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Alan David DeCamp
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 30 June 2025
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| Posted: 21 June 2026 at 2:39am | IP Logged | 1
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JB, I searched for this in the forum, but didn't find it. Thinking of the Power Cosmic and that The Fantastic Four got their powers from "Cosmic Rays". Would this mean that they received their powers from residual Power Cosmic forces that produced Galactus? Could this actually make them even stronger than what was originally thought? Especially Sue, could she possibly be able to tap into this power more than the others and actually make her a somewhat formidable foe of Galactus?Thanks for all you have done to make comics better! I can't wait until my copy of Elsewhen arrives.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 21 June 2026 at 5:18am | IP Logged | 2
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Cosmic. Like “radioactive” it’s a word tossed about pretty freely in the Sixties at Marvel. When Stan Lee told us the Fantastic Four got their powers from “cosmic rays” he was using a real term in a completely fictional manner. Much as he later used “gamma rays” to create the Hulk, or “transistors” to power Iron Man’s armor. Years later he used the “power cosmic” to describe the forces wielded by Galactus and his heralds, but we can be sure he did not intend that use as a reference back to the FF’s origin. So, no, imo the FF are not empowered by the same quasimystical energies that juice up the Silver Surfer or Terrax.
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Alan David DeCamp
Byrne Robotics Member
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| Posted: 21 June 2026 at 11:59am | IP Logged | 3
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Thank you for responding, I appreciate your insight and highly value your opinion.
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Michael Penn
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| Posted: 21 June 2026 at 1:22pm | IP Logged | 4
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I love this response because I hate when people over-think Lee & co.'s original, simple, quick, establishing premises.
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 21 June 2026 at 2:39pm | IP Logged | 5
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The important thing to keep in mind—sometimes lost on some fans—is that the creative team rarely has everything figured out when they start. A general outline, sure, but not the fine details.
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Michael Penn
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| Posted: 21 June 2026 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | 6
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Lennon and McCartney used to repeatedly remind anybody who would listen that early on they fully expected the Beatles bubble to burst quite quickly and they would move onto to other musical ventures. It's fair to say Lee and Kirby and Ditko et alia also couldn't have possibly dreamed at the beginning that what they were working on was destined to go on for decades.
The myth of the Big Plan is, without hyperbole, truly destructive, isn't it? Very bad for the creators, very bad for the fans. Hmph.
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Rick Whiting
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| Posted: 22 June 2026 at 1:51am | IP Logged | 7
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JB, I searched for this in the forum, but didn't find it. Thinking of the Power Cosmic and that The Fantastic Four got their powers from "Cosmic Rays". Would this mean that they received their powers from residual Power Cosmic forces that produced Galactus? Could this actually make them even stronger than what was originally thought? Especially Sue, could she possibly be able to tap into this power more than the others and actually make her a somewhat formidable foe of Galactus?
Thanks for all you have done to make comics better! I can't wait until my copy of Elsewhen arrives.
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In the first season of the 90's FF cartoon, they actually explained that the reason why the FF got their powers from the cosmic rays is because the Surfer flew through a cosmic ray storm which resulted in changing the cosmic rays that gave the FF their powers. Here is a clip from the 2nd episode where they talk about the "streaking phenomenon" that changed the cosmic rays that gave them their powers.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/olM1FBK1jN8
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
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| Posted: 22 June 2026 at 10:30am | IP Logged | 8
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Outside sources don’t count.
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Michael Penn
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| Posted: 22 June 2026 at 11:23am | IP Logged | 9
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Back in 1960-61, in the heat of the space race, it was actually fairly common for newspapers, like the New York Times et al., to publish articles about cosmic rays, like this one from January 1961:
I can't imagine Stan Lee had been thinking of anything else but what was shown in the FF's astronautical debut.
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John Byrne
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| Posted: 22 June 2026 at 12:17pm | IP Logged | 10
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Back in the lost days of my youth, when it was not altogether uncommon for me to go hiking in the Rockies outside Banff, Alberta, I would find it amusing when my path took me past the Cosmic Ray Research Station built against the slope of one of the peaks. Basically a large shack, but the signage was impressive.
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Rick Whiting
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| Posted: 22 June 2026 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | 11
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Outside sources don’t count.
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True. The question that we should now ask ourselves is how long before a "fan turned pro" who watched that episode of the FF cartoon and liked that explanation bring that idea into the comics? I can see this happening like how Cyborg being made a member of the JLA years later after he was made a member of the Super Friends/Super Powers team in the Super Powers animated series from the 80's. Now this is a bit of mind reading on my part and I could be completely wrong, but I think that the reason why Geoff Johns made Cyborg a member of the JLA during the Nu52 reboot (and in the JL movie) is because he was a friend of the Super Powers cartoon as kid and liked that Cyborg was a member of the team. So once he was in a position to make that creative decision, he made Cyborg a member of the team. Heck, even the whole Spiderverse stuff was first done in the 90's animated Spider-Man cartoon before Marvel did in the comics years later.
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Michael Hogan
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| Posted: 22 June 2026 at 8:37pm | IP Logged | 12
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I don't know why, but there's a part of me with a
recollection that the rays were referred to as "Van Allen
radiation" somewhere. I can't place the source. Blast my
foggy old brain!
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