I've been avoiding this thread like the plague since the very premise was so asinine it hurt my head but I'll play ball for a little bit since I see a lot of recklessness here.
Complaining about characters created in the 60s for having outdated origins and powers sounds like "no shyt, Sherlock" to me. Maybe you want to remember this is the same era that gave us such complex origins such as... teenager gets bitten by radioactive spider and scientist gets hit by radioactive gamma wave. That shyt is all outdated because it's 2015 and the fear of the atom bomb and nuclear power doesn't exist anymore. Besides, all their powers are tied to their personalities. Reed is stretching because he's always trying to reach new scientific boundaries, Sue is invincible because she is a neglected housewife, Johnny is on fire because he's a hot head, The Thing is a rock because he's one of those hard on the outside kinda guys (but soft on the inside).
Anyway, they're superpowered explorers/scientists, not superheroes. Sure, they save the world on occasion and all, but primarily the essence of their stories are that they discover new worlds and cross scientific boundaries and you can marvel in the high concept scifi stuff. That's why Hickman's recent run is one of the GOAT runs because he got that and did that from the start. Plus besides him there aren't too many writers who can pull off that high concept scifi stuff effortlessly.
Saying they're not worthy of their foe is hilarious because it's Doom who always has to involve the FF in his plans or calls them out, because
he considers Richards his only worthy foe, the one person he has to prove himself superior to. They probably would barely bother with him at all if he wasn't constantly knocking on their door to involve them in the event that surely will prove his superiority once and for all.
Their children are more compelling than they are because they're new characters that can be taken into many directions, since most writers (shytty ones especially) are scared of trying new stuff to the core members and just keep them running in circles (similar to how nobody bothers to evolve Hank Pym and just keep going back to the "You hit your wife once 40 years ago but still feel guilty about it all the damn time" plot). That's a writing problem, not a character problem, and it's another reason Hickman's run is GOAT because he pushed them to new things.
And I'd say the most interesting thing they've done to Reed recently (his wife flirting with Namor isn't recent, that goes back decades) is when Hickman made him the only Reed Richards in the entire multiverse who wouldn't sacrifice his family over the advancement of scientific discovery, which emphasizes that for all his 'neglect', he still cares for them deeply (btw, that's Hickman again).
Regarding their names btw, they didn't call themselves that. It's the media who named them. Even in the field they always address each other by their first names. In fact, nobody that actually knows them calls Ben "The Thing", they just call him Ben.
But don't let a lack of knowledge of the characters, their history and their stories get in the way of all the shock posting.
] screams 1950s
That's bad, no doubt...
When she in the Fan-4 comics she got the longpants/longsleeve combo...
-worthy shyt I've read in comics
