently for reals. It was Johnny. He didn't, returning in a year.
* TurnedAgainstTheirMasters: Doom manages to create an entire universe using an Infinity Gauntlet. It takes about a week for them to turn on him.
* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Played with in Valeria's case. She is insanely smart for her age, but has some massive gaps brought on by the fact she is still a child (if that), and a pronounced LackOfEmpathy, not understanding why her dad would chose family over the "greater good".
* YouCantFightFate: A theme of Hickman's run. Despite everything Nathaniel and Valeria can think of, the Mad Celestials always end up killing the Fantastic Four. Much of the run is spent with Val trying to find a way to ScrewDestiny.

''Fantastic Four'' is a 1961 comic book series from Creator/MarvelComics by Creator/JackKirby, with some plots of Creator/StanLee. The series was one of the starting points of UsefulNotes/TheSilverAgeOfComicBooks and the beginning of the Franchise/MarvelUniverse.

Running for around 60 issues (FF #356 - 416) from 1991 to 1996, the [=DeFalco=]/Ryan era represents one of the longest for a single creative team on the Fantastic Four comic, surpassed only by the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby run in the 1960s and equalled by the Creator/JohnByrne run in the early 1980s. Although it achieved some of the title's best sales since its Silver Age heyday, it was divisive in its time and remains so even now, with its infamous [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfComicBooks Dark Age]] trappings serving as ready targets of fan mockery.

Ultimately, the book's sales declined towards the middle of the decade (coinciding with the UsefulNotes/TheGreatComicsCrashOf1996 contraction of the American comic book industry more generally, and around the time [=DeFalco=] had stepped down from the editor-in-chief) and the decision was made to reboot the team as part of the ''ComicBook/HeroesReborn'' storyline, with the FF, along with the Avengers, written into a crossover with the X-Men which saw the team removed from the main Earth-616 continuity in a battle with the villain Onslaught. Precisely how much foreknowledge the creative team had of this is ambiguous: [=DeFalco=] clearly had plans to keep writing into 1996 (see AbortedArc, below) while Ryan only learned that he was being replaced by Creator/JimLee via the Internet!

* RetCon: One of the biggest ever for the team: The Alicia Masters the Human Torch married was a Skrull imposter and had been ever since the events of ''ComicBook/SecretWars1984''.

* TakeThat: A famous moment, and one that got [=DeFalco=] in hot water, was Scott Lang slamming the reviled first season of the 1990s ''WesternAnimation/FantasticFourTheAnimatedSeries'' cartoon.

* LighterAndSofter: Adolf Hitler, of all people (the real identity of [[spoiler:the Hate Monger]]). He never even mentions Jews or any people, and only directs the people's hatred towards "the foreigners" and other unspecific terms like "those we hate". Of course, it had to be this way, the CCA would never authorize something more explicit.[[note]]One of their rules is "Ridicule or attack on any religious or racial group is never permissible". No exceptions for the villain[[/note]]

* SufficientlyAdvancedAlien