Day 47 - 101 Days of Awesome

I grew up as a comic book nerd. While I only read stuff occasionally these days, I still hold a vast and useless abundance of knowledge of the comic book world, especially the Marvel world. My favorite comic book was always The Fantastic Four.

If one were to attempt to gain the information that I have of the Marvel Universe, such a holy grail that it is, there's one place to start. You have to go to Fantastic Four #1. After all, it is the beginning of Marvel Comics. All of the cornerstones of what makes that universe start there, and the legend builds as the series continues. You learn the origin of my favorite hero, The Thing, as well as that of the greatest villain, Dr. Doom.

Here's the problem I see. Outsiders to the comic book world would be quick to throw out all of my statements. Comic book insiders might agree or disagree, but I woudn't be tossed to the side so quickly. That's because of the recent movies. While the Spider-Man and X-Men movies had a lot of successes (many being very good) and the Avengers movies were all very good, the two FF movies all out sucked.

Having been to the comic cons before it came out, I knew it. The guy who played Dr. Doom, the horribly cast Julian McMahon, gave all the wrong answers. He talked about liking Herbie the Robot from the old cartoon. No. Wrong. Bad. It was all, pun intended, doomed to fail.

I'm hoping that talks of the reboot go in the right direction. Much like Spider-Man and Batman, the FF has a great rogues gallery, which could create some great movie moments. In the meantime, grab some reprints of those early issues. You're gonna have a good time.