It seemed that there would be a big problem.

Visually here, we've also already introduced the idea of what will become the Fantastic Four uniforms, which was something that was in the original comics, the idea that what they're about to go through will change them.

It will also change the material in the uniforms they're wearing.

It was a concept that Stanley called unstable molecules, which allows the uniforms later to stretch and to burn and to turn invisible based on what's happening with the person wearing it.

My memory of the comic books was always that there was a great deal of comedy among the characters and the relationships, and they really functioned as kind of a dysfunctional family.

The idea that Sue and her brother Johnny, her brother and sister, that Reed had had the previous relationship with Sue, and obviously, as a result, Johnny knew him.

And we also added the idea... that Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm had some history as well.

Depressed thing, torturing himself really by watching these old tapes.

And it's, you don't really know, and so you put these, your, your hopes into these types of leaders, and you don't always know what you're gonna get on the other side.

That's true.

Um, I think we also have to look at each case in the context of their own time, because the needs of humanity from decade to decade can vary drastically, and much of it is circumstantial.

W- uh, America had been, up until that point, uh, if you look back at the history of, of political movements and, and the, the way working people were treated, um, the Repub- what we now think of as the Republican, uh, mindset had been in the ascendant for decades and decades and decades.

The Gilded Age at the late, the, the late part of the 20th century, which seems to be the s- the spirit of which seems to be what these grandees we at the moment are trying to, you know, evoke, and, um, as this, this is somehow the g- the golden age.

Uh, well, it is for a very tiny sliver of people.

And, um, it was actually FDR's fifth cousin, Teddy, who organized the first pushback against all of this in, in his time in office when he decided to break up some of these trusts and go after, uh, profiteering and, and go after ill treatment of people.

if someone is gonna read this and they're gonna take history from this, do you think it's more important to get, like, all of the facts right or the emotional weight of the moment?

There's, there must be other s- stuff that goes into the work of just being an author.

Yeah, no, I have a little bit more Puritan work ethic than that.

I, um, I, I mean, m- I might have an occasional grape, but I'm not gonna lounge much.

Um, you know, there are phone calls.

There are business details to attend to, emails, the detritus of21st century life.

Um, uh, you know, writing is, for me, is in three stages.

There, uh, when you're in a kind of chrysalis stage with a project, you're, you're exploring, you're researching, you're collecting ideas, um, you're exploring themes, you're looking for sources, uh, that's a tremendously fun and exciting, uh, stage of the work.

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