Including the Roger Corman produced ‘classic’ from the 90’s (even though it wasn’t intended to be released and was made to satisfy a copyright obligation), the upcoming Fantastic Four reboot marks the fourth (heh) time Marvel’s First Family make the jump to the big screen. But despite providing mostly different takes on the super powered foursome, there is one common thread directors Oley Sasonne, Tim Story, and now Josh Trank all share: Doctor Doom was the bad guy. Sure, Rise of the Silver Surfer had the Galactus cloud, but at the end of the day it was Julian McMahon’s not at all threatening Victor Von Doom that took the bulk of the big bad duties. I can understand he’s the teams nemesis, and over the years has gone onto to become a major player in the world of Marvel comic villainy, but when it comes to the Ice Cream counter of Fantastic Four villains, why always pick vanilla?
Some may argue that he’s the one that mainstream audience’s would know the best, but when Hulk came out, did anybody know who the Absorbing Man was? Ditto any of the villains in the Iron Man trilogy. With comic book movies at the peak of popularity, it’s safe to say audiences have learned to suspend their disbelief enough to accept an obscure Fantastic Four villain. With that in mind, here’s four bad guys who could work much better than Doctor Doom.
The Mole Man
No, not The Simpsons character (but how awesome would that be), The Mole Man was the very first villain the Fantastic Four faced, way back in 1961. Residing in the underground realm of Subterranea, located under the does what it says on the tin Monster Isle, he has co-ordinated a number of attacks on the surface world using his loyal subjects, the Moloids, and several monstrous creatures. A big screen Mole Man would add a sense of scale missing from the other instalments, as the team pretty much take on an army. Just imagine The Thing beating on a gigantic underground dwelling monster. Tell me that wouldn’t be mind blowing.
The Mole Man’s human alter ego, Harvey Eldar, will be making an appearance, with Tim Blake Nelson playing the character as a military liaison. So, there is hope of seeing the character in any future movies.
Super Skrull
Again, this gives us an army for the Fantastic Four to fight, with the Skrulls being a vast intergalatic empire of shape shifting aliens with designs on Earth, but also one central big bad for a bad ass four on one brawl. The Super-Skull is their most fearsome warrior, augmented artificially with all the teams powers, so at any time he can stretch, go invisible, fly and expel vast amounts of heat, and wreck all sorts of shop with super strength and super hard skin. Of course, this brings to mind the finale of Rise of the Silver Surfer, but the Super Skull is such a great and deliciously evil character, that we can all look passed that.
The Skulls were really a concept that would have suited Story’s more goofy take on the Fantastic Four. The shape shifting elements to their character would have suited the tone of the his movies down to the ground. And he would have had a lot of fun with recreating one infamous moment from the comic where a group of Skulls were brainwashed into taking the form of, and thinking they were, cows.
Annihilus
With the new movie contorting around the extra dimensional reality of the Negative Zone, Josh Trank really dropped the ball in not including one of it’s despotic rulers, Annihilus. Clad in armour giving him the appearance of a massive malevolent insect, his goal is a simple one: he wants to rule everything. Good thing he’s at the head of a universe destroying armada called the Annihilation Wave. Again, this would lend a massive sense of scale to the movie, as all the movies till now have felt very small. Not what you’d expect from a super hero team with the word fantastic in their name.
The Frightful Four
Let’s take a break from the armies, and imagine something a bit more one on one. The Frightful Four, as the name would suggest, are the evil counterpart to the Fantastic Four, and has gone through many members in it’s time, though leader and founder, super genius The Wizard, has been present for all its incarnations. While many of The Frightful Four’s members, such as Medusa of the Inhumans and Spider-Man villain Sandman, rights no doubt belong to other studios, mainly Marvel, there are many more Fantasic Four villains to choose from, making a big screen version of the team a pic’n’mix of bad guys. How about the Red Ghost and his team f superpower apes? Or The Trapster, otherwise known as Paste-Pot Pete, who traps his foes in super sticky glue? Really, this is a chance to go weird and fun with Fantastic Four, something sorely missing from the previous movies.
What do you think? Any Fantastic Four villain you think would work better? Sound off in the comments below.
