Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Fantastic Four : Cast (Movie 2007)
Ioan Gruffudd as Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic
Jessica Alba as Sue Richards / Invisible Woman
Chris Evans as Johnny Storm / Human Torch
Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm / The Thing
Doug Jones as Norrin Radd / Silver Surfer
Laurence Fishburne as Norrin Radd / Silver Surfer (voice)
Julian McMahon as Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom
Kerry Washington as Alicia Masters
Beau Garrett as Frankie Raye
Vanessa Minnillo as Julie Angel
Andre Braugher as General Hager
Stan Lee as Rejected wedding guest
Brian Posehn as Priest
Jessica Alba as Sue Richards / Invisible Woman
Chris Evans as Johnny Storm / Human Torch
Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm / The Thing
Doug Jones as Norrin Radd / Silver Surfer
Laurence Fishburne as Norrin Radd / Silver Surfer (voice)
Julian McMahon as Victor von Doom / Doctor Doom
Kerry Washington as Alicia Masters
Beau Garrett as Frankie Raye
Vanessa Minnillo as Julie Angel
Andre Braugher as General Hager
Stan Lee as Rejected wedding guest
Brian Posehn as Priest
Fantastic Four plot summary (Movie 2007)
Set two years after the first film, Reed Richards and Sue Storm are preparing for their wedding. A silver object enters Earth's atmosphere, radiating cosmic energy that creates massive molecular fluctuations at locations across the Earth, causing deep craters at these places. The government approaches Reed to build a sensor to track the movements of the object.
As the wedding begins, Reed's sensor detects the phenomenon approaching New York City, causing a massive power blackout. The object destroys the sensor while the Fantastic Four protect the crowd. The Human Torch then pursues the object, discovering that it is a humanoid, a "Silver Surfer". He confronts the Surfer, only to be dragged into the upper atmosphere.
After his flame snuffs out, the Surfer drops him back towards Earth, but he reactivates his powers and survives the fall. Reed's examination reveals that exposure to the Surfer has caused Johnny's DNA to destabilize, allowing him to switch powers with his teammates through physical contact. Tracing the cosmic energy of the Surfer, Reed discovers that a series of planets the alien had visited before Earth have all been destroyed.
The Surfer's movements around the globe bring him past Latveria, where the cosmic energy affects Victor von Doom, freeing him from two years as a metal statue. Doom, able to move again, and returned to a human, if scarred form, traces the Surfer to the Arctic and makes him an offer to join forces. When the Surfer rebuffs him, Doom attacks. The Surfer returns fire, blasting Doom through the ice. The cosmic energy of the Surfer's blast heals Doom's body, reversing the changes seen in the first film. Doom leverages his experience into a deal with the American military, who force the Fantastic Four to work with Doom. Deducing that the Surfer's board is the source of his power, the group develops a device that will separate him from his board. While setting up the pulse generator, Sue is confronted by the Surfer, in which he reveals he is only a servant to the destroyer of worlds. The military opens fire on the Surfer, distracting him, allowing the four to fire the pulse and capture the Surfer and his board.
The military imprison the Surfer in Siberia, and forbid the Fantastic Four from interacting with him, while they torture him for information. Sue uses her powers to sneak into his cell, where she learns more information from the Surfer. He tells her his master was known by the people of his world as Galactus, an entity which must feed on life-bearing planets to survive, and that his board is a homing beacon which even now summons him to the planet.
Doom, pursuing the power in the board, attacks the military within the compound, and uses a device to gain control of the board. The Fantastic Four rescue the Surfer, and pursue Doom in the Fantasticar, eventually confronting him in Shanghai. During the battle, Sue is mortally wounded. With the Surfer powerless, Johnny takes on the powers of the entire team. The Thing manages to knock Doom into the harbor where he is last seen sinking. However, Galactus has already arrived. His power restored, the Surfer revives Sue and chooses to defend Earth by flying into Galactus and confronting him. This results in a massive energy blast, apparently killing himself in the process.
The crisis averted, Reed and Sue are married in a small ceremony, which is rushed through by yet another emergency alert that the team flies off to attend.
The credits cut back to a shot of the Silver Surfer's seemingly lifeless body floating through space. Just as he drifts off the edge of the screen, his board races out of shot to reunite with his body.
