FANTASTIC FOUR - Comic Accuracy or Historical Accuracy: Why It Is Important (UPDATED)

FANTASTIC FOUR - Comic Accuracy or Historical Accuracy: Why It Is Important (UPDATED)

With Fantastic Four on the horizon, the First Family is about to debut. Their designs looks different from the comics, something that has plagued the MCU for a while. Read on and find out what.

Editorial Opinion
By bkmeijer1 - Dec 08, 2024 10:12 AM EST
Filed Under: Fantastic Four
Source: read old article here

The Fanastic Four will premiere in July 2025, but it won't be set in it's year of release. Instead, it takes place in an alternate version of the 1960s. This comes with a completely different aesthetic from the MCU, which is reflected in the designs of the team. As a result, the designs once again are not comic accurate. This term, often thrown around when adaptations don’t resemble specific source material, can be subjective -dependent on which comic Joe Audience (read: the general audience member) deems the definitive source. And comic accuracy isn't the only type of accuracy that takes precedence.

Another kind of accuracy often observed in movie designs is historical accuracy, which doesn’t necessarily refer to strict factuality but rather to the evolution of historical elements. For instance, while the depiction of sharks swimming in a flooded Colosseum in GladIIator is not historically factual, flooding it aligns with the Romans' advanced understanding of hydro-engineering. So, it is still believable that the Colosseum was flooded. In short, historical accuracy is the understanding or knowledge of historical development, whether the history itself is factual or not.


Historical accuracy

This understanding can also be applied to Fantastic Four. Set in a retrofuturist 1960s, this interpretation explains deviations from comic designs. The history being different, means fashion is different as well, since fashion is often closely related to history. For example, fictional works like Game of Thrones also use historical inspiration for costumes, drawing from real-world patterns in embroidery and courtly attire to ground their world in a semblance of realism. So, Fantastic Four might not be comic accurate, but that's in part due it having a setting where it wouldn't make sense in.

Still, this accuracy is not always followed. The MCU is a massive universe, which is why it can be distracting. Characters like Adam Warlock, Captain Marvel, Shang-Chi, and others often wear suits with similar padding, stitching, and materials, despite originating from vastly different cultural and historical backgrounds across the universe, where each part of the universe has had it's own historical evolution and thus different fashion. By contrast, Fantastic Four appears to carve its own distinct world, with costumes and designs that feel accurate to this alternate history.


Other (in)accuracies

Another form of accuracy is contextual accuracy. This form is concerned with understanding the context in which a story takes place. For instance, the diverse societies in The Rings of Power make sense due to migration, whereas such diversity feels out of place in most of The Wheel of Time. Similarly, characters in medieval or primitive settings looking like they have access to showers and clean clothes daily can break immersion. In House of the Dragon, even though it is fictional, it draws on many architectual styles from realworld history to make it feel contemporary to the world of Westeros.

Similar to contextual and historical accuracy, is linguistic accuracy. This accuracy is the understanding of linguistic development. This is why it can feel off that the kids in Avatar: Way of Water use human words like ''bro'', even though they're speaking an alien language. If the dialogue feels more natural to it's world, is more easy to relate to the characters speaking it. Avatar is also an example of perceived musical accuracy. The music is made to sound tribal and alien, so that the viewer is informed of what they see, even if it's inaccurate to the lore of music within Avatar's universe. 


Situational accuracy

These forms of accuracy -where what is seen on-screen is seen as accurate because it limes up with Joe Audience's knowledge- help make sense of the context of the in-universe world. For example, faster-than-light travel in futuristic settings adds a sense of scientific advancement, and crossing vast distances over a long period of time in medieval settings adds a sense of scale, as is seen in Game of Thrones' earlier seasons. Being perceived as (consistently) accurate is important so that the viewer can suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy it. 

So, Fantastic Four might not be comic accurate, but it looks to be historically accurate to the world it takes place in. The suit designs reflect what Joe Audience might associate with retrofuturistic 1960s fashion. The same might apply to technology and architecture seen in the movie: it helps Joe Audience understand and accept the historical development, context and situations of the world the story takes place in. Still, comic accuracy is nice too, because Wolverine looked great in Deadpool & Wolverine. Even if it looked like he visited the same tailor as a girl from New Jersey.

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marvel72
marvel72 - 12/8/2024, 1:14 PM
Comic book accurate is more important to me. I want them to look like the characters from the comics which I know and love. I want them to get inspiration from events and other shit from the comics.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/8/2024, 1:54 PM
@marvel72 - oh I'm definitely not arguing against comic book accuracy, because it is great if it resembles the comics I love.

Still, stuff also has to make sense within the world it take place in. And if that comes at cost of comic accuracy, I'm okay with that.
dragon316
dragon316 - 12/8/2024, 1:59 PM
@marvel72 - mr fantastic mustache ?
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 12/8/2024, 1:15 PM
Good article, sir. Well done.
SuperiorHeckler
SuperiorHeckler - 12/8/2024, 1:26 PM
Here's where my "origin source accuracy" begins and ends: Lose Reed Richard's machismo-stache (boat has regrettably sailed on that one) and drop the female Surfer angle. An obscure appearance from the EARTH-X limited series does not justify the twisting of the original iconic lore. Let's be honest here; Garner's inclusion as a female Surfer was for gender/diversity purposes only. (I've already made a past argument that Garner's Shalla-Bal could still be granted the power-cosmic to become a female Surfer but only AFTER Norrin himself is introduced as the first and prime herald of Galactus.) 🧐
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/8/2024, 2:32 PM
@SuperiorHeckler - I don't mind Pascal rocking a moustache, but it's one that doesn't really feel contemporary to the 1960s. Not even an alternate history version.

As for Silver Surfer, I'm not sure yet. I do hope to see Norrin as well, but right now I don't know how it's gonna be played in the movie yet.
elcapitan
elcapitan - 12/8/2024, 4:07 PM
@SuperiorHeckler - zip it
dragon316
dragon316 - 12/8/2024, 2:00 PM
Comic accuate is not always good thing thor love and thunder had comic accuate costume fans didn’t like it
OrgasmicPotatoe
OrgasmicPotatoe - 12/8/2024, 2:23 PM
While I agree with most of this article, I can't help but feel like it'd be more relevant to stack it against an actually released movie rather than one for which we've only seen leaks. Do we even know what the Thing will look like in the movie yet ?
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/8/2024, 2:30 PM
@OrgasmicPotatoe - I get your point. This is an article I wrote years ago, but rewrote a little and gave it a new hook to make it more relevant.

The original had Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as initial subject, but I wanted something new. It's more about the argument than the subject imo anyway, so I could've left it the same.
Radders
Radders - 12/9/2024, 8:34 AM
Reads like an over intelectiualised way of saying "don't complain that its not like the comics"

Honestly it kind of lost me at "Ior instance, the diverse societies in The Rings of Power make sense due to migration" because it doesn't at all.

Truth is, people forgive a lot if what they get is relatively faithful to the spirit of the source material and if it's entertaining enough - but that forgiveness only goes so far and usually there's a separation. I.E. its an elseworlds FF not the FF

Re "Fantastic Four might not be comic accurate, but it looks to be historically accurate to the world it takes place in." is a conscious decision by the creators because they could have made a world where a comic accurate FF made sense but chose not to.
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/14/2024, 7:40 PM
@Radders - it's definitely over intelectualised, but I'm not trying to argue that you shouldn't complain. That's fine, but it's moreso that I wanna say that if it's different, it has to make sense.

As for the Rings of Power (and Wheel of Time) bit, that us somewhat out of place. I left it in because it was in the old article, but I did think of changing it.
Radders
Radders - 12/16/2024, 8:44 AM
@bkmeijer1 - Thanks for clarifying
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/16/2024, 8:59 AM
@Radders - at your service. Feedback is always welcome, so I'll take into consideration next time
kirbyfan
kirbyfan - 12/9/2024, 9:53 AM
I want the ACTUAL COMIC BOOK brought to life! Something these studios seem to have a major problem with. That's the only accuracy that matters. BRING THE COMIC BOOK TO LIFE NOTHING ELSE! The characters IN THE COMICS, AS THEY ARE IN THE COMICS! Why is that so hard?!
bkmeijer1
bkmeijer1 - 12/14/2024, 7:42 PM
@kirbyfan - I get wanting to see that, but it does have to make sense within the story of the movie. If it doesn't fit, then we can just pick up the comic we want it to be imo

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