The Fantastic Four will make their debut in Marvel Phase 6 and classic stories featuring Galactus and Silver Surfer should be on film!
So the start of Marvel’s phase 6 starts off with Marvel’s first family: The Fantastic Four and I, for one, could not be happier with that. The Fantastic Four has been one of my favorites for decades now (yes, I am that old) and finally they will come to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The Fantastic Four harbors many many classic tales and their publication history goes all the way back to the early 1960s when Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created America’s first superhero family.
Because despite all their bickering and their dangerous and exciting adventures, the story of the Fantastic Four is all about family.
And even though their squad changes names from time to time it always comes back to Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Benjamin Grimm and Johnny Storm.
Origins of The Fantastic Four Team
The Fantastic Four were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961 and were supposed to be an answer to DC’s Justice League. Instead, they were created as a superhero team.
Reed Richards, Johnny Storm, Sue Storm and Ben Grimm were on a test flight in space when their spaceship got hit by cosmic rays. The ship crashed and the members barely survived.
The cosmic rays changed their physiology was forever. Sue could turn invisible and got the codename Invisible Girl / Woman. Johnny Storm could light up like a torch and was named The Human Torch. Ben Grimm turned into a thing made of some sort of rock and was named The Thing. And Reed Richards had an elasticated body and was called Mr. Fantastic. This was the start of many incredible adventures and many friends and foes made their debuts in The Fantastic Four comics.
While Stan Lee and John Kirby created the Fantastic Four it was John Byrne, one of the biggest artists in the 1980s era and turned out to be a gifted writer as well, who gave the Fantastic Four a second golden age.
After his successful run on The X-men, together with legend Chris Claremont, he left for The Fantastic Four. He left because the two didn’t get along but also because it was time to see if he could write a series.
Byrne had a very long run on the Fantastic Four. His run starts at issue #232 and ends at #295. So that is 63 issues. Almost five years! It is also the series I grew up with so many stories on my wishlist come from that era.
The Fantastic Four team setup
Over the years the Fantastic Four have always consisted of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm. And while they are the founding members of the team, sometimes some of them have a leave of absence.
Like Sue and Reed wanted to take time off to raise Franklin Richards, their son who is also the most powerful mutant in the Marvel Comicbook universe. Or when Ben Grimm, The Thing, left for a while and his place was taken by She-Hulk.
Other members who have ever been part of the team are Crystal from The Inhumans. It would be nice to see Isabelle Cornish reprise her Marvel role. And Layla, a super Skrull secret agent who tried to infiltrate the Fantastic Four but fell in love with Johnny Storm and even ended up marrying the guy. Medusa is another one and Spiderman.
I am mentioning all of these characters because they are already a part of The Marvel Cinematic Universe. Medusa and Crystal featured in flopped Inhumans TV show. While Spiderman has had his own movies and featured in other Marvel movies in a smaller role. She-Hulk’s TV show will premiere on August 17, 2022. So maybe they can set up some sort of cameo role.
But with the Fantastic Four making their debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the vast amount of material to choose storylines from, I somehow doubt that they will undergo team changes from the get-go. Maybe in the third or the fourth movie when contracts start to expire and the team can use a shake-up.
The Fantastic Four gadgets
With Reed Richards being a brilliant inventor there are some gadgets I would definitely like to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. One of them is The Fantasticar.
The Fantasticar was invented by Reed Richards to overcome large distances without tiring the team before they even head into a fight. The car can separate itself and turn into 4 flying pods.
While there were only three seats in the Rise of the Silver Surfer movie, the comicbook version has four seats. Because Johnny also needs his rest. The Fantasticar is capable of high speeds flying from New York to Siberia in mere minutes we can only assume the Fantasticar is capable of flying at least Mach five to seven.
The Fantastic Four suits consist of little particles named Unstable Molecules. These are extremely durable and can stand heat, cold , density, dirt, pressure and way more. With Unstable Molecules, you could in theory dress up the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, much like they do in the comics. The costumes The X-men wear consist of Unstable Molecules, a gift from Reed Richards to Professor Xavier.
Fantastic Four Stories worthy for the MCU
Out of the many stories, there are a few special classics that define The Fantastic Four and establish the Family as great and iconic Superheroes within Marvel’s already giant roster of characters.
Here are a few story arcs I personally remember most fondly and would love to see transferred from the comics into the MCU when Phase 6 begins.
Terror in a tiny town
This is a classic story from the hand of John Byrne. In this story, the Fantastic Four are put in stasis while their minds are put in tiny robots making them live in a simulated city called Liddleville.
In that world, they have no powers but have to rely on their brains. For instance, Reed Richards is a professor at a university. Ben is married to Alicia and owns a bar. Sue is a homemaker and Johnny is a car mechanic.
