World's Greatest Comic Magazine -- Fantastic Four Appreciation

[Kosmo]

That pin-up is adorable beyond belief, and those 50th anniversary variants have been pretty neat.
Given how the Four have appealed to me in other forms of media (including WGH and the movies. Kind of. :P), I'm surprised that I never sat down and read an FF comic. The family dynamic and general light-hearted always gave me plenty to love about them and their legacy. I will eventually try out Hickman's run, although the Byrne and Wolfman/Wein eras are starting to draw me in. lol

[Miss Fantastic]

That pin-up is adorable beyond belief, and those 50th anniversary variants have been pretty neat.
Given how the Four have appealed to me in other forms of media (including WGH and the movies. Kind of. :P), I'm surprised that I never sat down and read an FF comic. The family dynamic and general light-hearted always gave me plenty to love about them and their legacy. I will eventually try out Hickman's run, although the Byrne and Wolfman/Wein eras are starting to draw me in. lol

My personal recommended starting place would be Byrne's run. It was the spark of my inferno of an admiration...my first ever issues being F4 #236, 252, 271, and 285. The latter three making me think 'Pretty cool.' and/or 'Wow!', and the very former sealing the deal one fateful summer afternoon when I was just ten years old. That said, the absolutely beautiful thing about Byrne's run is that it is not only appeals to all ages, but it is very much like a fine wine in that it has just gotten even better with age AND will only keep getting better, especially in lieu of today's comics and really comics throughout the last 25 or so years. And yes, that's purely my opinion. But I honestly feel there has not been a tremendously awesome F4 creative run since Byrne's...Simonson, Lobdell (even though three issues is small potatoes to be deemed a run), and Hickman come close enough to gain 'Honorable Mention' status, but they could never surpass Byrne. Although, I have to give Hickman credit on the front of finally giving Reed the most overall positive limelight he has ever seen since Byrne's run. That much about the Hickman run I do outright dig. (Surprise, surprise! )

Other good-great portions to read are the Lee/Kirby run of course (and really, the only run I would put past Byrne's for rather obvious reasons), and Len Wein and Marv Wolfman's issues, F4 #183-188, #190-215 (with shades of Byrne's budding genius, at least art-wise, in F4 #212-215 and continuing through F4 #218). I especially recommend F4 #191-200 in its being one of THE MOST EPIC Dr. Doom arcs in F4 history, culminating with, IMO, the BEST Reed/Doom battle royale EVER.