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If you look at the present calendar:
Assuming a three year gap in production of sequels…
2019 is full. However, if Captain Marvel or Inhumans is delayed, then a Dr. Strange sequel (2016>>>2019) could be scheduled.
2020 has two possible sequels from 2017 which probably will be scheduled: Spider-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy 3.

What does Marvel have to lose from X-TV?
Ratings. Especially as Marvel grooms the Inhumans to fill that gap in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Although, it does allow Marvel to get more shows on TV, to compete with DC which will have EIGHT series on four different networks during the 2015-16 season. (And another 8-9 in development.)

I liked the Legend series, partly for the great covers, partly because it was self-contained yet told an interesting story.

It was already debunked that Marvel got FF rights back.

Fans don’t give a crap about Trank. We just care about the things that make the FF unique and enjoyable, and those things are nowhere to be seen here.

have to agree with what R.Maheras said. next time (if there is a next time, which looks really, really, doubtful at this point) have more respect for the source material. next time , also have more respect for the fan base, who were called everything from whiners to racists for the crime of saying that the new direction the film was going in was the wrong direction. many (hell, all of them) within the fan base told them that going down the road they we’re traveling was gonna lead to a bomb of a movie. hate to say they told them so, but they told them so. like R.maheras said, “the FF film team got exactly what they deserved”.

Uhm, the movie really did not look good. So I stayed away. Especially after the Dr. Doom look reveal. Ugh.

R. Maheras, they didn’t so much ignore what Lee and Kirby did, they just took most of the various beats from the Ultimate FF series instead. Which I’m sure made perfect sense to them after hiring Mark Millar as their “brain trust” for their Marvel properties, so why not use the story he himself co-wrote.

Clearly Mark Millar as their “brain trust” was just to soothe comic fans… I’m not a fan of Millar at all, but he showed a deft understanding of the family dynamic in all of his FF writings that were not seen at all in the film, despite his assurances that the film would live up to us, the comic fans. If Millar has been hired to help sheppard Fox’s Marvel films, there must have been some early warning of the film’s plot failings. I suspect Millar is just a figurehead for comic fans to look to.

I hope for the next inevitable remake they look Hickman’s amazing FF run and aim for FAMILY and EXPLORATION of the unknown. I can’t see a family borne out of this.

The studio has to take most of the blame. They knew what sort of film Trank was going to make before the first scene was shot. But Trank cannot be blameless because he obviously had no interest in doing an FF movie.

Mike

C’mon. Since when is “Ultimates” the benchmark of the FF brand? If they really thought that, and really thought a “Doogie Howser” FF was superior to the original brand, all I can say is they were ignorant about what made the FF a successful brand in the first place, and they got what they deserved.

BUT THEY HAD A BLACK DUDE IN IT!!! how could it fail….they were diverse!!!!

An outstanding share! I’ve just forwarded this onto
a friend who has been doing a little research on this.

And he in fact bought me dinner simply because I discovered it
for him… lol. So allow me to reword this….
Thank YOU for the meal!! But yeah, thanks for spending time to talk about this topic
here on your website.

Fox saw the Daredevil rights lapse and now it’s a critical/commercial hit at Netflix – they’ll do everything to ensure that doesn’t happen with Fantastic Four.

I briefly worked for a trailer house in New York. They had product from every which way, but hands down the people they wanted to work with the least was Fox. Fox would return everything they made with piles of notes and requests for changes that often contradicted the last batch or one another. They executive micro-managed every last detail to oblivion.

I saw “Fantastic4″ last night, and Sucktastic4ever was not worth it…

Isn’t that a mark of today’s anti-culture, as we are consumers that pretend to be ‘Americans’ / ‘humans’, saying “…You’ll probably never see it. Thant’s reality though”? Here we are as everything is made to break down and take our money, instead of work and last, while we sit in traffic, and have our dignity chipped away so we can push ‘corporate policy’ for a paycheck that has diminishing returns on purchasing power, and the concept of making even a great movie for something like LEE/KIRBY’S Fantastic Four is more about “consumer” disappointment and wasting our money, than it is about entertainment that inspires the imagination, incites intelligent conversation, and urges the viewer to want to go out and learn more about science, being around a group of people who are different and working together to have fun and adventure, and of course -the Fantastic Four.

