Or ‘Why it needs to be Fantastic’ is what I probably should’ve said.
Since its inception by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee in 1961, the Fantastic Four has been an icon in the world of comic books especially, but popular culture more broadly.
Stan Lee was about to give up on comics entirely at the time. According to later interviews, it was the successful launch of the Fantastic Four comics that kept him a believer.
There’s been decades of iterations, and of highs and lows between then and now. But as the new Fantastic Four movie hits the cinemas and early reviews seem to be positive, it’s worth noting how significant a moment this is for one of comics’ most important properties.
Fantastic Four: First Steps looks great. But yeah, looks can be deceiving.
The history of the Fantastic Four’s on-screen representation has been problematic to say the least. It has not been any kind of glorious ride for one of popular culture’s most legendary families.
Twentieth Century Fox’s two Fantastic Four movies from the mid-2000’s may have done decent business financially, but have zero legacy. Hardly anyone likes or celebrates those movies.
I hated those movies at the time. Now I’m just entirely ambivalent towards them. At best, they’re just low-impact, Hollywood summer blockbuster fare: probably intended at the time to capitalise on the success of the X-Men movies.
They managed a half decent version of the Silver Surfer in the sequel. But those films’ biggest crime was the atrociously bad version of Victor Von Doom.
They took, arguably, Marvel Comics’ best and most iconic villain – a complex, compelling and charismatic character with a vast mythology – and reduced him to a third-rate cartoon baddie, played by a ludicrously awful actor whose name I don’t even want to recall.
Someone should’ve done jail time for that depiction of Doctor Doom.
The disservice done to Susan Storm (the Invisible Woman) by casting the woefully ill-fitting Jessica Alba in the role also still leaves a bitter taste.
The FF deserved better.
But many would argue that a later attempt to reboot the FF film series – Josh Trank’s 2015 Fantastic 4 – was just as bad, and possibly worse.
At least the mid-2000’s films were somewhat fun-oriented, they argued: whereas Trank’s reimagining was dark, tonally confused, weirdly truncated, and ultimately a mess.
It also was a complete flop. And was panned by critics and audiences alike.
In fairness, it is believed that Trank’s vision (which was reportedly more grown up and somewhat horror-oriented) was completely undermined by the studio and that the end product was a horribly mutilated version of what he had intended.
That would explain why that 2015 movie is so short, so abrupt and so seemingly devoid of any coherent vision.
It did give us a much better Susan Storm than the awful Jessica Alba eye-candy casting from a decade earlier though.
But that’s really the only good thing I can say about that 2015 film.
And it also managed to fuck up Doctor Doom again – except in a totally different way to what the mid-2000s films had done.
That’s two attempts at Doctor Doom and two atrocious hatchet jobs.
And the point is that we had two separate attempts at a cinematic adaptation of the Fantastic Four, years apart: and both were disappointingly poor, even embarrassing.
Three attempts, if we include the now infamous Roger Corman film from the 1990s. Which I suppose we shouldn’t, as that one was so humiliatingly bad that it didn’t see release at the time.
After all of that, one would think no one would want to touch this property again for a long time.
The problems with the FF’s cinematic life even had a negative impact on the comics. Marvel Comics actually put the Fantastic Four into a long hiatus a few years ago specifically as a protest (or strategy) against FOX’s continued ownership of the film rights.
Which was a rather drastic state of affairs for the hero team that was arguably the backbone of the Marvel universe for decades (the Human Torch was in fact one of the very first Marvel characters – arguably *the* first).
That move actually worked out pretty well in the end: because the monthly comic title’s return after several years led to a very good (current) series.
But despite all the repeated problems with bringing the FF to the big screen, Marvel Studios knew it couldn’t afford to leave so iconic a property alone.
The Fantastic Four is so integral to the tapestry of the Marvel Universe (in terms of the company’s comic book history and brand) that its absence from the Marvel Cinematic Universe until now has been a significant void.
Concurrently, Marvel Studios’ post-Avengers slump (both creatively and in terms of audience response) necessitated a fresh injection of new life and momentum into a somewhat waning franchise.
That fresh injection of life is the Fantastic Four and the X-Men: the two super-weapons they still had in their reserve arsenal.
Inevitably, Marvel’s acquisition of the property after years of FOX holding onto it was going to lead to a Fantastic Four reboot. It was just a question of when: and what form it would take.
Arguably, this set of circumstances came at precisely the right time: in essence, Marvel Studios is able to return the Fantastic Four to the big screen at precisely the time that the studio also needs it the most.
In other words, Fantastic Four: First Steps could be a saviour of the Marvel Cinematic Universe – and, at the same time, the FF’s incorporation into the MCU could finally be the respectful big-screen realisation that this legendary comic book property deserves.
It could be the perfect situation on all levels, really.
Coincidentally, another faltering property – DC’s Superman – has also just had a much needed reboot, with a marked tonal and stylistic reimagining. And that Superman film has been really well received.
The same thing may be about to happen here with the Fantastic Four and Marvel.
Now we just need the film to actually be good. And the early reviews are promising.
The promotional material and the trailers clearly demonstrated the radical change in tone and approach from the previous cinematic misfires.
By necessity – and very wisely – this iteration of the Fantastic Four looks highly stylised, with a clear and definite tone being adopted, designed to evoke that vintage, retro-futuristic comic book feel.
It looks great. Just the stylistic choices alone evoke nostalgic feelings and create a sense of gravitas. Everything from the knowingly tacky blue outfits to the overall colour palette, and really every element of the branding seems to have been carefully thought out to create a certain vibe.
We might note, however, that these outfits look worryingly similar to the ones from the embarrassing Roger Corman movie. Let’s be optimistic and just chalk that down to simply drawing from the same source material.
The marketing has also been very good: not over the top, but again very stylised and very tonally consistent.
And hey, they can’t fuck up Doctor Doom again – because he’s not in it. Another smart choice.
We know in fact that they’ve got a whole different plan for Doom in the MCU, involving a certain Robert Downey Jr – which is a whole separate conversation as to whether that’s a good idea or a terrible one.
I’ve had some doubts about whether Pedro Pascal was a suitable choice for Reed Richards. I actually thought John Krasinki’s parallel reality version of the character in Doctor Strange & the Multiverse of Madness was pretty perfect. But one thing the MCU has excelled at from the very beginning has been casting choices, so I’ll give the benefit of the doubt.
Also, you can see from the images that this version of the Thing is the best looking we’ve seen to date.
Coincidentally, the most recent Fantastic Four series (started in 2022) has been the only Marvel book I’ve been reading regularly for a while. It’s a really good series – the writing and ideas have been putting the Avengers and X-Men books to shame.
So my enthusiasm for the Fantastic Four has been at an all-time high lately: just in time for this highly anticipated movie release.
I hope it’s great. The Fantastic Four deserves to finally be done some justice on the cinema screen – after decades of bad representation. Their moment may have finally arrived.
