# What do I need to know about the Fantastic Four to enjoy the movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 25, 2005, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815 "2005-06-25T17:49:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/21 "2005-06-26T16:48:18Z")
The small scar is something that Jack Kirby was fond of saying (and hey, if Jack Kirby wants to say that who am I to argue?). But reactions to Doom without a mask on are a touch extreme, even from Dr. Don Blake who you’d think would have a better bedside manner than to say, “Oh, no! NO! In the name of Heaven… I never dreamt it would be… like that! There’s nothing medical science can do! NOTHING!” when asked to perform plastic surgery on him. Anyway, I think knowledge of the Fantastic Four going into the movie is probably going to be a hinderance to the enjoyment rather than necessary… ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/22 "2005-06-26T18:11:53Z")
Why can’t we both be right? How about he had one small scar, and was insane enough to think it disfigured him. Then, he put a just-forged mask on, making him look hideous, and beyond repair. Note: If Tho-, I mean, Dr. Blake came on the scene before the whole masking being forged thing, I am screwed. 😉 A hammer to the head, due to my getting the facts wrong, hurts, you know? ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/23 "2005-06-26T18:18:03Z")
Scott, that’s exactly how Byrne brought together Kirby’s personal description (which was never used in comics, he just would comment on it in interviews) and the fact that people react very badly to Doom’s face. A little helping hand from the fact that Doom wasn’t waiting around for the mask to cool in FF Annual #2 and there you go. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/24 "2005-06-26T18:37:17Z")
> [@Just Some Guy](#): > > Scott, that’s exactly how Byrne brought together Kirby’s personal description Byrne? Never heard of him. La, la, la. I can’t hear you, and while I am at it, there was never a Highlander II, either. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![HubZilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/ccd318/32.png) [@HubZilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HubZilla)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/25 "2005-06-26T20:10:59Z")
> [@Big Bad Voodoo Lou](#): > > He is one of the best villains in the history of comics (and the major inspiration for Darth Vader), but I’m worried his character will be oversimplified to the point of being an electricity-shooting goon in a metal mask. There was a comic that showed Dr. Doom crying about September 11. I found this strange, as he would be the type of villian to engineer September 11! ---
**Author:** ![toadspittle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c0e974/32.png) [@toadspittle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/toadspittle)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/26 "2005-06-26T20:26:23Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > There was a comic that showed Dr. Doom crying about September 11. I found this strange, as he would be the type of villian to engineer September 11! Perhaps Osama stole his plans and beat him to it. ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Fight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/90ced4/32.png) [@Cat\_Fight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Fight)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/27 "2005-06-27T00:50:36Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > I heard someone ask the question, “Why would you hire Jessica Alba to be invisible in a movie?” Why would you hire Julian McMahon (Dr. Doom) as a mask-wearing character? I have no interest, really, in the movie- but dang. Nip/Tuck’s not coming back for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/28 "2005-06-27T11:22:56Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > There was a comic that showed Dr. Doom crying about September 11. I found this strange, as he would be the type of villian to engineer September 11! That issue was a nice idea but really odd and not thought through enough. In their individual comic books the various heroes have seen much more destruction and strife than Sept 11, they never really addressed why they all of a sudden came together and were affected by such a small scale disaster. ---
**Author:** ![levdrakon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@levdrakon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/levdrakon)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 11:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/29 "2005-06-27T11:36:30Z")
[QUOTE=Otto **THANKS FOR THE SPOILER TAG ON THAT** [/QUOTE] Dag nabbit you guys! I’m sick of you people spoilering everything for me! What’s next, telling me which Kryptonite-ological planet Superman comes from? Bastards. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 12:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/30 "2005-06-27T12:03:26Z")
> [@HPL](#): > > Nah. A real spoiler would be if I said “Willy Wonka exploits his ommpa loompa workers and makes billions off their suffering without investing anything back into the community” He’s basically an evil capitalist. He even does horrible things to childern. Shall we even bring up the subject of how in the original book, the Oompa-Loompas were a tribe of African pygmies who were thrilled to work for Wonka because they could eat unlimited chocolate? Naahhh… ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/31 "2005-06-27T13:56:24Z")
> [@](#): > > There was a comic that showed Dr. Doom crying about September 11. I found this strange, as he would be the type of villian to engineer September 11! I’m not sure. I mean, mass destruction was never his thing. ---
**Author:** ![Scott\_Plaid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Scott\_Plaid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scott_Plaid)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/32 "2005-06-27T14:05:08Z")
I can understand why the heroes would revile this act, and come together as a group. The problem is, the writers somehow stretched your definition to the villains. Sure, so he has shown a nice side to his subjects, but not enough that he would not do the exact same act as the hijackers. Another possibility is that this is like the curtain call at the end of a play. The man who played a fictional mass-murderer, the victim, and the hero of the piece, stand together to receive praise for a jorb well-done, and to show that no one is really dead. The do not really exist, but are created by real people. That came out all wrong. Perhaps a better explanation is that someone connected with Doom, a writer or any artist feels emotionally connected to his work, and wanted to show his work in the album. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/33 "2005-06-27T15:22:49Z")
