Jeremy116 said:
Has anybody here been reading Ellis' work on Planetary? In there, he has an evil version of the Fantastic Four. I find it highly ironic that he was chosen for this project. (Or maybe it was just karma.)
Anyway, if he can create stories even half as good as those in Planetary, he should have a great run with UFF. We just have to give him time. What do you think?
His time came and went. It was good.
[rant]
I read Planetary by sponging off friends.
It was good, except for the personalities of the main characters, but that's far too big an exception. The team members were amoral head-kickers working for the Fourth Man, who could be anybody including Hitler's brain, and that seems to be fine by them as long as the money is good. This is a description of a villain team, not heroes. The Drummer was a shallow punk, and Elijah Snow the cold-controller, was a foul-mouthed, sour-spirited thug. Jakita Wagner the strong-woman had a sense of wonder, which made her the one with a good point.
This seems to be one of those cramped little universes where it's possible to imagine amazing powers but not people worthy of them.
Typically, main characters like this have extremely nasty enemies, as this is necessary if the heroes are to look good by comparison. In Planetary the main villains are the Fantastic Four in thin disguise. This is consistent with how the Authority, the dominant life-forms in that universe, deal with heroes such as the Avengers.
To say I'm unimpressed would be putting it very mildly.
[/rant]
By contrast, Reed Richards said some things in N-Zone about his feelings and the kinds of people he would like to meet that spoke for me and won me over without reservation. I've got my hero (and fellow heroes) all picked out. This, which I like so much, is also from Warren Ellis.
I would gladly see Warren Ellis come back and write more Ultimate Fantastic Four.
