Fantastic 4
dir. Tim Story (2005)
A simplistic origin story that focusses more on character turmoil—particularly Ben Grimm’s adjustment to life as The Thing—than on the Fantastic Four’s first tussle with Von Doom. The film is most successful in depicting Johnny and Susan Storm’s sibling relationship.
Fantastic Four: Doomgate
by Jeffrey Lang (Pocket Star, 2008); audiobook read by Jeffrey Kafer (Dreamscape Media, 2021)
A workmanlike novel of the Marvel Universe, splitting the Fantastic Four up and pitting them against an insidiously powerful if anticlimactic new threat. Lang’s focus on characterisation is welcome, as is the more gritty approach, albeit that the prose is merely functional.