While news is slow heading into a mid-week New Year's celebration, it's not surprising to see superhero movie rumors that aren't entirely based in truth (of any kind). What is surprising is how fast this latest rumor about 20th Century Fox's two Marvel franchises came and went in a flash, with the news being pulled by its own publication source.

Early this morning, financial investment website The Motley Fool seemingly broke the news that Fox was moving forward on a Marvel superhero mash-up of its own with Fantastic Four vs. X-Men, based on a popular 1987 comic book mini-series of the same name.

This was their exact wording:

"After multiple movies in their respective franchises, Fox has now decided to combine the Fantastic 4 and the X-Men for an Marvel's The Avengers-style movie that could pay off huge for shareholders. Based on a 1987 four-issue comic called Fantastic Four vs. X-Men, the movie will see the characters against each other because of secrets regarding the Fantastic Four's origin. The new movie also comes as Fox is rebooting the Fantastic 4 series with new actors and actresses."

There was no mention of where the site got its information from, but soon thereafter, it released this statement.

"A previous version of this article inaccurately reported a planned film release that combined both Fantastic 4 and the X-Men. The Fool regrets the error."

The fake story is interesting for two reasons. The rumors of a Fantastic 4 and X-Men crossover movie have been crawling around online for a while, ever since acclaimed comic book creator Mark Millar was brought in by Fox to act as a consultant for both franchises. Simon Kinberg was later brought in for similar reasons. Their shared goal is to create and build stories for the screen that will span over the course of multiple movies.

This does not rule out the possibility that characters from both franchises will crossover. Its possible that we could still see, or even be introduced to the new Fantastic 4 in X-Men: Apocalypse in 2016. But there is no full-on match-up or crossover planned for the immediate future. The most we can hope for is a cameo.

This is something Mark Millar confirmed back in August of this year. Here are his remarks about this very subject.

"Without question I think you have to see some of these guys showing up in each other's movies. I think the most exciting thing in superhero movies, until Marvel's The Avengers came along, was when Nick Fury showed up in Iron Man. Even though it was a guy with an eye patch it was really cool - and I expect we will see more of that... I keep seeing 'news' that Fantastic 4 and X-Men movies are crossing over. No, they're not. They exist in same universe but movies stand-alone. News sites get very excited about very obvious answers, but the Chinese whispers thing is frustrating. There is NO crossover planned."

So, for now, that is the definite answer on a Fantastic Four vs. X-Men movie.