It's been about ten days maybe two weeks since my last update. I apologize for not posting anything on the broadcast. I was away, working at a festival, a festival that being together bands and performers from around the world to my neck of the woods. It was fun, it was challenging and worth all the effort and time I invested in this event. While all of that was happening, I was thinking about my broadcast, what would I say when I had a chance to sit down in front my laptop again. Would I talk about my comics that's still all over my living room. Yeah when you're away for ten days to two weeks, I had to leave the comics where they were...or are. Anyway, I decided to talk about a group that I love.
My introduction to comics started with this group, a team, a family of heroes. The Fantastic Four. I was hooked on this comics when I first laid eyes on them.
I've mentioned this may times before, my first ever issue of Fantastic Four. This is FF issue 224 from November of 1980. Prisoners of the Space Gods, this cover is by Bill
Sienkiewicz and Joe Sinnott. What a comic it was for me. This was my introduction of the world of Marvel Comics and specifically the Fantastic Four. I still remember to this day the contents of this issue, a strange red mist descends on New York and
messes with the FF's powers. It looked like the FF were losing their slowly but surely. When they head to the Arctic to
investigate, they are captured are a huge knock down drag out fight by a race of scientific vikings who need
help with their dying god. I never found issue 225. Comics were considered a luxury those days. Even so I tried to keep track of my favorite quartet, some years later they would release a cartoon series. I was excited to say the least. I planted myself in front of the TV anticipating my favorite team in a cartoon which to me was as real as it could get. Except...
...for a tiny detail. Where's the Human Torch? I was devastated. Where's Johnny Storm? The "Flame" Guy? This was the first time I was dissapointed by people outside of the comics world. I know that they had to do it because they didn't want any young impressionable kids out there to try and Flame On like the Human Torch. I can accept that but HERBIE????? Anyway I watched the cartoon series almost religiously, despite their best efforts to erode my interest in the FF, I was still a fan. In fact I am still a fan to this very day.
My second ever issue of Fantastic Tour was this one, Issue 238. Look at the cover! I had never come across anything like this before. The cover was "talking to you" Dr. Doom was telling you that he is not in this Marvel Comic. I was in awe. Back in the day I had no idea that in a comic book, there would be a Writer, artist and so on. I don't know maybe I thought that these are the chronicles of the cosmically powered quartet. I was just immersed in that world and I loved it. What makes this issue important and also memorable to me is the guy holding the sign on the lower right hand corner. Yep that's John Byrne. He drew this cover, inked by Terry Austin. He also did the story, interior artwork and he even lettered this issue. This issue had two stories, one which saw Johnny discovering that his girlfriend Frankie
has developed superpowers similar to his own. As her repressed memories
return, she recalls how she gained her powers in an accident where her
stepfather, Professor Phineas T. Horton, tried to revive the original
Human Torch, the robot fighter from WWII.
The second story was equally as interesting and for me shocking. The back up story was written and drawn by Byrne, inked by Austin where Reed makes a robot to keep an eye on
Franklin. Reed tries once again to cure Ben of his rocky form but ends
up devolving him to a rougher rocky state, his new appearance was a shocker to me, I never thought something like this would happen. I was already a fan and thanks to John Byrne I was an even bigger fan.
Issue's like # 245 where Franklin Richard's powers go out of control
as he transforms into an adult and tries to make things the way he
thinks they should be. The Thing is returned to his rocky form is just one of the many many examples of the stories Byrne was creating during his run on Fantastic Four. The way Byrne showed the strength of Susan Storm in this issue was just groundbreaking and memorable. if you have not read it, I suggest you try and find this issue, it's a keeper.
Another favorite of mine, Issue 236 which is another issue by John Byrne. Story, Pencils and Inks by John Byrne. He had some help with the cover as Terry Austin did the inks for the cover. In this 20th Anniversary Issue, The Fantastic Four find themselves living in a
strange world with lives almost similar to their own, little knowing
that Doctor Doom has hooked them up to machines and transported them
there. Being the reader, you knew something was fishy and you knew the reveal was coming but the way the story was told remains a favorite of mine. A classic in my humble opinion.
Anyone read this issue where there were two separate but equally interesting stories? First one was am 11 page story The House That Reed Built, the story of how the Trapster attempts to infiltrate the Baxter Building. All that stands between the Trapster was HUBERT and Roberta. Read it, it's another Byrne Classic. The second story, Home Are The Heroes where Reed, Johnny and Ben disappear for the Secret
War and Sue is left with some of the Avengers trying to figure out
where everyone went. When they return, Sue learns that Ben has stayed
behind and She-Hulk is the newest member of the FF. Sue has
complications with the baby. Both stories were told without any battles, without and big fights and so on, just great story telling.
One of these days I'll talk about my collection of Fantastic Four Comics particularly the Byrne Issues but the issue I mentioned in the broadcast is just a small taste and sample for any new FF reader. Stories that are engaging and shows what the FF is really about, Family. That is something that's been missing from the UTTERLY DISASTROUS Fantastic Four Movies.
