The lowpoint of these experiments, however, wouldn’t come until the two cavemen “met” The Thing for 13 episodes in 1979. The Flintstones knew this better than most, as headliners Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble spent the decade getting paired with everyone from Schmoo to surfer-teen versions of Pebbles and Bam Bam. Hanna-Barbera liked to retool their stale cartoons in the 1970s, and would often pair two completely different properties in the hopes of rejuvenated success. 13 Fred And Barney Meet The Thing (NBC Cartoon, 1979) It’s tough to say whether we would’ve gotten a better product had one of the parties been more agreeable, but either way, this emotionally detached stinker is the basement dweller of the Fantastic Four brand. What was supposed to be a gritty reinvention of the Fantastic Four (stylized here as FAN4STIC) instead turned into a production war, as Trank and 20th Century Fox bickered over final cut, reshoots, and the overall shaping of the film. Each of them is painfully underused in their iconic roles, which are strung together by a script that lapses in logic, continuity, and overall coherency at a record pace. Jordan and Jamie Bell, that’s no small feat. And considering the talent of its young cast: Miles Teller, Kate Mara, Michael B. Sadly, director Josh Trank proved the entire world wrong, and delivered a superhero flick so bad it caused fans to contemplate whether or not it was the worst film ever of its kind. Given the tepid responses to the first two Fantastic Four films, it seemed like the 2015 reboot had nowhere to go but up.
Here is Screen Rant’s Every Adaptation of The Fantastic Four, Ranked from Worst to Best. We’ve decided to suit up, head down to Baxter Building, and do just that.
Still, as Marvel’s flagship family ( and a trending interest of MCU director Scott Derrickson), the Fantastic Four deserve to be celebrated. Some have been too kitschy, some have been too liberal with the source material, and some have been just plain grimm. In the six decades since their debut, the Fantastic Four have been subject to one troubled iteration after another be it on television, video games, or feature films. Unfortunately, success on the page has not led to success on the screen. “The characters would be the kind of characters I could personally relate to,” Lee explained in 1974, “They’d be flesh and blood, they’d have their faults and foibles, they’d be fallible and feisty… inside their colorful, costumed booties they’d still have feet of clay.” This creative risk paid off, as Marvel turned into an industry mecca overnight, and the Fantastic Four turned into “The World’s Greatest Comic Book!” Icons like Spider-Man, Doctor Strange, and The Avengers quickly followed suit. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were commissioned to create Marvel’s answer to the Justice League, but their process instead led to something more groundbreaking, more unique. Debuting in 1961, the Fantastic Four helped usher in a new level of realism in comic books.