The Doom crying bit was in the 9/11 tribute comic that Marvel did. There was one page which featured the Kingpin, Magneto, and Doom showing up at the site to mourne. I can picture the Kingpin doing it, he’s a native New Yorker and a mobster not a mass murderer. Magneto could be affected by the human tragedy, though I find it unlikely that he would show up. Doom on the other hand makes no sense. I can picture Doom blowing up large chunks of real estate to get what he wants (and he has, though I don’t recall any off hand that had a massive death toll). Most readers at the time agreed that this particular page was not a good idea. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Hey\_It\_s\_That\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_It_s_That_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/34 "2005-06-27T15:37:15Z")
> [@Just Some Guy](#): > > The Doom crying bit was in the 9/11 tribute comic that Marvel did. There was one page which featured the Kingpin, Magneto, and Doom showing up at the site to mourne. I can picture the Kingpin doing it, he’s a native New Yorker and a mobster not a mass murderer. Magneto could be affected by the human tragedy, though I find it unlikely that he would show up. Doom on the other hand makes no sense. I can picture Doom blowing up large chunks of real estate to get what he wants (and he has, though I don’t recall any off hand that had a massive death toll). Most readers at the time agreed that this particular page was not a good idea. That comic was Amazing Spider-Man #36, which usually goes for big money to collectors. It is generally considered to be out of continuity now. And while Magneto might indeed mourn such a tragedy, he has also tried to exterminate mankind several times over, and was personally responsible for several tragic attacks with high fatalities, including the men on the Soviet submarine _Leningrad_ in Uncanny X-Men #200. Dr. Doom is much more of a pragmatic megalomaniac: while he has definitely launched devastating attacks himself, he’d much rather rule the world with an iron fist (literally) and have his subjects fearfully loyal to him than to indiscriminately murder thousands of innocent people. ---
**Author:** ![Wolfian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/7ea924/32.png) [@Wolfian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wolfian)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/35 "2005-06-27T16:34:44Z")
> [@toadspittle](#): > > - Dr. Doom is all electrical? At least that’s what I gathered from the commercials. I always thought he was just a brilliant criminal genius, and leader of a small European country, who happened to wear that iron mask dealy. I don’t recall him using any super powers in the comics. When I first read this I thought about Baron Underbite from the Venture Bros, a character who wears a metal jaw and rules Underland. Then I remembered that the Monarch refered to him as a “dime store Dr. Doom.” Or was it “a Dr. Doom knock-off?” Either way this thread is making Baron Underbite a lot more funny to me. ---
**Author:** ![Draelin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce73a5/32.png) [@Draelin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Draelin)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/36 "2005-06-27T16:43:42Z")
I’ve never been a Fantastic Four fan, so I can’t comment much on this. I am happy to hear that Dr. Doom’s electrical power is something new, simply because I’ve found myself wondering why someone with the abilities of Black Vulcan (except with pants) would want to wear a metal mask. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/37 "2005-06-27T20:11:23Z")
> [@HubZilla](#): > > There was a comic that showed Dr. Doom crying about September 11. I found this strange, as he would be the type of villian to engineer September 11! I’ll have to half-disagree here; while I can’t buy Doom getting weepy over 9/11 either, I also can’t imagine him undertaking such a plan. It’s too _beneath_ him to do something as imprecise and inelegant as ramming airliners into buildings – it’s like asking John Williams to write a commercial jingle. Remember, Von Doom isn’t just a megalomaniacal comic-book villian, he’s a megalomaniacal comic-book villian with _style._ And to continue the hijack, does anyone know where I can find the rumored sketch that Jack Kirby did featuring the Thing in Jewish Rabbi regala? ;j (Oh, the movie? I dunno, I don’t have high hopes for it…) ---
**Author:** ![Odinoneeye](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/97f17d/32.png) [@Odinoneeye](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odinoneeye)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/38 "2005-06-27T21:26:17Z")
> [@ddgryphon](#): > > I heard someone ask the question, “Why would you hire Jessica Alba to be invisible in a movie?” Maybe she’ll be more like Peek-A-Boo Girl from Normal Man. She had the power to make her clothes invisible. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/39 "2005-06-27T22:23:21Z")
The way I always read 9/11 in terms of the Marvel book was that the heroes and upper tier villains came together because although this kind of devastation is fairly common in the comics but this (meaning 9/11) didn’t involve them, it didn’t involve super humans, this was human-kind in conflict with itself. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Some\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ad7895/32.png) [@Just\_Some\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Some_Guy)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2005, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815/40 "2005-06-27T22:56:45Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > And to continue the hijack, does anyone know where I can find the rumored sketch that Jack Kirby did featuring the Thing in Jewish Rabbi regala? ;j > > (Oh, the movie? I dunno, I don’t have high hopes for it…) I have a copy of it (and the Dr. Doom with the tiny scar under the mask sketch) in a Fantastic Four Chronicles publication. It was a comic book sized one shot done by an independant publisher in the early eighties that had interviews and other information and was part of a line of “Chronicles” they put out for a lot of popular comics. It goes for effectively nothing if you want to pick it up, but I’ve never seen another copy other than the one I have. I’ll try to dig it up tonight or tomorrow and scan the images if people are interested… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-do-i-need-to-know-about-the-fantastic-four-to-enjoy-the-movie/309815.md?page=3)