This goes for everyone from the people who walk around high school tracks and football fields for some charity cause to gain money and recognition for curing cancer (while companies like Monsanto have patents on genetic sequences, but will not use them as it is more profitable to treat than cure diseases, along with the congressmen they have in their pockets), to the lame corporate tools like us as we just sit in traffic, and have the nerve just to tell ourselves success is based on attitude, and ‘think positive’ (while we have no urge or idea as to how to enable cooperation and tolerance at work or in our neighborhoods, have no idea how to tell someone how to meet their city council members, how to have a peaceful non-violent protest against things like how we use gerrymandering or out-sourcing jobs instead of training Americans, or how to be involved in town hall meetings), to the ‘consumer’ that is willing to pay over $2.00 for a “comic book” that is mainly about “super heroes” band names (instead of cutting edge, and just plain quality sequential art / story telling) -Remember this when you make a decision fellow ‘Americans’, and overall Fantastic4 ticket buyers / ‘consumers’ / chumps :

Live like a consumer get treated like a ‘consumer’.

Interesting article here: the FF fiasco might put the brakes on Hollywood’s hiring of young indie directors to helm franchise movies:

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/why-josh-tranks-indie-to-fantastic-four-trajectory-could-spell-doom-for-the-next-spider-man-20150807

Writer Sam Adams points out that “unnamed sources have been working diligently for months to ensure that he (Trank) shoulders the brunt of the blame. Even comic-book fans, who are normally fiercely protective of their fellow geeks, have turned on him, swarming critics who gave the film even modestly positive reviews …”

He adds that it’s “unnerving to see purported film fans with virtually no knowledge of what actually happened reflexively side with Fox and Marvel and against Trank, as if the corporation that’s already screwed up the Fantastic Four’s story multiple times is somehow blameless.”

.

Entertainment Weekly investigation into what went wrong. Looks like there’s plenty of blame to go around.

“Some who worked on the film say Trank broke, for sure, but was driven to the breaking point by the studio, and that his clash was not with Kinberg but Fox production president Emma Watts. According to several individuals who worked on the movie, the studio delayed casting and script approvals, slashed the budget by tens of millions from what was originally promised during the development phase, and tried to force last-minute script changes to the film just as principal photography was beginning.”

Sources also say that, despite everyone’s denials, Trank was fired from the movie, apparently during the editing process.

http://www.ew.com/article/2015/08/07/fantastic-four-josh-trank-tweet

Interesting article. I ultimately think the blame has to go to Fox because they let themselves get swept up in the hype. Their first FF film had some serious problems but was a good bit of fun and a modest hit. They then rushed out a sequel just two years later that fixed none of the initial problems, added some more and was a failure, though not a bomb. Instead of taking a breath and trying to make a truly good FF flick, they shelved the franchise because the tone they had created wasn’t “Nolany” enough and then tried to come back with a reboot that added even more new problems while seemingly losing any sense of fun at all.

I mean, besides the powers, in what way does this new film resemble the Fantastic Four? And don’t bring up the Ultimate version because no one in the general public even knows that book existed.

Mike

If reports of Trank’s on-set behavior are true, he bears some blame. But I think the studio bears more blame. There seems to be a concerted effort on the Internet to hold Trank solely responsible for the film’s failure — to depict the FF movie as this decade’s HEAVEN’S GATE and Trank as his generation’s Michael Cimino.

Looks like Ang Lee’s THE ICE STORM is still the best movie involving the Fantastic Four.

Thanks for bringing that piece to my attention George, I love Sam’s writing and I think he’s spot on here.

So, does anyone fave access to the script, in any incarnation, so that comparisons can be made?

At the moment it’s rating on RT is worse than the Corman version and about the same level as Catwoman.

Really interesting to see how the box office holds up.

my biggest problem with the FF movies is that none of them were fun or fantastic in any way. They were entertaining enough to watch but highly forgettable… Just more of the same blockbuster boredom. This franchise could have been what Guardians of the Galaxy turned into a mega hit.

What’s the deal with Sue Storm not going on the initial mission to the new dimension. She gets left behind and is replaced in the Four by Dr Doom? That’s just not right, no respect for the first lady of the MarvelU. Thanks for nothing Fox!

Set in 1964. The design is Kirby, with some Ken Adams thrown in.

From the look of all the reviews I suspect that Disney will be picking up the rights to the Fantastic Four at a good bargain price. The House of Mouse will only be missing the X-Men from the movie quiver at this rate.

I saw “Fantastic4″ last night, and Sucktastic4ever was not worth it…

Isn’t that a mark of today’s anti-culture, as we are consumers that pretend to be ‘Americans’ / ‘humans’, saying “…You’ll probably never see it. Thant’s reality though”? Here we are as everything is made to break down and take our money, instead of work and last, while we sit in traffic, and have our dignity chipped away so we can push ‘corporate policy’ for a paycheck that has diminishing returns on purchasing power, and the concept of making even a great movie for something like LEE/KIRBY’S Fantastic Four is more about “consumer” disappointment and wasting our money, than it is about entertainment that inspires the imagination, incites intelligent conversation, and urges the viewer to want to go out and learn more about science, being around a group of people who are different and working together to have fun and adventure, and of course -the Fantastic Four.

