Episode 63 – Fantastic Four Part 4: Three (With Paul Melancon)

In this episode, Curt and Kevin welcome singer-songwriter Paul Melancon! And despite some intermittent microphone issues, the three of them wrap up this four-part exploration of the World's Greatest Comic Magazine with a discussion of Fantastic Four: Three, by Jonathan Hickman, Steve Epting and many others, published by Marvel Comics!

These issues are jam-packed: Reed Richards fights to save an artificial counter-Earth before it's destroyed by the world-devouring Galactus! Susan Storm-Richards struggles to prevent an all-out undersea war! The Thing becomes just plain old Ben Grimm! And Ben, Johnny Storm, and the genius kids of the Future Foundation are all that stands between the Earth and an insectoid invasion from the Negative Zone!

Will all of the foremost family of super-powered science explorers live through these extraordinary ordeals? (Spoiler: No.) And can they break through into that alternate dimension of fascinating four-color fictions known as … The Comics Canon?

(Also, stick around after the episode to hear "Hyperventilate" from Paul's forthcoming album, The Get-Go's Action Hour!)

Things Discussed in This Episode:

• The Pouches Era
• "Well, gotta go, honey!"
• Is this the best Susan Storm ever?
• Is this the most likable Johnny Storm ever?
• Our first episode, The Coming of Galactus
• Fantastic Four: Forever
• Comic Book Librarian's Jonathan Hickman Marvel Reading List
• The dichotomy of Hickman's Avengers and New Avengers
• The Nightly News
• Dan Slott's Tony Stark: Iron Man #1
• The Get-Go's Action Hour! Kickstarter

Join us in two weeks as we do a little dimension-hopping with a look at Scott McCloud's Zot!—specifically, The Eyes of Dekko from Zot! #17-18 and the webcomic Hearts and Minds!

Until then, please rate us on iTunes, send us an email, or hit us up on Twitter or Facebook, and we may read your comments in an upcoming episode. And as always, thanks for listening!