This month I had intended to write a piece about the pointless ‘rivalry’ between Marvel and DC movies, but given the failure of ‘Fantastic Four’, and the fallout around it, I wanted to reflect on whether there is a future for these characters on screen. In a nutshell, I am pleased to say that – despite everything – there is.
MONTHLY MARVEL MUSINGS
Although many people have gleefully laid in to the new ‘Fantastic Four’ movie with a glee bordering on the macabre, I’ve got to admit the film’s failure has made me sad. I saw the film a second time last week (I had promised to take my son), and as I began to enjoy parts of the first half of the film (especially the traumatic depiction of the accident that gives the team their powers), I actually found it saddening at the same time. There was clearly an attempt to do something interesting and different with this superhero comic adaptation – but for various reasons it failed. There’s mud-slinging going on from both sides, but ultimately it comes down to two things: Fox didn’t really want to make the film Josh Trank wanted to make – and the film was clearly rushed in to production to beat the deadline for the rights expiring, but before the script and plot had been properly settled upon. This will be a film that people will take great pleasure in analysing the troubled production and fall out for many years to come – even though Fox claim they want to move forward with a sequel, it is likely they will consider the negative publicity, and box office failure of this film, to have tarnished the franchise too much.
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| Seems like everyone's got it in for the Fantastic Four lately... |
It may be that, in months to come, Fox will sit down with Marvel Studios to discuss the rights to Fantastic Four. If this happens it will be a good thing for comic book fans – despite the previous failed attempts to portray these characters correctly on the big screen, there is arguably still a way to get them right. And that especially goes for Doctor Doom, the greatest Marvel villain, who Marvel Studios could incorporate in to some epic story lines and future movies. If Marvel and Fox do start these discussions, how can a future movie based on Fantastic Four succeed where the previous ones failed? Here are some of my ideas…
(Partly) set it in the era they were created – the 1960’s
It’s a well-known fact that over 10 years ago ‘Ant-Man’ director Peyton Reed was developing a '60's set Fantastic Four movie, which Fox abandoned. It’s one of those great cinematic ‘What-Ifs?’, but it’s easy to imagine that that version would have been better than the films which were eventually made. But I think this is a good starting point for any future FF movie – ‘Captain America The First Avenger’ and ‘X-Men First Class’ demonstrated that comic adaptations, set in the era they were first created, can work very well. In the dream scenario that Marvel Studios get to work FF back in to the MCU, you could depict the forming of the team and them gaining their powers during that era – matching the same pulpy, retro Sci-Fi tone that was an element of the first Captain America film. However, I say ‘partly’ because, well we’ve seen two origin stories for the team on film so far – the next version would be better to have the team already with their powers established, but show flash-backs to when they gained their powers (we've already had two version of their origin story on film). This might make you question why, if they’ve been around since the '60's, have they not been mentioned or seen in the MCU before? There’d be a very good reason for that…
Make this Marvel’s version of ‘Star Trek’
…this film would be an outer-space adventure, along the lines of Star Trek or the ‘Lost in Space’ series. Although in the comics the FF are mainly earth-bound, many of their most famous and memorable stories have them encountering (and occasionally battling) various alien races and beings. In fact several comic stories have them traversing across galaxies and dimensions, so why not their films? This could tie back to their origin, and the ‘60’s setting: why not combine the classic origin story with the Ultimate version (which the current film takes its cues from), and have the team and Doctor Doom (more of which later) developing a new form of rocket that includes a very experimental form of drive which (unbeknownst to them) uses technology capable of crossing dimensions? When the rocket is first tested there is an accident of some sort, which sends the team across space to an unknown galaxy – and giving them their powers as they cross alternative dimensions to get there.
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| Several Fantastic Four stories take place in outer space, on alien worlds, or other dimensions - if you can't make them work 'on earth', why not set their stories in space then? |
The film could then set up how the team are trying to make their way back to our galaxy, and earth, and encountering the aliens they’ve famously battled in the comics as they do so. This approach would give Marvel Studios an opportunity to make a film in a genre they’ve not yet used (Kevin Feige is keen that each film is at least inspired by, or done in the style of, a different genre pic e.g. ‘The Winter Soldier’ = conspiracy thriller, ‘Ant-Man’ = heist movie) – the sort of Space-faring adventure that made ‘Star Trek’ and ‘Lost in Space’ so popular in their time. This would give the comics fun tone, with its famous ‘family’ dynamic, a setting where it would feel more appropriate, and so (hopefully) work better. Having them trekking (!) through space would reflect their classic team /family dynamic: Johnny Storm would be the pilot, Ben 'The Thing' Grimm the ship's engineer, Reed Richards the Chief science officer, and Sue Storm the vessel's chief medical officer. You could feed them in to the MCU through a future Guardians of the Galaxy film (they could be introduced in a cameo or post-credits sting) before depicting their own adventure, which in turn could set up the coming of Galactus and Annihilus – surely worthy of being the antagonists of a future Avengers movie? But that’s not the only villain you would be getting in to the MCU…
Doctor Doom could finally be portrayed right
Even if the current Fantastic Four reboot had been better, it still would have arguably failed in one important area: faithfully and effectively portraying Doctor Doom on screen. As I mentioned in my review, the film portrayals need to stop trying to play down all the elements that make up the character, and fully embrace the near-operatic scope. I would argue Doom could be introduced before the FF themselves, as a back-ground villain/threat, in the same way that Thanos has been used in the MCU so far. Certainly, in the comics, he is the most powerful Marvel villain (he recently stood against inter-dimensional beings capable of destroying entire universes!) – but he has surprising nuances. Whilst he is a totalitarian leader of his native Latveria (making a nice counter to Captain America and his espousing of democracy and freedom), under his rule the country and its people have prospered. As well as being a scientific genius and strategic master, his background is marred by tragedy; in the comics there are a number of stories where he is trying to rescue his mother’s soul from hell and the devil himself.
