Long before an emerging Marvel Comics Group dared to hope its upstart super-hero funnybooks might attract the attention of corporate Hollywood, the comics fans had started speculating about how The Fantastic Four – the colorful exploits of a circle of powerful misfits, united by reciprocal affections and resentments – might weather a transplant to film.

Dream-casting fantasies abounded during the early 1960s: How about Neville Brand or Jack Elam – popular favorites at portraying plug-ugly tough guys – as the misshapen Thing, test pilot-turned-musclebound rockpile? Or Peter Lorre, as a recurring villain known as the Puppet Master? (Something of an easy call, there, inasmuch as lead artist Jack Kirby had modeled the bug-eyed Puppet Master after Lorre in the first place.)

It took a while for such wonders to develop – well past the mortal spans of Lorre and Brand and Elam and a good many other wish-list players. And in the long interim, the Marvel line of costumed world-beaters made lesser leaps from page to screen in a variety of teevee spin-offs, both animated and live-action, that never quite seized the cinema-like intensity of the comic books themselves. A live-action Fantastic Four feature of 1994 fared unexpectedly well on a pinch-penny budget, although this version has gone largely unseen outside the bootleg-video circuit.

The Marvel-gone-Hollywood phenomenon escalated around the turn of the century (beyond all early-day fannish expectations) with a big-studio X-Men feature, concerning another team of misfits in cosmic conflict. Success on this front brought an onrush of adaptations.

Prominent among these, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man series launched in 2002. X-Men has sequelized itself repeatedly. Ang Lee’s take on The Hulk proved as indebted to Nietzsche and Freud as to the Jekyll-and-Hyde bearings of the earlier comic books. A 2005 Fantastic Four feature won over the paying customers but irked a majority of the published critics: Bellwether reviewer Roger Ebert called that one no match for Spider-Man 2 or the DC Comics-licensed Batman Begins. No accounting for taste.

Now comes Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (due June 15), which raises the cosmic-menace stakes considerably while keeping the continuity anchored with director Tim Story and a familiar basic-ensemble cast. The story derives from the comics’ episodes about a planet-destroying being whose scout, the Silver Surfer, arrives to determine whether this particular planet is ripe for plunder.

If the notion of a surfboard-jockey space traveler sounds intolerably silly on first blush, consider that the character proved persuasively earnest from his first appearance – thanks to Jack Kirby’s vigorous drawings and Stan Lee’s gift for making arch dialogue seem right for the circumstances. As impersonated by Doug Jones (of Pan’s Labyrinth and the 1994 Hellboy) and voiced by Laurence Fishburne, the movie’s Silver Surver nails the spirit of the funnybooks. The Surfer’s attraction to the Fantastic Four’s Invisible Woman (Jessica Alba), who owes her greater loyalties to team boss Mr. Fantastic, lends a jolt of intimate conflict to the larger crisis.

The collaborative screenplay allows sharper exposure for Ben “Thing” Grimm (Michael Chiklis) and Ioan Gruffud’s Mr. Fantastic, along with a more richly conceived characterization for chronic villain Victor von Doom (Julian McMahon). Gruffud develops confidence and wisdom on a level with his character’s essential intelligence. Chris Evans remains fittingly temperamental as the Human Torch.

Improved visual effects stem from a refined job of make-up prosthetics for the Thing – Michael Chiklis’ tragicomic emoting comes across more effectively – and from the polished work of the Weta Digital CGI crew. The Silver Surfer tends to upstage the central characters in terms of spectacle, but the key performances are uniformly well matched. (more…)

Our Big ComicMix Broadcast crew joined us at Book Expo this weekend, recording all kinds of interviews and news segments for our podcasts. We’ll let ’em tell you – and show you – all about it in their own words:

It was a dark and stormy night…wait..no..I’m not Snoopy, just ComicMix Kai giving a quick update with some photos from our incredible experience at this weekend’s Book Expo America held at the Jacob Javits Center in NYC.

I had an AWESOME time, this was every book lover’s dream to be among fabulous authors and publishers, not to mention stepping on people that you LEAST expect to.  It’s time for a trip to the chiropractor from lugging around no less than four count ’em four bags of full of BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS!

Actually, I REALLY did step on someone.  I was being a good girl and doing my job of setting up and coordinating interviews, in this case with "Cousin" Brucie Marrow’s publicist and I stepped back and practically crushed the woman standing behind me.  I apologized profusely and the woman said in a German accent (clue here) "that’s ok, don’t worry."  I couldn’t believe my eyes – it was none other than famed "sex-pert" Dr. Ruth.  Apologizing again and babbling on about how I’m a huge fan, the good doctor took a picture with me.

OK, now back to the rest of the show, which by the way, CANNOT be covered in a mere article or two – which is why ComicMix has been running various articles all weekend.  Photo highlights include LL Cool J promoting his new Platinum Workout book (interview in action with the Big Broadcast’s Mellifluous Mike Raub), the aforementioned "Cousin" Brucie Morrow,  the very beautiful Deborah Pratt (and Mike Raub, a big fan from her Quantum Leap days) talking about her newest venture The Vision Quest, (more…)