This goes for everyone from the people who walk around high school tracks and football fields for some charity cause to gain money and recognition for curing cancer (while companies like Monsanto have patents on genetic sequences, but will not use them as it is more profitable to treat than cure diseases, along with the congressmen they have in their pockets), to the lame corporate tools like us as we just sit in traffic, and have the nerve just to tell ourselves success is based on attitude, and ‘think positive’ (while we have no urge or idea as to how to enable cooperation and tolerance at work or in our neighborhoods, have no idea how to tell someone how to meet their city council members, how to have a peaceful non-violent protest against things like how we use gerrymandering or out-sourcing jobs instead of training Americans, or how to be involved in town hall meetings), to the ‘consumer’ that is willing to pay over $2.00 for a “comic book” that is mainly about “super heroes” band names (instead of cutting edge, and just plain quality sequential art / story telling) -Remember this when you make a decision fellow ‘Americans’, and overall Fantastic4 ticket buyers / ‘consumers’ / chumps :

Live like a consumer, then get treated like a ‘consumer’.
Yuuu-p, thaz riiii-ite, I said it and I’z says it agains, cuz it’s time to DRAXX THEM SKOUNST, as we treat these mammajamaz from Fox like sum kinda “terries” onz’tha wallet t n $h!+ -I mean is get’n waaay too froggy, and we’z gotta be prepared to blast up on these wallet-terries know’msaynz… :
Live like a consumer, then get treated like a ‘consumer’.

“While the success of the MCU means that a failure here and there won’t spell the end of the superhero movie era for a bit, these movies are doing one thing; destroying the franchises in the comics. As widely reported, Marvel comics creators are generally banned from creating new characters in FF or Spider-Man books since any new character might be fodder for a Fox or Sony film. And many of the characters owned by other studios have been removed from Marvel licensed products, and even reprint covers. While these seem like spiteful movies by Marvel COO Ike Perlmutter, they are just the visible part of a behind the scenes movie studio battle as fierce and intense as anything on screen. Now THAT would make a good movie!”

The thing is that none of these are spiteful moves. People forget that Marvel Entertainment breaks down into Marvel Comics, Marvel Studios, and Marvel Licensing all as separate bodies. Comics and Studios may produce material involving different characters, but they don’t actual manage those characters as properties – that’s what Licensing does, and Licensing is who has the long-term deals with Sony and Fox, as well as is involve with all the ancillary material for characters (toys, posters, video games) in both their comic and cinematic forms. The concern that comes out of that is that the licensing agreements for the characters in the Fox deals aren’t only in their appearance in the movies, for example: there’s sharing of licensed-material profits for those characters (regardless of iteration; it’s where the character appears, not what he/she’s wearing that’s important – Wolverine is Wolverine is Wolverine as far as the license agreement goes, hence why there’s no slightly-different version of him in the Avengers); there was some brouhaha a while back when Disney Interactive had to cough up money on the Marvel Heroes game because of the license agreements.

That’s why you see a dearth of X-Men or Fantastic Four licensed products (including the changed art on SECRET WARS-inspired tee shirts, for example), because of how profit margins run on those type of products and how Fox’s licensing department hasn’t worked with Disney/Marvel the same way that Sony’s has (the Spider-man agreement has adjusted product terms, the better for everyone that more Spider-man goods will keep coming out). Similarly, because of how licensing for new characters is designated based on first appearances, it makes total but unfortunate economic sense to not have those characters appear in Marvel Comics titles that Marvel Licensing considers pursuant to the Fox or Sony deals (remember that Sony still has creative control of the Spider-man films). I imagine that you’ll see more new characters created in other books done by the same writer or artist and then appearing in a contradicted title as a workaround, or else the recurrence new characters in annuals/specials by those guest creatives who would otherwise be introducing those characters in those titles, but it’s a matter that an issue of long-standing contracts, corporate structure, and the tight profit margins of multiple industries; to just assume that it’s all a matter of spite because fans are angry is horribly simplistic and the worst sort of hack journalism.

@Brian
>>
“..While these seem like spiteful movies by Marvel COO Ike Perlmutter, they are just the visible part of a..”

Actually, to my eyes, the paragraph which inspired your article DID seem to imply that what might appear to be spite was probably not – why otherwise include words “seem” and “visible”– but thanks all the same for your detailed and interesting overview about why some things inside different parts of creature make it what it is and make it work with other parts (or other things) the way it does.

