Maybe They'll Fly Around In A Terrificar?!?!

If you do something stupid long enough, eventually the competition is going to troll the living hell out of you.

I've complained about it enough enough here, so you know that, in a fit of pique over Fox continuing to make Fantastic Four movies, Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter demanded the cancellation of the Fantastic Four comic, and their removal from all merchandising. Man, I bet that's really hurting Fox, Ike.

Anyhoo, it's now been over two years since Marvel has published an FF comic. TWO YEARS.

And now DC has purposely tweaked the House Of Ideas. Yesterday, at SDCC, they announced a new team:

Jeff Lemire, having just finished his exclusive deal with Marvel, is back at DC, and writing a team named The Terrifics. Consisting of Mr. Terrific, Plastic Man, Metamorpho and Phantom Girl. Or, as that Newsarama article linked to above said, "That's right: a scientist, a stretching man, a brute with physical disfiguation, and a woman who can become intangible."

No, that's not an accident, as Lemire said his goal is "recapture the feeling of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four."

Others have noticed the similarities to the FF, too, as news/satire site The Outhousers noted: "a team with a smart guy, a stretchy guy, a guy who may look monstrous to some, a girl who can become intangible, and a jokester sounds a little like a fantastic family book, that might not be a coincidence."

So congratulations, DC, on some exceleent master-level trolling. And thank you.

Of course, the downside is that this news maybe implies that DC's "plans" for the Legion Of Super-Heroes are still on the back-back-burner of Geoff Johns' mind--if Phantom Girl is here on a 21st century teams, she's not on the famous 31st century team. It's not necessarily disruptive--Legionnaires have been lost in time before, and the main team continued (and, of course, it could always be a different character named Phantom Girl...).. But given that in the 14 months of Rebirth, the "Saturn Girl is in Arkham" sub-sub-sub plot hasn't advanced one iota, it's pretty clear that nothing substantive (other than one-shot crossovers with Bugs Bunny or Batman '66) will be happening anytime soon.

So--thank you, DC, for poking Marvel in the eye with a sharp stick. They needed it. And frak you, DC, for apparently continuing the shelving of the Legion.