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My Mighty Thoughts On Fantastic Four
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(SPOILER SPACE!)
Right, so to start with the Doctor Doom side of things, I think it worked really well NOT having him in it for the main body of the film. I loved the empty seat for Latveria at the Future Foundation, which was reassuring (for me anyway) as a way of going "Doctor Doom clearly DOES exist in this universe, but he's not here for this bit". As I think some of the film-makers have said, he's SUCH a huge character that there wouldn't really be room for him in it AND the Fantasic Four themselves.
And I've got to say, they do a REALLY good job of showing the FF as characters. I thought that Ben and Johnny were amazingly close to the version of them in the comics, which makes sense because they're so clearly defined and fun. Similarly it makes sense that Reed and Sue felt different because the comics versions of them are, not to put too fine a point on it, often a bit bland. Going all-in on the version of Sue from e.g. the Jonathan Hickman run, where she's a super-duper politician and leader, made a HUGE amount of sense, and not only totally worked for the way Vanessa Kirby played her, but also left room for the even more interesting version of Reed. Thinking back on it now, the way Pedro Pascal looked so PAINED and OVERLOADED for most of the film really hit home - those of us who are A Bit Autistic will be highly aware of how it feels to be constantly thinking about things in the face of loads of STUFF being thrown at us, and it was quite emmotional to see that not only reflected in a movie but also shown to be HEROIC rather than just nerdy.
In fact, "emotional" was pretty much my keyword for the whole film, with so much going on between this bunch of characters and also between them and everyone else. I found the bit where Sue goes out and explains her situation to everyone surprisingly moving, and then WELLED UP when the whole world came together to fight Galactus. I guess it's similar to how I felt watching Superman - seeing people Do The Right Thing used to be a cliche, but in the current climate it feels like a radical act. Punk rock even!
I loved the tiny moment where we saw Stan Lee and Jack Kirby looking out of the Timely Comic window to see what was going on, but otherwise I was happy NOT to have loads of Easter Eggs or references to the original comics. INDEED I was surprised by how much it WASN'T like any of the comics that I've read, at least not literally. The big thing for me was that it clearly UNDERSTOOD what made the great runs of Fantastic Four so great and was very much INSPIRED by them, but it in no way COPIED them. For example, none of the technology looks AT ALL like KirbyTech and yet it was obviously deeply indebted to his way of thinking - looking AHEAD of what was here and now but also embedded in tech we can understand. The only thing that resembled Jack Kirby's actual pencilling style was the (amazing) design of Galactus, but that freedom to have IDEAS was all the way through it, more than earning them the right to quote Kirby at the end of the credits.
And EVERYTHING seemed to have been thought through like that. Another example is making The Silver Surfer female, which allowed them to have her interact with Johnny instead of having to properly introduce Alicia, go through lots of explanation there, and then have HER talk to the Surfer. From a screenwriting point of view (hem hem) it justs seems sensible to do it that way - you keep all of the emotional BEATS of the story, but you do it in a much more straightforward way that works for a stand-alone movie rather than how it does in a comic that has had fifty issues leading up to it. Then they can still call her Shalla Bal and have her coming from Zenn-La because why not?
The same applies to the absence of Alicia - they COULD have made Ben's love interest a blind sculptress, but having her be a teacher at a local school means they can concentrate on his working class background alongside his Inner Sadness, rather than having to a) explain how they actually meet and b) have him react against middle class art crowds. In the comics all that stuff is FUN and leads to loads of other interesting stuff, but here there isn't time so, again, they change it around so it makes sense while keeping the emotional themes AND still calling the area Yancy Street so that people like me go "WHOO!"
So with all that in mind it felt Exciting and also Weird when Doctor Doom very very briefly appeared at the end, like he was something from a whole other story altogether, breaking the accepted order in a way that all good super-villains should. Doctor Doom and Franklin have surprisingly little interactions over the years, so I'm wondering whether they're going to make Franklin more like Valeria in the comics, but that's a thought to think about another day. For now I just want to see MORE of this bunch of characters interacting with a) each other and b) more huge ludicrous science fiction ideas, because THAT is what The Fantastic Four are all about!
posted 28/7/2025 by Mark Hibbett
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