FARK.com: (6926823) Marvel Comics "refreshes" the origin story of Fantastic Four with tablet PCs and cell phones to be more modern. Still no explanation of how Americans are launched into space in 2012

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		Marvel Comics "refreshes" the origin story of Fantastic Four with tablet PCs and cell phones to be more modern. Still no explanation of how Americans are launched into space in 2012 (washingtonpost.com)		70
		More: Silly, Fantastic Four, Americans, origin story, Reed Richards, Ben Grimm, Human Torch, Sue Storm, Jack Kirby

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2862 clicks; posted to Geek » on 07 Feb 2012 at 11:24 AM | Favorite | share:

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realmolo		2012-02-07 04:29:29 PM

The Marvel Universe (and the DC Universe, too) work on a "sliding" continuity scale. They started officially doing this about 10 years ago or so.

Basically, in comic books, every hero had their "origin" story roughly ten years ago. So in 2012, Spider-Man became Spider-Man in 2002. Superman became Superman in 2002.

It's not a hard-and-fast rule that resets every year, though. It's just a guideline. They HAVE to do it this way, because no other way works. And really, who gives a shiat about continuity? Seriously. Continuity is a pointless exercise that slowly wrecks everything in comic books, and should generally be ignored, in the long-term.

Raug the Dwarf		2012-02-07 04:31:50 PM

FirstNationalBastard: Raug the Dwarf: JohnnyAqua: I guess another earth will be used for the mainstream Marvel universe? It used to be that the Thing before he was the Thing was Captain America's friend during WW2, this was said back in the 70's. Ben Grim fought along side CA. Then in the 90's he didn't and they said that was an alternate earth and the Marvel universe changed after the Spiderman clone saga. I guess it changed again to go along with DC's new 52.

You're thinking of The Torch, not Thing. There was a Torch in WW2 that fought alongside Cap, but he was an android. The Fantastic Four weren't created until 1961....about 15 years after Cap and the original Torch had their adventures. I'm not quite sure what you're talking about when you say the universe has changed after Spidey's clone saga. All the main marvel comics, all your spiders and x-people and gods and Avengers have always been in the same universe.
.

No, Ben Grimm and Reed Richard originally served in WW2.

As the timeline moved further away from the 1960s, that was retconned out.

I guess that makes sense. They weren't Mr. Fantastic and the Thing at that time though, were they?

hammer85		2012-02-07 04:33:11 PM

Raug the Dwarf: whizbangthedirtfarmer: FirstNationalBastard: whizbangthedirtfarmer: FirstNationalBastard: whizbangthedirtfarmer: How long will it be before people understand that the average superhero comic is dead?

The problem is, it's what the majority of the industry is based on. This isn't like the late-40s, when comics had plenty of other genres to step in to take the place of Superheroes. DC and Marvel have increasingly thrown their lot in with an ever shrinking group of aging superhero fanboys, neglected to create new, younger customers, and created no new characters to rely on in the case of something bad happening, like losing the rights to Superman. When people finally realize that mainstream superhero comics are shiat, and quit buying, that's the end of at least DC and Marvel as publishers, and the comics industry in its current form.

Of course, that might not be a bad thing.

Nope. Image, IDW, Boom! and so on are the publishers who will take over the marketplace. We see comics that are longer-lived if they actually reflect the intelligence of their readers (take the superhero "OH HE'S DEAD! BUY THE ISSUE!/HE'S BACK! BUY THE ISSUE!" stuff that happens every week, it seems) starting to hold their position for longer runs. Marvel and DC have moved more toward the entertainment spectrum. Yeah, they have the comics, but they are essentially a hollow marketing tool for films and toys.

That's exactly what I meant when I said "end of the comics industry in its current form".

The end of mainstream DC and Marvel would be great for creativity. The problem would be would people start buying new comics that don't star the same old stale characters they were reading about when they were 12?

For the most part, the current fanbase will not take a chance on anything new. Of course, I guess it would be up to the survivors to finally create that new Audience DC and Marvel never cared about.

Well, DC and Marvel, over the past few years, have really tried to go after the kiddie base ...

