BIM:
"I never liked the book"
No way. The FF was a great read with some awesome villains: Doctor Doom, the Sub-Mariner, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, the Mole Man, the Skrulls, the Molecule Man, etc. Classic, classic stuff.
I highly reccomend the early issues (1-50ish), the early 200's (about 200-225), and the John Byrne stuff in the late 200s (270-300).
Funny tidbits about this comic on TV and the silver screen: when they made the FF cartoon in the 70's, Marvel didn't own the TV rights to the Human Torch (someone else owned it because the Torch was a character created in the 1940s before Marvel <as we know it> even existed). That someone wouldn't sell Marvel the rights to use the Torch in the cartoon because movie studios were trying to make a movie about the Human Torch themselves.
The makers of the cartoon instead created Herbie the Robot to be on the show instead of the Torch. The Torch was later added to the cartoon after a couple of seasons with Herbie when the bids from the movie studios disappeared. Why did they disappear, you ask? Because none of the movie studios could figure out (given the meager special effects of the time) how to put the Torch on the Silver Screen without incinerating the actor.
And if none of you have heard of the early 90's Roger Corman FF movie, I suggest you look it up on DVD on ebay. The Quintessential Cult Classic of Horrible Movies (didn't even make it to video) of the last fifteen years. A hidden gem.
BLC:
"I'm just amazed that so much cash obvioiusly spent on FX and Thing still walks around like a man in a body cast."
My biggest disappointment in this regard is Doctor Doom. Here's one of the coolest looking villains of all time. They could've made him look AWESOME, and he looks really cheesy and weak. That's probably the biggest shame of this whole thing (no pun intended).
