Confessions of a Comic Book Guy is a weekly column by Steve Bennett of Super-Fly Comics and Games in Yellow Springs, Ohio. This week, Bennett looks at the comics vs. the media adaptations of Fantastic Four and Valerian.
Though my memory is mostly a sieve these days, somehow I'm capable of retaining decades of unimportant clutter. For instance I can still remember a line from 80's TV series
Hill Street Blues which went something like, "You know you're old when you don't know who the movie stars are any more." This stray bit of dialogue nicely sums my reaction to the announcement of the cast of the new Fantastic Four movie (see "
'Fantastic Four' Cast"). OK, I kind of already knew who Michael B. Jordan was and could even name a couple of his movies, not that I had seen any of them. But when it comes to the rest of the cast, well, even after individually Binging each actor I wasn't confident I'd be able to pick any of them out of a police lineup, though I did learn I had seen Kate Mara before. The credit that usually gets bracketed after her name is
House of Cards but, heaven help me, it turns out that I saw her in 2006's
Zoom, which was a not very good superhero movie "starring" Tim Allen and not an adaptation of the PBS kid's show of the same name.
For the record I fall squarely into the "I don't care" camp concerning the casting of Michael B. Jordan as Johnny Storm. I won't try to convince anyone I'm absolutely colorblind, but I am still a little disappointed that the late, great Michael Duncan Clark wasn't cast as Ben Grimm in the
Fantastic Four movie from 2005. But then I don't care about this project one way or the other; having endured the first two
Fantastic Four movies I'm in no hurry to see the third.
Still, I wasn't thrilled by the prospect of the
Spider-Man movie from 2002 but finally having seen it, and all of the trailers for its sequel, there's a part of me that actively wants to see
The Amazing Spider-Man. So, although it's dangerous, I'm going to presume the producers know what they're doing and will deliver an enjoyable film that will make millions around the world for 21st Century Fox. Maybe I'm weird, but I flat out refuse to become emotionally invested in every step of its production. Because while movies are entertainment, endless speculation about them before they're made is not.
Again, maybe it's just me, but as nice as media spin-offs are, the comics come first, and the only Fantastic Four I care about at the moment is the
Fantastic Four #1 by James Robinson and Leonard Kirk that's shipping today. I could do without another new #1, or another systematic attempt to destroy the team; I mean, seriously? Haven't we seen (and seen and seen) that? But seeing as it is by James Robinson and Leonard Kirk I'm going to go ahead and assume they also know what they’re doing.
And, speaking of media spin-offs, back in 2012 (see "
Confessions of a Comic Book Guy--As I Was Saying...") I mentioned that
Valerian, one of my favorite bandes dessinees, a.k.a. Franco-Belgian comics, was set to get a big screen version to be directed by Luc Besson. Well something I didn't know then was there was also an animated TV series based on the series called
Time Jam: Valerian & Laureline. It's a French/Japanese co-production which first aired in France in 2007 and has been available in America for a while now via the Crunchyroll website, but I only just found out that it existed while aimlessly looking at what was available on Hulu Plus.
It is admittedly an odd, mixed bag. While the series has a very anime look, neither Valerian nor Laureline look much like standard anime characters; and while I'm only up to episode 3 (of a 40 episode series) the scripts are smart and do an efficient job of approximating the tone and texture of the comics. Meaning it's full of cool, very alien looking aliens, and features a Laureline who is as independent and self-assured as she is in the comics. And like in the comics, the solutions to problems in the anime aren't about shooting straighter and hitting harder. Like when a big rocky alien gets rebuffed by a female alien and becomes aggressive, instead of blasting him Laureline defuses the situation. First by shaming him for his behavior, then by saying he can dance with her if he wants. Chastised, the big rocky alien allows himself to be led off without another word.
It's so far pretty darn good and if you've ever been curious about
Valerian it's well worth a look. But the comics are still better.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the writer, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff of ICv2.com. 
