Avatar. The Avengers. Iron Man 3. Transformers: Dark of the Moon. The Dark Knight Rises.
These are five of the top ten all-time highest grossing movies. Their (arguable) inclusion in the Science Fiction canon begs a question of the genre: is it just the spectacle that we shell out to witness, or is there some more primitive itch that these kinds of events scratch?
This blog is dedicated to figuring out how it is that Science Fiction addresses the problem of defining "human."
For this reading, I thought that the Fantastic Four comic was really interesting but really bad at the same time. I don’t read comics, and never really got into them as a kid, so I suppose I am biased, however I still enjoy the characters from the Fantastic Four. When I read of why the team had to go into space I actually burst out laughing. The whole “we have to do it before the commies” thing really dates this comic and put things into a better context as a whole. Though it was a serious issue at the time, I have always found it amusing how much world politics is linked to childhood playground-esque thought. The issue that bothered me the most, however was the writing style, and informal convention of the narration text. I understand that these issues are targeted for young adults, however some of the transition sequences made me somewhat cringe. To me it felt like the big no no of starting an essay with the word “I”. Though I understand that I’m not the best with grammar/writing either, perhaps the cliché of the ever present narrator gets to me because I am so unfamiliar with it; this was basically the only thing for me that left a bad taste in my mouth about this piece.
The Mole Man really drew a parallel to Frankenstein's monster for me. He was ostracized by everyone so he wandered off into the cold alone to pretty much die. Also I thought it was strange everyone was human except for The Thing. When he shows himself everyone immediately thinks he's an alien while they at least know The Torch was human like and didn't try and shoot him right away
This is a lot like Tales of Suspense #39 in that the lives of the main characters will no longer be the same after a certain event. The Thing stands out the most because he can’t change back to his normal appearance as opposed to the rest of the Fantastic Four. He still has a grudge against Dr. Richards because of this. The narrator of the story describes this story in a grandiose way. It kept the story suspenseful. This reminded me a lot of the style of advertisements in Amazing Stories. The tone and diction really caught my attention. I think that I would have found this a bit less enjoyable if it were not for that. This was made short and easy to read but, the lack of explanation for a lot of things brings makes Fantastic Four #1 soft science fiction. What the gamma rays are and the way they work is left unexplained. So are the nature of everyone’s powers. Also, this comic is less about the scientific side and more about the social side. Character to character interaction and action scenes take up most of the story. The origin of The Moleman sticks out to me in that regard because he himself was rejected by society and turned to the companionship of other animals instead.
The fantastic 4 was somewhat of a letdown to me. I read it after the iron man comic, and I feel although it is all of the classic comic book tropes, and nothing more. Perhaps It is unfair of me to look at it in this way, because at the time it was published, I assume that these were innovative aspects of the comic that have been copied so many times they feel overdone now. With that in mind, what I found most interesting about this comic was the villain, Mole man. I feel as though he is the only character that I find interesting and human. The fantastic 4 aren’t really fleshed out at all, and the only one that seems to have any internal conflict is the Thing, but for some reason I didn’t find the way they dealt with his alienation interesting. The mole man, on the other hand, provides us a backstory and interesting dialogue on alienation and the things people are driven to do when faced with rejection. Another aspect of his character that I enjoy is his obsession with proving how great he is. Challenging Mr. Fantastic to a fight to prove his “Mole Sense”, and even going to the length of describing his ascension to power and plot to take over the world. Perhaps this is where the classic “Villain describing his whole plan and then failing” comes from. Overall, I was not really impressed with this comic. Though like I said before I am most likely not giving credit where credit is due, I can’t just ignore how I felt after I read it.
When reading the fantastic 4 it was a little different than I expected. There was lot more narrative than I’m use to in most of my comics. I thought that that was both good and bad. Good because it was very descriptive and let us know exactly what was going on but bad also because it doesn’t let you as the reader really imagine and guess what’s going on. I guess this could be a reason as to why there are not as much narratives in comics or that the narrative isn’t explained until later and at a slower rate. I also thought it was really interesting that after they discovered their new found powers Reed Richards says I don’t think I need to say what we should use our powers for and Ben said for good of course. I a typically story that I’m use to I would normally expect there to be some sor5 of conflict of interest in this sort of situation but as if to just quickly move along they just all agree and it was a little bit of letdown.
