Fantastic Four: How Marvel Can Finally Get Its First Family Right
Marvel is officially moving forward with a F4 reboot from director Jon Watts, and the team's previous cinematic outings can teach a valuable lesson.
With official confirmation coming out of Disney's 2021 Investors Call that Jon Watts will be rebooting the Fantastic Four into the MCU, fans could finally see Marvel's First Family done right on-screen... if they focus on the right things. The Fantastic Four is quite literally one of the oldest superhero teams in comic book history, debuting in November of 1961. A smashing success upon their debut, the superhero team is responsible for some of the most iconic characters in Marvel Comics; not only did the self-titled series introduce Reed Richards, Sue and Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm, but characters such as Doctor Doom and Black Panther also made their first appearances in the pages of Fantastic Four.
Since their debut in the 60s, the team has made the jump to multiple different mediums, including video games, television shows, and live-action films. The first attempt at an F4 franchise came in the early 90s, but wasn't released in theaters due to being notoriously bad and in the realm of B-movie territory. 20th Century Fox was responsible for the second series, which began with 2005's Fantastic Four, starring Ioan Gruffudd as Mister Fantastic, Jessica Alba as Sue Storm, Chris Evans as the Human Torch, and Michael Chiklis as The Thing. While the movie failed to impress either critics or original fans of the comic books, it grossed enough money at the box office to warrant a 2007 sequel, Rise of the Silver Surfer. The team's most recent reboot came in 2015, with Josh Trank's Ultimate Universe-inspired Fant4stic unfortunately becoming a critical and commercial bomb.
Five years after the release of the team's last cinematic appearance, Marvel Studios have confirmed that the team will be introduced to the MCU by none other than Spider-Man: Homecoming director Jon Watts. The MCU's track record suggests they just might be the franchise to crack the code on the characters, and they can take inspiration from the things that the previous movies failed to focus on.
Something that the comics have never taken for granted is the fact that the Fantastic Four are, first and foremost, experimental scientists. The sole reason they gain their powers in the first place is because they ventured out into space (or in the Ultimate Universe, an alternate dimension) on a scientific experiment, only to be struck by cosmic radiation that alters their genetic makeup. Reed Richards is widely considered to be the smartest man on Earth, and is frequently responsible for several world-changing inventions and scientific discoveries, such as the existence of the Negative Zone and the creation of their personal assistant robot H.E.R.B.I.E. The team faces off against threats such as the Super-Skrull and Galactus himself, giving all of their adventures a decidedly classic sci-fi slant. Other attempts at the franchise have leaned so hard into making them traditional superheroes that they all but ignore the theoretical experiments that usually land them and the Earth in trouble, something the MCU can rectify.
While this is something that the 2005 reboot attempted to grapple with, no movies have truly found a way to center the Fantastic Four's status as actual celebrities within the Marvel Universe. They were one of the first groups of superheroes to do away with secret identities entirely, and because of this, they became an entertainment and media spectacle within the universe. Their celebrity status is one that positions them as important figures both in the superhero community and pop culture, as their place in the spotlight means that all eyes are frequently on them to do what's right. Tony Stark is the closest to this concept in the current MCU, as the reveal of his secret identity turned into a media firestorm, but now that he's gone the world is once again ready for superheroes that have a slant of celebrity to them.
2015's Fant4stic tried too hard to lean into the dark and gritty aesthetic that had befallen countless reboots before it, a decision that made absolutely no sense for Marvel's First Family. Even the Ultimate Universe Fantastic Four series that the film was based on was absurd and had moments of levity in its own way. The 2005 reboot suffered from this, but on the opposite side of the spectrum. Almost every scene attempted to be humorous and comedic, which naturally led to stakes that felt lowered and a team that you really couldn't take seriously. The MCU's Fantastic Four needs to find a way to strike a proper balance between comedy and drama, and a tone reminiscent of something like the first Iron Man or Captain America: The First Avenger would be perfect.
Something absolutely bizarre about the failure of the last two F4 franchise attempts is how both of them felt the need to overcompensate for Doctor Doom. Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, Doctor Doom made his first appearance in The Fantastic Four #5 in 1962, and since then has become one of the most iconic and larger-than-life villains to grace the page of a comic book. His formidable intellect and iron will make him one of the greatest threats faced not only by the Fantastic Four, but by the entire Marvel Universe at large, and if his scientific mastery wasn't enough, he almost beat out Stephen Strange to become the Sorcerer Supreme. For some reason, each cinematic reboot has tried to give Doom a litany of powers, including electricity in 2005 and telekinesis in 2015, presumably because the filmmakers didn't know how to pit him against the team using solely his intellect. The MCU should lean as hard into this as possible, as fans are ready to see Doom receive the treatment that he deserves finally.
One of the biggest victories of the original Fantastic Four comic book was that the team felt human and real because they were the first group of superheroes with real-world problems. The Thing's issues of self-worth, Johnny's hotheaded temper and impulsiveness, and Reed and Sue's disagreements about domestic and family life allowed many readers to relate to them in a way they couldn't with a character like Captain America. This should be the heart of any Fantastic Four story, first and foremost. The intergalactic threats and tyrannical despots should always be a vehicle to explore what makes each of the characters tick, and why they ultimately come together so well as a makeshift family. Despite its failings, Fant4stic attempted to modernize those themes by having Sue Storm be a child of adoption (and at one point, a Black woman), which reflected a shift from the concerns of the 1960s. This is something that the MCU could lean into; by diversifying the F4, you can reflect the changing definition of the word family in the modern day, and truly tap into the original message of the Fantastic Four: through the inter-connectivity of family and friends, you can overcome any obstacle.