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My first twin guests for the show, the film writers Adam and Liam Quane, join the podcast from the Liverpool region for a discussion of the new MCU attempt to adapt the Fantastic Four for the big screen, but our conversation focuses on how blockbusters have used colour coding to convey ideological ideas, particularly in the last decade or so. 

The Quanes think American electoral anxiety and an overall Hollywood Liberal fear of the future in the Trump era play a role in the blockbuster semiotic rules of Blue meaning “the good guys”, Red being “the bad guys” and Purple meaning “the bad guys who could potentially be good guys or at least have good ideas”.

We explore this idea by applying it to recent superhero movies in general and finally how it can apply to the new Fantastic Four, which has been a financial disappointment but like the new Superman, was more entertaining than the three of us expected it to be and despite some quibbles we may have about it, points the way to how to fix these endless comic book movie franchises.

Follow Liam Quane on Bluesky, Facebook and VERO.

Follow Adam Quane on Facebook.

Liam’s novel Road to Juneau (Beaten Track Publishing) is available in Kindle and paperback!

Original teaser for The Fantastic Four: First Steps (Matt Shakman, 2025) that briefly features John Malkovich (who was cut out of the finished film)