Marvel movies are making more money than the US Mint (not actually true, but not wrong by as much as you might think), but the spotlight of success has also reveals some embarrassing errors of the past. There was a time when superhero movies were less profitable than films about pitch-dark fart noises, which explains why some Marvel executive thought it was a good idea to flog movie options on the Fantastic Four and the X-Men to 20th Century Fox. A financial mistake on par with Scrooge McDuck having a yard sale in his money bin. And which would explain worrying rumours that the Fantastic Four comic might be decommissioned.
Marvel artists have apparently been told to slack off on any FF characters, on the (deeply flawed) understanding that the lack of a regular comic book title would hurt Fox’s film aspirations. This ignores how the modern movies are making money not because of but despite all the comic implications. Besides, if any damage could be done to the Fantastic Four movie brand, Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer already did it. Cancelling the comic books to target those movies is like shooting yourself in the face to spite someone else’s foot.
Worse, the instructions allegedly sent to artists on which characters to avoid include all associate FF characters. THEY DARE STRIKE AT DOOM!
Doctor Doom has a history of being defeated by unlikely furries (Squirrel Girl springs to mind and also to pretty much everywhere she goes), but losing Latveria to the Fox corporation seems incredibly short-sighted. They’re bad enough at understanding real foreign countries without giving them dominion over the imaginary as well.