Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Fantastic Four: Fantastic again? (We'll see ...)


Here's an article about the new creative team on Fantastic Four.
It seems like every new team is heralded as the greatest since maybe John Byrne, and they all kind of talk like they are going to try to bring to the book what Byrne did, normally without mentioning him by name.
They talk about focusing on the characters a family, and packing in lots of adventure -- exactly what made Byrne's run on FF so special.
Some creative teams succeed to varying degrees, but none fully. No one ever seems to capture whatever that feeling was that Byrne had that made me keep coming back and back and back for more.
Walter Simonson was really good, but he focused too much on adventure and not enough on character.
Mark Waid generally seemed pretty good, but sometimes his FF acted a little out of character.
Byrne once said when he was writing and drawing FF, the characters pretty much wrote themselves. His is the modern version of the FF that I compare all other to since, they are all lacking something.
He left the book in the late 1980s, and probably will never come back. If he did, who knows if would have the same magic as before?
Only Lee and Kirby did FF better than Byrne, and they created the doggone team. Theirs will always been the original and greatest. They did all their titles better than anyone.
I just keep hoping the new guys can capture some of the fun and excitement I remember from Byrne's run on FF.
Sometimes I sit around and wonder: If I sat around and re-read every Lee-Kirby and/or John Byrne issue of FF, and really worked at it, could I write a passable Fantastic Four?
It would probably come down to doing what other writers and artists say they are going to do: focus on the characters and a sense of adventure.
Easier said than done.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I am wondering if you have noticed Marvel gearing its comics to promote TV shows or movies.

Browns fans in Ohio have reached the state of "frustrated, angry, ambivalence" to the team.

The NFL may have succeded in being able to move the team without complaint, along with the Lions.

JCarp