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...it's rumored to be based on Fantastic Four (First Series) issues #48-50.
Those issues featured the Inhumans. But they're better known for being the first Galactus story.
For those of you not familiar with the plot, let's just say it's basically the Fantastic 4 fight an omnipotent being...or "What of we do a story where the F4 fight God?", as the infamous (possibly apocryphal) Stan Lee quote on where the story came from goes.
It's a classic.
Bleah. I almost wish they had chosen the Mole Man, or the Frightful Four. Botching Galactus will be almost as bad as...getting the Dark Phoenix Saga wrong. (Hi, X-3!)
Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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Here's the big thing: Galactus storyline = dumb. I can't honestly think of a way to FIX that storyline in a manner that would remove or ameliorate the Dumb.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Either you've posted before on the reasons why you dislike trippy 60s Kirby/Lee comics and thus felt no reason to explain that again here, and I missed the thread
-or-
You're posting in a thread just to remark that you have no interest in it.
Which is what "That story was dumb because it just -equaled- dumbness" amounts to. Posts: 6689 | Registered: Jan 2005
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I know nothing of the comics, but I did see the first movie. It seemed to me like they got all the superpowers that none of the X-Men wanted. Like Mr. Bendy, or whatever? No way is that ever going to be cool, except as a party trick.
The 'Mole Man' sounds very intriguing though. I think I'd pay good money to see that.
Posts: 1528 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I have no problem with trippy comics. I have problems with catastrophically DUMB comics, which the whole Galactus sequence is.
I mean, it's so incredibly dumb that you can't even parody it properly.
A giant planet-eater with the power of a god drops by to eat Earth, his arrival heralded by Biblical signs and portents, an ominous Watcher, and an actual HERALD -- a surfing space alien who just happens to resemble a human being. He shrinks himself down to better fit into New York (as a building), which makes it possible for our heroes to at least appear in roughly the same frame as some of his body parts when they do heroic things.
And then our heroes win.
*shudder* There is not a single, solitary MOMENT in the entire Galactus storyline -- probably not even a single panel -- which does not drip with the Stupid.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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I have no idea what you're talking about, BUT more Ioan Gruffudd = good. That said, it'll wait for video rental.
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Hehe, I agree, Dagonee. That's one of the few episodes of the Tick I've seen, but I really dug it.
Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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quote:Originally posted by Bella Bee: I know nothing of the comics, but I did see the first movie. It seemed to me like they got all the superpowers that none of the X-Men wanted. Like Mr. Bendy, or whatever? No way is that ever going to be cool, except as a party trick.
Oh. My. God. I think you just caused me physical pain.
I wish they'd never created the X-Men. Bella, you do realize that the Fantastic Four came first, right?
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Puffy Treat: ...it's rumored to be based on Fantastic Four (First Series) issues #48-50.
I read about it here. They have a cute photoshopped image of what such a movie might look like.
But given the way they messed Dr. Doom up, I imagine Galactus will come out as some crime lord with the nickname "Galactus", and the Silver Surfer will be some blond surfer dude enforcer.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Bella Bee: I know nothing of the comics, but I did see the first movie. It seemed to me like they got all the superpowers that none of the X-Men wanted. Like Mr. Bendy, or whatever? No way is that ever going to be cool, except as a party trick.
Oh. My. God. I think you just caused me physical pain.
I wish they'd never created the X-Men. Bella, you do realize that the Fantastic Four came first, right?
You're kidding, right? No, it's the FF that should've died horrible deaths on the drawing board -- the X-Men and Spiderman are among Marvel's few franchises with genuine worth.
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
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quote:Originally posted by Bella Bee: I know nothing of the comics, but I did see the first movie. It seemed to me like they got all the superpowers that none of the X-Men wanted. Like Mr. Bendy, or whatever? No way is that ever going to be cool, except as a party trick.
Oh. My. God. I think you just caused me physical pain.
I wish they'd never created the X-Men. Bella, you do realize that the Fantastic Four came first, right?
