It’s been a very long time coming, however the Fantastic Four are lastly again within the highlight. Between the group making their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in The Fantastic Four: First Steps this July, the One World Under Doom occasion shaking up the mainline comedian universe as Ryan North continues his acclaimed run on the property, and NetEase’s hero shooter Marvel Rivals making the F4 the main target of Eternal Night Falls (the primary post-launch season), 2025 is shaping as much as be the yr that Marvel’s First Family reclaims their place as one of many Marvel universe’s core pillars.
Yet the truth that they had been ever not is against the law in itself. The 2010s noticed the Fantastic Four lose a number of their luster between their comedian sequence being cancelled from 2015 to 2018, Josh Trank’s 2015 reboot turning into one of many worst-received comic book movies of all time, and supporting solid members being faraway from cartoons and video video games, reminiscent of Doctor Doom not showing in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite regardless of being a sequence mainstay. That’s all set to vary in 2025, with all the brand new media that includes the Fantastic Four being a much-needed correction. Let’s check out how we acquired right here and why 2025 is the yr of the Fantastic Four.
The 2010s: Less Than Fantastic
The 2010s had been a pivotal decade for Marvel’s ascension to the highest of the popular culture pyramid due to the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Avengers had been certainly one of Marvel’s longest-running manufacturers going way back to 1963, however they weren’t family names in the identical method Spider-Man or the X-Men had been till Marvel Studios turned the likes of Iron Man, Captain America and Thor into superstars. Now, we’re blissful that these long-standing Marvel heroes are as beloved by most of the people right this moment as they’re by us nerds. But the rise of the MCU additionally had a darkish facet in the way it handled the franchises Marvel Studios didn’t have entry to on the films facet, the place opponents they wanted to outshine managed sure characters. In specific, we’re speaking concerning the Fantastic Four and X-Men licenses as soon as held by twentieth Century Fox.
At the peak of MCU mania within the mid-2010s, Marvel moved away from Fantastic Four and X-Men merchandise in favor of boosting properties they’d produced or had been growing into movies. That could be one factor, however the Fantastic Four additionally suffered the indignity of getting their comedian cancelled over the scenario. Longtime Marvel author Jonathan Hickman, who wrote the Fantastic Four guide from 2009 to 2012 and is at the moment engaged on Ultimate Spider-Man, confirmed that Marvel stopped publishing Fantastic Four “due to their disagreement with Fox.” That Marvel resumed publishing the primary F4 guide when Disney was within the course of of buying twentieth Century Fox is more than likely not a coincidence. Not to valorize company consolidation, however Disney reacquiring the Fantastic Four movie license appears to have opened the gates for the characters to make their return to prominence in each comics and variations.
It’s necessary to do not forget that regardless of now not being on the peak of their recognition, we wouldn’t have a Marvel universe with out the Fantastic Four. Their debut in 1961 was the genesis from which Stan Lee and Jack Kirby launched almost all the Marvel characters we’ve come to know and love within the time since, and their guide featured the primary appearances of many Marvel icons reminiscent of Doctor Doom, Silver Surfer, Galactus, the Watcher, Black Panther, Adam Warlock, Agatha Harkness, the Skrulls, the Kree, the Inhumans and extra. That pedigree alone ought to completely assure them a spot in Marvel’s primary pantheon, however you’d be hard-pressed to search out any media concerning the Fantastic Four past their very own comedian from the previous decade or so. Luckily, we now know issues are about to show round.
2025: The Return of the Fantastic Four
It’s loopy to understand that the Fantastic Four will lastly be part of the MCU a mere 17 years (!) after it started, however higher late than by no means, we suppose. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the second reboot of the Fantastic Four movie franchise (third in the event you rely the unreleased 1994 movie), and can carry the F4 again to the large display screen. The pleasure for First Steps is a far cry from the place we had been 10 years in the past, when Fox’s final try at an F4 movie left followers frightened that we’d by no means see the First Family in live-action ever once more. It’s exhausting to overstate simply how doomed (ha) the Fantastic Four felt when Fant4stic (because the title was stylized) bombed in theaters again in 2015. But now that they’re again in Marvel’s palms, we all know that we’re not simply getting a brand new tackle the Fantastic Four, however that they’re additionally set to be main gamers within the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, the place the group will confront Robert Downey, Jr’s Doctor Doom.
But it’s not simply the films. Ryan North has been penning the primary Fantastic Four comedian for the previous couple of years, and also will be writing Marvel’s large 2025 crossover occasion One World Under Doom. This sequence will function the Avengers and Fantastic Four coping with a world the place Doctor Doom has not simply taken up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme, however can be the self-declared Emperor of Earth. It’s not the primary time Doom has conquered the planet (see David Michelinie and Bob Hall’s Marvel Graphic Novel #27: Emperor Doom from 1987 and Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribić’s 2015 Secret Wars for his earlier successes), however putting the Fantastic Four’s best nemesis on the heart of their publishing yr is unquestionably a calculated effort on Marvel’s half to push the Fantastic Four franchise into the limelight as they put together to make Doom their new Thanos for the Multiverse Saga.
And most pressingly, the Fantastic Four are set to affix Marvel Rivals as the primary batch of post-launch playable characters in Season 1: Eternal Night Falls, the place the F4 and the remainder of the hero roster should confront Dracula and his legions in New York City. Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman will be part of the battlefield on January 10 as the sport’s latest Duelist and Strategist respectively, with the Thing and the Human Torch making their debut later within the season. The group’s robotic companion HERBIE can even seem as a map merchandise, with heroes needing to escort the little man by means of the vampire-infested NYC. Making the Fantastic Four the main target of the primary full chapter of Rivals’ overarching narrative exhibits how necessary they need to be to each model of the Marvel universe.
It took a while, however with the Fantastic Four now again in films, comics and video games, hopefully we by no means once more must undergo an prolonged interval with out Marvel’s First Family.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can observe his fixations on Bluesky.
