ADVERTISEMENT For cinema lovers, Marvel’s modern reign began with Iron Man, but for comic book lovers, it was always The Fantastic Four.
When released in 1961, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee’s series about a family of cosmic-powered astronauts marked the beginning of a bold new vision; one in which superheroes weren’t just god-like figures, but relatable, flawed human beings.
Sure, Reed Richards can stretch like gum and Johnny Storm burst into flames, but they also bickered, bonded, and grappled with insecurities like real people. As writer Stan Lee summarised: “Marvel has always been and always will be a reflection of the world right outside our window.”
Yet over the decades, as the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) took over and swelled to Galactus-sized proportions, any real-world reflections have crumbled into CGI rubble: tangled lore, superficial spectacle and a lack of emotional stakes, reflecting little more than growing audience fatigue.
Enter Fantastic Four: First Steps, the return of Marvel’s first family that sheds all the clutter in favour of a self-contained alternate universe made up of mid-century dreaminess – a cosy cartoon vision that embraces its goofy origins.
Four years after a cosmic storm transformed Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), Susan Storm (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach), the family has become celebrated leaders and scientific pioneers, running the Future Foundation think tank in aid of global issues.
When Reed isn’t hosting his Bill Nye-inspired TV show ‘Fantastic Science with Mr. Fantastic’, he’s busy teleporting eggs or staring intensely at chalkboards covered in complex algorithms (like the Math Lady meme). But beneath his cool demeanour is a gnawing anxiety that rears after Sue informs him she’s pregnant.
What if the baby is cosmically-compromised? What if it becomes an all-powerful space god?! “It’s my job to think terrible things so terrible things don’t happen”, Reed says, as their robot assistant H.E.R.B.I.E. manically baby-proofs the Baxter Building.
They say the things you worry about are never the things that end up happening – and indeed, something much worse is on the horizon: the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner), to be exact. Descending from flaming storm clouds, the infamous anti-hero warns that Earth-828 – the alternate universe in which they reside – “is now marked for death”. Galactus (Ralph Ineson), a gigantic helmet-headed villain with a taste for planets, is on his way – and he’s hungry.
While Johnny (played with surprisingly low-key rizz here) is distracted by his newfound crush on their metallic messenger, the rest of the gang decide negotiations are their only option – but this big boy cannot be reasoned with. Staring up at Galactus’s towering face, floating in an abyss of nothingness, they’re given a terrible choice: Give up their baby or watch their planet be eaten slowly.
It’s no deal, obviously, and back to the drawing board (and egg teleportation device) for the heroes as they scramble to find alternative world-saving plans.
Like Superman, director Matt Shakman (WandaVision) doesn’t bother with convoluted introductions. Any fragments of the main characters’ backstories are shared through brief montages of newspaper cuttings and televised announcements. He trusts in his characters’ established chemistry, caught in their tender looks and quips of endearment, to create a feeling of cosy familiarity – like tuning into The Jetsons on a Saturday morning.
It’s the domestic scenes at the HQ where the film really thrives, with Johnny and Ben fussing over seasoning spaghetti or Ben attempting to chisel his rocky beard. It feels like we’re hanging out with friends and cocooned in a pop culture-contorted kind of nostalgia. This is testament to the remarkable production design, inspired by sci-fi pulp, space-age design and analogue tech (H.E.R.B.I.E.’s head is fitted with a cassette tape, while interstellar transcriptions are played on vinyl).
Even the movie’s marketing, which includes a vintage-inspired poster of Susan Storm selling ‘Mirage gloves’ would make Don Draper smile with approval. And as an aside, please can we bring back conversation pits in living rooms?
At the heart of this vivid retro-futurism there’s also the quiet unease of uncertainty; the pendulum swing between hopeful optimism and looming annihilation that defined the comics in the 60s. This manifests in the Richards’ worry for their newborn baby’s future, which hints at an emotional truthfulness often lost in Marvel movies; Galactus’ cosmic eyes an eerie mirror of the blinking doom on our phone screens.
Reminiscing on the group’s origins, Reed says: “Back then, the unknown meant mystery and discovery. Back then we were dreamers. What we learned was that the unknown also meant fear.”
It’s a shame, then, that First Steps never fully embraces those unknowns, instead playing it safe with an overly simplified plot that topples into traditional Marvel territory of the trampled city finale (at least this time the Mole Man helps bunker citizens in his subterranean headquarters).
It’s a superhero movie, I know. There’s always going to be CGI action sequences and a big baddie to take down. But these battles would be so much more thrilling if they were grounded in deeper character work and more inventive action. Watching Johnny pummel Galactus’s helmet is about as boring as repeatedly watching a gasping lighter.
What made the original Fantastic Four stand out wasn’t just their powers – it was their dynamics. The film gestures at this, but aside from Reed and Sue’s baby anxieties subplot, those emotional layers remain frustratingly underdeveloped. For example, Natasha Lyonne, whose budding romance with Ben offers a promising diversion, is barely used.
Still, in a genre struggling to find its footing in a world it no longer reflects, First Steps is a welcome stylistic pivot that embraces its origins. Alongside the surprisingly solid Thunderbolts*, it suggests Marvel might finally be inching back toward stories with something real to say.
It’s no leap – but it’s a first step in the right direction.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is out in cinemas now.