Fantastic Four plot summary (Movie 2005)
Fantastic Four plot summary
A scientist named Dr. Reed Richards has discovered there is a radio-active cloud in the space that will pass just over the earth's atomshpere.
He believes that this cloud carries nuritents and proteins that will benefit mankind. He decides to ask his old college roommate and old friend, Viktor VonDoom, for access to his billion dollar research center located above the earth in the same spot where the cloud will pass over.
Viktor agrees, and decides to invite his top genome scientist, Susan Storm, who so happens to be Dr. Reed's ex-girlfriend.
Viktor also chooses the pilot, her brother, Johnny Storm. Ben Grimm isn't too happy with the decision since he is Dr. Reed's best friend and also an expert pilot. Dr. Reed assumes that the shields on the space station will protect the crew when the cloud hits the station.
The cloud hits the station earlier than Dr. Reed expected while the shields were down, everyone is exposed to the cloud. Ben Grimm is hit the worst, as he tries desperately to get back inside the space station. (He was sent outside to put flowers in a box to test their reaction to the cloud.) They were all exposed and the DNA of all five of them begins to react differently to the cloud as they recoop at a swiss medical station.
Susan gains invisiblity, Dr. Reed can stretch himself beyond a normal human, Johnny can control fire, Ben is transformed into a being made entirely out of solid orange rock, and Von Doom's body structure changes into metal. Von Doom goes crazy and the other four step up to stop him.
Fantastic four : history : John Byrne - 2
Byrne was followed by a quick succession of writers (Roger Stern, Tom DeFalco, Roy Thomas), but the next extended run was by Steve Englehart, who had Reed and Sue retire to try to give their son a normal childhood. The returned Thing's new girlfriend, Sharon Ventura, and Johnny Storm's former lover, Crystal, joined the team (though Crystal would leave within a year). Sharon was quickly turned into a female "Thing", and the Thing himself further mutated, developing jagged spikes after being exposed to cosmic radiation during this roster's first mission. Editorial disagreements led to Englehart finishing his run under a pen name, "John Harkness," and reverting Ben Grimm to his human form while returning Reed and Sue Richards to the team. Writer/Artist Walt Simonson followed up with a run where the FF traveled through time, encountering Galactus, a Josef Stalin robot, a dinosaur island that time forgot, and Doctor Doom, who was returned to new villainy while reverting Sharon to human form and Ben Grimm resuming his monstrous form.
Following Simonson was Marvel editor-in-chief Tom DeFalco. DeFalco nullified the Johnny Storm-Alicia Masters relationship by retconning that the Skrull Empire had kidnapped the real Masters during the first Secret War and replaced her with a Skrull spy named Lyja, with whom Storm unwittingly fell in love and married. Once discovered, Lyja, who herself had fallen for Storm, helped the Fantastic Four rescue the real Alicia Masters. Ventura departed after being further mutated by Doctor Doom, with whom she'd sought alliance after Masters returned.
Other key developments included Franklin Richards being sent into the future and returning as a teenager; the return of Reed's time-traveling father, Nathaniel; and Reed's apparent death at the hands of a seemingly mortally wounded Doctor Doom. It would be two years before DeFalco resurrected the two characters, revealing that their seeming deaths were orchestrated by Hyperstorm, the tyrannical futuristic offspring of Rachel Summers (daughter of the X-Men Jean Grey and Cyclops) and Franklin Richards
Fantastic four : history : John Byrne
In the 1980s, John Byrne joined the title with issue #209 (Aug. 1979), doing pencil breakdowns for Sinnott to finish. Byrne then scripted two tales as well (#220-221, July-Aug. 1980) before writer Doug Moench and penciler Bill Sienkiewicz took over for 10 issues. With issue #232 (July 1981), the aptly titled "Back to the Basics", Byrne began his celebrated run as writer, penciller, and (initially under the pseudonym Bjorn Heyn) inker.
His key contribution was the modernization of Invisible Girl into Invisible Woman — a self-confident and dynamic character whose newfound control of her abilities made her the most powerful member of the team
Byrne also staked bold directions in the characters' personal lives, having the married Sue and Reed Richards suffer a miscarriage, and having the Thing's longtime girlfriend, Alicia Masters, and Johnny Storm fall in love and marry. The rift brought on by the latter would linger for several years, with the Thing quitting the Fantastic Four and the She-Hulk being recruited as his long-term replacement.
