"Always a FANTASTIC FOUR fan"

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Fantastic Four No. 5.Marvel

On the horizon, an unmitigated trash fire burns brightly — it goes by the nameFantastic Four. The movie, which hits theaters Friday, is 100 minutes of listless cinematic salad. I still keep waiting for director Josh Trank to rip off his mask and reveal that this has been a terrifyingly nerdy long con by Ashton Kutcher and friends.

This movie is just the latest footnote in what's been a long and sour 20 years for a team that was once considered Marvel's first family. The Fantastic Four have been in terrible movies, had their comic book adventures canceled, and, perhaps worst of all, been forgotten. But it wasn't always this way.

Without them, Marvel and the heroes we love today would never have existed. The F4's comic book sales singlehandedly saved Marvel from an early death. And they weren't just popular for being popular — their stories, mainly revolving around family, resonated with readers. They also influenced the heroes who came after them. Without the Fantastic Four there would be no Spider-Man to teach us about power and responsibility, no Avengers bickering about what it means to be a hero, and no X-Men to show us what it's like to be outsiders.

But over the past few years, the team has slowly been shelved. They perhaps aren't gritty enough to thrive in the post-9/11 comic book world. Superhero groups they used to overshadow, like the Avengers (yes, more on this in a bit) and the Guardians of the Galaxy, have overtaken them. And in true comic book fashion, the Fantastic Four became a sacrifice that allowed Marvel to survive — at their expense.

The Fantastic Four are both Marvel's greatest creation and its greatest shame.

The Fantastic Four are Marvel's origin story

There used to be a time when people who didn't read comic books distilled the industry into flat child's play and cast off its superheroes as gentle reading for unshorn minds and adult toddlers. But thanks to Marvel's sheer dominance, we're at a point in pop culture when people who don't even read comic books can tell you about Groot or Thanos. Marvel, no doubt, owes a large part of this success to brilliant moviemaking teams, the actors who brought these characters to life as well as the writers, artists, and creators who continue to write new comic book chapters in one of the most enduring and oldest continuous narratives alive today.

But this success, and this comic book golden age, wouldn't even be possible without the Fantastic Four. Without them, you don't have Marvel.

In 1961, when Marvel was on the precipice of failure, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby were tasked with creating something that could rival and rip off DC Comics' Justice League, the superhero team that included Superman and Wonder Woman. Sean Howe writes in his book Marvel Comics: The Untold Story:

[Publisher Martin Goodman] marched into the office with a mandate for Lee: steal this idea and create a team of superheroes. But Lee had been through attempted superhero revivals before. He went home to his wife, Joanie, and announced that he was finally going to quit. She talked him out of it. "Just do it the way you want to," she insisted. "Work your ideas into the comic book. What are they going to do, fire you?"

Kirby, the legendary writer-artist, tells it differently:

"Marvel was on its ass, literally, and when I came around, they were practically hauling out the furniture," Kirby said. "They were beginning to move, and Stan Lee was sitting there crying. I told them to hold everything, and I pledged that I would give them the kind of books that would up their sales and keep them in business."

However it really started, Lee and Kirby came up with the Fantastic Four — a team of space adventurers consisting of a brother, a sister, a genius (who would later marry the sister), and a brawler from the wrong side of the tracks — who each obtain different powers after a mysterious voyage. Reed Richards, the genius, gained the ability to stretch his body. Sue Storm gained invisibility and the power to construct force fields. Johnny Storm, Sue's brash, hard-headed brother, turned into the Human Torch. And poor Ben Grimm became the stone powerhouse known as the Thing.

And thousands of Fantastic Four No. 1 issues were sold:

(Marvel)

Kirby's art and cover were revolutionary at the time. The cover looks unfinished — the sky isn't colored, and the building just disappears. The Four aren't wearing uniforms or superhero costumes the way Superman or Wonder Woman do. You have that orange Golem in the bottom left corner who doesn't even look human and a hairy fireball scorching through the sky. And that dude in the ropes just looks crazy weird, like something closer to a 7-year-old's doodle.