You're kidding, right? No, it's the FF that should've died horrible deaths on the drawing board -- the X-Men and Spiderman are among Marvel's few franchises with genuine worth.
<sigh> The X-Men were tolerable before that horrible Dazzler story when they turned being a mutant into a metaphor for any minority that ever gets discriminated against.
I guess this is one of the reasons I prefer DC. The Fantastic Four are icons, like Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman and the Flash. They can have angst, too, but at least there's something there to care about.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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Yea, Galatus is totally unbelievable, but 4 people being hit by the same radiation wave causing them to mutate 4 different really useful superpowers is...
If you want the story to work all you would have to do is to change Galactus to a very powerful (not omnipotent) alien who want to strip the earth of all its natural resources. He got lots of superior tech, but has some sort of Achilles heal the FF will find out and use... Seemed to worked well enough for Independence Day, at least if you look at the ticket sales.
Posts: 555 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Rakeesh: I'd be happy but surprised if any sequel involving Galactus wasn't as sappy and stupid as Independance Day.
"Hey, I've got a laptop computer. I can interface with this alien network!"
Come on, that's totally believable. I can't get my laptop to network with a printer, but Jeff Goldblume can do anything with a computer, just look at him.
Posts: 555 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:If you want the story to work all you would have to do is to change Galactus to a very powerful (not omnipotent) alien who want to strip the earth of all its natural resources.
Except that he'd still be a silly giant humanoid of variable size followed around by quasi-Biblical imagery.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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Many of the Superhero stories have lots of quasi-biblical imagery. There is usually a self sacrificing hero who is trying to save all of humanity from some evil power.
Have you seen the teaser trailer for “Superman Returns”. The last line is something like, "… for this reason I am sending them you, my only son" . Now where have I heard that before?
Heroes reflect their society’s values. Many of which in America are still based in Judeo-Christian values.
Posts: 555 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Many of the Superhero stories have lots of quasi-biblical imagery.
Yes. But not literal plagues, signs of Armageddon, etc. To link these signs of Armageddon to the arrival of a two-legged alien with the world's stupidest hat is, in a word, Dumb.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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"Have you seen the teaser trailer for Superman Returns...Now where have I heard that before?"
That's MarlonBrando's reading of JorEl being used in promo-only as a nostalgia tie-in to the ChristopherReeve movies.
"Heroes reflect their society’s values. Many of which in America are still based in Judeo-Christian values."
Superman is a combination of the Jewish Messiah in prophesy and Jewish golem mythology: hence the name KalEl.
"...the whole Galactus sequence is...so incredibly dumb that you can't even parody it properly. "The Tick parody of it was brilliant."
Try Fairly OddParents: Abra-Catastrophe!. Starts as a wish leading to the Planet of the Apes and ends with a send-up of Marvel, Galactus/RedSkull/Thanos/etc, the CosmicCube/InfinityGems/etc, JackKirby art, and comic book retconning*.
I have no problem with people significantly varying from the comic books; it is not as though it is scripture. Just as long as the outcome is entertaining.
FF4 this last summer was -terrible- so I have no great hopes for the sequel.
Posts: 202 | Registered: Aug 2005
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The Galactus storyline actually worked well in the comics, but to put it in a move . . . no. How did they get rid of him, again? Mr Fantastic whips out the Ultimate Nullifier, Galactus gets scared, runs off? Nah. The Silver Surfer might be worth a storyline. Galactus isn't.
I'd heard somewhere they'd planned on putting Franklin Reed in there somewhere. He's one of the few Omega Class Marvel heroes, so that could be interesting.
I much prefer the X-Men to the Fantastic Four. The FF just get corny, and they tend to be so two-dimensional. I like what they did with them in Marvels, making them out to be the royalty of the Marvel Universe, but that's as much as I can stomach.
I wish Marvel would start working the Marvel Universe into their movies. The coolest thing in the Marvel Comics was that all the characters interacted and lived in mostly the same area. I mean, the Scarlet Witch was an Avenger first, never really a mutant--but she's also Magneto's daughter, and regardless of what's said, her brother Quicksilver (also an ex-Avenger) tends more toward the mutant side than anything else. Wanda first turned up in X-Men, but she moved around quite a bit, and has affected a lot of the Marvel Universe with the House of M storyline. Frankly, I'd like at least a passing acknowledgement to the presence of other superheroes.
