Fantastic Four Writer Reveals the Biggest Problem of Marvel's First Family

screenrant.com:

In a recent interview, Fantastic Four writer Dan Slott revealed what he believed to be the main issue with Marvel's First Family—an issue he tried to fix during his tenure on the series. Slott introduced an entire alien race where everyone has either Asian or Black features because he felt that the Fantastic Four had a big issue with representation, and in the process, he also fixed what he felt was Johnny Storm's biggest problem.

Just like every other Marvel book created in the 1960s, Fantastic Four featured predominantly white characters. In July of 1966, the series introduced the very first American «mainstream» Black superhero, the Black Panther, however, T'Challa remained a secondary character, and he would soon join the Avengers. The first Black hero to star in his own title was Luke Cage in Luke Cage, Hero for Hire, in June 1972. Fantastic Four remained a white-centric book. For instance, among the huge cast of villains and supporting characters the only non-white character is Wyatt Wingfoot, a Native American who was Johnny Storm's college roommate and She-Hulk's love interest.

Related: Marvel Needs to Kill the Fantastic Four to Save Their Legacy

According to Slott's interview with Marvel.com, when he started writing Fantastic Four, the first thing he wanted to do was to give Johnny a real soulmate. Apparently, the Human Torch can not grow up and create his own family, contrary to everyone else on the team. Due to a process called «illusion of change,» which is common in every superhero comic, regardless of how much progress Johnny could make in life, he would always go back to being the immature playboy who loves sports cars. To break the cycle, Slott gave Johnny a mystical bond with an alien woman, "a literal