Back Issue Bloodbath Episode 505: Fantastic Four by Dwayne McDuffie

Welcome friends to Back Issue Bloodbath, a comics-centric podcast presented by Geek Hard. Join hosts Andrew Young and Petula Neale as they get down and dirty in the four-colour world of comic books, focusing on classic stories, new issues, comic creators and hot-button topics.











This week, in celebration of the release of Fantastic Four: First Steps, we wanted to bring an FF story we haven’t covered before. There were a lot of choices, as we haven’t covered much of Reed Richards and the gang on Bloodbath. Of course, we’ve already covered The Galactus Trilogy (Fantastic Four #48 to #50) back in 2021 with special guest Tim Rozon. We’ve also covered Alex Ross’s Full Circle graphic novel in 2022. But this time, we decided to go with a story we thought would be really different from other FF tales. Turns out this story is very much a classic Four story. This week on Bloodbath, we look back on Dwayne McDuffie’s New Fantastic Four.







Written by McDuffie with artwork by Paul Pelletier, The New Fantastic Four story happened in 2007, right after Civil War. The creative team went 11 issues on the title and shook things up by adding Black Panther and Storm to the team. Reed and Sue took a leave of absence to sort out their marriage and get away from it all. The vacation doesn’t last long and the FF face off against Galactus, The Silver Surfer, The Frightful Four, and, predictably, Doctor Doom. The villain roster plays like a greatest hits album.







Join Andrew and Petula as they give their thoughts on The New Fantastic Four and McDuffie’s time on the series. There’s also much praise for Dwayne on how he wrapped up Civil War threads and made it make sense. Give it a listen!







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