10 Best Comic Book Moments Of 2017

By Ewan Paterson /

3. The Fantasti-Flare (Marvel Legacy)

Marvel Comics

Although the politics behind the Marvel Cinematic Universe are set to change with Disney's acquisition of Fox (a terrifying prospect, let's be honest), for the past five or so years, Marvel Comics have had an embargo of sorts placed on the Fantastic Four, a response that was - at the time - a consequence of Fox's holding of the family's big-screen rights.

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The X-Men were much the same too, but while Marvel's premier mutant team have worked their way back into the medium (on account of readers not taking to the Inhumans quite the way the House of Mouse would've liked), Lee and Kirby's first family haven't been so lucky. A return, however, could soon be on the cards, at least if we go off this issue.

Marvel Legacy #1 had a whole lot to do when it was released, including juggling a large breadth of fan expectations along the way. One of those involved the Four, and while reports preceding the book's release seemed to indicate they wouldn't be featuring, all the foreshadowing in the issue seemed to point towards the group's off-screen resurrection.

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Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm - the Human Torch and The Thing respectively - launch the Fantasti-Flare to keep the fires burning. It was a hint that, at the time, easily overshadowed Logan's return, and set up the succeeding reveal (that the Richards were hurtling through the cosmos, preferably to Earth), in a thoroughly satisfying manner.