Although the machine keeps them asleep and they live their dream as if it is life, the machine is not perfect and in the dream, they dream about the actual lives they live.
Brilliant writing. The rocket that was blasted by cosmic rays is a recurring dream in Reed Richards’s mind.
In the meantime during waking life, all of the members have strange encounters with shady people who completely put them down and make them suffer emotionally.
While at some point Reed figures out what is going on, and to test it, he tries to harm himself to see if blood is coming out. Alas, his arm turns out to be mechanical. He also figures out the recurring dream is not a dream but their actual lives. He quickly gathers the team to find out more about what is going on.
The team figures out that they are living in a tiny town called Liddleville, which is a fake miniature town, and manipulated by none other than Doctor Doom and The Puppetmaster.
The team manages to defeat both and in the process get back to their own bodies. When they clean up, they find Doctor Doom’s comatose body and decide to take him to the Latverian embassy.
The coming of Galactus
This is one of the earliest classics from the Stan Lee and Jack Kirby era. The Coming of Galactus is a first for so many new characters, including my all-time favorite: The Silver Surfer.
The Silver Surfer acts as the herald of Galactus. And where Silver Surfer goes, Galactus follows so when the Surfer encounters the Skrull’s home planet, they conceal whatever they have.
Uatu, The Watcher is doing the same thing for planet Earth. Trying to conceal it for The Silver Surfer because, again, where Surfer goes, Galactus follows.
What is so bad about the Lennon (Silver Surfer) & McCartney (Galactus) of the Marvel Universe you ask? Good question! And I’ll try to answer as best as possible.
Galactus is an entity that in order to survive eats entire planets. While Silver Surfer acts as a scout to see what planets his master can eat. Silver Surfer was once known as Norrin Rad and he closes a deal with Galactus to spare his planet and in return, he will find Galactus empty planets to eat.
Galactus accepts his offer but Surfer did not read the fine print and when Galactus turns him into the Silver Surfer, he also wipes his memory and thus Norrin Rad’s noble resolution to find empty planets to eat ceases to exist. And that’s where we are in The coming of Galactus storyline right after The Surfer finds Earth.
Uatu tries to stop the planet eater Galactus by using his diplomatic skills and even betrays his Watcher oath by interfering instead of observing. Galactus ignores him and hooks up his planet eating machinery to start eating Earth. Uatu then tells the Fantastic Four that there is a device that can kill Galactus and boosts Johnny Storm’s powers in order to get it.
Meanwhile, Silver Surfer, who is unconscious, wakes up in Alicia Master’s apartment and Alicia appeals to his humanity to help save planet Earth. Silver Surfer turns on his master and thus The Beatles break up again to buy Johnny Storm the time he needs to fly to Galactus’s planet to pick up the Ultimate Nullifier and head back to Earth and stop Galactus.
Upon seeing the Ultimate Nullifier, Galactus surrenders and closes a deal with Reed Richards who gives him the Ultimate Nullifier. Before Galactus leaves, he makes sure his herald can’t ever leave the planet by putting an extra shield around Earth that only works on the Surfer and thus Surfer is confined to Earth.
In an interview in 1993, Stan lee recalls creating Galactus:
Galactus was simply another in a long line of super-villains whom we loved creating. Having dreamed up such powerful baddies as the Mole Man, the Frightful Four, the Grey Gargoyle, the Executioner, the Mandarin and Dr. Doom, we felt the only way to top ourselves was to come up with an evil-doer who had almost godlike powers. Therefore, the natural choice was sort of a demi-god, but now what would we do with him? We didn’t want to use the tired old cliche about him wanting to conquer the world. There were enough would-be world conquerors in the Marvel Universe and in all the other comic book galaxies. That was when inspiration struck. Why not have him not be a really evil person? After all, a demi-god should be beyond mere good and evil. He’d just be (don’t laugh!) hungry. And the nourishment he’d require is the life force and energy from living planets!
While Jack Kirby had the following to say about the creation of the demi-god Galactus:
My inspirations were the fact that I had to make sales and come up with characters that were no longer stereotypes. In other words, I couldn’t depend on gangsters. I had to get something new. For some reason, I went to the Bible, and I came up with Galactus. And there I was in front of this tremendous figure, who I knew very well because I’ve always felt him. I certainly couldn’t treat him in the same way I could any ordinary mortal. And I remember in my first story, I had to back away from him to resolve that story. The Silver Surfer is, of course, the fallen angel. When Galactus relegated him to Earth, he stayed on Earth, and that was the beginning of his adventures. They were figures that had never been used before in comics. They were above mythic figures. And of course they were the first gods.