After reading this comic, I realized why I never liked comics as a kid. I kept on hearing all the yellow boxes of text describing the scene in my head in that annoying comic/cartoon narrator voice. But, as far as the story goes, it plays pretty similarly to the movie portrayal, but sparing us the horrific scripting. Its age is very apparent, as well as its motivations; it is an obvious reaction to the cold war events of its time. The Fantastic Four themselves are a mix of the average 1960’s American and those who were our heroes in reality. The scientist was as close to a superhero that our culture had at that time. Having just designed the atomic bomb, the dreams and aspirations of a coming nuclear age were unknown. Scientists were the ones who were truly pushing the limits of reality and magic, and normal people had no frame of reference of what to expect. Younger minds had to deal with the new threats of dying horrible deaths at the hands of “commies” and “reds”, and a sense of hope, however false or incorrect, made the burden of living in that fear more palatable.
I loved reading this comic too! I’ve never read any comics before; I’ve always just been one to watch the Hollywood versions. But I was really intrigued with both of these issues. I really enjoyed the background information given in this issue of Fantastic Four. The movie jumps right into an evil villain scenario; it was interesting to see the Fantastic Four heroes before their Fantastic days. And the last comic of Reed and his “Fantastic...” remark was a great foreshadow to the whole series, paired with the beautifully done graphic art throughout the story, I discovered how satisfying comics can be. I also thoroughly enjoyed Reed’s explanations of other dimensions. For a comic strip it certainly used a lot of hard science, even more so than the movies used. I actually thought that in comparison to the movies the comic strip seemed like a more intelligent version. The movies use a lot of dumbed down science, in order to expand their audience clearly. But the comic read almost like something of Asimov’s, heavy on the science jargon but still comprehendible. For these reasons I really enjoyed this comic, maybe even more so than the movies, even if they are great fun to watch.
For this reading, I thought that the Fantastic Four comic was really interesting but really bad at the same time. I don’t read comics, and never really got into them as a kid, so I suppose I am biased, however I still enjoy the characters from the Fantastic Four.
ReplyDeleteWhen I read of why the team had to go into space I actually burst out laughing. The whole “we have to do it before the commies” thing really dates this comic and put things into a better context as a whole. Though it was a serious issue at the time, I have always found it amusing how much world politics is linked to childhood playground-esque thought.
The issue that bothered me the most, however was the writing style, and informal convention of the narration text. I understand that these issues are targeted for young adults, however some of the transition sequences made me somewhat cringe. To me it felt like the big no no of starting an essay with the word “I”. Though I understand that I’m not the best with grammar/writing either, perhaps the cliché of the ever present narrator gets to me because I am so unfamiliar with it; this was basically the only thing for me that left a bad taste in my mouth about this piece.
The Mole Man really drew a parallel to Frankenstein's monster for me. He was ostracized by everyone so he wandered off into the cold alone to pretty much die. Also I thought it was strange everyone was human except for The Thing. When he shows himself everyone immediately thinks he's an alien while they at least know The Torch was human like and didn't try and shoot him right away
ReplyDeleteThis is a lot like Tales of Suspense #39 in that the lives of the main characters will no longer be the same after a certain event. The Thing stands out the most because he can’t change back to his normal appearance as opposed to the rest of the Fantastic Four. He still has a grudge against Dr. Richards because of this.
ReplyDeleteThe narrator of the story describes this story in a grandiose way. It kept the story suspenseful. This reminded me a lot of the style of advertisements in Amazing Stories. The tone and diction really caught my attention. I think that I would have found this a bit less enjoyable if it were not for that.
