The Four Color Media Monitor

That's what this Variety article is wondering, based on some of the announcements made for whatever plans Disney has for yet another adaptation of the comic on which Marvel really took off when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby began the groundswork for new takes on superheroes in the Silver Age. But, there's a certain actor who's already cast, who's very alienating no matter what era this planned movie'll be set in:

By the end of this decade, the same might be said for the four actors who were just cast as the titular superheroes in Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four”: Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Joseph Quinn and Ebon Moss-Bachrach. Like Downey, all of these actors have had recent experiences with big-budget productions — Pascal with “The Mandalorian” and “The Last of Us,” Kirby with the two most recent “Mission: Impossible” films, Quinn with “Stranger Things” and Moss-Bachrach with “Andor.” But, also like Downey, none of them have headlined their own studio action blockbuster before signing up with Marvel.

Ugh, I am so uncomfortable with an actor who already wrote nasty comments about Trump, among other far-left blabberings. We're at a point in history where a live action performer's presence can be a serious detractor if and when they make divisive statements. That said, here's the really bizarre part of this whole movie project:

What is most tantalizing about Wednesday’s announcement, however, is the way Marvel went about it, with a playful illustration of the actors as their characters celebrating Valentine’s Day. From the retro title treatment, to the mid-century modern costumes and furniture, to the fact that Ben appears to be reading an issue of Life magazine from December 1963, it seems pretty clear that “The Fantastic Four” will be set in the 1960s.

More to the point, that suggests that “The Fantastic Four” will exist in a parallel universe separate from the core MCU — if there was a family of space age superheroes who were contemporaries of Peggy Carter and Howard Stark, we probably would’ve heard about them by now. Instead, Marvel appears to be using this film to give itself a literal fresh start, allowing audiences to walk into this movie without necessarily having to know anything about the 50-plus MCU titles that will precede it.

Of course, eventually, the Fantastic Four will join the main MCU — most likely in 2027’s “Avengers: Secret Wars,” which (if it follows the storyline from the 2015 comics run of the same name) will involve multiple parallel universes colliding with each other. That might lead to a brand new, semi-rebooted MCU with the Fantastic Four (and the X-Men, as suggested by the post-credits scene of “The Marvels”) at its center.

Forget it, it's much too late, and again, Pascal is a very unpleasant presence. Besides, it's worth remembering that Captain Marvel was also set in a past era, the 1990s, and that didn't make it entertaining at all. Nor was Brie Larson a very pleasing presence with her own ideological leanings. For all we know, no matter what era it's set in, it could all still add down to a woke mess; let's not forget the direction the Marvel films and TV programs have been going in for some time now. And if the most recent take on the title Secret Wars is adapted from something published only a decade ago, that's speaking volumes too. How cheap. Not to mention that adapting company wide crossovers is also risking validation of a concept that ruined mainstream superhero comics in the long run.

This Hollywood Reporter announcement says:

The Fantastic Four has been among Marvel’s more anticipated films, perhaps because its team has never been done justice on the big screen. Roger Corman produced a low-rent version in 1994 that was never released, while Fox and director Tim Story released a pair of films in 2005 and 2007 that received a mixed response and starred Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, future MCU actor Chris Evans and Michael Chiklis. In 2015, Fox attempted to revive the franchise under director Josh Trank to disastrous results. A few years after that, Disney acquired Fox, opening the door for the Fantastic Four to enter the MCU.

The Fantastic Four are a cornerstone of the Marvel mythos, with writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby introducing the team in 1961’s Fantastic Four No. 1, the comic that would launch the Marvel Universe.

It's worth recalling the Eternals, as a Kirby creation, wasn't done justice either, and for all we know, there's only so much Kirby did in his time that was desecrated later on, while many so-called fans in the industry just stood by and said nothing. So who's really excited about yet another adaptation? Not me. Sometimes it's best to let various creations remain as the comics they began as, and not keep going miles out of our way to keep adapting them as though it were a grand emergency. Let's be clear. The silver screen isn't everything. It'd be a lot better if the people so desperate to make a special effects-laden movie were just as interested in encouraging the public to read the comics they're adapting. And that's not what they're doing at all. So what's the point?

Labels: Fantastic Four, history, marvel comics, msm propaganda