I'm thankful DC went with the same day online thing I can download from my phone with their app. The local comic book store is only open weekdays from like 10-5 which pretty much meant that only on days off I could pick up a trade because keeping up with the new stuff was nearly impossible.

Now every wednesday morning or night I can grab this weeks comics and read them at work whenever I feel like.

FirstNationalBastard		2012-02-07 04:36:24 PM

Raug the Dwarf: FirstNationalBastard: Raug the Dwarf: JohnnyAqua: I guess another earth will be used for the mainstream Marvel universe? It used to be that the Thing before he was the Thing was Captain America's friend during WW2, this was said back in the 70's. Ben Grim fought along side CA. Then in the 90's he didn't and they said that was an alternate earth and the Marvel universe changed after the Spiderman clone saga. I guess it changed again to go along with DC's new 52.

You're thinking of The Torch, not Thing. There was a Torch in WW2 that fought alongside Cap, but he was an android. The Fantastic Four weren't created until 1961....about 15 years after Cap and the original Torch had their adventures. I'm not quite sure what you're talking about when you say the universe has changed after Spidey's clone saga. All the main marvel comics, all your spiders and x-people and gods and Avengers have always been in the same universe.
.

No, Ben Grimm and Reed Richard originally served in WW2.

As the timeline moved further away from the 1960s, that was retconned out.

I guess that makes sense. They weren't Mr. Fantastic and the Thing at that time though, were they?

No. It was a college aged Ben Grimm and Reed Richards.

moothemagiccow		2012-02-07 06:43:40 PM

the Fantastic Four - after their ill-fated debut battling the Mole Man - are Internet sensations," he said. "And Johnny, annoyingly, is burning up Twitter. Again, it's little details like that, which don't alter the fundamental DNA

So basically you're taking what you deem to be a dated story and making sure it will be an antique again in a couple years by making it excessively contemporary.

//Room-size computers still indicate technological superiority; see IBM's Watson.

moothemagiccow		2012-02-07 06:49:19 PM

FirstNationalBastard: Reboots, retellings, prequels, and #1 issues every 6-12 months are a sure sign that a company has no new stories to tell, and have to keep farking the same old chicken over and over to keep sucking money out of the same rapidly shrinking pool of buyers because what they're putting out certainly doesn't appeal to or create new readers.

WTF do you expect? Marvel publishes the same books it did fifty years ago.

texdent		2012-02-07 08:06:20 PM

realmolo: The Marvel Universe (and the DC Universe, too) work on a "sliding" continuity scale. They started officially doing this about 10 years ago or so.

Basically, in comic books, every hero had their "origin" story roughly ten years ago. So in 2012, Spider-Man became Spider-Man in 2002. Superman became Superman in 2002.

It's not a hard-and-fast rule that resets every year, though. It's just a guideline. They HAVE to do it this way, because no other way works. And really, who gives a shiat about continuity? Seriously. Continuity is a pointless exercise that slowly wrecks everything in comic books, and should generally be ignored, in the long-term.

Came here to say this. As the years go by, they have to keep pushing origin stories forward.

Nihilist's Guide to Reticent Entropy		2012-02-07 09:10:27 PM

texdent: realmolo: The Marvel Universe (and the DC Universe, too) work on a "sliding" continuity scale. They started officially doing this about 10 years ago or so.

Basically, in comic books, every hero had their "origin" story roughly ten years ago. So in 2012, Spider-Man became Spider-Man in 2002. Superman became Superman in 2002.

It's not a hard-and-fast rule that resets every year, though. It's just a guideline. They HAVE to do it this way, because no other way works. And really, who gives a shiat about continuity? Seriously. Continuity is a pointless exercise that slowly wrecks everything in comic books, and should generally be ignored, in the long-term.

Came here to say this. As the years go by, they have to keep pushing origin stories forward.

Exception:

Captain America, Wolverine, Nick Fury, the original Human Torch, Namor, the rest of the Invaders, the Black Widow, Bucky/Winter Soldier, and a few other characters are thus far still able to trace their history to World War II or earlier.

