A Fantastic Four Primer
By Dan Brown This column is for those readers who are considering going to see The Fantastic Four: First Steps but don’t know a lot about comics lore. Here’s your primer from an old FF fan. But be warned – I haven’t seen the movie (it lands in theatres Friday), so I can’t tell you exactly how much it differs from the comics. The first issue of Fantastic Four came out in 1961, and is generally considered the launching point for the Marvel Universe. It caused a sensation, making the rest of the Marvel lineup possible. Such heroes as Spider-Man and teams like the Avengers followed in the wake of the FF’s success. The title had a sci-fi flavour and introduced (or at least popularized) a number of superhero innovations. The main characters were Reed Richards, whose pliable mind is matched only by his elastic body; Sue Storm, who is Reed’s transparent wife, and is also able to project force fields; the hothead Johnny Storm, who can burst into living flame; and Ben Grimm, Reed’s college buddy, who looks like a pile of orange rocks. One of the main innovations is that while the FF have superhero names (Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Human Torch, the Thing), they do not have secret identities. Originally a group of astronaut explorers, they operate with the general public knowing their real identities. From the movie clips I’ve seen online, it looks as though the new film’s makers are leaning heavily into the FF’s status as a family. This is what sets them apart from other superhero teams like, say, the X-Men. And while they do have uniforms, they wear them only on the job. Another innovation is, as with so many families, the Fantastic Four is a dysfunctional one. Although Reed is the FF’s leader, they are constantly squabbling about something. This tension exemplified Marvel’s new breed of superheroes with real-world problems. This was all in contrast to DC’s emotionally constipated heroes – Superman and Batman among them. It was the brand difference that eventually put Marvel on top of the comics sales charts. The FF got their powers after a freak rocket accident. These aren’t necessarily considered a blessing, particularly by Grimm, who is a self-loather. The reluctant superhero was a relatively new concept at the time. Their adventures were cosmic in scope, and thanks to co-creator Jack Kirby’s pencil work, had a trippy vibe to them. The enemies they fought include Annihilus, ruler of a dimension called the Negative Zone. And the Sub-Mariner, who lorded over the Earth’s oceans. Doctor Doom was an old college rival of Mister Fantastic who had mastered the mystic arts en route to inventing a time machine. No villain better demonstrates the raison d’etre of the FF than Galactus. More than merely evil, Galactus is a planet-eater whose existence as a force of nature puts him beyond human morality. Our heroes have cheated him out of devouring Earth many a time. Again, judging from clips on the web, it looks as though Galactus will be the main adversary appearing in the new motion picture. Another innovation has the FF living in a real city, New York, not an anonymous one created for the comics. Kirby’s run as penciller on Fantastic Four ended after almost a decade. Since then, different artists have worked on the title, including sometime Canadian John Bryne whose time as FF artist/writer is considered by many to be second in importance only to Kirby and Stan Lee’s run. The team has had substitute members over the decades, always returning to the same core foursome. The comic, similar to any long-lived title, has had its creative ups and downs. There have, you may have heard, been previous Fantastic Four movies – none of them all that great. I thought the 2005 adaptation was a solid B movie, but suffered from how cheaply it was made. How low was its budget? They didn’t even have enough money to pay for the effects showing Grimm transforming into the Thing. Talk about made on the cheap. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
Gene Hackman’s Lex Luthor Makes Me Despair for the New Fantastic Four Movie
My purpose here isn’t to praise Gene Hackman’s acting skills, which were superlative, it’s to explain why his turn as Superman’s nemesis makes me itchy about the upcoming Fantastic Four movie. You likely heard Hackman had died. Since the news broke last week that his body had been discovered, there has been much discussion online about his greatest performance. Some argue he was at his peak in Hoosiers. Others say his most impressive turn came in The French Connection or Unforgiven or The Royal Tenenbaums. There’s so much to choose from. But for comic fans of a certain vintage, Gene Hackman will always be Lex Luthor.Starting in 1978, he played the crafty villain in three of the Superman movies that featured Christopher Reeves in the title role. Hackman brought a special blend of arrogance and charm to his version of the criminal mastermind, chewing scenery in a way that communicated to us young nerds that he was having a ton of fun inhabiting the bald bad guy. Wait, I just told you a lie. Yes, Lex Luthor is bald. But not when Hackman played him. And even though I wasn’t the biggest DC fan in the world, I understood enough of the Superman mythos to know that in the comics, Luthor had no hair. Heck, in some continuities Lex hates Supes because he blames the Kryptonian immigrant for his lack of locks. Hackman may have been an Oscar-calibre actor, but 10-year-old me just could not get past the hair. For whatever reason – perhaps the Superman producers wouldn’t pay him enough to shave his entire head – Hackman kept his own hair in those films. My educated guess is he didn’t want to go hairless, and since he was a big star his wishes were accommodated. What does this have to do with The Fantastic Four: First Steps, which is slated to land in theatres on July 25? Well, Hackman isn’t the only one with the requisite star power to avoid the barber’s blade. You can draw a line directly from Hackman to Pedro Pascal, who plays Mister Fantastic in the FF film. In the trailers and publicity photos we’ve seen so far, Pascal appears with his moustache intact. I fear the folks at Marvel Studios are humouring the Chilean-born actor by not demanding he shave. Granted, it’s a great moustache. For Pascal the celebrity. Not for Reed Richards the cerebral hero. As any fan of the Fantastic Four comics know, the FF leader is clean-shaven – with flecks of grey in the hair above his ears. That’s been his look, more or less, since the Marvel Age was launched with the publication of Fantastic Four No. 1 in 1961. It’s true in a handful of stories Reed is pictured with a beard. He has never, however, been one to rock a 1970s-style stache, no matter which artist is drawing him. Reed is a serious guy, not given to vanity, which is why in all the big-screen adaptations to date, he is free of facial hair. So you can see the problem: Hackman set a precedent that Pascal is following, and it’s got me worried I won’t be able to see past the whiskers when July rolls around. I agree bringing Pascal into the Marvel fold was a good idea. And who knows, there’s so much we don’t know about the FF movie. Maybe the stache disappears at some point in the film. Or perhaps this is a Sonic the Hedgehog situation and the production team will remove the facial hair using CGI before First Steps is released because fans like me are upset. If the producers want a really cool way to get rid of it, have Reed’s brother-in-law, the Human Torch, laser off the moustache the same way he gave the Submariner a shave and haircut way back in Fantastic Four No. 4. Or have Galactus blast it off. Or maybe it comes off when the FF joins the main Marvel Cinematic Universe, as is rumoured. There’s no question both Gene Hackman and Pedro Pascal ooze charm on the big screen. But just as I could not accept a Lex Luthor with a full head of hair back then, I won’t accept a Mister Fantastic with a bushy moustache this summer. No matter how much the Marvel brain trust needs for the FF movie to be a winner at the box office. Dan Brown has covered pop culture for more than 32 years as a journalist and also moderates L.A. Mood’s monthly graphic-novel group.
