For the record: just because I’m doing this doesn’t mean I endorse this idea as something Hollywood should actually engage in, at least not with major iconic characters. As I’ve said here before, I’d rather see original black heroes on the big screen than race-reversed ones. I’m just doing this for laughs, to take part in the current popular meme.

I think we can all agree that both Fantastic Four movies were, shall we say, lacking somewhat, and would not have been much improved even with a POC cast. Plus I’ve always loved the FF, so I’ll start there. I’ll take Idris Elba as Reed. I’ve never seen The Wire (shocking, I know), but everyone insists he’s a really good actor and he looks about the right age, so yeah. Nia Long is my Sue because I’ve liked her ever since Love Jones and she didn’t end up playing Uhura in Star Trek like I wanted. I think Columbus Short is a bit too young to play Pooch in The Losers (he’s 28), but he’s just right as Johnny. And Ben… well, Bernie Mac would’ve been perfect, but I’ll give Tracy Morgan a try instead. We can keep Kerry Washington as Alicia, obviously. And I’ll take Djimon Hounsou as an African Doctor Doom. Just don’t ask me how that’ll work. The Mole Man in the first movie as the villain; Doom is in a parallel storyline where he joins the Tibetan monks and trains with them, while we learn about his relationship with Reed in flashbacks. The FF beat the Mole Man and become a team. The last scene in the movie is Doom putting on the armor for the first time. Second movie is the Negative Zone and Annihilus; the Silver Surfer comes to Earth and Doom tricks him out of his power. Cliffhanger ending where the FF return and Reed detects a huge spherical ship heading towards Earth… leading into the third movie: FF vs. cosmic-powered Doom vs. Silver Surfer vs. Galactus.

Let’s pretend that Halle Berry’s Catwoman actually bore some resemblance to the comics version. And let’s pretend further that the Ed Brubaker/Darwyn Cooke/Cameron Stewart run is the basis for this movie (don’t I wish!). First let’s get rid of Halle and bring in Rosario Dawson. (Where’s she been lately, anyway?) For Slam Bradley I’ll go with Delroy Lindo. Underrated actor, very classy in everything he’s been in. He’d bring the right level of world-weariness mixed with tough-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold. Ruby Dee would make an awesome Leslie Thompkins. Jurnee Smollett was soooooo good in Eve’s Bayou as a kid, and she’s grown up pretty nicely since then, so I can totally see her as Holly. And I’d want Taye Diggs more as Bruce Wayne than as Batman, but I suppose it couldn’t hurt either way. The movie would be a condensed version of the first dozen issues or so of the Brubaker run, with perhaps a little bit of Cooke’s graphic novel Selina’s Big Score used in flashbacks. Big emphasis on the supporting cast; this would be less of a superhero tale and more of a neo-noir crime story.

That’s all I can think of right now.