Any Fantastic Four fans?

[Aragorn]

I remember watching the Fantastic Four cartoons (on VHS since they were before my time) and wondering where Human Torch was and WTF was this Herbie robot in his place.

 

[Noname Given]

^ I was always partial to Byrne, myself.

I'm a big fan of the original Stan LeeJack Kirby run, which was the first 120 or so issues (and in my collecting days, I had the series nearly complete from Issue 19 to 115). They were my favorite marvel hero group of the Silver Age.

As for the Johm Byrne run, (which was about the time I decided to stop reading); the way he wrote FF, it should have been renamed Doctor Doom as for over a year, that's pretty much all the story revolved around. I remebr whe n they got to the end of that run, they actually had a FF comic cover that read - "Doctor Doom IS NOT in this issue, we promise!"

As for the two FF films, as an old time and somewhat hardcore fan I thoughtthey were fine. They took the characters back to the 1960ies basics for the most part, with Reed and Sue still not married; and Johnny and Ben sniping at each other (they did that VERY well in the first film imo). They did make Sue WAY more confident than she was in the early 1960ies version; and aged Johnny about 10 years and made him an astronautr, and not just a snot-nosed teenager, but they did a good job with the translating the actual matuirity level of the character imo. Michael Chiklis WAS terrific as ben Grimm/The Thing in both films too.

My main complaint with the second film is that I would have liked to have one more large action sequence with the 4 of them on the ground fighting either the Silver Surfer, or 'Doom Surfer' (believe it or not, that part of the film was based on a Lee/Kirby FF story from the1960ies too). Also, I would have prefered they not turn Johnny into a human version of the Super Skrull (he'd have made a good villian had a 3rd film been commissioned. I also agree (as a FF comic fan) that they short-changed Galactus and the whole Surfer/Galactus confrontation was lacking; but as far as teh story they were telling, it worked well enough. Again, I thought the second film could have used another 30 minutes and one more FF 'working as a team' foght sequence.

 

[The Boy Who Cried Worf]

F.F. isn't my favorite comic, but there have been some great runs on it. In the entirety of the Marvel Universe Reed Richards might be the single most key player. The Invisible Woman probably grew as much or more than any other character in comics too.

I liked the first movie better than a lot of people. It isn't a classic, but it was enjoyable entertainment and did a good job and introducing and staying true to the characters(even Alba I thought was good).

The second didn't seem to understand the comic book at all. I think they were so hyped up on the fact that they could finally use that cool looking silver guy in a movie they forgot to add anything else in. The plot was fairly non-nonsensical and the ending just ludicrous.

 

[stj]

Dr. Doom's origin is a mess in the comics. The first movie didn't brilliantly rewrite it, but ordinarily you expect the originals to be better than the movie, for good reason. The family aspect was done quite well. Bought this one on sale.

The second wasn't as good because the Silver Surfer is boring. Visually, a man surfing without water is inane. People looking at their nostalgia probably didn't notice but the Surfer was never a favorite of mine. Also, sexual tension with Sue fails miserably because as everyone knows, Sue is tempted by Namor. Plus, visually, a man without a penis isn't very believable as a lover. Didn't buy this one.

 

[Trent Roman]

^ Particularly for someone who's already been spoiled in that department, dating a man with customizable genitalia.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Mr Light]

I've just read the second arc of Hickman's current run on FF and it's still pretty good. He's made a very worthy followup to Mark Millar's run.