RIC MEYERS: Fantastic Up Creature – Rise of the Surf’s Comforts
There were rumors to the effect that the first Fox Fantastic Four movie was the victim of studio interference that somehow moved a mid-film confrontation to the climax. But given its success, FF2 would be the full, unadulterated vision of director Tim Story. Right?
Well, with the “Power Cosmic 2-Disc Edition” DVD release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, it appears those rumors were merely wishful thinking. If you liked #1, you’ll probably be fine with #2, but if, like me, you felt #1 was lacking, you, like me, may find #2 essentially insupportable in terms of comedy, drama, action, and/or romance.
On the one hand, Sue Storm — a.k.a. Invisible Girl a.k.a. Jessica Alba — is given a nice wardrobe, especially her pre-wedding robe. On the other hand, she’s given Cleopatra’s make-up and has gotten the same disease as Lois Lane in Superman Returns and Mary Jane Watson in Spider-Man 3 – that is, the safety of the world is nothing compared with her bee-otchy, selfish, superficial ego needs.
But what of the special features, which, nominally, this column’s about? If you’ll remember last time, the first film’s DVD was saved by some above average history of comics and the graphic FF. This time just about the only thing that buoys the effort is the “Sentinel of the Spaceways: Comic Book Origins of the Silver Surfer Documentary.” There’s also some interest inspired by the “Character Design with Spectral Motion Featurette,” but the rest of the many, many extras are self-congratulatory ego-boo fests for a job mediocrely done.
Fifty years ago today, 
If I want to be reminded of a very good reason for being where I am for the next six weeks or so, all I need do is look out the window. The foliage is always glorious. I wish I were a poet, or Henry David Thoreau, or James Lee Burke, so I could properly celebrate the changing of the leaves.
Needless to say, it has been a rather eventful week here at ComicMix, but not so much that we can’t take the time out to WELCOME all of you who may have just discovered us via news of our new, weekly and FREE comics. If you missed some of our Big ComicMix Broadcasts this week, here are some things we pointed you toward:
The 40th anniversary of the Beatles’ arrival in North America occurred in 2004. So what else is new? That occasion could hardly be treated as commonplace nostalgia, so urgent has the influence remained. Witness Julie Taymor’s newly opened film, Across the Universe. Nor can mere nostalgia account for the significance of the 50th anniversary of a similarly intense cultural phenomenon known as Shock! Theater.
There probably hasn’t been a generation since the late 1950s that, in some way, hasn’t been touched by Mad Magazine. Born out of the Comics Code ravaged EC Comics, it went from four color comic to traditional magazine and broke circulation records that have yet to be topped. Today The Big ComicMix Broadcast begins our talk with Al Feldstein, a mainstay of EC’s glory days and the man who helped Mad on the map. Plus, The Hardy Boys get gamey, Image pulls the Kirby book and we take another step closer to Transformers 2.