His key contribution was the modernization of Invisible Girl into Invisible Woman — a self-confident and dynamic character whose newfound control of her abilities made her the most powerful member of the team
Byrne also staked bold directions in the characters' personal lives, having the married Sue and Reed Richards suffer a miscarriage, and having the Thing's longtime girlfriend, Alicia Masters, and Johnny Storm fall in love and marry. The rift brought on by the latter would linger for several years, with the Thing quitting the Fantastic Four and the She-Hulk being recruited as his long-term replacement.
Fantastic four : history
The result was The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961) by Lee, penciler and co-plotter Kirby — the only credit signatures — with George Klein the generally recognized, uncredited inker The new book did not look like a superhero comic; the new characters appeared on the cover without costumes, and fighting a giant monster as was in vogue in Marvel's pre-superhero comics at the time. Moreover, they had no secret identities, and squabbled and grumbled more like real-life people than traditional superheroes.
These first issues of the risky, groundbreaking book set the template for the "Marvel revolution" that revitalized the comics industry with a rough-hewn naturalism in which superheroes could bicker, worry about finances, and be flawed human beings, unlike the golden, square-jawed archetypes that had become the tradition. Lee's intended swan song became unexpectedly and phenomenally successful; Lee and Kirby stayed together on the book and began launching other titles from which the vaunted "Marvel Universe" of additional interrelated titles and characters grew.
Through its creators' lengthy run, the series produced many acclaimed stories and characters that have become central to Marvel, including Doctor Doom; the Silver Surfer; Galactus; the Watcher; The Inhumans; the Black Panther; the rival alien Kree and Skrull races; and Him, who would become Adam Warlock. As well, the duo of Lee & Kirby, who eventually shared credit as co-plotting collaborators, introduced such concepts as the Negative Zone and unstable molecules, two core elements of the Marvel mythos. In the book's most groundbreaking yet utterly natural development, Fantastic Four presented superhero comics' first pregnancy, culminating with the birth of a Marvel superhero family's first child, Franklin Benjamin Richards. The pregnancy was announced in Fantastic Four Annual #5, and the baby was born one year later in Fantastic Four Annual #6 (1968). (DC Comics' Aquaman had previously fathered a child in his own series, issue #23.)
After Kirby's departure from Marvel in 1970, Fantastic Four continued with Lee, Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, and Marv Wolfman as its consecutive regular writers, working with artists including John Romita, Sr., John Buscema, Rich Buckler, and George Perez, with longtime inker Joe Sinnott helping to provide some visual continuity. Jim Steranko contributed a handful of covers.
Fantastic four : history : Lee and Kirby
Lee & Kirby
Legend has it in 1961, longtime magazine and comic book publisher Martin Goodman was playing golf with either Jack Liebowitz or Irwin Donenfeld of rival DC Comics, then known as National Periodical Publications, who bragged about DC's success with the superhero team the Justice League of America. While film producer and comics historian Michael Uslan has partly debunked the story, Goodman, a publishing trend-follower aware of the JLA's strong sales, confirmably directed his comics editor, Stan Lee, to create a comic-book series about a team of superheroes. According to Lee in 1974:
“ Martin mentioned that he had noticed one of the titles published by National Comics seemed to be selling better than most. It was a book called The [sic] Justice League of America and it was composed of a team of superheroes. ... ' If the Justice League is selling ', spoke he, ' why don't we put out a comic book that features a team of superheroes?' ”
Lee, who'd served as editor-in-chief and art director of Marvel and its predecessor companies, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, for two decades, had by now found the medium restrictive. Determined "to carve a real career for myself in the nowhere world of comic books, Lee concluded that:
“ For just this once, I would do the type of story I myself would enjoy reading.... And the characters would be the kind of characters I could personally relate to: they'd be flesh and blood, they'd have their faults and foibles, they'd be fallible and feisty, and — most important of all — inside their colorful, costumed booties they'd still have feet of clay.
Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four is a fictional American team of comic-book superheroes in the Marvel Comics universe. First appearing in the historically groundbreaking The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961), which helped to usher a new naturalism in the medium, it was the first superhero team created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby.
The four core friends and family members that are traditionally associated with the Fantastic Four, and who gained superpowers after being exposed to cosmic rays during an outer space science mission are:
Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), the leader of the group, a scientific genius who can stretch his body into incredible lengths and shapes.