Kirby's art was a more modern, novel take on the superhero story. There is no handholding, no explanation. The story is just as abrupt. The heroes bicker. They fight. They're jerks to one another:

Fantastic Four No. 1. (Marvel)

This fighting and discord is in the basic fabric of superhero stories you see today. From the Avengers films to Guardians of the Galaxy to the upcoming Batman v Superman, the idea that good guys don't always have the same idea of what's good — and don't always get along — has become integral to team stories. But at the time, Kirby and Lee's Fantastic Four were the team that really embodied this idea.

Is being a superhero a curse?

The initial thrust of the Fantastic Four stories was their reflection of the era's obsession with space. Sue and Johnny Storm, Reed Richards, and Ben Grimm were sold as space adventurers who were altered when something went wrong and they were doused with cosmic rays in the vast beyond. Fantastic Four No. 1 was published in 1961 and went to market in August, four months after the Russians sent the first human into space.

When you talk to comic book writers, artists, and historians, they will say that large political events tend to shape the superhero stories for years to come. The atom bomb gave us more superheroes (see: Captain Atom), which then begat reactions to superheroes like Alan Moore's dark and nihilistic Watchmen. The Cold War brought about a glut of communist Russian characters (mostly villains). And the pain and tragedy of 9/11 still shapes stories today.

When it came to the Fantastic Four, people were still unsure what space could bring. It could be a place of wonderment and give these people fantastic (ha) powers. But it could also bring pain, which is how these characters first felt when they found themselves transformed. When they started getting abilities, Johnny Storm called his friends monsters:

Johnny Storm is not happy about these powers. (Fantastic Four No. 1/Marvel)

Kirby and Lee wanted to play with the idea that being a superhero could be a curse or make you a freak — something we didn't see with DC's Justice League. The way these powers would affect these heroes' lives would be fleshed out in later issues (the F4 decide pretty quickly to become heroes), but Kirby and Lee laid the groundwork for a comic book that really did explore the psychological toll of heroism.

The Thing is a story we can empathize with

Toward the end of junior high, when I was teetering on the brink of high school, I found myself working Fantastic Four comic books into my regular diet of several X-Men titles. I liked the X-Men (Storm mostly) because they felt as though they were cutting against the grain of comic books at the time. They felt like a family coping with a world that didn't understand them. And as I look back to the Fantastic Four issues I read, I'm beginning to understand I liked them for the same reason.

What I don't think I grasped at the time was how the Fantastic Four were a canny commentary on celebrity culture. The F4 did not need alter egos or secret identities. They lived their lives publicly as revered heroes. But three of the four (Johnny, Reed, Sue) did not have their looks affected by the accident. Ben Grimm is another story — a painful one.

Grimm's appearance as a monster was a constant source of insecurity for the hero. People treated him differently. And when they weren't scared of him, they pitied him. This came to a boil in Fantastic Four No. 51, titled "This Man … This Monster":

Fantastic Four No. 51. (Marvel)

In that plot, written by Lee and drawn by Kirby, Grimm deals with his physical appearance and the way it's affected his psyche. There's also a stark contrast to Johnny Storm, who is basically Zac Efron reimagined as a superhero:

Fantastic Four No. 51. (Marvel)

In this issue, a villain steals Grimm's powers and appearance, giving him the chance to live a normal life, which he does for a few moments. But his closest friends (Reed Richards and Sue) don't trust Grimm in his human form and only trust the guy that looks like the Thing. This allows the villain to infiltrate the inner sanctum of the F4.

"This Monster…" might not be the most elegant comic ever written, but it's soulful in a way that comics often aren't.

The Thing hits the nerves and conjures up the inevitable anxiety that all teens feel at some point in their lives. But Grimm's story also parallels the frustration of being a minority in America and the uneasiness of wanting to belong. The three other members have the ability to pass as "normal." Grimm doesn't. He's constantly defined by the way he looks and has to learn how to live with it.

It's tragic, it's sad, but it's also one of the most thoughtful and human aspects of the comic.

Marvel sold the rights to the Fantastic Four. That killed them.