Everyone else-- The FF, the Avengers, Spider-Man, the X-Men, Defenders, Champions, etc. are from the Age of Heroes which began 10-20 years ago in Marvel's sliding timeline.

I do wish they'd avoid mentioning actual years, or referring to dated things like Twitter or Facebook, or the name of the current President or certain celebrities.

Terrible Old Man		2012-02-07 09:45:50 PM

Does anyone really ever read FF? I understand it's still around just by virtue of being one of the oldest Marvel titles, but I never see anyone ever *read* this. I've always found it dull and dry compared to pretty much every other Marvel property. It's a stagnant idiom that never changes. Asshole scientist, woman who stays with him for no reason, jerkwad guy on fire who never grows up - ever, and giant misshapen rock thing who's too dumb to ever ask if the scientist is so damned smart why is he a miserable rockman still? Throw in a kid who's a dues ex machina just so the writer never has to actually write and who read this?

Keep the interesting side characters like Namor and have the Thing go on a rampage, leveling the tower, bringing it all down on top of them. :P

FirstNationalBastard		2012-02-07 09:59:21 PM

Terrible Old Man: Does anyone really ever read FF? I understand it's still around just by virtue of being one of the oldest Marvel titles, but I never see anyone ever *read* this. I've always found it dull and dry compared to pretty much every other Marvel property. It's a stagnant idiom that never changes. Asshole scientist, woman who stays with him for no reason, jerkwad guy on fire who never grows up - ever, and giant misshapen rock thing who's too dumb to ever ask if the scientist is so damned smart why is he a miserable rockman still? Throw in a kid who's a dues ex machina just so the writer never has to actually write and who read this?

Keep the interesting side characters like Namor and have the Thing go on a rampage, leveling the tower, bringing it all down on top of them. :P

The Waid and Ringo run was great. Of course, that ended over 5 years ago.

I had hopes for the Hickman run, then he started reliving the 1990s, and I had already read those books once before.

moothemagiccow		2012-02-07 10:54:58 PM

Terrible Old Man: Does anyone really ever read FF? I understand it's still around just by virtue of being one of the oldest Marvel titles, but I never see anyone ever *read* this. I've always found it dull and dry compared to pretty much every other Marvel property. It's a stagnant idiom that never changes. Asshole scientist, woman who stays with him for no reason, jerkwad guy on fire who never grows up - ever, and giant misshapen rock thing who's too dumb to ever ask if the scientist is so damned smart why is he a miserable rockman still? Throw in a kid who's a dues ex machina just so the writer never has to actually write and who read this?

Keep the interesting side characters like Namor and have the Thing go on a rampage, leveling the tower, bringing it all down on top of them. :P

WOTTA REVOLTIN DEVELOPMENT THIS IS

//from the twelve or so issues of FF I've read, Doom is the only reason to open the book

Nihilist's Guide to Reticent Entropy		2012-02-07 11:20:26 PM

moothemagiccow: Terrible Old Man: Does anyone really ever read FF? I understand it's still around just by virtue of being one of the oldest Marvel titles, but I never see anyone ever *read* this. I've always found it dull and dry compared to pretty much every other Marvel property. It's a stagnant idiom that never changes. Asshole scientist, woman who stays with him for no reason, jerkwad guy on fire who never grows up - ever, and giant misshapen rock thing who's too dumb to ever ask if the scientist is so damned smart why is he a miserable rockman still? Throw in a kid who's a dues ex machina just so the writer never has to actually write and who read this?

Keep the interesting side characters like Namor and have the Thing go on a rampage, leveling the tower, bringing it all down on top of them. :P

WOTTA REVOLTIN DEVELOPMENT THIS IS

//from the twelve or so issues of FF I've read, Doom is the only reason to open the book

Well, that dynamic is a bit off these days. There's no Johnny (Still dead-ish), and Spider-Man is there in his place. There's also a whole pack of kids; Not just Franklin, but his super-intelligent sister and a bunch of "classmates" who are watched over by Dragonman (an android that looks like a purple dragon-man).

On top of that, Reed is always in another universe, Sue is MUCH more powerful these days (she's one of the more powerful characters in Marvel, actually), and the Thing is an Avenger, along with Spider-Man.

