For my floppy comic I decided to read the Fantastic Four's end. Therefore, I thought it fitting that my blog post this week be on Fantastic Four. I was really intrigued with the origin story for these characters. Before my floppy reading I had only known the Fantastic Four from the movies produced. The first movie had an origin story but it was slightly different from the origin in the comics.
First thing I noticed was the lack of science in Sue Storm's character. In the film, she is very involved in more of the science surrounding the reasons why they went into space. In the comic she is simply Reed Richard's girlfriend. And Johnny only comes along as Sue's bodyguard type.
Then I found the strangest part to be the character of Ben Grimm. The movies made him out to be Reed's best friend. They were friends, even when in a fight, and Ben was always looking out for Reed, even playing his champion to Sue. In the comic, however, he has such a hatred towards Reed. From the beginning he seems so angry with him about having to go into space. He even makes a comment to Sue about how he is the better man and she should choose him over Reed. And after he transforms all he wants to do is fight Reed. In the film he is angry because of how he looks while he just seems to accept it in the comic. Such contradictions!
Perhaps the depiction of Sue is to simply make her more of a sidekick. She seems to embody the role of the female in the older comics- there for looks and to be saved. But then she gets these invisible powers and can fight herself so why not just make her smart and science-y in the first place?
As as side note, I found the comics, at least for Fantastic Four, hard to read. The comic cut back and forth a lot, which made for a confusing reading. It went: "here is this story, now here is this, let's go back to the first one, and wait now let's go back to the second one".
First thing I noticed was the lack of science in Sue Storm's character. In the film, she is very involved in more of the science surrounding the reasons why they went into space. In the comic she is simply Reed Richard's girlfriend. And Johnny only comes along as Sue's bodyguard type.
Then I found the strangest part to be the character of Ben Grimm. The movies made him out to be Reed's best friend. They were friends, even when in a fight, and Ben was always looking out for Reed, even playing his champion to Sue. In the comic, however, he has such a hatred towards Reed. From the beginning he seems so angry with him about having to go into space. He even makes a comment to Sue about how he is the better man and she should choose him over Reed. And after he transforms all he wants to do is fight Reed. In the film he is angry because of how he looks while he just seems to accept it in the comic. Such contradictions!
Perhaps the depiction of Sue is to simply make her more of a sidekick. She seems to embody the role of the female in the older comics- there for looks and to be saved. But then she gets these invisible powers and can fight herself so why not just make her smart and science-y in the first place?
As as side note, I found the comics, at least for Fantastic Four, hard to read. The comic cut back and forth a lot, which made for a confusing reading. It went: "here is this story, now here is this, let's go back to the first one, and wait now let's go back to the second one".