12 Facts You May Not Have Known About The Fantastic Four

Everyone loves comic book trivia, but with 75 years of superhero comics behind us right now, there’s always some new obscure fact to learn. That’s why ComicsAlliance is going deep into the minutiae of your favorite characters in our continuing video series. You think you know comics? Well, here’s a few things you might not know!

With their new movie launching this week, we're taking a look at Marvel's first family, the Fantastic Four. Find out the probably apocryphal origin of the Fantastic Four, the way more than four team members the team has had in its history, and the origin of the Thing's team-up with Fred Flintstone, as well as several other equally interesting facts.

Show notes:

• Hey, true story: the over 100 issue Lee/Kirby run of Fantastic Four is the most important and influential run of superhero comics in history, and you should check it out if you have not.
• If you're not a completist and want to skip straight to the best part of the run, start with volume 2 of the omnibus.
• The next most seminal run on the FF is by John Byrne, who updated the team for the modern '80s. First volume of his omnibus here.
• Probably the most underrated run on FF is Walt Simonson's run, both solo and with artists such as Ron Lim and Art Adams. The first collection of his run is here.
• As long as we're listing the best FF runs ever, you might as well pick up the first volume of the Mark Waid/Mike Wieringo run.
• Hey, go ahead and get Jonathan Hickman's run with such artists as Dale Eaglesham here.

Watch more installments of You Think You Know Comics? below and let us know what comic book characters we should cover next.