Current Events > Tbh, I never got the "Fantastic Four are boring" thing

(+) Yeah! (+)

Like, as much as I like Superman, I can sorta see where people are coming from there. Especially since I did hold that opinion in my foolish youth. >_>

But with F4 you got:
-super genius with stretchy powers
-man who becomes living flame
-a rock monster with super strength
-an extremely powerful woman with invisbility and force fields

and together they go on wacky space adventures!

What so boring about that? >_>

Anyway, glad it seems they're finally getting the respect they deserve now that they have an actual good movie out.

I'd have to assume it's exposure.

Even Supes has other media outside the comics going for him, but for the last twenty-odd years the main impression non-comic-readers would get from FF is a string of failed movies.

DrizztLink posted...

I'd have to assume it's exposure.

Even Supes has other media outside the comics going for him, but for the last twenty-odd years the main impression non-comic-readers would get from FF is a string of failed movies.

Well Marvel only has themselves to blame for that one, keeping them on ice for 10 years because they didn't have the movie rights...

i dont really understand that notion for any hero. at least in theory

They're basically X-men, both in design and power level, but there are only 4 of them instead of a lot.

Ivynn posted...

Well Marvel only has themselves to blame for that one, keeping them on ice for 10 years because they didn't have the movie rights...

outside of films marvel in general is terrible at giving exposure to its characters

most peoples first exposure to them comes from that movie in 2004, the one where they spend 90% of the run time not actually working together and the only likable character is ben grimm.

@ImAMarvel knows what I'm talkin about

They always seemed boring and lame to me. They didnt check any boxes that stuck out to me as a casual comic book fan growing up to make me want to check them out.

Their costumes were boring, they looked like generic white guys with a hot girl and a rock creature their powers looked lame and comical. The invisible girl seems like shed be useless on the outside, and shes so hot why would you make her invisible right? And Mister Fantastic looks like a goof when he uses his powers.

My dad had liked them though, so I think they did have an appeal to an older generation or something. They just werent cool to me next to the X-Men, Batman, Spiderman, Spawn etc.

Stretch powers amount to one dick joke and then its dumb.

For me personally its just their adaptions for cartoons and movies has always been on the weaker side.

When it comes to marvel comics I only occasionally read x-men stuff (and spin-offs like that first runaways series. Damn thats good stuff). However I'm willing to give other groups a chance if I ever caught a interesting movie or cartoon about'em. Fantastic four imo took forever to get this.

The one cartoon I actually do remember liking was that one in 2006 I think it was. Kind of had the same vibes as 2000s teen titans' in where I had a minor anime aesthetic to it, and I was all about that. After that cartoon was a thing then I was all like "man, the fantastic 4 are alright".

That one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxaBXgaH53w

Since I'm on the subject I didn't get into teen titans either until it's 2000s cartoon came around.

I think a big piece of it is the kind of stories non-comics media like to tell about Fantastic Four. Which are generally standard super hero fair. Super hero fair that isn't even confident in its weirdness.

While the Fantastic Four are super heroes, it's largely second to being cosmic explorers. So much of Marvel's universe is built off the backs of things that the Fantastic Four ran into on some weird as fuck adventure. When you confine them to normal super heroes save New York stories it just under sells the DNA of the characters.

FIRST STEPS SPOILERS:
It's why I think the best part of First Steps is when they go out into space to investigate Galactus.

Yeah the space adventure was the best part of the movie. Maybe they should have just made the whole movie about a space adventure. Would have been FANTASTIC

Pikachuchupika posted...

Yeah the space adventure was the best part of the movie. Maybe they should have just made the whole movie about a space adventure. Would have been FANTASTIC

Say that again.

(I don't think I'll ever get tired of that lol)

No, I don't want to say it!

Fine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUjX_n8cBgE

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


I'm not gonna pretend I'm some huge FF fan either, but I always respected their contributions to the wider Marvel universe.

people say they never had a good movie (until now) but they've also never had a good cartoon. The 60s and 70s one was bland Hanna-Barbera fare, and the 90s one....looked weird. What's with the bouncy animation? lol

Frostshock posted...

They're basically X-men, both in design and power level, but there are only 4 of them instead of a lot.

Spider-Man is basically an X-Man but there's only 1 of him.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Huh, I don't remember that one. I guess it wasn't promoted heavily.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


Yeah, but that was an Avengers show that I STILL DO NOT FORGIVE DISNEY FOR CANCELLING

It's purely an aesthetic thing for me. I've never given them enough of a chance to really know much about the characters beyond that. The color scheme is bleh, the costumes are just kind of single-color full body skintight suits with like sashes or whatever, stretching is a weird superpower that it would be really hard to not make cheesy, and the stone monster guy is like the most generic stone monster guy ever (to be fair, that might be because all the other stone monsters are copying him; I really don't know). And don't they fight the Silver Surfer? The guy who is literally just a guy whose skin is chrome instead of skin... who has a surfboard? I just... did anyone design these characters at all?

I dunno, maybe I should give it a try. There must be some reason they're one of the more prominent comic book IPs.

Mostly exposure. I somehow have never learned much at all about the Fantastic 4, and they've never seemed interesting enough to look into.

I know Mole Man because he's on the cover of the first issue, Dr. Doom because he's Dr. Doom, Silver Surfer and Galactus, Franklin Richards is somehow a god and also just sort of there, and apparently in the Ultimate universe Reed Richards gets cucked by Namor >_>

That's it, that's the extent of what I've gathered through cultural osmosis.

Meanwhile Superman propaganda is just better. I used to think Superman was boring and I somehow knew quite a bit about him before I ever properly read him.