The Incredibles, which came out in 2004, is still the best Fantastic Four movie to date. It is about a family with super powers and it has adventure, drama and fun in equal measure. We care about these characters because they care about each other, plus the story is imaginative. It even ends with an obvious shout-out to the FF in the form of the Underminer. As I understand it the 2005 Fantastic Four movie went through some changes because of what The Incredibles demonstrated was possible. But none of the following Fantastic Four movies seemed to learn anything from this. The second FF movie was even roundly panned, most notably for featuring Galactus not as a character, but as a big cloud! Big Hero 6 was clearly influenced by The Incredibles in that it had drama, adventure and humor with a team of superheroes (plus the extended cameo by Stan Lee in the after credits sequence). All the FF film makers have to do is pay attention, and stop trying to reinvent Doctor Doom (who is still the most popular villain in comics for more than 50 years).

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 8%, which I think makes it the worst reviewed superhero flick since the modern era began with the first X-Men.

As contrast the 1994 film that wasn’t even made to be released gets a 34%

I want to stick up for the first two Fantastic Four flicks. Don’t get me wrong, they’re both pretty terrible and butcher Dr. Doom and Galactus about as bad as anything in genre history. I will say they both have a sense of fun that I enjoyed in contrast to the EVERYTHING MUST BE SERIOUS Nolan Bat-films of the same era, even though Nolan’s movies are vastly superior.

I’ll go see the new FF because I am an idiot but it sure looks like they lost any sense of fun while simultaneously getting everything even wronger than any of the three previous attempts.

Mike

I refuse to go see this film. Everything I’ve read about it bears no resemblance to the characters and comic that I’ve loved since I was a kid. The people making excuses say that it leans more on the Ultimate version (enough to make me not want to see it) but based on what I’ve read that’s not even true. The earlier two movies (I can’t really count the Corman version which sadly is the most faithful to the FF comic) were not great. A bumbling Reed. An miscast Sue. A really poor take on Dr. Doom, who they preferred to call “Victor” mostly in both films. But there were elements that felt like the FF: Chiklis and Evans were both pretty good in there roles and there was at least some heart to the story. For some reason, people in Hollywood think that they can do it better than Jack and Stan. They haven’t proven it yet. You can tweak some of the things that Jack and Stan did but stay faithful to what they created and make a pretty awesome movie.

Allow me to say that Chiklis and Evans were good in THEIR roles.

It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen them, but I like the story fantastic four movies too. They have lots of faults, but at least I could recognize them as comic book characters. They were fun. I have no interest in seeing this one

I saw “Fantastic4″ last night, and Sucktastic4ever was not worth it…

Isn’t that a mark of today’s anti-culture, as we are consumers that pretend to be ‘Americans’ / ‘humans’, saying “…You’ll probably never see it. Thant’s reality though”? Here we are as everything is made to break down and take our money, instead of work and last, while we sit in traffic, and have our dignity chipped away so we can push ‘corporate policy’ for a paycheck that has diminishing returns on purchasing power, and the concept of making even a great movie for something like LEE/KIRBY’S Fantastic Four is more about “consumer” disappointment and wasting our money, than it is about entertainment that inspires the imagination, incites intelligent conversation, and urges the viewer to want to go out and learn more about science, being around a group of people who are different and working together to have fun and adventure, and of course -the Fantastic Four.

This goes for everyone from the people who walk around high school tracks and football fields for some charity cause to gain money and recognition for curing cancer (while companies like Monsanto have patents on genetic sequences, but will not use them as it is more profitable to treat than cure diseases, along with the congressmen they have in their pockets), to the lame corporate tools like us as we just sit in traffic, and have the nerve just to tell ourselves success is based on attitude, and ‘think positive’ (while we have no urge or idea as to how to enable cooperation and tolerance at work or in our neighborhoods, have no idea how to tell someone how to meet their city council members, how to have a peaceful non-violent protest against things like how we use gerrymandering or out-sourcing jobs instead of training Americans, or how to be involved in town hall meetings), to the ‘consumer’ that is willing to pay over $2.00 for a “comic book” that is mainly about “super heroes” band names (instead of cutting edge, and just plain quality sequential art / story telling) -Remember this when you make a decision fellow ‘Americans’, and overall Fantastic4 ticket buyers / ‘consumers’ / chumps :

Live like a consumer, then get treated like a ‘consumer’.
Yuuu-p, thaz riiii-ite, I said it and I’z says it agains, cuz it’s time to DRAXX THEM SKOUNST, as we treat these mammajamaz from Fox like sum kinda “terries” onz’tha wallet n $h!+ -I mean is get’n waaay too froggy, and we’z gotta be prepared to blast up on these wallet-terries know’msaynz… (youtube Key & Peele – Prepared for Terries):
Live like a consumer, then get treated like a ‘consumer’.

The buzz I’m hearing on this movie is that it’s a bad imitation of a Chris Nolan film: dark, grim, humorless and ponderous. That’s not what I want from an FF movie. As mediocre as the 2005 and 2007 movies were, they did convey a sense that having super powers could be fun. I’d like to see some of that Silver Age wackiness on the screen.

