Teatime Brutality
(?)Community Member
- Posted: Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:46:55 +0000
Paul Cornell
You could say the Doctor is the FF all rolled up together: Reed's brain and academic distance; Johnny's impulsiveness; Ben's down to earth care for the ordinary people and Sue's invisible force field--no, come on, that metaphor was working so well! What's the Doctor got that Sue's got? Warmth, I suppose. And a nice bottom. So I'm told. I don't objectify comic book characters like that.
I seem to be reading lots of Fantastic Four at the moment; True Story, the Simonson run, getting up to date on the Millar run. Strangely it's the last of these that's prompted me to start up this thread, as I find I quite like it and need to work out how I feel about that.
Millar's not a writer I admire. Someone else here said it well the other day...
Shadow Odinson
Has he written anything that isn't a violent frat boy philosophy, often a commentary on how much it would suck if anyone ever tried to stand out? Because that's the impression that I've gotten from just about everything I've ever seen him write.
But he's one I often find very entertaining just because his work annoys me so much. You know the feeling of delicious outrage you get from reading a newspaper columist you hate? That weird suspended pleasure when you're caught in the push/pull of something utterly repellant and wrong, but demonstrably witty and clever? That's the sort of fun I've always derived from Millar.
And I didn't think it would be a sort of fun that'd transfer over onto the Fantastic Four, because you can't really feel 'delicious outrage' if they're written repellant and wrong, can you? All you can feel is terribly sad.
Thing is though, he does seem to have done rather a good job of sublimating himself and what's come out is something I find myself enjoying as an FF comic rather than as a red rag to my fanbull. It's got copious faults - the current arc managed to telegraph both its twist and its resolution so blatantly that the first issue might as well have printed a text piece summarising the fourth - but there's a great sense of scale, integrity and a nicely Byrne-ish approach to the characterisation.
I'd like to talk about it a bit, so here's the thread on which I'll be so doing. As well as looking back on True Story and letting you know if I'm as wowed by the Simonson issues as the rest of the world.
You're all free to chirp in with what you like...
Why do the Fantastic Four work for you?
Why don't they?
Which is your favourite run? Story? Character? Reed invention?
How do you see their place in the MU? They're the foundation of the whole thing, but they always seem kind of marginal. How does that work?
How would you have done the films?
Which was the first FF story you ever read?
Who'd you most like to see write and draw them?
That sort of thing. Make up more of your own.