Most people know Marvel Comics these days – or at least their characters – Iron Man, X-Men, Hulk, Spider-Man are just some of the characters to have graced the big screen as have the Fantastic Four, which included Jessica Alba in the cast. But the latest issue of the comic has a line which could be seen as hurtful, a gaffe or downright insulting to the Jewish community – but however you look at it, it’s a spot of bad PR for the company.

In the latest issue of Fantastic Four, written by Jonathan Hickman, there’s the usual credits box and, as you would expect, there’s the name of everyone involved from the writer down to the creators Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. Now under them, instead of creators there’s the phrase “The Final Solution” which is everyone knows is seen as a reference to Hitler’s solution for what he saw as the Jewish problem.

Now, there’s two things worth noting:

1. Marvel Comics’ credit boxes have had a history of wacky titles for people. However in this one, the only one that isn’t the straightforward title is the one for Jack and Stan.
2. There is an element to the story about Reed Richards trying to find solutions to problems, hence perhaps, the creators being called The Final Solution.
3. Marvel have a history of being ‘edgy’ at times for the sake of some PR.

Even so, it’s something in poor taste, especially when you consider that both Stan (born Stanley Lieber) and Jack (born Jacob Kurtzberg) are Jewish.

It’ll be interesting to see what fallout there is to this, if any. There was a Garth Ennis-written Nick Fury series that was deemed to be so negative George Clooney pulled out of playing the chracter in a movie and the movie was pulled.