Well, that could be. I mostly read FF back in those days and knew Spider-Man mainly from guest appearances.
Fantastic Four reboot-- Casting, Rumors, Pix, ect;
- Thread starter Turtletrekker
- Start date
^From above link:
Wouldn't it be nice if that means the movie will focus more on the FF as celebrity explorers/adventurers? That would be a nice variation on the superhero-movie formula.
Wouldn't it be nice if that means the movie will focus more on the FF as celebrity explorers/adventurers? That would be a nice variation on the superhero-movie formula.
^^^
That was Doug Petrie's take when he wrote a script for Fantastic Four in the early 2000s. His script wasn't an origin story, but had the FF already established as very popular superheroes. He envisioned the movie as a superhero version of A Hard Day's Night.
That was Doug Petrie's take when he wrote a script for Fantastic Four in the early 2000s. His script wasn't an origin story, but had the FF already established as very popular superheroes. He envisioned the movie as a superhero version of A Hard Day's Night.
^That sounds very cool.
I'd like to see the FF just fight some villain like Super Skrull or something. Don't make it a full blown origin, have them already be heroes, and have them do heroic stuff and save the world. I don't know what a "celebrity/adventurer" is, but in this context it sounds like if the Challengers of the Unknown were a group of actors. An Adventurer isn't a superhero, its Indiana Jones. I really enjoyed the Indiana Jones movies, but thats not a type of film that fits with the FF. I just want some supervillain/event threatening the world, and an FF who is interesting to watch (especially an Invisible Woman who is played better than alba's version).
Actually it does. The FF were never meant to be regarded as superheroes. They've always been adventurers and explorers of the unknown--that's what sets them apart in the superheroic community. The FF aren't about fighting extra-dimensional bad guys, they've always been more interested in understanding the extra-dimension the bad guys come from.
Indeed. Remember, when FF began, superheroes as a genre hadn't quite made a comeback at Marvel yet. The first couple of issues were more along the lines of horror comics, with the FF in plainclothes and battling monsters and alien invaders. It wasn't until the third issue that they adopted costumes and started fighting supervillains, but it was always in their own characteristic way that defied superhero tropes -- for instance, they never had secret identities.
Within the Marvel Universe, the FF are more like the royal family than a crimefighting team. When other heroes need a scientific consult, they visit Reed Richards. When Earth faces a diplomatic crisis involving aliens or Atlanteans or Inhumans, Sue is the ambassador and peacekeeper. And a large part of the reason that other Marvel heroes have to take care of so many alien invasions and other dangerous situations themselves is because the FF spend so much time off Earth or outside our dimension, exploring other realms. So really, if the FF are just portrayed like any other superheroes, it's not at all accurate to the comics.
Besides, what's made the modern superhero genre so engaging is that it's so many different genres in one. Not every superhero movie is about crimefighting. The Iron Man films are techno-thrillers. Thor is supernatural fantasy with a Shakespearean flavor. Captain America was a WWII movie, and the sequel will be a gritty, verite-styled spy thriller. The X-Men films are political and social thrillers, allegories about bigotry, and in recent years they've become historical fiction as well. And Guardians of the Galaxy is going to be a big space opera sort of thing, evidently. So why couldn't FF also be a big adventure/sci-fi film about exploring the Negative Zone or the Microverse or traveling in time or whatever?
I've always found the less superhero like FF stuff in the comics to be the least interesting (especially with the more recent stuff which really started appearing near the very end of Hickman's run when F4 was just kind of losing direction and in the new, very poorly done current F4 comic). They can do good FF stuff that isn't straight superhero stuff, but I have no desire to spend 90-120 minutes watching the FF go around exploring and fight some random person (its a superhero movie, its obviosuly going to have a fight with a bad guy at some point). Even if they don't use Doctor Doom (and I kind of hope they don't, although I'm also pretty sure they will) it would be cool to see Superskrull, or maybe have reed match his intelligence with the Mad Thinker or something. It would be awesome to see something involving the inhumans or Black Panther, but I'm sure it will never happen. Its most likely going to be an origin, and probably have Dr. doom or Galactus. As long as its done well thats fine, but I think they should maybe stay away from Doom and galactus. They are both good villains, but I hope they go with something a bit different. I don't want to see the FF wandering around the negative zone or anything in some Indiana Jones style scavenger hunt, I just want a villain who's not the same as the first FF movies (or atleast I want a real Galactus, not a cloud).
Wow, well if you didn't like Hickman's run, I guess you probably just don't like the Fantastic 4.
^Agreed.
I'd like to see the FF go up against the Mole-Man and his creatures from Monster Island.
I did like Hickman's run. I've read F4 since Civil war, and I enjoyed it from then to the end of Hickman's run (I know he started after CW, I just started reading F4 then), I'm just saying that I liked the more superhero type stuff during his run, as opposed to the multiverse of evil Reed Richard's or Future Franklin/Val Richards screwing around in the present. That stuff wasn't bad, its just not type of F4 story I prefer. The only stuff I outright didn't like was his interpretation of the inhumans (Black Bolt having a harem of wives from different types of inhumans was stupid and the books that include the inhumans now just ignore it like it never happened), the fact that he didn't realise that the Power Pack have aged in the last 20+ years (seriously, two of them were elementary school kids in a few issues, when the youngest is supposed to be 16 and I think the two oldest are over 18 now), the few weird issues involving the "Nu-World" stuff and Sue Storm becoming some kind of ambassador for a formerly secret civilization underwater. Besides that, his run was very good. I just liked some things more than others.
It was during the middle of Civil War that I finally bailed on Marvel (after gritting my teeth and hanging on for several years). I never heard about Black Bolt's harem. 
Of all the gazillions of superheroes out there, the Fantastic Four are definitely the silliest ones. When in a live action film a human turns into a rubber band that can wrap around the Millenium Wheel, I'm out.
It was during the middle of Civil War that I finally bailed on Marvel (after gritting my teeth and hanging on for several years). I never heard about Black Bolt's harem.
Civil War was when I was starting to be able to get into regular comic reading (its still my favorite Marvel event).
Black Bolt's harem was created when a bunch of "Inhumans" from other species just kind of appeared. Black Bolt had just came back to life (in a confusing and not really explained way) and he took one of each species as an extra wife. It was basically a giant FU to Medusa and made little sense (although BB having a bipedal horse wife was kind of funny). He had no reason to take extra wives, he didn't get some kind of big advantage or something. But, it looks like they're just pretending that the Black bolt harem don't exist, and I'm really glad for that.
^^ I'm vaguely tempted to join their online service to sample the current stuff and keep up. After all, I was a fan since the mid 60s. But when I hear about storylines and see art samples, I'm afraid the experience may be too painful.
Civil War was the quintessence of everything I hate about current pop culture fashion. All the characters had become corrupt and unlikeable, the interpersonal conflicts were forced and inconsistent, they were killing people off simply for the alleged shock value. And the writing and art were bad.
It's an interesting idea, in and of itself; it's a good way to show that we're dealing with an alien culture with different social norms (and an especially amusing way to do it, given the eternal confusion and discomfort with sexuality among the common people). But it's inconsistent with Black Bolt's characterization and history-- not that the current batch of creators cares about stuff like that.