“The Fantastic Four” have been out here since 1961, proving we can get straight up goofy with our superheroes, and people will love it. What began as the first superhero team created by artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby and editor/co-scripter Stan Lee, the Fantastic Four is a team of superheroes who gained their powers after exposure to cosmic rays while on a scientific expedition in outer space.
They are:
- Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards): Genius, leader, and now a man who can super-stretch his body like taffy… but strong taffy
- The Invisible Woman (Sue Storm-Richards): Sometimes girlfriend, sometimes wife of Reed, and a woman who can turn invisible and project invisible force fields and blasts.
- The Human Torch (Johnny Storm): Sue’s little brother who can create fire and fly
- The Thing (Ben Grimm): The team’s pilot with tremendous superhuman strength and durability, but has stone-like flesh… kind of always (sometimes unexpectedly not? It depends on the story, and he’s usually sensitive about it)…sorry bro
They’re the comic book readers’ favorite misfit family, and, unlike many comic book heroes, they do not conceal their identities. They’re also wildly popular. So popular that, unlike many of the MCU’s successful heroes, they’ve appeared in many different films…unfortunately, without too much critical success. Turns out that even fantastic parts of a team don’t guarantee a fantastic result. Let’s get into it.
The Fantastic Four (1994, unreleased)
Reed Richards: Alex Hyde-White
Sue Storm: Rebecca Staab
Johnny Storm: Jay Underwood
Ben Grimm: Michael Bailey Smith
Writer: Craig J. Nevius, Kevin Rock
Director: Oley Sassone
Now, I haven’t seen this one because it’s unreleased and I haven’t bothered with the bootleg copy. But here’s the gist: it was an origin story about how the team was exposed to the cosmic radiation—but not before college-aged Reed tried out a science experiment that killed his friend Victor Von Doom (heavy foreshadowing here) ten years earlier.
Surprise! Victor isn’t actually dead. Instead, he has become the super villain Dr. Doom (MCU fans, remember that name). The four find themselves caught between Dr. Doom’s evil plans and a villain called The Jeweler, who had stolen the shielding diamond during their space expedition and replaced it with an imitation, resulting in their cosmic exposure.
The Jeweler is trying to force a blind artist to be his bride and intends to give the stolen diamond to her (very creepy). Meanwhile Dr. Doom wants the diamond to power a laser cannon that will destroy New York City unless the Fantastic Four surrender to him (revenge, I guess?).
They stop The Jeweler, they stop Dr. Doom, they save New York, Ben and the (blind) artist fall in love (because she can’t see his stone flesh???). Also, Sue and Reed get married.
Fun Fact: There is a documentary that promises “all of the secrets, stories, and legal shenanigans that have kept ‘The Fantastic Four’ a ‘lost’ film will be revealed.”
Fantastic Four (2005)
Reed Richards: Ioan Gruffudd
Sue Storm: Jessica Alba
Johnny Storm: Chris Evans
Ben Grimm: Michael Chiklis
Writer: Mark Frost, Michael France
Director: Tim Story
Okay, this one is probably ringing a bell, and I do find myself wondering if Marvel will have some sort of variant easter egg about how Chris Evans (famously the MCU’s Steve Rogers) also played Johnny Storm. This film made $333.5 million at the box office and launched a sequel, so it’s considered a success… but it’s got a brutal 28% on Rotten Tomatoes. Most criticisms call the attempts at levity and wit cringey. But whatever, they can laugh all the way to the bank.
It’s another origin story, and this time Reed and Ben convince Dr. Doom (CEO of Von Doom Industries) to lend them his space station so they could do some scientific experiments on cosmic energy. We already know where this is going. Sue (Reed’s ex-girlfriend) and her baby bro Johnny, come along and get blasted by the early arrival of cosmic clouds. They make it home safely but begin to develop their strange powers, including Ben’s grotesque transformation.
The group publicly react to their first incident and manage to prevent a suicide and contain a traffic pile-up on the Brooklyn Bridge, but Ben’s fiancée breaks up with him because now he’s a man-rock and she’s like… “I’m out.”
While the media embraces the people they call The Fantastic Four, Dr. Doom is blamed for his failed space mission. His stockholders abandon Von Doom Industries, and he, in turn, blames Reed.
Reed attempts to learn about the team’s abilities and construct a machine that can re-create the storm to reverse their conditions — especially Ben’s — but Johnny insists they should embrace their new abilities. Meanwhile, Dr. Doom begins to experience his own delayed mutations, turning into — surprise! a villain! — organic metal that can create electricity.
Dr. Doom plots his revenge, drives a wedge between the team and brings Ben to Reed’s machine, which he powers with his own electrical current. It turns Ben human and supercharges his own abilities, and Doom becomes mostly metal. He knocks out the now-human Ben, kidnaps Reed, launches a heat-seeking missile at Johnny, and overpowers Sue. Ben wakes up and jumps back in the machine, becomes The Thing again, and reunites the team, who work together to defeat Dr. Doom.
Ben accepts his condition and starts hooking up with, again, the blind artist Alicia Masters. Reed and Sue get back together and get engaged (which is a little icky, considering Jessica Alba was 24 and Ioan Gruffudd was 32, but I guess that’s mild by Hollywood’s standards.
Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)
Reed Richards: Ioan Gruffudd
Sue Storm: Jessica Alba
Johnny Storm: Chris Evans
Ben Grimm: Michael Chiklis
Screenplay by: Don Payne and Mark Frost
Story by: John Turman and Mark Frost
Director: Tim Story
This film brings the Silver Surfer to the silver screen — one of my personal favorites. The Silver Surfer is a humanoid alien with silver, metallic skin who saved his homeworld from the planet-devouring Galactus by agreeing to become his herald aboard his faster-than-light surfboard. Though he was able to save his own planet, he is condemned to search for other planets for Galactus to consume, until he finds Earth, protected by The Fantastic Four, who help him find his…what’s the alien equivalent of humanity? F***, we are such an ego-centric species. We added a suffix to our own species, and that’s the epitome of goodness? Disgusting.
But I digress.
In “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer,” the Silver Surfer comes to Earth, and exposure to the surfer causes Johnny’s molecular structure to be in flux, allowing him to switch powers with the rest of the team off and on. They realize that the Silver Surfer has visited other planets which have since been destroyed, so they team up with Dr. Doom to fight him (the enemy of my enemy is my friend and all that). They realize that the Silver Surfer’s power comes from his board, so they develop a pulse generator to successfully separate him from it. But they also learn that he’s not the planet-killer — Galactus is.
Galactus is a cosmic entity who eats planets to survive, and the Silver Surfer is his herald, with the board serving as a sort of homing beacon. Dr. Doom steals the board and kills Sue. Johnny absorbs the powers of the rest of the team and takes down Dr. Doom as Galactus arrives. The Silver Surfer uses the power of the board to revive Sue then kamikazes into Galactus, seemingly sending them both into a cosmic rift and destroying both.
Johnny’s encounter with the Silver Surfer heals his flux situation, Reed and Sue get married, and in a mid-credits scene, the Silver Surfer floats through space, then snaps his eyes open and retrieves his board. Dun dun dun!
Fantastic Four (2015)
(They’re not pulling any muscles with these titles, are they?)
Reed Richards: Miles Teller
Sue Storm: Kate Mara
Johnny Storm: Michael B. Jordan
Ben Grimm: Jamie Bell
Written by: Jeremy Slater, Simon Kinberg, Josh Trank
Director: Josh Trank
Guys. This one got a 9% on Rotten Tomatoes. 9%. One critic called it a “profound mess. It’s not fun. It’s not exciting. It’s far from action-packed. And it’s most certainly not fantastic.” Although, to be fair, every negative critique of these films likes to use ‘fantastic’ against them. It was supposed to have a sequel, but after its critical and box office bombing, that was scrapped. Ouch.
To the plot!
Another reboot! Another origin story! Reed and Ben create a teleporter prototype and team up with scientist Sue and her engineer brother Johnny to complete a Quantum Gate designed by Victor Von Doom. They then commandeer the gate from NASA and travel to a parallel dimension known as “Planet Zero” where Victor touches a green lava-like substance. (Victor touches a green lava-like substance… in a parallel universe… what?!! I don’t even touch handrails, and he’s off touching some goo in another dimension?).
The ground suddenly erupts, and the soon-to-be Fantastics escape, but leave Victor behind. The Quantum Gate explodes, exposing our team to the force that will make them Fantastic, but they are locked up by the government to be studied and probably experimented on and probed and all that.
Reed escapes and vows to find a cure, becoming a fugitive on the run. But he is captured by none other than… the other three Fantastics, who work for the government now, in suits that help them control their abilities. They build another Quantum Gate, head back over to Planet Zero, and find their old buddy Victor there, not dead, but telekinetic and evil and determined to destroy Earth to protect his new home, Planet Zero, from Earthly invaders.
Oh and he has a new name. NOPE, Not Dr. Doom. PSYCHE! It’s just “Doom” now.
He kills Johnny and Sue’s parents and returns “home” through the Quantum Gate with the Fantastics in pursuit. They battle it out, kill Doom, and return to Earth, where they are heralded as heroes and given the freedom to probe their own damn selves. And they decide to call themselves…wait for it…the Fantastic Four.
Now… we get into to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
John Krasinski appears as a variant of Reed Richards originating on Earth-838, and he is shredded by Wanda Maximoff — shredded. ::insert smiley face emoji::
Deadpool and Wolverine (2024)
Chris Evans reprises Johnny Storm, this time as an official MCU variant who is flayed — flayed — by Cassandra Nova. RIP.
Thunderbolts (2025)
In a post-credits scene, the New Avengers receive a distress signal from an Earth-828 Fantastic Four spaceship, hinting at…
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
Reed Richards: Pedro Pascal
Sue Storm: Vanessa Kirby
Johnny Storm: Joseph Quinn
Ben Grimm: Ebon Moss-Bachrach
Screenplay By: Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer
Story By: Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer, Kat Wood
Director: Matt Shakman
Anyone who has seen a blockbuster film in the past year has likely seen the trailer, and anyone living in a major U.S. city this week has seen the literal writing in the sky. Marvel is releasing their long-awaited “Fantastic Four” film and this one will not be an origin story. It will not take place in the present. And it will not take place on “our” Earth, but instead a variant — at least, that’s where it begins.
The film opens on July 25, 2025, so be sure to watch it quickly before the internet spoils it.