And I talking about all the Fantastic Four Movies. Ten years ago when they released the movie directed by Tim Story, I was already apprehensive, I was worried they would miss the mark and I was right, well half right. There was one good thing about this movie, we met the future Captain America in Chris Evans. The rest was well okay I guess. The movie had so much potential, so much potential and they blew it. They put Michael Chiklis in a rubber suit which to their credit looked exactly like a rubber suit. I don't know if they were trying to get that rubbery feel for the suit but they did it. It looked like a guy in an orange rubber suit. The rest of the movie wasn't great like Dr. Doom for example was again a little off the mark. But. That's not bad because they decided to make a sequel.
You know a movie is in trouble when the poster suspiciously reads: The Fantastic Rise Of The Silver Surfer Four. I'm not kidding. Some posters out there actually looked like " The Fantastic Rise of The Silver Surfer Four". Maybe it was my imagination but I swear that's what some posters read. usually a sequel would be a little better than the original, not always but sometimes. Well this sequel blew it's predecessor away with it's cheesy lines, lousy story and effects and poor acting from Alba and Gruffudd. It was bad but again to their credit Tim Story made the story, the movie dumber. The effects people did their best work here, the chicken.....sorry rubber suit worn by Michael Chiklis looked worse than before, extra latex I guess was added to really give it that real rubber look. The only good thing was Chris Evans, Lawrence Fishburne and Doug Jones. They did what they could with the crap they were given, these three deserve an Oscar each for delivering some of the worst lines ever written.
They even screwed with the Silver Surfer's powers and the ultimate insult to comic book fans was Galactus.
For this movie, Galactus was turned into a dust cloud, a really BIG dust cloud but a dust cloud nonetheless. A dust cloud??? Really? They screwed around with everything that has become part of The Fantastic Four. They put in stupid humour in the story and the script was so horrible. To make things worse, the choice of some actors were just terrible, like Andre Braugher as General Hager. Was that character written into the script just so he could spew some tough guy Generalissimo lines?? Really? The writers were so desperate to hand in a script they decided to put in characters from other movies? I'm surprised General Hager didn't smoke a cigar while twirling a 357 Magnum as he spewed his lines. Let's not forget Dr. Doom. I don't know what they were trying to do with this great character but again they missed the mark with him. Again.
I was hoping that after 2 disastrous movies, the rights for the Fantastic Four would go back to Marvel, well No such Luck. It was announced that a reboot of Fantastic Four would be made under the direction of Josh Trank. Well that announcement generated some interest but soon slowly but surely more news was released and slowly but surely a lot of the news they released was poorly received by fans like me. Hey even Marvel wasn't fond of the direction the film was going, and made mention
of it in a Marvel Comic: "The Punisher" #14 has the Four (in the
likeness of the cast members of this film) get taken down in an
explosion.
I was a little surprised at their casting choices for their reboot. I thought Kate Mara was a good choice but I wasn't really sure about everyone else. I was also surprised when they decided to make Johnny Storm an African American. That was surprising. This movie looked like it was doomed (sorry couldn't resist) from the start with every little bit of news about it getting some really bad reactions. And I guess right fully so.
In a quickly deleted tweet from 6th August, 2015, the director Josh Trank "A year ago I had a fantastic version of this. And it would've
received great reviews. You'll probably never see it That's reality
though." After seeing this version, the studio mandated heavy re-shoots.
The newer scenes are easy to spot as actress Kate Mara had cut her hair
and wore a blonde wig.When they were filming this movie, a lot of bad reviews were written, a lot of bad press was all over it and still the cast did what they could to defend the movie. But the writing was already on the wall. This was going to be another disaster but no one knew how bad it would be.
It was bad. The movie was just released and the reviews were horrible, just horrible. If you checked www.imdb.com, the rating for this movie was a 3.9. That is really really bad.
Here's some of the reasons why this movie sucked:
Kate Mara who plays Susan Storm had initially
wanted to read Fantastic Four comic books to prepare for her role, but the filmmakers explained to cast that it was
unnecessary as the film was an original story not based directly on the
comics.
After director Trank
finalized his version of the film in 2014, the studio, seemingly
dissatisfied with the director's work, demanded re-shoots, which were
done in early 2015.
The first time in a live action Fantastic Four movie in which The Thing is not wearing pants or boots. (I threw that one in, it's just funny......no it's creepy)
There is no end-credit-scene in this movie or a cameo of Stan Lee.That's just a few of the many many many reasons why this film sucked.
The movie had only been released for a day when director Josh Trank
apologized for the film and claimed he had a better version of it a year
ago but we would never see it.
After the disappointing reviews director Josh Trank went on to tweet
that "He'll never be working on a comic book movie again". Thank god!
Here's something Fox Studios should read, it's helpful I believe in planing their next step.
http://screenrant.com/fantastic-four-movie-rights-marvel/
I went to the movies yesterday, I had the choice of watching a movie about four individuals fighting an enemy who hates them starring an actor many had given up on, saying that his star power had faded. This movie was well written and the actors were good. Talented people. The director wrote and produced a movie called The Usual Suspects. www.imdb.com gave this movie a 7.9 rating.
The other movie was Fantastic Four, a movie produced by a bunch of idiots who had NO respect for the source material, had no idea what they were doing, had no brains to speak of. The movie was directed by a punk who directed 3 (?????) movies in total????? www.imdb.com gave this one a 3.9 rating.
Guess which one I watched. Please Fox, give up the rights to Fantastic Four, don't do anymore damage, you've done enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment