One Thing I Love About Fantastic Four: First Steps

The marketing for Fantastic Four: First Steps — eagle-eyed viewers may have been lucky to catch one of the rare advertisements for the movie — seemed to be selling the production design as much as anything else. Its retro-future space age design permeates everything, from the sets to the costumes to the vehicles to the titles and motion graphics, and even their lovable robot friend who was introduced in the cartoon to try and keep impressionable kids from setting themselves on fire¹Okay, like most things it was actually a licensing issue, but I prefer the urban legend version.

It’s a great move to inject new life into a franchise that a lot of people seem to be getting tired of, and the movie does have an energy that feels like it could reinvigorate the entire MCU. But it’s not even the first time the MCU has done it: Captain America: The First Avenger went hard into the WWII aesthetic, feeling like “What if Joe Johnston made The Rocketeer but with more well-known characters, on a much larger scale, and with a huge budget?”

In each case, it was to pay homage to the time period the characters were introduced, and to give modern audiences a little context for what the original comics were like before dragging the characters into the 21st century. And in each case, I was already sold on production design and overall vibes before I even sat down in the theater.

But the most remarkable aspect of Fantastic Four: First Steps is that it’s not just about production design, and not even about vibes, but an attitude that’s at the core of the entire movie. It really captures the unchecked optimism of the Space Age (and the Silver Age of comics), the indomitable belief that anything, at any scale, is possible through science, cooperation, and compassion.

Comparisons to Superman are inevitable, so I’ll get it out of the way: I didn’t love First Steps in the same way that I did Superman, since one I really appreciated and enjoyed, while the other burrowed its way directly into my heart. But on top of all the obvious (and cynical, franchise- and marketing-driven) similarities, they’re pretty similar in the ways that matter. They’re both about good, old-fashioned, fearlessly corny optimism, and the belief that not only do heroes exist, but we can be heroes ourselves.

I had no idea what to expect from Fantastic Four: First Steps, since I’ve never had any kind of attachment to the characters on any level. When I saw how much people were anticipating this movie, and how much attention the studio was putting into it, it reminded me again of being in the audience at Wondercon for the first Iron Man trailer, and thinking, “Really? People are actually this excited about Iron Man?”

They’ve always been characters that I know through nerd cultural diffusion, so I know the high-level details and origin story, but otherwise they’re as foreign to me as luchadores. I’m actually a lot more familiar with the characters inspired by them, like from The Venture Brothers. I wouldn’t be surprised to see people unironically describing the new movie as “The Incredibles but without all the objectivism.”

And if the over-arching goal of the MCU is to get nerds like me to care about characters we wouldn’t have otherwise, then this movie definitely succeeded on that front. The performances are all great, Sue Storm is really treated with respect for what feels like the first time, and most of all, I’m sold on them as a team. I knew that they were “Marvel’s first family,” but the few depictions that I have seen always seemed to focus on individual characters that happened to be working together, instead of bringing that family relationship to the forefront.

I’d seen a video where the reviewer said it took a while for him to be won over, but I was surprised to find myself on board from the start. The part that really sold me on the movie as something special, though, was a sequence where (mildest of mild spoilers) the Fantastic Four goes into space to meet their opponent.

Everything about this nails the vibe of comics from the space age. They’re astronauts using a rocket ship. The whole country (if not the whole planet) is in enthusiastic support of them. They each have a role to play in the mission, and they work together to travel to a planet that’s light years away.

It’s just such a celebration of competence that I loved to see. It doesn’t feel like something they casually wave away like other comic book stories might, but it also feels like something they are extremely qualified for. They’re not using their powers, but the skills they had before they even ran into any DNA-altering cosmic rays. Science and intelligence made all of this possible.

Of course, they go on to do stuff that does require each of them to use their powers, and it’s all just great. The entire sequence had me feeling excited, or tense, or victorious in all the right moments, exactly how an action movie sequence is supposed to work. Definitely the highlight of the movie.

Their super powers come more into play by the climax, but throughout, there’s a real sense that these characters are heroes — ones who can hear “are you this planet’s protectors?” and answer “yes” without even a hint of arrogance — because of their skills, not because of their super powers. The focus is almost never on beating things up, but on learning and working together to find solutions to problems²Much to Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm’s disappointment.

To the point that it’s actually kind of sobering, after the real world of the past 10 years, to see scenes where an unruly and suspicious crowd can be won over after hearing a speech delivered passionately and earnestly. And especially when seeing the planet come together to cooperate on a global scale to solve a problem that threatens us all. Would we live on a planet as wonderful as Earth-828 if scientific breakthroughs like the COVID vaccine had been celebrated as miraculous, instead of being discredited and undermined by the world’s most undeservedly powerful assholes?

By the end of the movie, I liked Earth-828 so much that I’m actually dreading the time when the Fantastic Four are dragged off of it and forced into the mainline MCU. They deserve to live in a better universe. One from the time of the original comics, a perfect world as imagined by white American men, but changed to be actually perfect, where there’s gender equality and racial diversity and different countries all working together³Except for Latveria, of course. I loved seeing their pointedly empty seats at the UN-like Future Foundation.

Also, I knew that “Earth-828” was a reference to Jack Kirby’s birthday, but I loved that the movie made a point of explaining that in the end credits, instead of leaving it as just an easter egg for nerds. The movie has so much love for the era that Kirby created, and it feels like a true celebration of his work.

• 1
  Okay, like most things it was actually a licensing issue, but I prefer the urban legend version
• 2
  Much to Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm’s disappointment
• 3
  Except for Latveria, of course. I loved seeing their pointedly empty seats at the UN-like Future Foundation