Had to happen sooner or later: ULTIMATE FANTASTIC FOUR

[Ares]

http://newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=5086

At it’s Ultimate panel at WizardWorld Chicago, Marvel announced that Ultimate Fantastic Four was a go for December, with Mark Millar, Brian Bendis, & Adam Kubert reinterpreting Marvel’s flagship superteam for the 21st Century. Millar and Bendis were willing to share some of their plans with Comic Shop Newsarama.

 

With this Ultimate launch, Marvel is enlisting two writers most closely associated with the Ultiverse: Millar, who wrote more than two years of Ultimate X-Men issues as well as the best-selling Ultimates; and Bendis, who launched the Ultiverse with Ultimate Spider-Man, followed that up with Ultimate Marvel Team-Up, and has now added Ultimate X-Men to his resumé. Millar described how the collaboration works. “Our plan is to play to our own strengths with me initially handling plots and ideas and Brian focusing on dialogue and characterization. However, it won’t be a simple ‘plot by Millar/-script by Bendis.’ We’re trying something much more organic here. It’s a book so cool than both of us wanted to write it and this seemed like the best solution—both of us injecting all that enthusiasm into a single title. If even one per cent of what we’ve been talking about over the phone makes it onto the printed pages it’s going to be a very good book. I’m very happy with what we’ve got so far.”

 

“I love Mark’s storytelling,” Bendis added. “I am often quite taken aback by just how masterful Ultimates is; issue twelve is the best comic -script I’ve read. I thought the mix of his big-[!@#%^&^] Ultimates storytelling and my dialogue and character moments might make some pretty interesting storytelling—and damn if it didn’t work out!

 

“I am always looking for challenges. writing with Mark makes both of us crawl out of whatever comfort zone we have created for ourselves. This is new territory, and nothing is more exciting than that. I think both Mark and I will come out of this experience much better storytellers.”

 

The series will be illustrated by Adam Kubert, best known to comic readers for his work on the best-selling Ultimate X-Men series. Additionally, “Bryan Hitch is doing all the character and costume designs,” Bendis added, pointing out that it seems only appropriate that a fourth member be added to the launch team. “We have this four on the four thing going on that we really like,” Bendis said.

 

“As long as I get to be Sue!” Millar quipped.

 

Bendis has become “Mr. Ultimate,” it seems, having written virtually every Ultimate hero (he’ll be tackling the Ultimates in next month’s Ultimate Six limited series, which unites that team and Spider-Man in combat against six deadly adversaries). What makes his Ultimate stories click with readers? “Are you asking me for the secrets to the universe? I have no idea why things work and things don’t!” Bendis joked. “I write comics I would like to read; it never gets more complicated for me than that. I love to write... love it! I love the idea of the Ultimate line, and the finished product that the Ultimate line of comics create, I really do! I think, end of the day, ninety percent of readers have twenty minutes at night to forget everything about their day and really enjoy a comic book. I take that responsibility pretty seriously, because as a reader nothing makes me happier than a good comic, and nothing bums me out more than a sucky one.”

 

Bendis is adding Ultimate Fantastic Four to an already packed workload that includes (in addition toe the previously mentioned Ultimate projects) Alias/Pulse, Daredevil, and Powers. What led him to take on another book? “ Well, first off, I love the FF. They are the birthplace of Marvel Comics. They are the first family and the benchmark.

 

“Many months ago, I said to Ralph [Macchio, Marvel editor],: ‘Is Grant [Morrison] doing Ultimate FF or not?’ and he said,: ‘he hasn’t handed anything in.’ I was like, ‘if he isn’t going to do it, let me know.’ I guess Mark had said almost the same thing the same week, and Joe or someone asked us both if we wanted to do it together. I was very intrigued by this.

 

What’s the angle on the Ultimate FF? Are these the same four characters we’ve come to know in pretty much the same role? How much updating is going on? “The Fantastic Four and Spider-Man are probably the most cherished Marvel characters,” Mark Millar said. “The X-titles might be more lucrative, but the FF and Spider-Man really feel like the two pillars of the Marvel Universe and, as a kid, were the ones I most wanted to see translated into cinema. Spider-Man just worked beautifully. It made a billion dollars, we all loved it and Spider-Man 2 is almost finished shooting.

 

[Bonds25]

 

I just hope it's as good as Ultimate Spider-Man. I just got done reading the first 7 issues, and I haven't enjoyed a comic like that in a long time!

[HeroDreamer]

yes....yes.....YES!!!

