Fantastic Four Fan Art Imagines Heroes In Powerpuff Girls-Style Cartoon

The Fantastic Four fan art asks what if Marvel’s First Family got their own cartoon in the delightfully chaotic style of The Powerpuff Girls.

With Fantastic Four still on its way as Marvel Studios’ next big new fodder for uninspired YouTubers, it’s only natural that fan creators would flock to the franchise. This team of sapphire-hued heroes has had a rough go of things over the decades. From movies with mixed reactions to a movie with no reactions to Roger Corman, it seems like it’s become a rite of passage in Hollywood for everyone to, at some point, try to make their own Fantastic Four movie. Luckily, this talented fan chose to target the television audience instead, and it looks like it would work.

New Zealand artist Charlie Faulks decided that the wait for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie wasn’t good enough and took to Instagram with an idea that’s genuinely pleasing to the eyes. At least, it’s pleasing for those who grew up in a specific era of Cartoon Network. Specializing in works reminiscent of classic cartoons from throughout the decades, Faulks evoked the unmistakable vibe of The Powerpuff Girls and its contemporaries with this latest work. Naturally, other fans had some thoughts.

The piece genuinely looks like it would fit right in with Cartoon Network’s early-to-mid-2000s output like Powerpuff Girls (which had its drama with a failed live-action Powerpuff Girls series) and other shows like Danny Phantom and Dexter’s Laboratory. The characteristically thick lines and overstated angles are on full display, driving home the striking variance among the Fantastic Four team members. The Thing is bulky and rotund, Mr. Fantastic is angular and properly elongated, The Human Torch is sleek and evokes a feeling of fiery fluidity, and The Invisible Woman looks, as one Reddit commenter so eloquently put it, like “peak goblin Sue” with her scrappy fighting stance and face of a chaotic wildcard.

Despite Sue’s design changing things up (even though it would be amazing to see her tear things up with a little anarchy), it seems like it could be a refreshing change of pace for the usually ill-fated hero team. Other fans pointed out that, in the hypothetical scenario that such a series was created, it wouldn’t be the first time the masterpiece comic book heroes Fantastic Four got their own solo cartoon. Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes was an anime-inspired series that ran for 1 season in the mid-2000s, though its initial run on Cartoon Network only aired a few episodes. So, hopefully, a new one would get a bit more of a fair shake. However, the loyal fans still haven’t forgotten it.

Frankly, it’s pretty in character for the last cartoon version of the Fantastic Four to be just as ramshackle as the reputation its movies have garnered. But maybe their problem is that they just took themselves too seriously. This is a franchise with a stretchy man and a dude made of rocks. If anything deserves the Teen Titans GO treatment, it’s this band of weirdos.

Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four is scheduled to be released in theaters on July 25, 2025.

Source: faulksie/Instagram, Marvel/Reddit