Tag: Fantastic Four

Deano’s answer to: “Why aren’t more superhero movies better?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

Showing us how someone got super powers? Boring.

Showing us what they do with those powers, and showing (not telling) us why? THE HOTNESS.

In short, all Superhero movies need to do to dramatically improve in quality and performance is pretty simple: stop treating the superpower as the main character.

They don’t need to explode bigger stuff. They don’t even need to win. Just present us with a damn good explanation for why Sue Storm isn’t the world’s richest paparazzi(*), and we’ll be happy.

M. Night Shyamalan gets a bad rap, because, er, most of his movies are terrible. But, he actually made a really great superhero epic no one really thinks about anymore, Unbreakable. All he did was make a superhero movie about real people, where the powers were very much secondary to the story. We need more movies like that.

Superhero movies are still movies. Powers are props and plot points, you still need an actual story, and identifiable characters. Even in cases where the overall story is very well known (Superman), there’s a ton of room for insights that delight and surprise twists that keep us wondering…

(* Despite the extensive grassroots petitioning, however, we really don’t need an explanation why her boyfriend doesn’t work in porn.)

This answer originally appeared on Quora: Why aren’t more superhero movies better?

Deano’s answer to: “Who is stronger: The Hulk or The Thing?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

It depends on the Hulk. Kinda.

At various times, the Hulk has had:

  • A fairly “stable” power level, affected only slightly to moderately by his anger level
  • A power level (and even physical body) that increased in direct proportion to anger level
  • A power level (and physical body) that decreased in direct proportion to anger level (‘Smart Hulk, Savage Banner’ – some of the most interesting modern Hulk stories in the modern era)
  • Many, many other permutations of the above (The Maestro, various Banner/Hulk splits, Grey Hulk, etc etc).

The Thing, honestly, would have a hard time beating down any of these (Savage Banner excluded)… Nevertheless, The Thing tends to be depicted as being “Stronger than a Hulk at rest”, that is, having a more consistent strength that can beat a “barely transformed classic Hulk”, and able to stand toe-to-toe against a moderately angry one.

The only problem is... There appears to be no limit to the rage potential of the Hulk, and fighting tends to make him more angry (he just wants to be left alone, after all).

Thus, whether they are fighting each other, or even working together, even if the Thing starts out stronger than the Hulk, that advantage will inevitably give way to the ever-increasing power level of the Hulk, at least until whatever conflict/issue is resolved that allows Big Green to calm down again.

This answer originally appeared on Quora: Who is stronger: The Hulk or The Thing?

Deano’s answer to: “Did the Invisible Woman (Invisible Girl) have a catch phrase?”

Posted on by Deano in Q & A

For the vast majority of her existence – No.

Susan Storm was largely the token girl[*] on the Fantastic Four team, a good princess-figure in semi-constant need of rescue despite her quite formidable abilities. Indeed, despite the vast number of comely intelligent women in the Marvel Universe, she was fought over fairly constantly by several of the FF’s male antagonists Doctor Doom, Namor, and even occasionally the Mole Man and other 2nd-tier garbage. Perhaps if she had a catch phrase back then, it would’ve been “Save me, Reed!”

(Nothing will save her from this spanking, though – Photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/gru…)

Starting in the late 90s/early aughts, however, she has been known to throw the occasional bad pun, especially if it relates to a general “women not being invisible anymore” theme. This was also reflected in various costume changes, which were (ironically?) much more revealing than in her earlier incarnations…

(She’s also awesome to cosplay – you don’t even need to show up to the con – photo courtesy http://www.flickr.com/photos/vic…)

Digging through back issues, and a few pizza-stained comic geek friends[†], though, the best I can come up is the following: “The Female of the species is more deadly than the male.” 

(Er, Rudyard Kipling was not… visibly a woman, so it makes sense… Photo courtesy of ancient history)

In summary, it’s kinda pulling at straws to come up with a real catchphrase for Sue Storm. And honestly, comics in general are kinda over catchphrases, so I’m not sure we’ll see a good one arise in the future. Still, the FF has almost always been written and drawn by men, and 3/4ths of the team are guys. Perhaps, with a woman’s touch?[ª]

[* as referred to in the question, her original “code name” was Invisible Girl, not Invisible Woman. Get with the times, Stan!]

[† thanks to Robert McCarthy (howcomics.com), especially, for the much needed assist here and there]

[ª Just, please, not this woman: http://barbara.guanabee.com/2011… ]

This answer originally appeared on Quora: Did the Invisible Woman (Invisible Girl) have a catch phrase?