Marvel hits refresh button on Fantastic 4 origin story

It’s a familiar tale: Science genius, smart girlfriend, her hot-shot brother, and a football-player-turned-accomplished-pilot travel to space, get bombarded by cosmic rays and come back a foursome with fantastic powers. It’s a story born of the early 1960s when phones were on hooks, faces were in books and tweets were coming from the robin down on Jaybird Street. Marvel Comics is updating the origin of the Fantastic Four this week in a tale dubbed “Season One” with a more contemporary vibe, while sticking to the roots of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, brother Johnny, and Ben Grimm, otherwise known for the past 51 years as Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and the Thing. Think tablet PCs instead of room-sized computing machines. The revision is part of Marvel’s push to add modern touches to its characters. Marvel also is bringing a modern spin to the origins of its other classic characters this year in similar “Season One” editions, including Daredevil, Spider-Man and the X-Men. “The aim is definitely to continue to keep these characters relevant in an ever-changing world, but also to tell a new story set within this time frame, not merely recount or retell comics that other people have previously done,” said Tom Breevort, who edits the publisher’s Fantastic Four line of books. “We tweaked elements where it made sense. Everybody in the ‘Season One’ books has a cell phone, for example, but we tried to maintain the spirit of the seminal stories that these tales are built upon,” he said. Roberto Aquirre-Sacasa, a playwright and television writer whose credits include “Glee” along with several stories for Marvel, said: “Fantastic Four: Season One” isn’t a reboot of the classic origin, penned by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. It’s more of a ... refresh. “The world’s changed over the last 50 years. How we tell comic stories, how we absorb them, so let’s update a great concept ... giving it a contemporary sensibility.” Artist David Marquez likened it to reintroducing classic stories to modern audiences. “The storytelling techniques we use as creators and the expectations of readers have changed since the FF’s origins were first told. And because of this, it can be hard for people who didn’t grow up accustomed to the Silver Age style to find these stories as exciting and inspiring as those of us who did,” said Marquez.