10 Best Comic Book Moments Of 2017

3. The Fantasti-Flare (Marvel Legacy)

Human Torch Thing 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.

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.

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.

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Content Producer/Presenter

WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.