Byrne’s most important post-X-Men body of work at Marvel was his six-year run on Fantastic Four (#232–293, 1981–1986).
He also made a number of significant changes to the title: the Thing was replaced as a member of the quartet by the She-Hulk, while the Thing had adventures in his own comic (also written by Byrne), and his longtime girlfriend Alicia Masters left him for his teammate the Human Torch; the Invisible Girl was developed into the most powerful member with her heightened control of her refined powers and the self-confident assertiveness to use it epitomized by her name change to the Invisible Woman; and the Baxter Building, their headquarters, was destroyed and replaced with Four Freedoms Plaza.
This was my favorite book when I was a lad. This is the first series that I can remember where the characters actually had personalities. Remember when Batman and Superman called each other “Chum” and “Pal”, no heart or soul. The art was brilliant and had more detail than anything I had previously seen. I would just stare at the space backgrounds and machinery for hours.
There are so many characters that there is no way this could be done in one movie and I’ve seen a lot of guys have been adding small descriptions or synopsis with their cast. So here’s my idea of a Fantastic Four trilogy based on John Byrne’s work.
Fantastic Four: Origin
Origin story-It would touch on the relationship of Reed, Ben and Victor in college, a disagreement leads to Victor leaving school. Doom’s ego after an accident blames Richards for miscalculating some variables. A couple of years later Richards is working for NASA and best friend, astronaut Ben Grimm is a consultant on the project, along with Sue Storm, test pilot Johnny Storm and Phineas T. Horton. Cosmic radiation from a tear in the space/time continuum gives the four members their abilities. More than radiation escaped from the tear, Time traveler Rama-Tut manages to free himself from the time stream and teams up with The Mad Thinker, The Red Ghost and Dr. Doom creating the Frightful Four. After finally defeating the team, Reed discovers Doom is old colleague Victor Von Doom, who is the only one who manages to escape. 3:16 running time
After Credit scene: Namor rising up from the water looking over New York
Fantastic Four: Against the World
A few years have passed, Franklin has been born and Agatha Harkness becomes the Richard’s nanny. The team’s notoriety and popularity has made them into celebrities. They are more scientist and explorers than super heroes at this point. Reed has been busy; He has made first contact with alien races (Kree), a microverse and another dimension (Negative Zone) and created friendly relationships with each.
Dr. Doom has made some allies from the Microverse, The Skrulls and Negative Zone as well. Doom and his allies, Psycho Man, Super Skrull and Annihilus attempt to conquer the Earth. The team relies on the help of The Hulk and She Hulk, after a heated battle between The Thing and The Hulk, to save the world. Ben Grimm is injured and leaves to discover himself and She Hulk fills the slot. Running time 3:12
After Credit scene: Richards is surprised by a wounded Silver Surfer who teleports the two from the Baxter Building.
Fantastic Four: The Search for Reed Richards
The team discovers that Reed is missing and each member takes off on their own to search for him. She Hulk meets the Mole Man, Torch encounters the Inhumans, Invisible Woman goes to Atlantis and Dr. Doom who wants Reed for himself questions The Watcher. The Inhumans, Mole Man and Atlantis eventually befriend the team. I don’t know how water, giant monsters and space would work together but it would be cool to see. A new more powerful Ben Grimm saves the day and kills Terrax while the team battles Galactus. 2:56
After Credit scene: Dr. Doom gains the Beyonder powers from information learned from The Watcher.
Whew! These are going to be Lord of the Rings type epic stories.
Director: Walter Hill (The Warriors, the Long Riders, 48 hrs)
Hill can take a lot of characters and give them meaningful and pertinent screen time. 48 hrs is my favorite movie of all time.
MR FANTASTIC (Reed Richards)-Peter Weller
*No explanation necessary (you’ll see a lot of these)*
INVISIBLE WOMAN (Susan Storm)-Meg Ryan
*In the 80’s, she was America’s sweetheart*
HUMAN TORCH (Johnny Storm)-Cary Elwes
*Elwes can act when he wants and he would have been a great Torch*
THE THING (Benjamin Jacob Grimm)-Ed Harris
*Blue eyes, played an astronaut, and has a firm tough voice, nuff said*
Franklin Richards- Macaulay Culkin
*C’mon! he was perfect*
SHE HULK (Jennifer Walters)-Debra Winger
*I like Winger because she can play a sassy and determined young lady, plus, her character in “An Officer and A Gentleman” and She Hulk, likes the fellows…a lot)
THE WATCHER (Uatu)-Jurgen Prochnow
*His voice and menacing stare*
THE HULK-Arnold Schwarzenegger (NO VOICE)
*I was going to stick with Lou on this but Arnold was just so frickin’ huge during the 80’s and since neither would have actual lines, I went with Arnie*
SILVER SURFER (Norrin Radd)-Kyle Maclachlan
*Maclachlan IS an alien!*
THE SUB-MARINER (Namor)-Jeff Goldblum
*I probably get some static about this one, but he was the only actor popular in the late 80’s that had the height and skill for Namor He’s around 6’ 5”*
NAMORITA-Dana Plato
*Troubled teen-match*
Agatha Harkness-Glenn Close
*Close is a scary looking woman anyways, very little make up and she is a witch*
Phineas T. Horton-Dabney Coleman
FRANKIE RAYE-Melanie Griffith
*Sexy and HOT*
BLACK BOLT (Blackagar Boltagon) Tom Berenger
*I need help on this one, this is the best I could come up with, without being repetitive*
MEDUSA (Medusalith Amaquelin Boltagon) -Susan Sarandon
Red hair, beautiful eyes, great acting skill. She looks like royalty*
CRYSTAL (Crystallia Amaquelin Maximoff )-Holly Hunter
*I just like her for some reason*
THE VILLAINS
RAMA TUT-John Saxon
*John Saxon has a stereo typical Egyptian pharaoh look*
DIABLO (Esteban Corazon de Ablo) -Antonio Banderas
*He was a young actor and not very popular in the 80’s but he was still there*
RONAN THE ACCUSER (Ronan)-Scott Glenn
Scott Glenn can play anything*
PSYCHO MAN-Anthony Daniels
*Psycho Man just looks like he would be analytical*
MAD THINKER-Christopher Lloyd
*Lloyd can be serious when he wants, very good actor*
THE RED GHOST (Ivan Kragoff) –John Malkovich
*Malky can pull off the accent and plays pretty good mad intellectuals*
ANNIHILUS-Michael Berryman
*This is without armor, of course*
MOLE MAN (Harvey Rupert Elder )-Dustin Hoffman
*The nose*
TERRAX (Tyros)- Kjell Nilsson
*He was scary in Road Warrior, basically the same type character, he wants power*
SUPER SKRULL (Kl’rt )- David Keith
*The chin*
DR. DOOM (Victor Von Doom)-Rutger Hauer
*If I can’t have him as Magneto, I’ll take as Doom*
GALACTUS (Galan)-Robert Redford
*Another one people may disagree with, but Galactus isn’t evil and I think he would have a soft spoken demeanor to him. He would only say exactly what needs to be said with a very dramatic tone*
Special thanks to the following for educating me on how to make a good and entertaining fancast. Be sure to look at all their cool cast.
JacobCityBros-ager-Flixmentallo-RoadDoggXXIV