UPDATE! Writer fired from Marvel's FANTASTIC FOUR

By: Patrick Sauriol
Date: Monday, June 16, 2003
Source: Newsarama

Marvel Comics has fired the writer of their FANTASTIC FOUR comic series. Last Friday writer Mark Waid was told that his services would no longer be required, and that his final issue as writer would be #508 (published with a January 2004 cover date.) Waid informed the comic book website Newsarama which was the first outlet to pick up the story.

"I'm very disappointed, but, hey--it's Marvel's sandbox, not mine," Waid told Newsarama.

Waid was hired last year as FF's new scribe. To publicize the move, Marvel published FANTASTIC FOUR #60 at just nine cents, drawing in new readers and getting critical attention from industry observers. Former FLASH artist Mike Wieringo also joined Waid on the book.

What makes the development even more interesting are some of the comments Waid gave to Newsarama which hint at why he may have been let go. "I wish I'd had a longer run, and I'll admit I was surprised at being so abruptly fired," Waid explained to Newsarama. "A few weeks ago, Bill [Jemas] phoned and tried to convince me to jettison our high-adventure approach and everything else we've been doing in favor of making the FF a wacky suburban dramedy where Reed's a nutty professor who creates amazing but impractical inventions, Sue's the office-temp breadwinner, the cranky neighbor is their new 'arch-enemy', etc. Editor Tom Brevoort and I discussed that option at length; ultimately, I apologized and explained that I didn't feel it was something I could write nor something that played to any of my strengths--a radical revamp like that was just too much of a departure from what I was originally hired to write. I simply, honestly, couldn't even wrap my head around the idea. Still can't. And when word came back, 'We'll use that concept somewhere else. Tell Mark to keep doing what he's doing,' all seemed well."

In fact, recent reports have indicated that the feature film version of FANTASTIC FOUR is being presently shaped to be more comedic in nature, even going so far as to possibly make the comedy more "sit-com". These earlier reports do line up with Waid's comments about the new FF comic's direction.

Shortly after Newsarama broke their story, Waid replied on their message forums and hinted at who his replacement might be: Marvel COO Bill Jemas himself. Jemas last creation at Marvel was the parody comic MARVILLE, which ended at issue #7.

It remains unknown if artist Mike Wieringo will remain on the book after Waid's forthcoming departure or exit as well.

* * *

A few hours after the Waid story had been released, Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada released a statement. According to Quesada, Bill Jemas will not be taking over writing duties after Mark Waid departs the book. Quesada also went a step further and publically shot down any plans to turn FANTASTIC FOUR into a "wacky suburban dramedy" book. "A new FF writer will be announced shortly, but it won't be written by Bill and won't be as described," said Quesada.


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