Now that it’s been announced that Mark Millar and Bryan Hitch are doing Fantastic Four, Millarworld remembers that Hitch once kind of told them that it wasn’t Fantastic Four that the two were working on (“Okay, how about I just TELL you I’m not doing FF? Would that be more specific?” being the exact quote):

“For some reason after all the hints this seems rather anti-climatic. I also feel a bit lied to. So this isnt a book about three females and it isn’t a rename of a current title as was also mentioned. SO Mcduffie isnt on the FF for the forseeable future as Tom B stated and it is the FF when Hitch was saying it wasn’t. If you want people to have fun guessing guys at least give them a fighting chance.”

“It isn’t a lie – wait until you read the issues and see the plotlines….”

“Uh, how is flat out stating that it wasn’t the Fantastic Four not a lie?”

“Hitch actually said ‘How about if I say it’s not Fantastic Four then?’ or something like that- which has a pretty big loophole in that it pretty heavily implies it’s not FF, but it’s not a lie if it’s wrong.”

“Well, of COURSE they were lying! With all the ‘clues’ they gave, they eliminated every book Marvel ever has and ever will publish, unless you use the most Clintonian definition of ‘truth.’ The real question is, when they stop lying and tell us the truth, is it worth hearing? I’d say, yes. (And I’d also say Millar and Hitch have a lot to learn about when to talk and when not to…drumming up buzz is one thing, but when you do it on the internet, you have to either ignore all the speculation that will inevitably ensue, tell the truth and blow the surprise, or lie. And why put yourself into a position where you have to lie when you can just shut up and let the fanboys go wild?)”

“Seriously – there is a big difference between teasing and lying. There is also a limit to teasing as there is a threshold there that teasing becomes cruelty. Misdirection is one thing, the stage magician actually grinding people into sausages is quite another. There is a true danger here of ‘the little bot who cried wolf’. I wish Mitch the best on all projects, but the punishment for deliberate dysinformation is dialing back the hype to 4 for a minimum of one year, and polygraphs.”

“Mr. Hitch absolutely did say ‘It’s NOT Fantastic Four’. I also vividly remember him responding to one poster (in the same thread) with (paraphrasing) ‘… the part where I said it’s NOT Fantastic Four’. Unfortunately, the thread where that was originally posted seems to have disappeared.”

“What was Hitlar supposed to do though, ‘Oh, you GOT us. It’s Fantastic Four. Guess I’ll have to tell Ol’ JQ I spilt the beans and we can’t have a big announcement anymore, oh well, never cared for my good relationship with Marvel anyways.’”

“Very simple: no comment.”

“Yeah, some people don’t seem to know the difference between a question and a statement – Hitch didn’t say ‘I’m not doing FF’, he asked what people would think if he DID say that, semantic differences aside, it was just a bit of misdirection rather than a lie.”

This entry was posted on Monday, August 13th, 2007 at 11:44 am and is filed under Creators, Fandom, Marvel, News & Views. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.