The New Fantastic Four

I loved this show a lot! The plot in each episode was really good and the characters, oh how I adore these characters! Also, one of my favorite animation styles!

Censoring the Human Torch is an Urban legend. The fact is, in the mid-1970s, Marvel licensed TV rights to many of their characters to Universal for TV pilots (including Spider-Man, Hulk and Captain America). Since the Human Torch was licensed elsewhere, when Marvel made the animation deal, he couldn't be part of the Fantastic Four. The fact that he was in the first FF cartoon series (1967) and the recent one (1994) puts to rest the theory that the Torch is too hot for TV.

One of the best Marvel series. One of the best series from the 70's. I highly recommend it.

The crew of a rocket ship is bombarded by mysterious cosmic rays from deep space. Their leader Reed Richards is turned into the stretchy Mr. Fantastic. His wife Sue Richards is turned into Invisible Girl. Ben Grimm is turned into the Thing. Along with Herbie the robot (Humanoid Electronic Robot B-Style), they are the Fantastic Four. Their headquarters is atop the Baxter Building in New York City.

The comedy is a little cheesy and the story telling is a bit stiff. The animation and story style is from an older generation. There is some fun in seeing these characters in their older versions. The disappointment is a general lack of good action and tension. It does have the fun stretching sounds.

This is the second animated iteration of the classic comic heroes, The Fantastic Four. The most noticeable difference is the missing Human Torch. There was a problem with rights during that time. Herbie is not going down as one of the great robots of all times. It is a rather poor substitution for the Human Torch. It is a much more static character compared to the dynamic Torch. This is a bit before my time and probably did not get much reruns. It's hard to remember if I ever saw this before now. It is certainly dated when viewed today.

This Saturday-morning adaptation of the Marvel Comics title was done at a time when parental fears of violence on TV were at their worst. As such, the Human Torch does not appear in it. Parents were afraid their kids would like the Human Torch so much, they might try to light themselves on fire. Or something. Of course, without the Human Torch, they would only be the "Fantastic Three," so the writers had to invent a new character to fill in for him. And whom did they invent to replace the Human Torch? Why none other than H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot, a robot so annoyingly cute that you want to throw your bowl of Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs cereal at the TV every time he appears. The animation was on par with that of the animated Star Trek TV series -- in other words, it stank. And worst of all, I can't recall a single episode in which Doctor Doom made an appearance. What good are the Fantastic Four without Doctor Doom? That's like having an entire Silver Surfer TV series without Galactus, or a John Travolta movie without Scientology.