The terribleness that is the two Jessica Alba and Chris Evans–led Fantastic Four movies (in 2005 and 2007), and this current monstrosity, has become synonymous with the superhero team. What gets lost is that there was a point that the Fantastic Four comic book was actually more popular than The Avengers. And even when the team's popularity waned, it wasn't too far behind:

In Avengers No. 1, the comic book that brings the Avengers together for the first time, the Fantastic Four have a splendid cameo. A distress call is sent out — the Hulk is on a rampage — and the F4 pick it up, but then are simultaneously shady and too important. They say another, lesser team (AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE!) can fix the problem while they are off saving the world:

Avengers No. 1. (Marvel)

At their height, the F4 were telling scrubs like the Avengers to deal with the trivial stuff. Fast forward 50 years or so, and we're at a point when Marvel announced this April that Fantastic Four's main comic book had been canceled and that the F4 are basically non-factors in the Marvel comic book universe.

To critics and comic fans, the main reason for their disappearance was the team's film rights. Back in 1990s, when the comic book bubble burst, Marvel was flailing — the company filed for bankruptcy in 1996. As comic book movies weren't giant hits back then, Marvel sold its rights to popular characters as a way to make cash it wasn't making off the comic books themselves.

"The company made a series of licensing deals around the time they sought bankruptcy protection in 1996," the Wall Street Journal's Ben Fritz explained. "These deals put Spider-Man in the hands of Sony. The X-Men and Fantastic Four went to Fox. Because the studios were in strong positions, they agreed to share only about 5% of the revenue from each film with Marvel."

Though Marvel hasn't said why the F4 have been diminished, making them big players in the Marvel Universe makes no business sense anymore. Simply put: Investing in properties like the X-Men or Fantastic Four isn't in Marvel's best financial interest. Fox would and could ostensibly make movies out of that great stuff, and then Marvel would only get a tiny cut of the revenue. And though the X-Men were in the same Fox boat as the Fantastic Four, they were the ultimate comic book of the '90s, making it impossible for Marvel to shelve them.

"They're [The Fantastic Four] an easy target in the war between Fox and Marvel,"Vulture's Abraham Riesman wrote.

Having terrible Fantastic Four movies doesn't exactly help the cause, either.

The rub is that a lot of things we love about superhero movies and what makes them so great come from the Fantastic Four. While the '60s idea of space travel looks dated, the comic books' main stories about these heroes are still fresh — so fresh that we still see them in stories today. The feelings of family, the questioning of how "good" guys are supposed to act, the idea of a hero being a monster — these are all stories and themes we saw in the first issue of The Fantastic Four in 1961 and are also the same major themes in this summer's Avengers: Age of Ultron movie.

The Fantastic Four's relevance is the saddest thing about them. Seeing something dated and shopworn dissolve into nothing doesn't hurt because some part of you thinks it deserves that. But there's still a lot of life left in the Fantastic Four's bones — so much that even in the face of the unmitigated disaster that is Fox's new movie, I still believe in the Fantastic Four and the possibility of not just another great movie, but another great story. There's a comeback to be written, but I don't know if we'll ever see it.

SLEUTH "A Finely Tuned Machine" release

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Indie-pop outfit Sleuth are known around Vancouver as the band who won CiTR 101.9 FM's SHiNDiG battle of the bands competition a few years back. Now, they're preparing to release an album called Out of the Blue Period, and they've just shared a video for the track "A Finely Tuned Machine." 

The song is jangling, dreamily punchy pop track. The accompanying video depicts a hard-hitting roller derby game, and we watch women in roller skates jockey for position while occasionally singing into the camera. It was self-directed by Sleuth and features the Mainland Misfits Roller Derby Association. 

Out of the Blue Period will be released through Kingfisher Bluez/Jigsaw Records. The CD will come out on August 14, with the vinyl following in September. The band have a Vancouver release show taking place on August 14 at the Railway Club with Malcolm Biddle, Village, Zen Mystery Fogg, Tim the Mute and more. 

India's PORN is back on!

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U-TURN: The controversial government order was revoked following a Twitter backlash

The Indian government had ordered internet service providers to block access to 857 adult websites on grounds of morality and decency.

But the order sparked an angry backlash on Twitter – with thousands criticising the censorship within the world's largest democracy.

However the controversial order has since been revoked.

“This whole thing is very ambiguous ”

Internet Service Provider employee

The Indian government has instead ordered internet service providers, or ISPs, to only shutdown sites that promote child pornography.

The revised order is drawing the ire of service providers, who have been effectively asked to check and decide which sites need to be blocked.