@ABB I only get half of what you wrote but “live like a consumer, then get treated like a consumer” it´s absolutely right. Lately “consumer rights” have been treated the same as “human rights”.

I wonder if somebody is already considering to accuse this film as some sort of “crime against humanity”?

“I wonder if somebody is already considering to accuse this film as some sort of “crime against humanity”?”

Wouldn’t surprise me. When fanboys feel they’ve been screwed, their rage knows no bounds. Witness their fury over BATMAN AND ROBIN and CATWOMAN.

Fortunately, Chris Nolan began directing Batman movies, so fans had movies they could rank above THE GODFATHER, CITIZEN KANE, and anything from Hitchcock or Kubrick or Scorsese.

“Witness their fury over BATMAN AND ROBIN and CATWOMAN.”

You can mock fanboys for a lot but for being upset about those two movies? You’re kind of making a mockery of yourself.

Mike

If only the X-men would go back in time to the 1960s and meet up with a Kirby-esk Fantastic Four!

If it was animated to look like the Ed McGuinness art shown above I’d be all over it.

Yep, this film is DOA. Not interested at all

let me give you an example of how bad things are for this flick. a few weeks back when i went to see the avengers flick at my local alamo movie theater with the wife, as we were sitting through the coming attractions, the upcoming star wars trailer came on. after it was over you could hear the audience buzzing with excitement over the movie. next up the F.F. trailer came on. after it was over , dead silence. you could hear a mouse fart. i leaned over to my wife and whispered “this is not a good sign. this looks bad, and what the hell did that mouse have for lunch?”( i made up that last line :) ). a friend of mine told me of a similar reaction when he went to the movies and saw the F.F. trailer. maybe fox sees the writing on the wall and has decided to cut their losses by limiting the amount of promotion the film receives.

Is this the most hated super-hero movie yet? Amount of mental gymnastics about how this shows lack of confidence and anecdotal evidence from reactions to adverts are getting out of hand.

Ben Grimm would take his best gal Alicia out for a night on the town…at least until the Impossible Man showed up as their dinner napkins, that lovable scamp!

I still think there are details missing behind this statement:

“If you had two things, and on one you earned 100% of the revenues from the efforts that you put into making it, and the other you earned a much smaller percentage for the same amount of time and effort, you’d be more likely to concentrate more heavily on the first, wouldn’t you?”

Wouldn’t this revenue sharing only apply to merchandise based off the movie versions of these characters? Meaning, if there’s an action figure based off movie Wolverine, Marvel has to share profit (however it’s divided up) with Fox. But if an action figure is made based off, say, Wolverine’s first appearance in the hulk, why would Fox get any of that money? When Marvel made the X-Men: Evolution TV series and toys after the first movie, did they have to share all profit from that with Fox (who, as far as I can tell, was not involved with production in any way)? Even the 90s cartoon, which did air on Fox, I don’t think Fox has any claim to. Otherwise Marvel wouldn’t be making an X-Men ’92 comic if they had to share revenue with Fox over it.

I can understand the notion behind “we’re not going to make merch promoting comic characters who have movie versions (and directly related merch) we don’t get all the revenue from”, but the language being used implies that ANY version of an X-Men character, even if it’s not the movie version, Fox gets money out of. I know Marvel didn’t get the best deal out of licensing film rights to there characters, but someone really dropped the ball if this is actually the case.

The licensing/merchandising (and speculating) over F4 and X-men is all over the place. On one hand you have sculpting companies and T-shirt companies being told not to use the characters, on the other hand they are up front and playable in high profile and profitable video games like Marvel Heroes 2015 and LEGO Marvel.

We don’t know exactly what the contracts between these companies say and we don’t know how much of their souls each company’s lawyers sold to Satan. Without this information no one will be able to do more than make an educated guess on the matter.

I agree that these are uncertain times when it comes to how marvel will be handling their characters. rumors have been flying around that suggest that the x-men characters will be separated from the marvel universe as a whole (two rumors I heard of was that the x-men will have to leave the planet because of a plague that’s killing them, the other that the x-men will be set in the 1960’s and 70’s , closer in line with the movies). if one goes by the poster, sam Wilson is falcon again, no female thor in sight, no quicksilver and scarlet witch (I thought they were inhumans now?), not a single mutant character and no f.f. . also makes you wonder about the fate of so many second, third, and fourth tier characters, but a marvel universe without the x-men or fantastic four sounds like a pretty boring place. I hope all of these rumors are just that, rumors, ’cause the more and more I hear about this “all-new”, “all-different” marvel universe, the more i feel “all-disgusted” , I’m “all-done” with marvel comics.

