Karl Disley... my Fantastic Four Forever

another redraw of this old thing which was based on this interaction

Thank u for the genius suggestion, tungle user @mortifiedandawesome

Sounds good to me, Reed.

I would die for ben grimm. Btw.

So first of all, they always age Johnny up to being an adult so that he can be an official astronaut. I've already talked ad nauseum about how aging up/erasing kid characters in superhero movies annoys me to no end, but this one REALLY bothers me now that I've read the original comics

In the 2005 movie, in the 2025 movie, and I believe in the 2015 movie too? the trip into space is officially sanctioned. But in the comics, they wouldn't authorize it but Reed was so confident in his own calculations and studies that he was POSITIVE it had to work, so he and the others basically pulled a heist on a rocket like the Incredibles and

That makes so much more sense??? THAT'S why Reed blames himself for what happened to all of them, THAT'S why Ben blames Reed for his fate as a monster, that's where all this tension comes from and Reed feeling insecure in himself and his plans because look how badly he messed up when everyone was telling him not to do something but he refused to listen

In the 2005 movie I was always confused why everyone blamed Reed, even as a kid, I was like "You all signed up for this willingly??"

But in the Lee and Kirby version, Reed confided his plan to Sue because he would need her help. Sue and Johnny's mom is dead and their dad is in jail, and Johnny, who's 15/16, overhears the plan and says he and Sue WON'T be separated because they're all each other has left and he's not gonna stay on earth while she might die in space. He's so adamant that despite being so young Reed literally can't say no to him because he refuses to take no for an answer. And Reed wants Ben to go with him because Ben is the best pilot he knows, and Ben really really does NOT want to illegally steal a rocket and go through a storm of cosmic rays that humanity still knows nothing about, but Sue goades him into it by calling him a coward, and Reed says without Ben at the helm there's no way any of them will survive, basically guilting him into it.