Fantastic Four

FF #2

/ / Comics

ff-2-coverThe team is introduced to its newest member – Doctor Doom! Let’s just say The Thing is less than pleased. And he’s not the only one.

The FF travels to Latveria to restore their greatest enemy to full strength…because a young girl promised they would. Okay, the logic of that is more than a little iffy. There’s really no reason for Reed and Sue to agree to this just to placate Valeria, no matter what she and Reed’s father say needs to happen.

In any case, Doom is reborn and then immediately sets out to make good on his promise to Valeria. Let’s just say the Future Foundation isn’t going to like this much either.

There are some nice moments including the Moloids being taken aback by Spider-Man’s intellect and an intriguing conversation between Sue and Ben over a couple of beers that has the word “foreshadowing” written all over it. Things are a little wonky for the FF these days, but at least they aren’t boring. Worth a look.

[Marvel, $3.99]

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FF #1

/ / Comics

ff-1-coverJohnny Storm is dead and, for at least now, so is the Fantastic Four. With FF #1 writer Jonathan Hickman launches the remaining members of the team, their extended family, and one Webhead into a new series of adventures.

In this first issue Spider-Man joins the team getting yet another costume change. The new group gets their first action by attempting to stop A.I.M. from breaking the Wizard out of prison. Things do go all that well.

On the plus side there are some nice touches throughout including Spidey’s hestitancy and troubling finding his place with the team, the Thing’s grief, a comment Reed Richard’s father makes over dinner, and a surprise appearance by an old enemy an unlikely new ally for the new team.

I’m not quite sold on the look of costumes (although I do like Sue’s explanation for the color scheme) and as first issues go it does a pretty good job of setting the table. I also find it humorous that Marvel went all Dynamite Entertainment with the crazy number of variants for this one.

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Fantastic Four #587

/ / Comics

fantastic-four-587-coverThe second to last issue of this incarnation of the Fantastic Four (Marvel plans to relaunch the title as FF) is a pretty good indication why it’s time to close the book on these characters. This isn’t a bad comic, but, for almost all of the issue, it misses the point.

The Fantastic Four aren’t the Avengers, they aren’t the Defenders, and they aren’t the Guardians of the Galaxy. They’re family, and the characters work best when their comic focuses not on the latest galactic threat but the interactions between its four main characters.

Issue #587 splits the team up into three separate tales. Reed Richards tries to save the inhabitants of a doomed world from Galactus (in what might be his most boring cameo in any Marvel book, ever), Sue Storm attempts to broker peace between Namor and the tribes of Old Atlantis, and Ben and Johnny try to save the Reed children, and the rest of the world, from an Annihilus Wave attempting to break through from the Negative Zone.

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Not Craptastic, but Far From Fantastic

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
  • IMDb: link

“All that you know is at an end.”

rise-of-the-silver-surfer-posterI love the Silver Surfer. He is one of my favorite Marvel Comics heroes (though not my favorite Marvel character).  When news broke that the team that created the suckfest known, at least by me, as Craptastic Four was getting a chance to ruin this character as well I started stocking up on ammunition.  The film is far from the total desaster I imagined, and in truth the makers have made some great strides from the first film (this one is actually watchable without raising my blood pressure to dangerous levels).  I guess I could give it a pass just on improvement and effort, but although it’s not craptastic, like its predecessor, it’s far from fantastic.

Things pick up some months (years?) after the last movie.  Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) and Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) are preparing to marry, Johnny (Chris Evans) is still a media-whore, and Ben (Michael Chiklis) is still made of what appears to be orange spray-painted foam.  To be fair, the look of the Thing is an improvement from the last film (they must have spent at least $50 on his costume this time), but what is up with Jessica Alba’s eyes?  Is she a scientist who can turn invisible or some weird alien creature?

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Fantastic Flop

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Fantastic Four
  • IMDB: link

Sometimes you go to movies with low expectations and are pleasantly surprised because the movie is better than you expected.  This is not that film.  I walked out of Fantastic Four with a strange sense of bewilderment that no one tried to stop this train wreck from being shown.  Didn’t anyone on set see how bad this was?  Did no one at the studio level watch dailies, or by watching them did they see their careers end and decided they’d rather jump off the top of Fox headquarters than bring this up with the brass? 

I would have thought someone at Marvel or 20th Century Fox would have had the good sense to burn every last reel of this turkey.  Even if you had to burn the entire building to the ground, it would still be a better solution than unleashing this thing on an unsuspecting public.  It is almost impossible to describe how bad this film is, but I have a mission to make sure as few people’s lives are ruined as possible by witnessing this atrocity firsthand, so I will do my best.

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