K.B. said:
I brought up the avengers thing because someone mentioned how important the silver surfer was to the f.f. mythos and how he helped build it etc. Well those charecters all were avengers but you dont need to bring that up if you were to make a movie about them or even one about the avengers for that matter. (look at the fact that they are making films about hawkeye, ant man ,tigra etc..without making any avengers flicks first gasp!) And just cuz someone has seen a bk commerciel dosent mean they remember the movie its tied into. Yes WE know what the f.f. are and all but "joe avereage" dosent. This movie made about as much impact as daredvil,or elektra or the punisher..ie: number one or 2 at the box officer opening week but then sinks like a brick the next.
You guys seem to be the fans that keep wanting to see the hulk show up in a spider man movie and similer garbage that WOULDNT work in a film.
I'm all for keeping things faithful to the sorce materieal but there are times when it is ok to diverge and maybe do things a little different. There are points to this story that would be better suited to explore properly in its own film instead of trying to rush it to fit an hour and 30 mins.
No, DON'T close this thread - there are far too many interesting issues to discuss here.
1. KB, you apparerntly have a treatment for the Surfer that does not involve the FF. That's great, that's fine. Like I said earlier, I thought Marvel was going to do a film centered on the Surfer originally. I'm not particularly a fan of the Surfer as a stand-alone character. I AM an FF fan, but more importantly, a MARVEL fan - someone who remembers when Lee, Kirby, Ditko, Heck and others began the creation of the Marvel Universe (I am not ignoring the Timely and Atlas phases that came before). This universe has grown over the years as new contributors leave their "embroidery" on the characters. The characters of the past have been connected to the characters of the future. The relationships and characterizations grow more complex as each writer or illustrator adds another bit of detail.
Marvel is more than its comicbooks and characters - it is a philosophy of doing things a bit differently, adding an element of fun, and creating a sort of "club" where you feel like a part of it. Stan Lee was the key to fostering that sort of philosophyand promoting it. He has claimed before that if he was allowed to do more promotion, Marvel could have been another Disney. I think he was right, and that they are now pursuing that course.
2. Marvel IS agressively pursuing the use of its characters outside of comics. Now, I didn't know a Hawkeye or Tigra film was in the works, but whatever. As they state on their corporate site, Marvel has 1,000's of characters to use in whatever medium they choose. They would be irresponsible to their investors not to try to recreate the idea of THE MARVEL UNIVERSE in the mass consciousness, rather than just bringing individual films or projects to the screen.
3. The "average Joe" of today IS much more aware of the FF and other Marvel characters than the "average Joe" of ten years ago. A mythology takes time to permeate the mass consciousness. Superman and Batman have been in the media continuously since the late 1930's. The current crop of Marvel characters only since the early 60's or so. People may not be rabid fans of the characters, but once you see them cropping up in game show questions, popular literature, crossword puzzles and commercials, it is clear that the mainstream has some awareness of the characters.
Hell, my mother is 80, and she knows who Captain America, the Human Torch and Submariner are because she remembers them from when she was a kid. During WWII, Cap was a
hugely popular character. According to
Marvel-Five Fabulous Decades of the World's Greatest Comics, the per issue circulation of Captain America Comics was greater than the per issue circulation of Time Magazine in the 1940's.
4. Having characters show up in each others comics was a KEY part of the Marvel philosophy AND their marketing approach. There is no reason to believe that it would not work in other media. Didn't Donald Duck start appearing in Mickey Mouse films? I strongly disagree with your claim about such "similer (sic) garbage that WOULDNT work in a film".
That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
