Remix Project

For this project I used a Fantastic Four (1961) annual issue 12. This comic was written by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee, and published by Marvel. It was printed in early 1960’s mostly in America but copies were sold all over the world. My dad had a small collection of comics from when he was a kid and I used to read them when I was a kid; I read some of the comics form this series when I was a kid and I remembered that this comic was slightly offensive towards women, but I needed a refreshment of what it was about. So, I reread a couple of them and I came to the conclusion that women are objectified and disrespected. The basic idea of this comic is, there is a group of four super heroes, Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, and The thing, and they protect the world from crazy villains. This comic, like other comics about superheroes, was written for kids and fans of superhero universes. The stories are exciting and short with creative and flashy drawings that will interest any kid. Also, this comic has deep backstory and many hidden secrets which pulls in older audience that is interested in that comic universe. The biggest problem I have with this comic is that in the fantastic four there is only one woman and she is never in the spotlight, she only stands on the side and only does something when she is told to. Also, all men in the group have “cool” superpowers like super strength or being able to fly and control fire, but the only woman has ability of invisibility. Moreover, this comic is full of dialog blasphemous for woman, for example, at one point she asks the general what is going to be her job in the next mission and the general responds with “Harrumph! Miss Storm, a pretty young lady can always be of help — just by keeping the men’s morale up!” I thought this was unacceptable so for my remix I made Cristal storm, the main character. She comes up with the plan to beat the villain and completes the task herself, with small help of human torch. The intended audience of my remix is the same as original, the youth and comic fans. I think that original Fantastic Four is not appropriate for kids because it teaches kids wrong values. My remix does a much better job of presenting gender equality and shows kids that woman characters can also be “cool.” This comic was written a long time ago and at that time image of woman in society was much different compared to today.

This fits into the convergence and remix culture because I made this using someone else’s work and I changed it to fit more into today’s society and image of the woman. In the original the woman character does not do anything and is not in half of the frames but in my remix she is the main hero and appears in most of the frame.