The Invisible Woman (Susan "Sue" Richards, born Storm; originally the Invisible Girl), Reed Richards' wife, the team's second-in-command. Beautiful and intelligent, Susan Storm can render herself invisible and project powerful force fields.
The Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Sue's brother, who can surround himself with flames, generate them as well, and fly.
The Thing (Ben Grimm), their grumpy friend with a heart of gold, who possesses superhuman strength and endurance, his skin is monstrous, craggy, orange, and looks as if made of scales or plates (often mistakenly referred to as "rocks"). Known for his great courage and fighting skill in addition to his strength, as evidenced by his battle against the Champion of the Universe.
In 2007, Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman stepped down temporarily from active Fantastic Four duty and relinquished their spots to:
The Black Panther (T'Challa), reigning king of the African nation of Wakanda, who has superhumanly acute senses as well as his strength, speed, stamina, and agility at the peak of human development.
Storm (Ororo Munroe), T'Challa's queen, a former leader of the X-Men superhero team. Worshipped as a Goddess in Africa, she possesses the mutant power to control the weather.
Since the original four's 1961 introduction — in which the groundbreaking team did not even adhere to the convention of superhero costumes in its first two issues — the Fantastic Four have been portrayed as a somewhat dysfunctional yet loving family. Breaking convention with other comic-book archetypes of the time, its members would squabble and even hold animosities both deep and petty, and eschew anonymity or secret identities, and maintaining a celebrity status in the public eye.
The Fantastic Four formed the foundation of Marvel Comics' ascent from a small division of a privately held magazine company to a major entertainment conglomerate, and the team holds a pivotal place in the history of American comic books. The FF (as they are commonly known) has remained more or less popular since, and has been adapted into other media, including four animated television series, an aborted 1990s low-budget film, the major motion picture Fantastic Four (2005), and a sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).
The series, which famously added the hyperbolic tagline "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" above the title starting with issue #4 (issue #3 declared itself "The Greatest Comic Magazine in the World!"), dropped the "The" from the cover logo with #16, becoming simply Fantastic Four.
The four core friends and family members that are traditionally associated with the Fantastic Four, and who gained superpowers after being exposed to cosmic rays during an outer space science mission are:
Mr. Fantastic (Reed Richards), the leader of the group, a scientific genius who can stretch his body into incredible lengths and shapes.
The Invisible Woman (Susan "Sue" Richards, born Storm; originally the Invisible Girl), Reed Richards' wife, the team's second-in-command. Beautiful and intelligent, Susan Storm can render herself invisible and project powerful force fields.
The Human Torch (Johnny Storm), Sue's brother, who can surround himself with flames, generate them as well, and fly.
The Thing (Ben Grimm), their grumpy friend with a heart of gold, who possesses superhuman strength and endurance, his skin is monstrous, craggy, orange, and looks as if made of scales or plates (often mistakenly referred to as "rocks"). Known for his great courage and fighting skill in addition to his strength, as evidenced by his battle against the Champion of the Universe.
In 2007, Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman stepped down temporarily from active Fantastic Four duty and relinquished their spots to:
The Black Panther (T'Challa), reigning king of the African nation of Wakanda, who has superhumanly acute senses as well as his strength, speed, stamina, and agility at the peak of human development.
Storm (Ororo Munroe), T'Challa's queen, a former leader of the X-Men superhero team. Worshipped as a Goddess in Africa, she possesses the mutant power to control the weather.
Since the original four's 1961 introduction — in which the groundbreaking team did not even adhere to the convention of superhero costumes in its first two issues — the Fantastic Four have been portrayed as a somewhat dysfunctional yet loving family. Breaking convention with other comic-book archetypes of the time, its members would squabble and even hold animosities both deep and petty, and eschew anonymity or secret identities, and maintaining a celebrity status in the public eye.
The Fantastic Four formed the foundation of Marvel Comics' ascent from a small division of a privately held magazine company to a major entertainment conglomerate, and the team holds a pivotal place in the history of American comic books. The FF (as they are commonly known) has remained more or less popular since, and has been adapted into other media, including four animated television series, an aborted 1990s low-budget film, the major motion picture Fantastic Four (2005), and a sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007).
The series, which famously added the hyperbolic tagline "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine!" above the title starting with issue #4 (issue #3 declared itself "The Greatest Comic Magazine in the World!"), dropped the "The" from the cover logo with #16, becoming simply Fantastic Four.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
