This article contains SPOILERS for Fantastic Four #46
The most controversial retcon in the long history of the Fantastic Four was made even worse. The decision to change the origin story of the group, by making the "accident" that gave them their powers not an accident but a deliberate attack from an alien planet, was a big decision that completely altered the dynamics at the base of Marvel's First Family. Now that the storyline was brought to its conclusion, it's clear that there is an attempt to make the retcon less important, but the end result is even more questionable.
One of the first story arcs in Dan Slott's long run on Fantastic Four introduced planet Spyre, an alien world that was located by a scientist from Earth, Reed Richards, during his early experiments. Thinking that the exploratory trip that Richards was preparing was an invasion, the Spyricans bombarded his spaceship, Marvel-1, with cosmic rays, causing the incident that gave the Fantastic Four their powers. Decades later, the group decided to complete their first, fateful voyage and learned the truth about Spyre. In the end, the Fantastic Four forgave the Spyrican leader, the Overseer, for causing the incident, even the Thing, who was disfigured for life by the cosmic rays and had put the blame on his friend Reed for all this time.
In Fantastic Four #46, the last issue of the series written by Dan Slott, with art provided by Cafu and Jesus Aburtov, the team goes back to Spyre, where Reed and the Overseer work together to find a cure for Johnny Storm, the Human Torch, who has been forced to a state of constant overheat by Dr. Doom. Mr. Fantastic's newly-discovered half-sister hears the confession that Reed still believes himself responsible for what happened to his family. Even if he "got the science right" and the cosmic rays incident was caused by the Overseer, Reed is the one who put his family in that position, so he has to make certain that "it all works out in the end".
Reed's words sound like an attempt at backpedaling after the Spyre storyline changed the Fantastic Four's lore in a huge way, killing a lot of what made it so compelling: the tragedy. The Fantastic Four were the first of Marvel's "flawed" heroes, who had to pay a huge price for their powers. Reed, the smartest man on Earth, made a mistake, he put his family and best friend in a dangerous situation and his hybris was punished with tragedy. If the incident was not Reed's fault, then all the conflict and the guilt that made the group interesting are gone. Shortly after Johnny is cured, the Thing refuses to use the same procedure to cure his own condition, which was the one remaining element of tragedy from the Fantastic Four's origins. Now that's gone too.
This attempt to fix the Spyre retcon, by having Reed say that the fact that he got the science right did not matter, makes it all look even worse. When Mr. Fantastic says that everything happening to his family will always be on his head, but he will make sure that everything will work out in the end, he exposes the issue with taking the tragic element away from their story. If everything works out, then what reasons do readers have to keep following the Fantastic Four's adventures? Mr. Fantastic's responsibility in the incident and his guilt for not being able to cure the Thing were essential components of the Fantastic Four's appeal, but now they are both gone, making this controversial retcon even worse.