So, does this mean they won’t be publishing umpteen variations of Deadpool as well?
—
Hmm… what if Marvel killed off all those versions, then rebooted them via Inhumans?
Kinda like DC’s Tangent universe…
—
Okay, maybe Marvel has realized that the movies don’t help sell books (something DC is a very adept at doing, BTW).
So, they don’t lose anything, because the casual fan will buy something older or already in print.

But… Marvel got $10 Million from the first Spider-Man movie in 2002. Sure, Sony made millions more (total box office: $821M). But Marvel still made some decent money from that license.
—
What? Marvel isn’t going to flood the market, trying to get every dollar possible?
—
Just a sec…
Marvel Book Previews (September-December 2015)
142 titles.
Death of Wolverine (The first title in the catalog)
All-New X-Men Vol. 2
Wolverines Vol. 4 : Destiny
House of M : Warzones!
Magneto Vol. 4 : Last Days
X-Men : Age of Apocalypse Volume 2
Uncanny X-Men Vol. 5 : The Omega Mutant
X-Men : Years of Future Past
Wolverine: Old Man Logan Vol. 0 : Warzones
Age of Apocalypse : Warzones!
X-Men ’92
All-New X-Men Vol. 3
All-New X-Men Vol. 6 : The Ultimate Adventure
X-Men: Age of Apocalypse Vol. 3 : Omega
Wolverine Epic Collection : The Dying Game
X-Men Epic Collection : The Gift

I think it’s even more of a stretch for this article to cover all these examples without mentioning the site that brought many of them to the public eye… did you really just come across those posters and shirts independently?

Id rather see a lighthearted, action packed FF movie set in the 1960’s.

I so want not to pre-judge, but I’ve got a bad feeling about this…

Who’s the target audience? It sure isn’t anyone who’s familiar the legacy series. They’ve jettisoned almost everything. The worst change? Transforming Reed Richards, one of the world’s foremost scientists, into some snot-nosed kid who looks like he’s barely out of high school. It totally ruins the generational dynamic between Johnny and the rest of the team that was part of the group’s wide appeal. Instead of being a father figure, Richards is now one of the kids, and the new father figure is Sue and Johnny’s father, who looms so large, its almost as if he’s part of the group. Why screw with a basic formula that’s worked for more than 50 years? Where’s Marvel’s brand manager? Do they even have one?

Because of Marvel’s recent film track record, this will probably do OK at the box office. But I’ll be shocked if it’s a blockbuster. My guess is it will be one of the most lackluster Marvel films in quite awhile.

Why would anyone want to watch this? It looks ponderous and generic. (And wearily literal in having bits break off the Thing.)

Is it good or bad that comic fandom seems to care so little that this movie is basically taking the FF and butchering them like super-hero flicks used to do in the bad old days? I mean, when Johnny Storm being black is the smallest deviation from the source material and few really mind?

Mike

This film is receiving massive negative feedback. Josh Trank was supposed to be at the Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim this past weekend but canceled at the last minute, apparently due to illness. He certainly dodged a bullet because it would have been his only public appearance since all the news about the FF movie hit the fan and so he didn’t have to face tough questions about his “creative” decisions. Apparently what seemed like a ridiculous internet rumor about Doctor Doom is true, which wipes this film off my slate of movies to see this summer. The handling of Doctor Doom in the previous FF films was certainly bungled, but nothing like what this film is doing. Doctor Doom has the potential of being as major a screen villain as Darth Vader if only he would be presented the way Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created him. He doesn’t need to be revamped or “improved” for modern audiences.

i certainly don’t understand the negativity about this trailer. I think it looks great. The Ultimate Fantastic Four comic was terrific and it demonstrated an excellent way to update the characters for a new generation of fans. Basing the new movie on that updated take on the characters was a smart way to go. I would love a period piece set in the 60’s (ala X-Men First Class meets Mad Men), but that is not the only way to tell stories with these characters. This movie looks like it will be a substantial upgrade to the prior FF movies.

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Using the Ultimates as a model for this FF film very well could be a mistake of epic proportions. The amount of people who read Ultimates compared to the amount of people who read the legacy FF is tiny by comparison, and if this film starts strong and then dies on the vine due to word of mouth, it very likely will be a backlash of people telling their friends, “Yuck! This isn’t the FF I remember.”

Kind of like Ang Lee’s “Hulk.”

I’m not exactly sure why, but I hate everything about that new Fantastic Four film. Not that the others were great, but the FF isn’t supposed to be dark and moody. That’s all I see when I look at any images from it.

Sam Mendes doing specter is cool news. Sadly, I don’t think Blomkamp can fix Aliens. He’s the most overrated guy in sci-fi.

If this ISN’T a trolling of us, I’ll be glad they retired the F4 comic for a little while. I wouldn’t want them to acknowledge this.

Par for the course.