So it's not quite the same boring story you may have read 10 years ago. It has changed a bit over the years.

ronin7		2012-02-07 11:56:43 PM

Nihilist's Guide to Reticent Entropy: moothemagiccow: Terrible Old Man: Does anyone really ever read FF? I understand it's still around just by virtue of being one of the oldest Marvel titles, but I never see anyone ever *read* this. I've always found it dull and dry compared to pretty much every other Marvel property. It's a stagnant idiom that never changes. Asshole scientist, woman who stays with him for no reason, jerkwad guy on fire who never grows up - ever, and giant misshapen rock thing who's too dumb to ever ask if the scientist is so damned smart why is he a miserable rockman still? Throw in a kid who's a dues ex machina just so the writer never has to actually write and who read this?

Keep the interesting side characters like Namor and have the Thing go on a rampage, leveling the tower, bringing it all down on top of them. :P

WOTTA REVOLTIN DEVELOPMENT THIS IS

//from the twelve or so issues of FF I've read, Doom is the only reason to open the book

Well, that dynamic is a bit off these days. There's no Johnny (Still dead-ish), and Spider-Man is there in his place. There's also a whole pack of kids; Not just Franklin, but his super-intelligent sister and a bunch of "classmates" who are watched over by Dragonman (an android that looks like a purple dragon-man).

On top of that, Reed is always in another universe, Sue is MUCH more powerful these days (she's one of the more powerful characters in Marvel, actually), and the Thing is an Avenger, along with Spider-Man.

So it's not quite the same boring story you may have read 10 years ago. It has changed a bit over the years.

Actually the big recent storyline was Johnny Storm's Presumed death/disappearance and the restructuring of the FF. Its actually quite a bit different now. Spider-Man filling in for him while he was gone. Havent read the last few issues so I am not sure how much back to normal now, but there are actually two titles now. Fantastic Four as well as "the Future Foundation" with a number of other characters.

Actually FF has been pretty good lately. The writer on it is quite skilled.

Aboleth		2012-02-08 12:42:49 AM

THING RING! DO YOUR THING!

RepoManTSM		2012-02-08 01:22:04 AM

carrion_luggage: Sadly, they also made Thing PC

[superherouniverse.com image 640x480]

"It's sternly-talkin'-to time!"

What was the back story of Johny Storm being replaced by a robot in that horrible cartoon?

FirstNationalBastard		2012-02-08 01:24:14 AM

RepoManTSM: carrion_luggage: Sadly, they also made Thing PC

[superherouniverse.com image 640x480]

"It's sternly-talkin'-to time!"

What was the back story of Johny Storm being replaced by a robot in that horrible cartoon?

There are two stories out there.

One is that the producers didn't want kids to set themselves on fire emulating the Human Torch.

The other is that the Torch was optioned out to another studio for his own solo story, and couldn't be used in the cartoon. So, they created H.E.R.B.I.E. instead.

JohnnyAqua		2012-02-08 02:50:48 AM

FirstNationalBastard: RepoManTSM: carrion_luggage: Sadly, they also made Thing PC

[superherouniverse.com image 640x480]

"It's sternly-talkin'-to time!"

What was the back story of Johny Storm being replaced by a robot in that horrible cartoon?

There are two stories out there.

One is that the producers didn't want kids to set themselves on fire emulating the Human Torch.

The other is that the Torch was optioned out to another studio for his own solo story, and couldn't be used in the cartoon. So, they created H.E.R.B.I.E. instead.

Johnny Storm was replaced because they thought kids were going to try and set themselves on fire, that was the story I heard back in the day and a few years back in a Wizard issue. They wanted Spiderman but he was optioned to another studio. When they did Spiderman and his Amazing friends, they wanted the Human Torch but could not get him because he was optioned to another studio. They created Firestar for that reason. So it worked in reverse.

Inigo		2012-02-08 07:02:23 AM

Disapproves.

Wendy's Chili		2012-02-08 09:10:14 AM

I love how people who've read maybe five comic books in their lives and none since the 1990's are gnashing their teeth about reboots and "comic book time".