Fantastic Four: First Steps

We have officially entered an era where we are replacing jokey fun with sincerity.

One the one hand this is about as good a movie as you could ever hope for for the Fantastic Four. On the other, like Superman, the characters carried so much baggage from four previous bites at the silver screen and a 60 year publishing history that this movie is swinging wildly in a new (and old) direction. 

It’s strange to be in 2025 and watch something built on nostalgia for the 1960s but, again, of the available options this is probably the right one. 

I think it was also a wise decision to turn most of the FF’s supervillains into either flash frame notes or flat out jokes, like the Mole Man. Would I have enjoyed three hour movie where you see the FF take on and defeat three or four of their biggest villains in 15 minute segments before getting to the Galactus main course? You bet! 

But I’m not sure The Wizard or The Red Ghost is going to hold the attention of a general audience. A Paste-Pot Pete section tho … could have moved the needle. 

Director Matt Shakman and a team of writers find a somewhat new way into the Galactus story even though it’s been done once on screen already and variations of it have been done in the comics since Stan and Jack delivered it in the 1960s. 

When the central conflict was introduced I thought that the movie was on solid ground. 

As I said about Superman I could show someone First Steps and tell them that this is mostly what a Fantastic Four comic felt like. Although only the Jack Kirby and Stan Lee ones. Almost anything that was invented after issue 100 is ignored. 

And while whole sections of the MCU are built on his art and ideas this is the first real tribute and attempt at bringing a Jack Kirby joint to the screen. Galactus looks appropriately godlike and Kirbyesque. And that future Kirby tech and retrofuture design is all over the place. 

FF and Superman show Hollywood taking the material as it is instead of thinking they know better than the people who came up with the stories that captured the hearts and minds of readers for generations. 

Finally, when you do put kid Franklin in an FF uniform it does not say Fantastic 5. His shirt says 4 1/2. 

Let’s get the big things right guys.