Title is bad. This is a FOX movie. Marvel studios has nothing to do with it

http://thedissolve.com/features/forgotbusters/813-fantastic-4-rise-of-the-silver-surfer-gave-superhe/

Interesting analysis of what went wrong with Tim Story’s two FF movies. I agree with this:

“The problem with Story’s Fantastic Four (2005) was that he seemed to have no vision for the project beyond delivering a movie that was brightly lit, shot in focus, and acceptable for the whole family.”

And with this:

“To me, the failed mediocrity of Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer is infinitely worse than the garish, tacky awfulness of, say, Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin, because at least the latter left a lasting impression. It has the courage of its convictions, where Rise is gutless and impersonal. Batman & Robin makes wrong choices at every turn, but they’re strong wrong choices, whereas Story and his collaborators invariably steer their material in the safest, blandest direction possible. Batman & Robin’s screaming, intense ugliness is preferable to the yawning void of the Fantastic Four movies.”

“Worst. Doctor Doom. Ever.” @therealvondoom

It’s like the people working for Fox haven’t learned anything. Why are they still so scared of the source material after Avengers made a billion dollars?

If any of this Internet-related plot stuff is true, it’s a dumb idea. The internet would be simply another tool in his arsenal to take over the world. He certainly would not be obsessed by it, and if he needed Internet expertise beyond his own, he’d simply employ or coerce an Internet lackey.

Dr. Doom is a dangerous, powerful megalomaniac — not some disillusioned Internet geek.

Sheesh! Whatever happened to brand management?

It’s smart to give it a rest for a while. Let it breathe until August 2015 and relaunch with a big creative team.

Lets be clear, people are upset the book is going away, NOT upset that Robinsons is going away. If it was about sales then they could get a new writer. I loved Hickmans Fantastic Four and couldn’t get enough. I couldn’t care less about Robinsons and dropped it. So yes… I will get on line and moan and complain about the book being canceled. Not because I read it at this time, but because it’s the Fantastic Four and should always be available from Marvel. Get a new writer and don’t let the publisher play games because they are upset with the movie.

This kind of announcement is where Perlmutter needs to come out from his hidden bunker since he doesn’t like to be seen by anyone and explain to the crowd his reasoning behind this whole thing and see how much they actually care about him being pissed off at Fox because they took a good deal when Marvel was at a desperate time in its existence.

I very much agree with both Chris and Spike. The book A) needs a rest and B) needs to not be written by James Robinson, who hasn’t displayed any talent since 2002.

Point of order: while not many people bought it, Robinson’s Shade 12-parter circa ’11 as just as good as anything he wrote in the 90s or 00s.

This same team with these same four characters, with only a few temporary variations, has been around for more than fifty years. It’s a stale dynamic, and would benefit from some permanent changes to its roster.

While the cancellation due to corporate politics bit could be true, I personally suspect it’s just a temporary cancellation that leads into a high profile relaunch.

Johnny, they just had the high profile relaunch. There’s no way to say they’re still looking for one.

@Nick Jones: Perma-nent…chan…ges?

I’m sorry, I’ve been reading DC and Marvel for decades and I have no idea what that series of letters you just typed means.

If you’re going to ruin the Fantastic Four with “permanent changes” then it does need to be put to rest so that Axel Alonso, Tom Brevoort and all the other Powers That Be at Marvel don’t turn it into something unrecognizable like they have the Avengers comic (Comics I guess if you count the different adjectives).

They should bring them back with switched genders so I can sit back and watch a million fedoras explode…

The cynic in me says that if The Fantastic Four were available for future films under the Marvel Studios rather than languishing within FOX Studios we’d see more FF presence in their monthly output of comics.

What would Ben Grimm do?

Enjoy his retirement — he’d be in his 80s by now if the comic had kept to the (approximate) real time kept, however unconsciously/reluctantly, by Lee and Kirby during its first decade.

Marvel have totally lost the plot, what changes are they going to make when
they relaunch the FF is anyone’s guess, the house of no ideas lack a unified direction, it’s just a bunch of clowns playing havoc with titles that they have no affinity or sense of history for, I’m fed up of these cabbages, they can do what they want, I’m reading other publishers.

Curious to see so much negativity about James Robinson here. To me, his run on Fantastic Four has been fun, charming and filled with a good degree of drama. The best thing he has written in the last years (aside maybe from The Shade mini-series).

And much better than the snooze-fest that was Matt Fraction’s run.

Finally, we’ll discover that Franklin’s been stretching space/time all along… http://zak-site.com/Great-American-Novel/ff_end.html

The Superboy tv show actually ran for 4 seasons.

JLA pilot?
IMDB shows one from 1997.
Oh, yes… Justice League International.
David Ogden Stiers as Martian Manhunter.

