Month: November 2004

Remember how fans were going nuts when word was going around that the Fantastic Four movie was going to treat the FF like a humorous family comedy.

Well, based on the evidence of Pixar’s “The Incredibles,” it might well have worked, because that’s essentially what “TI” is. The powers of the Thing, Invisible Girl, and Mr. Fantastic are all there (albeit switched around somewhat) as is the Fantasticar. Not to mention Iceman and Quicksilver.

Nevertheless, Ti remains wholly original and wholly fun. The first Pixar film that actually could have worked as live action, the sophistication of its script might actually some of the very youngest in the audience who are expecting “Finding Nemo II.” And, frankly, they could have trimmed the script and picked up the pace (for instance, a scene involving young Dash getting in trouble at school could have been trimmed to a ten second flashback and incorporated into the dinner scene, since all the information we learn from that scene is present in the dinner sequence). So know your kid before bringing him or her.

Particularly hysterical is the voice work of writer/director Brad Bird on costumer designer Edna, who looks like the love child of Linda Hunt and Yoda, and gives a hilarious dissertation on something fans have discussed for ages: Why capes simply aren’t practical. The identity of our heroes’ nemesis is telegraphed early, but fortunately it’s then revealed about halfway into the film, so it’s not some climactic Scooby-Doo reveal saved for the end that we all saw coming.

Plus the film makes fun of everything from superhero cliches, such as a villain “monologuing,” to educational cliches, such as mom Elastigirl tells her educationally-challenged son, “Every child is special,” to which Dash sardonically but correctly replies, “If everyone is special, then NO ONE is special.” A savvy comment on the blanderizing of America in which mediocrity can reap great rewards while quality withers on the vine.

Overall a far more “human” movie than a lot of movies with genuine human casts.

As for the FF film, I can tell you with authority (but without going into detail) that it is not at all the goofball comedy as first reported, but instead faithful in tone and style to the Lee/Kirby comics. There’s some major changes in terms of the origin, but less than what they did in “Ultimate FF,” and besides, c’mon–four people trying to get to the moon before the Russians? Just a TAD dated. How do I know this? Because I’ve been hired by Pocket Books to do the novelization of the film. So this’ll be my fourth novelization of a Marvel comics movie.

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The penultimate issue in the current storyline which has already received rave notices in the latest thefourthrail.com from both reviewers. Plus we finally used the freakin’ Kaluta cover that I ran in this blog nearly two years ago.

So whad’ja think?

I did an interview a while back that has just appeared in The Pulse, and at the time that I did it, the decision had just been made that the limited series was going to be folded into the ongoing title. So that’s fairly old news, but since the interview is just hitting now, I think people are misinterpreting and thinking there’s been some new development and that I’m now writing the book indefinitely.

Uh, no. Nothing’s changed. “Tempest Fugit” will be Hulk #77-81, and #82 will be a stand alone story, and for the time being that’s all that I’ve committed to and that Marvel’s committed to. Anything beyond that depends on a variety of factors, not the least of which is sales.

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