I've gotta disagree with Tom Lee on this, one of Fantastic Four 2's very few virtues was that they decided to go with an Ultimate Galactus-esque characterization of the destroyer of worlds as a giant cloud rather than sticking with the goofy original design.
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Fantastic Four 2
18 Jun 2007 08:42 am
Comments (18)
I think they just couldn't use the original Galactus after he got fatally lampooned by the Tick (see Omnipotus).
One of the problems was that they didn't explore the Galactus as a character.
On the other hand, Jessica Alba could just stand up there for 90 minutes and I would've still gone to see it.
Goofy original design? Your cultural taste reverse barometer has not failed me yet. And maybe you are too young to know, but your link is not to said "goofy original design" but to some much more recent dreck. If you are going to slag it, at least find a link to the original Jack Kirby design. I read the original back in 1966 fresh off the newstand (FF #48-50, introducing the Silver Surfer and Galactus) and it stayed with me for decades. I've recently reread them (Marvel comics on DVD is a beautiful thing) and the Lee/Kirby stuff still stands up. I havn't seen the movie, but am aware of its portrayal of Galactus. Bah.
Ignoring Matt's opinion of the design, I wouldn't trust them to put a Kirby style Galactus out there without it being either campy or just plain bad,
The original Marvel comics are available on DVD?
Do you have any info about this?
I'm still regretting that I sold my comics collection when I was a teenager, thinking I had outgrown them. I would love to read them again. Nothing compares to Marvel comics from the mid '60's to the mid '70's.
I agree with Marlowe about Galactus. While Kirby wasn't a very good artist, he was very imaginative, and good at designing the look of characters.
If these comics are available on DVD, that would be awesome. I would particularly like to read the Daredevils from the Gene Colan era.
here's a Jack Kirby Galactus/Silver Surfer combo:
http://www.dialbforblog.com/archives/8/surfer_galactus.gif
BTW, you'll notice in that drawing that Jack Kirby had the decency to give the Surfer some shorts to cover up the family jewels, rather than lop 'em off like the movie apparently did.
No purple hat, no credibility.
Marvel comics on DVD is probably the best (and unquestionably most economic) way of revisiting these. Currently Fantastic Four, Spider-man, X-Men, and Avengers are available; Captain America either has just been, or soon will be, released, and Daredevil, Thor, Iron Man and others are scheduled. These are high quality double page scans of each actual issue, front to back cover, in .pdf form. They look great on a good monitor. They contain all the original material from each issue--ads, Stan's Bullpen, letters column (wonderful '60s time capsule) and go from issue # 1 to a date shortly before release (mid-2000s). The odd tear or stain, and crooked or yellowed pages, only adds to the experience. They run about $40 and are a real bargain IMO. You can get them through Amazon or J&R.
Slagging Jack Kirby is sacrilege. Fie upon you, Matt.
My problem with the movie's depiction (And to a lesser extent the Ultimate version.) is that it doesn't have the same dramatic heft. The killer cloud version lacks anything human. There's nothing to interact with, only to react to. It turns the movie into a disaster film, a race against an impossible force instead of a negotiation with an immovable object. Not exactly a bad thing but not exactly as good as the source material, either.
I think these images from the "Marvel: Ultimate Alliance" video game go a long way towards suggesting just how cool a faithful big screen rendering of Galactus could look. http://kungfurodeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/galactus_head.jpg
http://kungfurodeo.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/09/galactus_wide.jpg
To expand on the "goofy original design" comment. Although you use it as a pejorative, of course it was goofy. It was intended to be; that was part of its charm. Unlike DC comics at the time (and Batman and Superman were my first comic loves), Silver Age Marvel always winked at the reader. The trick was getting something goofy and thrilling at the same time, and nobody did it better than Lee and Kirby in FF. And whether or not Jack "King" Kirby was a good artist or not, there is something incredibly evocative about his best work that should touch almost everyone whose heart is not irrevocably hardened to comic books.
If someone with good visual taste like Guillermo Del Toro handled it, Galactus could have been pretty awesome and faithful to the source.
However, the people in charge of the FF movies have terrible taste and I don't trust them to do anything.
Maybe cloud Galactus would have been appropriate in a better (albeit less cannon) FF movie, with a less-modified Jessica Alba and better dialog and stuff. But if you're gonna dress up Michael Chicklis like that, you gotta go with big purple Galactus.
Marlowe,
Thanks for the info.
I agree with you that the FF produced by Lee and Kirby are incredibly evocative. While these issues came out before I started collecting, I read a lot of them which came out as reprints. The FF stories of that era (along with, expecially, Daredevil and Spiderman) contained a lot of philosophizing and soul-searching, which left quite a mark on my pre-teen mind.
I have no desire, really, to see the movies. My experience with the Spiderman (as well as Lord of the Rings) movies is that, although they were ok, there is a risk of them corrupting the precious memories and imaginings that I have from reading the books.
And, Galactus as a cloud? No way.
"Ignoring Matt's opinion of the design, I wouldn't trust them to put a Kirby style Galactus out there without it being either campy or just plain bad,'
And that would be the reason why I must reluctantly agree with Matt's take on the 'new' vs. 'old' Galactus. As much as I like the original (who's actually a fairly nuanced and interesting fellah when written well), he'd would've probably just wound up looking like the Space Pope on Acid. And besides, Jim Starlin's already milked that little conceit waaaaaaay too much already.
Comments closed July 02, 2007.
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Heads in the Sand
a link to the "original" galactus design that isn't even drawn by jack kirby? booooooooooooooooooo.
Posted by passing thru | June 18, 2007 9:00 AM