There were the two Hanna-Barbera live action specials, from the legendary annus horribilis of Freddie Silverman at NBC.
(“Legends of the Super Heroes”, at WBShop)

BTW, the same executive who made this FF also made the two big-budget versions.

Still better than the ones that actually got released.

Which makes it the second-best Fantastic Four movie. After The Incredibles.

I agree with Thad. The Corman FF movie was better than the eventual big budget release. It certainly had its heart in the right place.

Dear Sirs

You write ” (There’s an awful JLA pilot from a little bit later that is also pretty horrid, but not much worse than the Superboy TV show that actually aired for a season.) ”
What Superboy TV show ran for a season?
Thanks
Don

Not sure if you are being sarcastic or not, but go here for info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superboy_(TV_series)

It was syndicated, and actually ran for 4 seasons, as the above poster commented. While the series wasn’t great, it was very similar (in budget, FX, etc) to other syndicated shows of the time. I’d argue that non-network TV shows getting decent budgets is a relatively recent phenomenon (2000-up).

Cool! Looking forward to this one (and the Stokoe Avengers one too!)

I adore Jen Van Meter’s work & will have to check this out. I didn’t even know it existed!

I’d buy that. Here’s hoping it doesn’t sit below the radar like the wonderful Allred and Milligan X-Force!

Medusa looks sexier in her costume than She-Hulk does. That’s a reversal.

SRS

Crushed Defenders has to die, but as much as I adore the book, the sales weren’t enough to keep it afloat.

Really hope Doctor Strange lands a regular appearance in either Hickman or Parker’s books.

So bummed :(

I’m with ya Comic Book Candy. The Allred / Milligan X-Force was fantastic.

Defenders has quickly turn into a disapointment. I stick with it hoping it would move away from the very confusing current Omega plot, but instead it kept focused even more on it. I was planning to drop it with issue 11, seems I’ll stay with it one last issue to see if, at least, the ending was worth the wait.

[...] Right, so this came out last week and while I was writing this post I just saw that Defenders just got cancelled. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO(deep breath)OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO. So upsetting; [...]

Fraction is a terrible launch writer. He sells acceptably on well known properties on the strength of the properties.

Give him something new? IT gets bogged down in nonsensical waffle about Captain Nemo. Nobody cares and then it stops.

See Venom/Remender for how to open up a new book successfully.

FF looks great. Gonna be picking this up.

Color me uninterested with Marvel’s Music Chairs Event but these actually look good and fun.

What is with the little “001″ in the lower right hand corner? Issue number? Do they really think they are going to get to 100 issues before another relaunch?

“Is this the last time we’ll get to see a Defenders title?”

Silly reporter! You know better than that. :)

“It gets bogged down in nonsensical waffle about Captain Nemo. Nobody cares and then it stops.”

This. It was at that moment, while reading (I don’t remember which issue) when I literally put the book down and asked myself, ‘what the hell *is* this nonsense?’

I can’t recall ever being so excited for a series, and being so disappointed so quickly.

What’s this? A FOUR DOLLAR comic book starring THE DEFENDERS was quickly canceled…? I am shocked. Shocked!

Well, shocked that anyone at Marvel thought, “Hey, maybe if we make this much, much more expensive than all those other Defenders comics we canceled, it will work this time!”

I thought that was Pixie in a Thing costume.

“What is with the little “001″ in the lower right hand corner? Issue number? Do they really think they are going to get to 100 issues before another relaunch?”

Wouldn’t bet on it. I’d be surprised if FF lasts that long. And FANTASTIC FOUR will, surely, revert back to it’s original numbering when issue #700 rolls around.

If nothing else, I’m glad to see both books are remaining at $2.99. I was worried that the relaunches would give Marvel an excuse to change that.

I liked Defenders but it wasn’t a four dollar like.

both f.f. books look interesting enough to give them a try. have to agree with shark jumper about the book being relaunched (again) before getting to issue 100 (hell, before getting to issue 50 these days). also have to kinda agree with cerebro, that marvel would probably revert back to the original numbering of the f.f. when getting close to issue 700. silly shit all around when it comes to marvel numbering their books.
real shame about the defenders, but i have to admit that this current story is just meandering way too long. they should have been done with the whole thing by issue 4 and moved on to something else. so does this mean the end of the defenders, maybe, or maybe, just maybe this will lead to next years big cross-over event, which will be: THE AVENGERS & X-MEN VS. THE DEFENDERS & GREAT LAKE AVENGERS/X-MEN/whatever the hell they call themselves these days!!!!! yeah, that’s the ticket. it’ll be the greatest cross-over event of all time!!!! loads of cross-overs with main stream books,loads of all new mini-series that tie into the event, and all new relaunches (again) of all main stream books when it’s all over……….. then again, NAH! :)