10 Comics Too Big To Fail (That Did Anyway)

The Fantastic Four have been around since Marvel set foot in the Silver Age of Comics, and because the books were incredibly popular, they never went out of print. For 50+ years, fans could read stories featuring the Human Torch, Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, and the Thing without any worry that Marvel would stop publishing them.

Then, in 2014, Marvel did the unthinkable and stopped publishing the Fantastic Four. On the surface, it didn't make any sense, as the issues were selling well enough, and the fans weren't overtly complaining about anything, which begs the question, why did Marvel kill off one of its most beloved series?

The reason Marvel axed the series was all about the characters' film rights, and a general disagreement with FOX. Back when Marvel Comics was facing bankruptcy, it sold the film rights to some of its most popular characters, and FOX nabbed the FF. When a new movie adaptation of the Fantastic Four was set to debut in 2015, Marvel called it quits on the comic series. The company didn't want to promote the film in any way, and to ensure it didn't, the FF had to go.

Technically, the FF didn't fail in the traditional sense, but it did end, and that was a big deal at the time. The FF was the foundation of the Marvel Universe, having been created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby so long ago. It wasn't thought possible that Marvel would kill the series, but they did... for three whole years.