When a group of baddies beset the heroes, Evans tells everyone to stand back, and Deadpool starts fanboying so hard. He’s about to say his famous phrase! Yes, he is, Wade. Evans tilts his head back and shouts, “Flame On!” Yep, Evans is reprising a classic role, but it’s not as Steve Rogers. This is Johnny Storm, one-quarter of the Fantastic Four.
Now remembered as little more than a piece of barroom trivia, Evans’ introduction to superhero cinema was the two 20th Century Fox produced Fantastic Four movies directed like a sitcom (and with sitcom-like cinematography) by Barbershop’s Tim Story in the mid-2000s. But Fantastic Four (2005) and Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) failed on almost every other level. They were flat, uninspiring movies with terrible performances by Ioan Gruffudd, Jessica Alba, and Julian McMahon as Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, and Doctor Doom, respectively.
Along with Michael Chiklis as the Thing, Evans was one of the few bright spots of those movies. He played Johnny as an X-Games loving party dude, whose fire powers kicked in while snowboarding with the future star of pre-movie quiz shows, Maria Menounos. Apropos of someone trapped in the Void for years, Johnny’s easy-going attitude has become anger, which may or may not account for the angry rant that results in his grisly death.
Elektra, The Woman Without Daredevil
After escaping from the clutches of Cassandra Nova, Deadpool and Wolverine search for a group of resistance fighters who knew Johnny Storm. But it’s the fighters who find them. Well, one of them, anyway. They are brought to a safe house by Elektra, the Greek ninja assassin played by the non-Greek, non-ninja, non-assassin Jennifer Garner. Somehow, against all good sense, Garner spun her forgettable performance in the dire 2003 movie Daredevil (2003) into an even more forgettable and more dire solo film, Elektra (2003).
In this entry, she’s back in a version of the black leather with oh, so early 2000s midriff she wore in the 2003 film. She also is still acting more like a hero than the comics assassin/antihero. Some fans might roll their eyes at the return of Elektra, but she does get in one delicious gag.
While discussing with Wade and Logan other of their Void freedom fighters who apparently died off-screen, she mentions that her Daredevil (the Ben Affleck version) was executed while trying to resist Casandra Nova. Never one to miss a setup, Reynolds’ Deadpool cries something along the lines of “we will avenge Daredevil!” “It’s fine,” Elektra shrugs without missing a beat. Given how this particular Daredevil and Elektra’s love story ended off-screen, that opportunity for a winking dig from the ex-Mrs. Affleck drew some knowing cackles in the audience.