"This whole thing is very ambiguous. How are we supposed to check if the sites have child porn?" an official at one of India's main telecom operators told Reuters.

"Is this what we are supposed to do now?"

Censorship of Internet content is common in India but the order to block the 857 adult sites was the first big crackdown on Internet pornography.

In 2011, India urged social network companies to screen content and remove offensive material.

A year later, the government faced criticism for ordering dozens of Twitter accounts to be blocked for spreading rumours.

Use of social media and smartphones is rising rapidly in the country and pornography is in demand: Pornhub, an adult website, last year said India ranked fifth for daily visitors
.

EARL SWEATSHIRT "Off Top" release

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Having released the album I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside this spring,former Odd Future member Earl Sweatshirt has now unveiled an animated clip for the track "Off Top." 

The video isn't exactly your average Saturday morning cartoon. The dark, plodding rap song serves as the soundtrack to a gory, surreal nightmare in which Earl falls into fire, is eaten by a disembodied mouth, runs for his life from a vicious dog, and gets beaten up in a knife fight. 

Watch the Taylor Johnson-directed video below. 

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RIFF RAFF & TRAVIS BARKER "Spazz Out" release

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What the hell has happened to Riff Raff? Once an endless well of rap memes, the NEON iCON has now become a weird Warped Tour muscle man. The rapper turned sorta punk guy looks swole as hell as he raps in front of a Journeys banner in his new "Spazz Out" video. 

As evidenced in the track description, the song features drumming from Blink-182/Transplants member Travis Barker. He's technically in the video too, although shots of him performing in a black room have been awkwardly stitched in between the performance footage. There's also a subplot where they've put a Riff Raff emoji over a young girl's face for some reason. Riff Raff then signs t-shirts for mall goths in the merch tent. The whole thing kinda looks like a garishly bright Kool-Aid commercial. 

If any of these descriptions have strangely captured your interest, you can watch the video for "Spazz Out" below. 

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SHANNON AND THE CLAMS "Point Of Being Right" release

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In our experience, most karaoke bars are sadly low on material from Shannon and the Clams. Still, that isn't stopping the Oakland garage pop outfit from releasing a karaoke-themed clip for their Gone by the Dawn cut "Point of Being Right." 

The clip was directed by the Clams' own guitarist Cody Blanchard. In it, we see Shannon and series of friends — referred to as "a gang of misfits" in an official description — singing along with the bouncy, scrappy pop-rock ditty. There is a bit of knowingly outdated-looking image-layering, and many of the singers don wigs and goofy getups. 

Check out the clip below. 

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Sports Illustrated's NINA AGDAL

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Me" series for Sports Illustrated Magazine. In a photo from the spread, the 23-year-old model is sitting naked with her legs strategically covering her private part while her nipple is covered with a black star.

In another photo, Adam Levine's ex poses topless, flaunting her boobs with tan lines and black stars covering her nipples while holding up her loose pants. She also flaunts her tan lines while posing in a black vest paired with strapless bratop and black panties.



Nina shares on Instagram two pictures from her racy spread. In both photos, the Danish model wears a black curly wig. The first shot shows her holding what appeared to be a cigarette with one hand while the other hand cupping her bare breast. In the second shot, she sports a black bra and high-waisted knit pants.

Previously in the fourth installment of "Yu (Tsai) and Me" series, Emily Ratajkowski showed off major sideboobs and cleavage. In one photo, the "Gone Girl" actress pulled her grey tank top to show off her under boob with her hands above her head. In another picture, Emily grabbed her breasts. She later took off the outfit to show her sideboob. 

SOFIA HAYAT vs India's PORN ban

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New Delhi: She has done it again! Controversial starlet Sofia Hayat has crossed all the barriers and gone a step ahead by posting her nude picture on Twitter against the recent hullabaloo over porn ban in the country.

Although, after receiving much flak for banning porn sites in the country, the ban has been lifted. However, former 'Bigg Boss' contestant could not stop herself from protesting against the ban in her own 'nude' style. She captioned the image as: "Sorry for the porn ban, here is a pic to make you feel better. on my new app..launching soon."

