Tom Hanks Is an OG FF Fan

Tom Hanks first drew a lot of attention in the sitcom Bosom Buddies back in 1980 before making a very successful transition to movies with Ron Howard's directorial debut of Splash. Hanks has since had an incredible career with everything from the Academy Award winning Forest Gump to the now-three-decades-running franchise Toy Story. Some of his work has been more successful than others, of course, but even in something like Mazes and Monsters -- a made-for-TV movie which had an awful premise born out of the Satanic panic of the early 1980s -- Hanks turned in an excellent performance. But because of his long successful career, you don't need me to tell you who he is.

Not surprisingly, too, because he's been acting in such a high-profile capacity for so long, he's done more than a few interviews over the years promoting his various works. I certainly can't claim to have seen/heard all of them but, like I expect many of you, you've seen him on talk shows and heard him on podcasts and maybe even caught him speaking at a graduation ceremony or two. But in the decades of hearing him, I've never heard him mention comic books. Even when he was doing the circuits for Road to Perdition in 2002 and Here in 2024 both of which were based on graphic novels, I never heard him mention comics in any capacity.

Until I caught this interview from about a year ago, in which he describes the a-ha moment he had about how to handle his career in the wake of A League of their Own... It's only a three-minute clip in total but the comic reference goes by fast so I'll call it out. He says of this a-ha moment he had...

If you could go back now and shoot a movie about that, lightning would've flashed, the walls would've shook, and it sort of would've been like 'Black Bolt speaks!'

That's not a reference to the current Marvel Cinematic Universe. There's no great revelation about Black Bolt speaking in the shows or movies. That's a throwback to the original 1960s storyline when Black Bolt was a complete enigma. The character debuted in Fantastic Four #45 circa 1965 and little was offerred about him, other than the other Inhumans gave great deference to his power. However, a few issues later in #48, Black Bolt's brother Maximus traps the entire Inhuman civilaztion behind a Negative Barrier that no one cane break through. It became on ongoing subplot for the next year and change, and it was only destroyed in FF #59 when Black Bolt finally speaks. His voice is so powerful, it obliterates the barrier. Jack Kirby spent a page and a half showcasing all the destruction it caused, and Stan Lee used whatever space remained on the art board to fill with descriptions of how we were witnessing something "of such incalcuable power that it cannot possibly be described in merely human terms!"

This was a profound moment for fans. Dean Hill of Warrior, AL wrote in to say...

Words haven't been printed to describe F.F. #59! IThe story was like Shakespeare had written it! The artwork was like Michaelangelo had drawn it! Even the lettering was like Guttenburg had lettered it! In other words, this was a rather good mag! By the way, a certain question has been haunting me. When Black Bolt spoke (as so wonderfully shown on page 11, panel 5), what did he say?? Did he say "Sooie!"? Did he say "Four score and seven years ago..."? Or did Honest Irving slip him a few nickles (wooden, of course) to let the Inhumans hear Black Bolt say, "Make mine Marvel!"???

Doing some quick math, Hanks would've been about 11 when the issue came out. That is, the prime target demographic for those stories back in the day. That he would recall that story beat as such a pivotal and powerful moment -- casually and decades after the fact -- strongly suggests he was an avid reader at the time and was heavily invested in the story.

Tom Hanks, old school Fantastic Four fan. Who knew?

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