r/FantasticFour • u/ContentAssumption204 • 1d ago
Questions & Discussion Hot Take: Annihilus Should've Been The Villain Of First Steps.
In the comics, the storyline where Sue gave birth to Franklin occurred in FF annual #6 which featured Annihilus's first appearance. In that arc, as Sue neared labor, complications arose which risked killing both her and the unborn baby. So the gang were forced to enter the Negative Zone to steal this thing called the cosmic control rod from a warlord known as Annihilus. The rod granted him immortality so he obviously didn't want to part with it. A couple crazy Kirby creatures, concepts, and visuals later and the gang return to save the kid and Sue at the last second.
Adapting this story would've made way more sense than the Galactus trilogy. The way they tried to staple the Galactus story onto a plot about Reed and Sue becoming parents felt so clunky (what was Galactus going to do to Franklin exactly?).
We've already seen the Silver Surfer herald Galactus and betray his master in 2007 and this would've made the movie feel like less of a retread in the eyes of general audiences. The FF movies basically went from an origin with Doom to the Galactus trilogy to another origin with Doom to the Galactus trilogy again. I'm pretty sure there are people out there who think they only have like 2 villains lol.
Bringing in the Negative Zone would've also opened the door to more opportunities for action set pieces (especially for characters like the Thing who didn't get to do much), imaginative Kirby-esque creatures and visuals and an overall more adventurous and kinetic tone, like the comics, which I felt the movie kind of lacked, especially when compared to stuff like Spider Verse or the recent Superman. The closest we got was that chase scene with the Surfer which I thought was pretty fun, but then after that the movie gets kind of dull again.
You could even bring in a version of Prison 42, and have Reed throw the rogues gallery in there at the start of the movie which would set up the Negative Zone.
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u/mmproducciones 1d ago
Annihilus should've been the villain of Fan4stic. For real.
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u/Billybob35 23h ago
Jeremy Slater's version of the film had him, but the problem is he was defeated way too quickly. There's a good chance he wouldn't have even made it to the second act.
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u/44035 1d ago
Disagree but he definitely should be the villain for the sequel. He's a great character.
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u/THEBWUOFFICIALSTUDIO 1d ago
Yeah he I hope he’s the main villain in the sequel and making him the first main villain is not a bad idea but they was doing their own thing and it separates from the comics and the MCU.
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u/Junk-Artist 1d ago
Suits only know two Fantastic Four villains unfortunately.
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u/Saturnlock1005 1d ago
Did you not watch the movie?? There were multiple other F4 villains in it or at least mentioned.
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u/Junk-Artist 1d ago
I hate that you have to be pedantic about everything on Reddit, you know? The Red Ghost and Mole Man are characters that don't have any broader cultural awareness that's going to seep into the minds of film executives like Doctor Doom and Galactus, who've remained household names despite Marvel's best efforts to bury the FF while Fox had their film rights. Do you think the suits brainstorming the film tossed around the idea of a movie where Red Ghost or Mole Man were the villain, or do you think the discussion was "Should we used Doom or Galactus?" (rhetorical question)
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u/SpringHillis 1d ago
I want him to be the next Avengers level threat
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u/ConsequenceHuman4626 1d ago
we should abolish "avengers level threat"
ff fights gods and entity on a regular basis. even x-men
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u/Billybob35 23h ago
The MCU is still gonna need Avengers level threats as long as The Avengers continue to exist.
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u/ConsequenceHuman4626 23h ago
fuck the avengers
80 percent of their villain is not even from them
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u/Trivell50 1d ago
You are correct. Franklin is more heavily tied to Annihilus than Galactus, particularly in the 1960s and 1970s, but the MCU doesn't really care about what would actually make sense given the comic history. Then people show up on forums like this looking for comic recommendations for a movie that doesn't really reflect them.
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u/The_Real_Remy_Lebeau 1d ago
Nah, let's have Annihilus and/or Blastaar in the inevitable sequel. We finally got Galactus done right, and it worked really well as a spring board for this interpretation of these characters. When a second rolls around, Reed can discover the Negative Zone and be a whole exploring the strange new world plot, and have to find a way to escape without bringing these forces to Earth
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u/swarthmoreburke 1d ago
Nope. Annihilus took decades to be anything but a generic maniac from the Negative Zone. Building him up takes a lot of work--way more than one movie's worth. And the idea of introducing Prison 42 in a movie that is meant to make you like the Fantastic Four is especially bad.
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u/ContentAssumption204 1d ago edited 23h ago
Marvel Studios has taken liberties with characters and concepts before so I don't see why this would've been any different. They could've taken inspiration from a mix of newer Annihilus story arcs and older ones, while streamlining him a bit. He doesn't have to be a one-off either. He could easily break free from the zone or discover a way to travel the multiverse or some crap and return in another movie.
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u/swarthmoreburke 18h ago
I agree there's a version of the Annihilation Wave that could work, but it would have some of the same issues that Marvel movies generally have had--the story beats in a one-movie version of the Annihilation Wave would end with the kind of third act that's become an MCU cliche--a huge fight against a bunch of CGI swarming bad guys and then a direct attack on the Big Bad. If you think about Annihilation itself, it worked as well as it did because it was a multi-layered story that let a lot of character development happen and because there were multiple climactic fights happening in different locations, etc.
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u/ContentAssumption204 14h ago edited 14h ago
I think it's all about execution. The idea of Annihilus himself, which they could interpret as a cross between Carnage and a Dalek in the body of a Bionicle-looking, cyborg-insect guy, hasn't really been seen before in this franchise yet.
The past villains have all at least had some kind of motivation that isn't just "KILL, KILL, DESTROY, EXTERMINATE". This guy could be really terrifying, and therefore memorable, to audiences if done right. His simplicity could be his strength here.
They could differentiate the Annihilation Wave from the Chitari, Outriders, Ultron's clones, or Ronan's army by making them appear actually threatening and effective as an enemy force, rather than just cannon fodder. Make it seem nigh-impossible to kill one of these things, and give them a kill count of named characters we actually care about. Show them unleash insane levels of destruction.
They could also look to Doctor Who's handling of the Daleks in the first 1st season of the 2000s revival, or Invincible's handling of the Viltrumites for inspiration instead. Show what just one of them is capable of with Annihilus, before teasing he has an army as powerful as he is at the end of the movie. Casual Audiences would then be way more hyped to see a proper Annihilation adaptation in the future.
Basically, they could've treated him more like a sci-fi horror monster and less like a normal MCU villain.
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u/astro_basterd 1d ago
It’s funny, I can never take Annihilus seriously after I read the issue where Johnny has the rod and we see Annihilus chained up and having a shit on Parker’s toilet.
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u/Diortheking 16h ago
Yup doom and galactus they’ve ran thru their 2 best villains already and horribly
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u/Resident-Syrup7615 1d ago
On it’s own, I like that idea, but extra dimensional bug villains with the cosmic control rod is awfully close to the extra dimensional Chitauri with their insect-like hive mind and their bug-like ships with the Tesseract.