Fantasticar

USA Today has released the first image of the Fantasticar for next year’s Fantastic Four sequel. The picture doesn’t give you a great look at the vehicle, but I like what I see. I’ve always been a huge fan of speculative technology in comic books. Fantastic Four comics are filled with wonderful gadgets and technology. Of all the FF gadgets, though, the Fantasticar is king, and I’m really happy to see that a real effort has been made in coming up with a design that has the “heart” of the comic vehicle while being translated and updated for film.

H.E.R.B.I.E

(Some might argue that H.e.r.b.i.e. is really the king of FF gadgets, not the Fantasticar, but that is a debate for another time.)

The Original Fantasti-car

In the article Avi Arad (the film’s producer) says “There aren’t many vehicles that play a big part in the (comic) books. So you have to get it right. We wanted it to look futuristic, but plausible. For fans, the car can be as important as the characters.”

That’s the right attitude for tech-nerds like me. Technology, and especially vehicles, can almost become another character in the story if done well. I don’t expect that the Fantasticar is going to be as critical a component as the Enterprise D was on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the design gives me a good reason to look forward to the new movie.

However, my favorite piece of comic book speculative technology is Iron Man’s armor. I really, really hope the folks making that movie put a lot of time and effort into designing the armor. I remain cautiously optimistic that we’ll see a really cool armor design and not some cheap CGI enhanced Power Rangers costume.

Fantasticar

USA Today has released the first image of the Fantasticar for next year’s Fantastic Four sequel. The picture doesn’t give you a great look at the vehicle, but I like what I see. I’ve always been a huge fan of speculative technology in comic books. Fantastic Four comics are filled with wonderful gadgets and technology. Of all the FF gadgets, though, the Fantasticar is king, and I’m really happy to see that a real effort has been made in coming up with a design that has the “heart” of the comic vehicle while being translated and updated for film.

H.E.R.B.I.E

(Some might argue that H.e.r.b.i.e. is really the king of FF gadgets, not the Fantasticar, but that is a debate for another time.)

The Original Fantasti-car

In the article Avi Arad (the film’s producer) says “There aren’t many vehicles that play a big part in the (comic) books. So you have to get it right. We wanted it to look futuristic, but plausible. For fans, the car can be as important as the characters.”

That’s the right attitude for tech-nerds like me. Technology, and especially vehicles, can almost become another character in the story if done well. I don’t expect that the Fantasticar is going to be as critical a component as the Enterprise D was on Star Trek: The Next Generation, but the design gives me a good reason to look forward to the new movie.

However, my favorite piece of comic book speculative technology is Iron Man’s armor. I really, really hope the folks making that movie put a lot of time and effort into designing the armor. I remain cautiously optimistic that we’ll see a really cool armor design and not some cheap CGI enhanced Power Rangers costume.