Here check out the picture posted by Sofia: 

Who is UNNI ASKELAND

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Tara Lynn's ELLE cover and Unni Askeland's picture. Photo: Facebook/Unni Askeland

Artist challenges Norway PM to pose naked

Norwegian artist Unni Askeland has challenged Prime Minister Erna Solberg to join her in posting a naked picture of herself on the internet to inspire curvaceous women to flaunt it during the bikini season.

“There is no harm in being a woman and having a body. I would like to challenge you Erna Solberg,” Askeland told Norwegian fashion website MinMote. “I think Erna likes me, but I’m not sure she likes this.”

 

Unsurprisingly, Solberg declined, despite commending Askeland as “a tough lady”. 

 

“Sorry, but I am not brave enough to take on the challenge. The country does not need to see a naked prime minister,” Solberg responded through her press secretary Sigbjørn Aanes. 

 

Askeland said she wanted to inspire curvaceous women to flaunt it during the bikini season, after being inspired by this month’s cover of Norwegian ELLE magazine, which featured the plus-size model Tara Lynn. 

 

The picture first appeared in 2011, and has helped many to be more comfortable with their bodies.

 

“You shouldn’t be ashamed of a curvaceous body, young or old. The Elle cover made me feel better, so a took the chance and did this,” Askeland told Norway’s Dagbladet newspaper.

 

She says she doesn’t think getting naked is the only way to make women feel more comfortable, but it’s a first step. Now she is asking women in Norway to post nude pictures.

 

She says she asked Erna to inspire others.

 

“She is our ‘grand old lady’ and a beautiful woman. I started asking at the top”, she told Dagbladet. 

RUSSELL BRAND "You should've bought DRUGS"

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RANT: Russell Brand was testing new material for the audience

He asked how much fans had paid after admitting he was using them to test material for his Australian tour.

One person at The Roundhouse, north London, said £20.

Brand replied in an apparent reference to cannabis: “Twenty quid. Five quid more, you could have got a quarter. Drugs are easy.

"Don’t worry, it’s going to be OK is heroin still available in Camden?

"We’re OK."

He added: “My job is to provide you with some form of non-chemical entertainment.”

“My job is to provide you with some form of non-chemical entertainment”

Russell Brand

Brand said he only ended up supporting Labour leader Ed Miliband because of a mate’s challenge.

But he said he woke up after Labour’s defeat thinking it was his fault because he had backed them, helping what he called "a**ewipe" David Cameron to victory.

He said: "That was a mistake in retrospect.

"It was my mate who went 'everything has gone so mad in this country that if you say vote for Labour it might happen' and some sort of psychopathic impulse in me enjoyed that."

Turning on Ukip leader Nigel Farage, Brand said to a man leaving his seat: "Don’t go, you look Aryan, exactly the kind of person who needs to stay if Farage is to be assuaged.”

Death of GLEYDSON CARVALHO

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EL MUNDO ES

HORRIFIC: Radio presenter Gleydson Carvalho was shot dead during a live radio show

Gleydson Carvalho was slain by two gunmen who burst into his studio during his regular midday slot on Thursday.

They overpowered a receptionist before forcing their way into Carvalho’s recording studio and ordered his sound engineer to take cover under a table.

They then shot the radio presenter, a staunch critic of government corruption, three times - once in the head and twice in the chest.

The horrific murder occurred around 12.40pm local time on Thursday at Radio Liberdade FM in Camocim, a beach resort in the north-eastern state of Ceara.

The killers escaped on a white motorbike while their victim was rushed to hospital.

He died on route.

“I never imagined something like this could happen in our city”

Carvalho’s lawyer Marcos Coelho

It is understood the attack happened during a musical interlude during the radio programme.

Another radio employee announced the programme presenter had been shot and was receiving medical attention before it continued with music.

Carvalho was known locally for his attacks on local government corruption.

Friend Autran Santos said he would often receive threats live on air.

LOCATION: The shocking incident occurred in north east Brazil

"He spoke to me constantly about the threats but said he wasn’t afraid," he said.

"The most serious threats he received were to do with politics. He said he had enemies because of the accusations he made."

Carvalho’s lawyer Marcos Coelho added: "I never imagined something like this could happen in our city.

"This is a crime that deserves the most rigorous investigation possible by the authorities."