The Next Fantastic Four Movie Will Ruin Dr. Doom—and Our Children
The upcoming “Fantastic Four’’ movie will feature the villain Doctor Doom. Awesome. Except it’s not Victor Von Doom, the maniacal orphaned son of a gypsy witch from the Marvel comic books.
“He’s Victor Domashev, not Victor Von Doom, in our story,’’ Toby Kebbell, who will star as the Doctor, said in a recent interview on Collider. “And I’m sure I’ll be sent to jail for telling you that. The Doom in ours—I’m a programmer. Very antisocial programmer. And on blogging sites I’m ‘Doom.’’’
On blogs he’s Doom? Doom doesn’t blog. Doom conquers.
Doom defeated his homeland oppressors in Latveria, installed himself as ruler for life, and renamed the capital city Doomstadt. Every time he plots to rule the world, which is daily, he says something cool. Such as: “Before this day is ended, mankind shall grovel helplessly at my feet—and, as fate has obviously ordained—Doctor Doom shall be Master of Earth!’’ If that’s not enough, Doom once fought the devil—Mephisto—to free the damned soul of his own mother.
But Kebbel is half right about blabbing to the press. Revealing horrible spoilers may not land him in jail, but portraying the King of Latveria as a mere hacker with a hip handle IS criminal. As is changing comic book canon just because you can.
It might not seem like this matters, but it does.
Comic book heroes are American myths, but they operate on a subversive level that was completely missed by scared parents and politicians in the 1950s. They are vigilantes with amazing powers who sometimes inspire readers to act likewise. And to the doubters who believe comics still live in the shadow of Shakespeare, Fitzgerald or Welles, please consider reading Moore, Morrison and Miller.
The rise of the literary comic book—graphic novel, if you prefer—is somewhat recent. But kids have been weaned on superhero stories for decades. It wasn’t so long ago that a kid could buy a comic book with pocket change at any convenience store in town. Those days, of course, are over. Kids don’t read comics anymore—they consume Hollywood’s interpretation of comics. This could be the first generation of American children to discover superheroes through movies, not comics.
And if the movies don’t care about the canon, then those myths are going to die.
It’s like Christians encouraging youngsters to discover their faith through The Last Temptation of Christ instead of The Bible. Or boxing fans telling young pugilists to learn about boxing from the Rocky movies instead of the real thing. Watching Sylvester Stallone punch Carl Weathers 147 times might look like boxing, but there’s no sting because there are no stakes.
Interpretation is the duty of a good filmmaker—“Gone Girl’’ comes to mind—but arbitrary myth-crushing is not. And that’s what we get, over and over again. To wit:
• Paul Giamatti in a mechanical Rhino suit in “Amazing Spider-Man 2.’’
• A joyless Superman movie—“Man of Steel’’—in which the most popular hero in the world murders someone.
• And let’s not forget what they did to Galactus in the last “Fantastic Four’’ movie. Instead of presenting the Devourer of Worlds in all his armor-plated, planet-eating majesty, they turned him into… a cloud. I have a hard time believing a cloud would inspire kids to leave the theater and dive into the comics. But that’s exactly what a superhero movie should do: Interpret the source material for the screen while keeping the critical elements that made the material heroic in the first place.
It can be done. Think of “Superman: The Movie,’’ in which director Richard Donner insisted the word “verisimilitude’’ be plastered all over the set. Sam Raimi got just about everything right in “Spiderman 2.’’ Most recently, “Captain America: The Winter Soldier’’ presented the First Avenger as he should be: Ready to protect America, but not at the expense of our freedom.
Director Josh Trank’s upcoming “Fantastic Four’’ reboot appears to be doing the opposite. By ignoring what made these characters eternal—what animated them through decades before comic books became not only cool but Hollywood hits—this approach will likely kill any interest in their film AND comic book adventures.
Of course, I have yet to see the movie. No one has. But the nerds have spoken.
“This will probably be the first movie to be completely blackballed by the comics community,’’ said Jeff Tundis, manager of Time Capsule Comics in Seekonk, Mass.
You might think comic nerds should be happy that so many films are being made about the heroes they love. But there’s always a cost to getting what you want.
The cost, this time, will be a generation of kids who have less reason than ever to discover the source of our American myths. So riddle me this, True Believers: Shouldn’t we expect more from the curators of our mythology?
To comment, please create a screen name in your profile
To comment, please verify your email address
Conversation
This discussion has ended. Please join elsewhere on Boston.com