Warning! This article contains spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps manages to knock a tricky part of the MCU team’s story out of the park in its runtime, and I didn’t realize how much I’d needed to see it until after the movie. The Fantastic Four’s movie history has been a complicated one, to put it lightly, with prior installments being lastingly divisive with audiences.
With two different efforts to make the Fantastic Four’s stories work in theaters ultimately falling short, The Fantastic Four: First Steps bringing the team into the MCU timeline was naturally something of a risk. However, by the ending of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, it’s clear the movie pulled off one of the biggest challenges that these adaptations face.
The Fantastic Four’s Movie History Has Missed Out On Truly Showing The Team’s Bond
While the Fantastic Four movies that came before have featured some endearing scenes showing the developing bond of the iconic Marvel hero group, the live-action film roster has been surprisingly limited in this capacity. This is partially explained by the fact the Fantastic Four only had three theatrically released live-action movies, but there’s more to it than that.
The 2000s Fantastic Four movies depicted a version of the team that clearly cared for each other when it came to it. However, their runtime was often spent more dedicated to showing the team’s arguments, with them almost constantly in some form of conflict from the moment they get their powers.
Even when they’re not actively at odds with one another, the team spend a good chunk of this limited time making jabs at one another that don’t always seem in good spirits. This is especially true given most of them are aimed at The Thing’s appearance, even when he’s actively going through a crisis regarding his transformation.
Though the 2015 Fantastic Four team don’t bicker as much, they also have far less time together. Given the film’s story features a huge timeskip that means the adult Fantastic Four have only just all met up again by the final scenes of the movie, there’s not a lot of time for their present-day bonds to be established.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps Absolutely Nails This Part Of Its Story
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is inherently better set up to cover the bonds of its тιтular crew due to the timing of its story. While the 2005 and 2015 Fantastic Four dedicate almost all of their runtime to the group’s origin story – meaning we’re also seeing them just learning to work together – the 2025 movie is set seemingly years into the squad being Earth-838’s premiere superhero team.
Even 2007’s The Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer focused once again on the team learning to use their powers by giving Johnny the ability to swap powers with those he touched, requiring the movie to dedicate time to the group working this ability out.
As such, the film’s story is able to build more on the idea that these characters have known and worked alongside one another for a long time, and have the sort of dynamic that comes from this experience. Not only does this avoid having to retread ground, it also means the crew’s bond can be established without set up.
This is also especially possible for the movie because of Franklin Richards, since the birth of Sue and Reed’s child and how Johnny and Ben react naturally shows the love between Marvel’s First Family. Ben is the first person to hold Franklin, and when Johnny thinks he’s going to die, his final words are about his newborn nephew, stating:
“Tell Franklin Uncle Johnny loves him.”
Admittedly, the fact Johnny and Ben are as willing to face Galactus as they are rather than giving Franklin up to him alone shows the deep connections between these characters. But it’s these other smaller moments that really sell their dynamics as caring and authentic, and depict a version of the team that gets to focus on their bonds.
The MCU’s Fantastic Four Debut Makes Exploring The Team’s Future So Much Easier
The Fantastic Four: First Steps being able to focus on the group’s bond fully thanks to its story effectively means other films don’t have to dedicate as much time to it. While a sequel to the 2015 Fantastic Four might have had to explain how the characters got to know one another, the MCU doesn’t need to.
This is especially noteworthy since the Fantastic Four will be part of the cast of Avengers: Doomsday, which very well may split the squad up. This seems doubly possible given how many teams are set to appear in Doomsday, and since Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame also split up MCU teams in parts of their stories.
As the newcomers to the franchise, ensuring the Fantastic Four feel like a well-established team all the same is paramount, and something the MCU manages quickly and effectively thanks to the 2025 movie. This also ensures they can compare up to the likes of the Avengers and X-Men, who both appear set to have their own decades-long bond between teammates.
The Fantastic Four’s bond specifically emphasizing the lengths the group are willing to go to for Franklin looks set to almost immediately pay off. The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ mid-credits scene underlines Franklin’s connection to Doctor Doom, and however this unfolds in Avengers: Doomsday, knowing how far the child’s entire family will go for him certainly helps amp things up.
