4 issue test #44 - Marvel 2 in One

Want to talk about Marvel Legacy? No? It’s barely relevant any more anyway? There’s another f*cking relaunch happening at Marvel? OK, this is the last year I’m doing 4 issue tests, they were supposed to be a steady stream of titles throughout the year, these days every time I’m done with relaunch there’s another one ready to bite.

Let’s talk about Marvel Legacy, it’s a prelude to Marvel’s next event, less than a year after the end of Secret Empire (colour me shocked there) it brought back Wolverine and it offered a tease that the Fantastic 4 would reunite for the first time since Secret Wars.

At the end of Secret Wars, Reed basically remade the multiverse and he, his wife and kids are off exploring it. The Human Torch was a character in Uncanny Avengers as for the Thing? He briefly joined the Guardians of the Galaxy before being recruited into S.H.I.E.L.D. by Maria Hill, the same Maria Hill who had been relieved of her position in S.H.I.E.L.D. because of her amoral super villain prison. He was investigating Victor Von Doom, who came out of Secret Wars and for some reason decided to become Iron Man… yeah, I don’t get it either but I’m not reading his title so maybe there’s an explanation there.

On the writing duties for this… strangely named title is… Chip Zdarsky. You may remember him way back for being the writer of Jughead, I hated Jughead… but then his run on Spider-man has been well received so maybe it’s a sign I’ll like it.

#34 Fant4stic (Rage Issues 2 year anniversary)

It's Rage Issues' 2nd year anniversary!!!

And yeah, it’s been a while now, our last rage review was in January and you can blame Marvel for the onslaught of new comics I’ve been picking up and just the fact there’s TV to review. Last year I looked at something that came under an umbrella of things I’d been reviewing – the Avatar franchise had been one of biggest investments to review.

This year, we’re not doing that. This year, we’re looking at a movie so bad, so terrible that Rotten Tomatoes gives it a mere 9% rating. So bad that the director, Josh Trank tweeted out that there was a better version of the film, but the studio messed with his vision.

Sh*t. Yep, we’re back in studio interference territory. (And yes, it's sort of a continuation since I've reviewed the other 2 - see the hub page - link below) As Josh Trank, in a move that will likely kill his career for all time, if the movie didn’t already, tweeted that he had a better version before the studio touched it. Truth? Well, I’ve heard some disturbing stories about his behaviour on-set which indicate otherwise but let’s give the movie a chance. And by that I mean let’s rip this piece of sh*t a new one!

#28 - Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer

So, Fantastic 4 may have sucked but it made money so the inevitable sequel came out, and it sucks.

Released in 2007, this film managed only 37% on Rotten tomatoes and made $280m on it’s $130m budget, which is still more than the current movie is likely to make.

So I ask what makes a good comic book adaptation? Comic books characters have decades of history behind them making it quite difficult to come up with an idea that embraces the feel and spirit of the characters whilst also being unique in its own way. The biggest difference between a comic book adaptation and a book adaptation is the fact the story is (to an extent at least) completely original, it just stars the characters from the comic book.

Capturing the tone and feel of the characters is a struggle because the tone and feel of characters have changed over time through retcons and alternate universes. This is why I really didn’t mind the fact they went for the ultimate universe origins for the Fantastic 4 in their latest release, it makes sense to not re-tread old ground and release the same origin, like they did with Spider-man. (Spider-man’s origins in the mainstream and ultimate universe are pretty similar)

I don’t have a full answer for me take the cliff-notes versions of what the characters are like in the comics and craft a good story. The good story with well-paced and balanced action is key to a good superhero movie. Create a good dynamic between the characters and the rest will follow.

So, what goes wrong here? Let’s dive into Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer to find out.

#27 Fantastic 4

Oh boy, what was Marvel like before the cinematic universe, we had the Aang Lee Hulk movie, which sucked, we Spider-man movies which… in my personal opinion, sucked. Then we have the x-men movies produced by Fox. I confess I have not seen them, my love of Marvel started with the Avengers. (Maybe we’ll do a theme month with them, god knows there’s enough of them) so, Fox has a decent-ish record with the X-men, time to reboot the other marvel property they own, the Fantastic 4.

I’ll get to the new one when it comes out on DVD, there’s plenty to go through and to be honest, it’s worse than either of these but… that doesn’t stop them from being bad. Fox had gained the rights to Marvel’s characters in the 1990s and they would retain them as long as they keep making movies about them, the first one was made in 1994, but it was never released. Risking losing the rights back to Marvel, they decided to make another attempt for release in 2005

The film was financially successful, making $330m on its $100m budget, but gained a pretty poor critical response, only rated 27% on rotten tomatoes. This lead to it’s equally sh*tty (although in a very different way) sequel in 2007. But that’s for next week, let’s dig into to Fantastic 4.

I’ll be looking at the extended addition because that’s what I’ve got on my DVD.