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| A successful translation of Doctor Doom on screen should completely embrace the part where he is the ruler of Latveria |
I think this can be reworked slightly to make Doom an amazing villain in the MCU. Over the course of several films, the heroes could discover (or inadvertently discover) links between their films’ villains and Latveria. Over time it becomes clear that Doom is behind these – but no one can act because he is hidden behind a diplomatic wall as ruler of Latveria, where he rarely leaves. Eventually, someone discovers what Doom is trying to do – create a transport to cross dimensions. He has been doing this because his father, almost 70 years ago, had been experimenting on the very same thing – and during one of the experiments Doom’s mother was sucked through to another dimension (a change to the comics that would feel plausible, but allowing potential crossover with Doctor Strange, as in the source material). Ever since, Doom has made it his life’s work to perfect the technology and rescue his lost mother.
This is how he became involved with the Fantastic Four – he helped them to develop and build their rocket as a way of furthering his own experiments on the dimensional crossing technology. Of course, he still hadn’t perfected this, resulting in the accident which banishes the Fantastic Four, and leaves him with the disfigurement requiring him to live his life in a suit of powered armour. As his experiments continue, the Fantastic Four (who have been tracking Galactus as a way of finding their way back to Earth) and other MCU characters (e.g. Doctor Strange) realise he is drawing dangerous beings towards Earth – beings such as Galactus, the devourer of worlds. Desperate to intervene, but unable to due to international political will, SHIELD sends a covert team to Latveria (Secret Avengers) to try and stop him – they fail and Doom retaliates by attacking New York and the UN. Eventually Galactus reaches earth – and it takes the combined might of the Avengers and the newly returned Fantastic Four to defeat the cosmic being. Another team of heroes eventually defeat Doom, but not before he has activated his technology – and brought the attention of other extra-dimensional beings (e.g. Annihilus), setting things up for the next phase of MCU movies.
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| Doom hasn't only taken on the Fantastic Four - he's possibly the most central of Marvel's villains. |
Taking this approach would arguably give enough space to develop a portrayal of Doom that is respectful and faithful enough to the comics to work on screen. Here you would have a Doom that is as powerful – intellectually, politically, and of course in terms of abilities – as he should be; but also nuanced and interesting enough to make him a great movie villain, worthy enough to sustain several films. Because as great as the Fantastic Four could potentially be, Doom has possibly the greatest value in terms of potential stories to adapt. In the comics he has crossed over with pretty much all of the Marvel characters at some time – The Avengers, Iron Man, Spiderman, X-Men – so there is enormous potential. Not to mention the fact he is not just a one-dimensional villain, but a comparatively nuanced character with at times morally ambiguous motives, and a surprisingly sympathetic element to his backstory. But, he is a proper villain, who would think nothing of sacrificing any who stands in the way of fulfilling his plans – and most importantly he has the power to achieve these (not to mention overcome the heroes).
This franchise needs to go home
There’s little doubt, almost everything about Fantastic Four – including the villains – would be much more at home in the MCU; so hopefully in the coming months there will be financial pressure on Fox, following the financial failure of the latest ‘Fantastic Four’, to negotiate the return of the rights to Marvel Studios. Because even though the fans are saying that this is what they want – there’s even a petition calling for this – any discussions between Fox and Marvel Studios will only happen because the accountants at Fox decide the only way for the franchise to make money is either selling it back, or sharing (ala Spidey/Sony). And this is the strange thing in all of this – whilst it is sad to see a talented director and cast potentially have their careers tarnished as a result of this film, on the other hand it is potentially exciting that Fantastic Four might finally have their chance to join the MCU. Time will tell!
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| Please Fox - sell the rights back to Marvel Studios! They'll be happy. We'll be happy. The Fantastic Four will be happy. You'll be happy ! Well, happier than you were when the box office for the current film's opening weekend came in, I should imagine... |
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