Hickman Concludes His "Fantastic Four" Run This Fall

**CBR News** · 03-02-2012, 12:56 PM

Marvel Comics has announced Jonathan Hickman will be leaving Marvel's First Family with "Fantastic Four" #611 and "FF" #23 in October.

Full article here.

**Awesome!** · 03-02-2012, 01:00 PM

I don't envy the writer following Hickman.

**mietha** · 03-02-2012, 01:00 PM

Honestly, it's about damn time. I loved his runs near the beginning, but at this point, he's pretty much run both of them into the ground. The HORRID art on FF doesn't exactly help either.

**5cents** · 03-02-2012, 01:10 PM

Farewell Mr Hickman, the next writer will haft to bring their game

**maniacmatt** · 03-02-2012, 01:12 PM

This makes me sad, but he's getting to finish the story he set out to tell, so it's hard to feel too disappointed. I can't wait to find out where Hickman will be headed next.

**the goddamn batman** · 03-02-2012, 01:15 PM

cool. I got kinda bored and stopped reading. I'd like to read it all at once as a single story. the monthly grind got to me.

**Wolf_Leader** · 03-02-2012, 01:15 PM

Originally Posted by mietha

Honestly, it's about damn time. I loved his runs near the beginning, but at this point, he's pretty much run both of them into the ground. The HORRID art on FF doesn't exactly help either.

Yeah, it is bittersweet news. Even now he has great dramatic moments and has me waiting for the next issue, but I often feel like each issue is just a tease and has one-upped each previous issue in terms of dire threats to the world there is nowhere left to go. He's probably the one writer I would certainly read superheroe stories from in novel form though.

**CTpitch** · 03-02-2012, 01:19 PM

always hate when a long time writer leaves a title good thing is we get a very great tale out of it

**MichaelPaytonMZ** · 03-02-2012, 01:20 PM

Hopefully this frees him up for more creator-owned work.

**Desaad** · 03-02-2012, 01:24 PM

Originally Posted by MichaelPaytonMZ

Hopefully this frees him up for more creator-owned work.

Seems obvious that he's transitioning to more creator owned material already, with two ongoings launching from Image.

I'd say we won't get more than one or two Marvel ongoing books out of him at this point to replace the three he's leaving (Ultimates, FF, and Fantastic Four). He mentioned in the ifanboy video that his schedule was really untenable previously, and I don't htink he's going to get into that again.

So two image books plus two marvel books I think will be his absolute limit. Maybe one marvel ongoing and one mini every year?

**CMBMOOL** · 03-02-2012, 01:50 PM

Doesn't anyone find it odd that Hickman's departure of the Fantastic four title around the time that Avengers vs X-men ends?

**NewMutant** · 03-02-2012, 01:54 PM

It is sad that 3 years is considered a long time for a writer to stay on a title. That said his run has been the best Fantastic Four since Byrne. I would say his work on this title was almost as rejuvenating to the title as New Avengers when it first started. He'll be miss, but it will help my wallet because I need to cut back and hopefully his departure will be a good stopping point.