This was made short and easy to read but, the lack of explanation for a lot of things brings makes Fantastic Four #1 soft science fiction. What the gamma rays are and the way they work is left unexplained. So are the nature of everyone’s powers. Also, this comic is less about the scientific side and more about the social side. Character to character interaction and action scenes take up most of the story. The origin of The Moleman sticks out to me in that regard because he himself was rejected by society and turned to the companionship of other animals instead.
The fantastic 4 was somewhat of a letdown to me. I read it after the iron man comic, and I feel although it is all of the classic comic book tropes, and nothing more. Perhaps It is unfair of me to look at it in this way, because at the time it was published, I assume that these were innovative aspects of the comic that have been copied so many times they feel overdone now.
ReplyDeleteWith that in mind, what I found most interesting about this comic was the villain, Mole man. I feel as though he is the only character that I find interesting and human. The fantastic 4 aren’t really fleshed out at all, and the only one that seems to have any internal conflict is the Thing, but for some reason I didn’t find the way they dealt with his alienation interesting. The mole man, on the other hand, provides us a backstory and interesting dialogue on alienation and the things people are driven to do when faced with rejection. Another aspect of his character that I enjoy is his obsession with proving how great he is. Challenging Mr. Fantastic to a fight to prove his “Mole Sense”, and even going to the length of describing his ascension to power and plot to take over the world. Perhaps this is where the classic “Villain describing his whole plan and then failing” comes from.
Overall, I was not really impressed with this comic. Though like I said before I am most likely not giving credit where credit is due, I can’t just ignore how I felt after I read it.
When reading the fantastic 4 it was a little different than I expected. There was lot more narrative than I’m use to in most of my comics. I thought that that was both good and bad. Good because it was very descriptive and let us know exactly what was going on but bad also because it doesn’t let you as the reader really imagine and guess what’s going on. I guess this could be a reason as to why there are not as much narratives in comics or that the narrative isn’t explained until later and at a slower rate. I also thought it was really interesting that after they discovered their new found powers Reed Richards says I don’t think I need to say what we should use our powers for and Ben said for good of course. I a typically story that I’m use to I would normally expect there to be some sor5 of conflict of interest in this sort of situation but as if to just quickly move along they just all agree and it was a little bit of letdown.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this comic, I realized why I never liked comics as a kid. I kept on hearing all the yellow boxes of text describing the scene in my head in that annoying comic/cartoon narrator voice. But, as far as the story goes, it plays pretty similarly to the movie portrayal, but sparing us the horrific scripting. Its age is very apparent, as well as its motivations; it is an obvious reaction to the cold war events of its time. The Fantastic Four themselves are a mix of the average 1960’s American and those who were our heroes in reality. The scientist was as close to a superhero that our culture had at that time. Having just designed the atomic bomb, the dreams and aspirations of a coming nuclear age were unknown. Scientists were the ones who were truly pushing the limits of reality and magic, and normal people had no frame of reference of what to expect. Younger minds had to deal with the new threats of dying horrible deaths at the hands of “commies” and “reds”, and a sense of hope, however false or incorrect, made the burden of living in that fear more palatable.
ReplyDeleteFrom Katrina:
ReplyDeleteI loved reading this comic too! I’ve never read any comics before; I’ve always just been one to watch the Hollywood versions. But I was really intrigued with both of these issues. I really enjoyed the background information given in this issue of Fantastic Four. The movie jumps right into an evil villain scenario; it was interesting to see the Fantastic Four heroes before their Fantastic days. And the last comic of Reed and his “Fantastic...” remark was a great foreshadow to the whole series, paired with the beautifully done graphic art throughout the story, I discovered how satisfying comics can be.
I also thoroughly enjoyed Reed’s explanations of other dimensions. For a comic strip it certainly used a lot of hard science, even more so than the movies used. I actually thought that in comparison to the movies the comic strip seemed like a more intelligent version. The movies use a lot of dumbed down science, in order to expand their audience clearly. But the comic read almost like something of Asimov’s, heavy on the science jargon but still comprehendible. For these reasons I really enjoyed this comic, maybe even more so than the movies, even if they are great fun to watch.