 

I have to say after being pretty much just a Spidey fan for nearly my first 10 years of collecting...FF have become, in the last year or two, his rival. I actually just caught up on them over the past few days reading the Unthinkable storyline which was pretty tight. I can't wait to see them as Ultimates....sooooooo good!

 

 

[Bronty]

Yeah, those first few issues of ultimate spidey are fantastic.

 

No surprise about Ultimate FF though - after all, with the movie lurking in a couple of years it's high time they kicked the franchise up a notch!

[fantastic_four]

I'd be skeptical if it was anybody besides Millar and Bendis. That is just an IDEAL creative team to put behind this book!!! I'm not quite as enthusiastic about Kubert. He's OK, but not all that compelling to me. I hope they pull it off...

[FlyingDonut]

YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!

[blowout]

It will be interesting to see if they change any of the characters radically. I think one of the biggest problems the FF has in its regular book is that the team seems very dated.

[500Club]

 

I just hope it's as good as Ultimate Spider-Man. I just got done reading the first 7 issues, and I haven't enjoyed a comic like that in a long time!

 

Yeah, Ultimate Spidey's a pretty obscure title... I'm not surprised you just picked it up....

[Illiterati-migration]

It will be interesting to see if they change any of the characters radically. I think one of the biggest problems the FF has in its regular book is that the team seems very dated.

 

Have you been reading the Waid run?? It's fresh, baby!

[fantastic_four]

Have you been reading the Waid run?? It's fresh, baby!

 

You're poking my still-fresh wounds...Jemas should be SHOT. If he had somebody better lined up beforehand, that would've been one thing...but firing him due to a creative disagreement is absolutely asanine. It's particularly asanine if you understand that Jemas shouldn't be sticking his nose into the creative side of a successful writer to begin with!

 

GRRRR...this still makes my blood boil...

[Illiterati-migration]

I just shudder to think what is in store next for the Foursome. I mean, apparently Marvel has a different idea for the direction of this book... and I keep hearing "comedy" thrown around. Waid injects PLENTY o' humor... what do they want? Slapstick? Vaudeville? "What The?!"???

 

I weep for the future. :::close-up of Khaos' eyeball as a single tear drops:::

 

[Bonds25]

Yeah, Ultimate Spidey's a pretty obscure title... I'm not surprised you just picked it up....

 

Yep, it was VERY hard to find. I looked and looked and looked, and FINALLY there appeared a copy on Ebay!

[blowout]

Have you been reading the Waid run?? It's fresh, baby!

 

I picked up Waid's first issue and thought it was quite amusung. I must say though that Weringo's art turned me off, too cartoony for me.

The FF is much better artistically portrayed in the 'heroic' style as perfected by Kirby and Buscema.

[Zonker]

It will be interesting to see if they change any of the characters radically. I think one of the biggest problems the FF has in its regular book is that the team seems very dated.

 

In the Millar/Bendis interview on newsarama, one of them mentions that in re-reading the FF, he was struck at how intertwined the team is with the space race / cold war period in history. For the Ultimate version, one of the things they are doing is apparently junking the rocketship / cosmic rays origins but they weren't specific about what takes its place.

[Illiterati-migration]

I've seen this complaint that Weringo's work is too "cartoony"... and while I agree that it is cartoonier than most, I still like it a LOT. It's cartoony, but it's not manga and I don't even see manga influence-- and that's what's important to me.

 

Sure, he's a far cry from Sienkiewicz... but the art is relatviely inoffensive to my ultra-refined palate.

[Paladin]

The weird thing for me is I like Casey Jones' art but not Weringo's work. They're both kinda cartoony. Maybe the inks on Jones's art is better. Hell, I don't know.

[Illiterati-migration]

Refresh my memory... what books has Casey Jones done?

[500Club]

I've seen this complaint that Weringo's work is too "cartoony"... and while I agree that it is cartoonier than most, I still like it a LOT. It's cartoony, but it's not manga and I don't even see manga influence-- and that's what's important to me.

 

Sure, he's a far cry from Sienkiewicz... but the art is relatviely inoffensive to my ultra-refined palate.

 

Yeah, I like Wieringo, too. His art is clean, and flows from panel to panel. That's a far cry from when Larroca was on the book, and some panels were cluttered to the point of being indistinguishable.

[Ariamus]

[Ariamus]

Wait till you read issue #13; it is absolutely brilliant and remains, to this day, my favorite single issue of the series.