Why Has Marvel Never Attempted Dark Fantastic Four?

Over the years the Fantastic Four have been one of Marvel’s staple teams. Easily in the top three with the Avengers and the X-Men, the teams have all stood the test of time. But while each of the teams have seen some incredible developments over the years, one of the notable things that hasn’t happened for the Four is they haven’t had a “dark” version of the team. The Avengers has had a few Dark Avengers series written by everyone’s favorite, Brian Michael Bendi an the X-men have had a few miniseries as Dark X-Men. But for some reason the Fantastic Four have never gotten the same treatment. While there have been a few different teams that played with the idea, we’ve never had a straight up “Dark Fantastic Four” and I feel like we should have had at least an attempt.

It definitely isn’t the best idea but with how the events of One World Under Doom is going, I’m surprised Doom never made his own Fantastic Four. Now would even be possibly the best time since the main team is currently out of commission for a few months. But as it stands, it is a largely unexplored concept and that simply needs to change.

The Frightful Four is Close but Not Exactly it

We have had a few attempts at the idea of a dark version with traditional villains but never quite anti-heroes. That’s where the closest version we’ve had known as the Frightful Four come in. Formed originally by The Wizard, Trapster, and Sandman, the Frightful Four began as a trio of villains beaten by the Human Torch. Needing a fourth member to round out the team, Wizard found Medusa of the Inhumans as she wasn’t introduced as one or a hero quite yet. Thus the Frightful Four was born, and would go on to have roughly 20 different lineups, though almost all had some combination of Wizard, Trapster, and Sandman. While they may prove to be a decently sized threat, they never reached quite the highs they ever wanted.

It baffles me that Doctor Doom has never used his sway as distaste for Mr. Fantastic to make the Dark Fantastic Four all with some of their greatest enemies but as a force for good. I don’t think he’s get his teammates to willingly join him but I’d imagine he would bring in Molecule Man, Mole Man, and Super-Skrull just to make things interesting. It could make for a fun story arc of limited series but with Doom at the helm it would be up a lot of manipulation and deceit.

If Doctor Doom Won’t Do It, The Maker Will

If Doom won’t make a dark version of his enemies’ team, then certainly the Maker would just to mess with his 616 counterpart. Being in a similar position as Doom, the Maker has proven he doesn’t play well with others. Especially after losing Sue Storm is his reality to his best friend Ben Grimm, he’d want to engineer a perfect version of his friends. While Doom would do it out of pettiness, this version of Reed would do it out of spite. He’d likely pluck the darkest versions of his family to match his style, specifically finding a Sue Storm who never stopped being Malice. For Johnny I could see him picking a different version that’s just as evil as his sister and for Ben, he’d probably want to control him or even opt for an evil She-Hulk instead. Either way this team would not be good news but would try to act like it, making them a major threat.

Given that Marvel loves to make twisted versions of its heroes, it just seems strange that we haven’t seen the Fantastic Four get that treatment to date. But there’s plenty of opportunity. Perhaps with Marvel’s First Family coming into new prominence with their upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe debut, we’ll finally get to see a Dark Fantastic Four hit the pages of comics soon, too.

Do you find it weird Marvel has never made a Dark Fantastic Four? Let us know down in the comments.