Posts: 1735 | Registered: Oct 2004
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"Hey, I've got a laptop computer. I can interface with this alien network!"
Personal peeve: on the Independence Day DVD, in the deleted scenes, is a quick, less-than-two-minute clip that comes after the scene in the movie when the prez directs Goldblum to work with the people at Area 51 and tell them what he's found out. He climbs inside the ship and he and the tech exchange a few words about computing power and compatibilities and what they've figured out in the 50 years they've had the ship and what Goldblum has discovered from the signal he picked up.
Stupid little teeny scene cut for time, but had it been left in the virus scene later would have been much easier to accept, instead of becoming the bit of the movie that everyone (rightfully) picks on.
Peeve over, return to your homes.
I liked the X-Men up until issue 175 or so, and after that I lost interest because soap operas bore me and I didn't have enough time in the day to keep track of the ever-changing cast. Except for Wolverine, he was easy: he was everywhere. It was impossible to have a storyline in the 80's/early 90's that didn't include Wolverine at some point. Unless it included the Punisher. DC was no better, they were busy shoving Lobo into everything. I completely lost interest in Wolverine from over-exposure and because Marvel felt compelled to explain him. The more we found out about him, the less interesting he was to me. Finally I stopped reading everything except for Cerebus, Strangers in Paradise, and anything Neil Gaiman. It was many long years before I was finally lured back into the comic store by Bendis, Miller, Ellis, Busiek, and a few others.
This is also why I love Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men, because it looks like he preferred the same era of X-Men that I did.
I'd like to see the FF movie people dig through John Byrne's run and pull some stuff out of that. Much like he did later with Superman, Byrne applied a decent amount of common sense and fun to the book. Sadly, later on he went crazy. If that won't work, they should talk to Bendis and Miller and yank some story out of Ultimate FF.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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FF #2 should be interesting. My biggest complaint (among many) about the first movie was the incredibly small scale of the threat they faced. They rescued a fire truck. And they wrecked part of the city fighting a bad guy that they were instrumental in creating, who was (at the time) only attacking them. I think the police should have hauled them all in for public brawling and destruction of property. The Fantastic Four should be waging epic battles, not trading shots with a former business partner who can shoot lightning bolts now.
So now, for my sins, it looks as though I'm getting an FF movie that's ridiculously epic. Sigh.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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quote:Originally posted by SC Carver: Yea, Galatus is totally unbelievable, but 4 people being hit by the same radiation wave causing them to mutate 4 different really useful superpowers is...
Well, to be fair, almost all Marvel heroes got their powers from radiation. Stan Lee and company were terrified of the Bomb. It was kind of like Godzilla. The Fantastic Four, The Hulk, Spiderman, the X-everything... it's all just Cold War trauma.
Posts: 12266 | Registered: Jul 2005
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quote:Here's the big thing: Galactus storyline = dumb. I can't honestly think of a way to FIX that storyline in a manner that would remove or ameliorate the Dumb.
Did you see the first movie? If that was any indication, I'm not sure the producers are worried one bit about taking the Dumb out of the Fantastic 4 series... Posts: 8120 | Registered: Jul 2000
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1. Do we just assume that if you have one superpower (say flying, being able to control weather or fire lasers out of your eyes) that you automatically get either super tough or super fast healing powers. Because in every story with a superhero they are going to get thrown through brick walls, punched so hard they fly 40ft through the air or can in some other way take punishment that would kill an other wise normal person instantly.
2. Do you think the superhero trend that started with first X-men and Spiderman movies was a reaction to 9-11? People subconsciously wanting to feel like there was someone fighting for truth and justice in a time of trouble.
3. When do you see this trend dying down?
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To link these signs of Armageddon to the arrival of a two-legged alien with the world's stupidest hat is, in a word, Dumb.
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