Will The Fantastic Four: First Steps Have a Modernity Problem?

Movies

Are we in for another dose of politically correct modernity in The Fantastic Four: Fist Steps? It sure sounds like it in an Entertainment Weekly article about the upcoming Marvel film. Director Matt Shakman and the cast – Pedro Pascal (Mr. Fantastic), Vanessa Kirby (the Invisible Woman), Joseph Quinn (the Human Torch), and Ebon Moss-Bacharach (the Thing) – talk about the way Marvel’s First Family will be portrayed in their MCU iterations and how they differ from earlier FF films and the comics. There are some very good things in the piece, such as Pascal referring to Reed Richards as the leader of the Fantastic Four (something that’s been in doubt for a while) and “the smartest man on Earth,” and Moss-Bacharach describing the painstaking attention to detail that went into recreating Jack Kirby’s New York City, right down to Yancy Street, Ben Grimm’s old stomping ground. And I love how they’re depicting Galactus, with actor Ralph Ineson wearing an actual costume. The potential problems come from the Storms, with Johnny and Sue being translated with an appreciation for “the modern lens,” or at least what Hollywood seems determined to misinterpret as the modern lens. First, there’s Johnny, and here’s how Joseph Quinn describes the new interpretation of him:

“He’s a man that leads with a lot of bravado, which can be an affront sometimes. But also he’s funny… Myself and [Marvel Studios boss] Kevin [Feige] were speaking about previous iterations of him and where we are culturally. He was branded as this womanizing, devil-may-care guy, but is that sexy these days? I don’t think so. This version of Johnny is less callous with other people’s feelings, and hopefully there’s a self-awareness about what’s driving that attention-seeking behavior.”

Great; Johnny Storm doesn’t like girls anymore. Well, he probably does, but not in the ladykiller way he used to; Quinn doesn’t explain exactly how they’ll change Johnny’s approach to women, but I assume they’ll just leave it out. That’s disappointing because it’s not just a recognizable aspect of his character but something that separates him from Reed and Ben. Reed is a one-woman man who’s in love with Sue, so he doesn’t go skirt-chasing, and Ben is so deformed that he’s sure no woman will want him, which is why his relationship with Alicia Masters is so dear to him (and why he always wonders if she only loves him because she can’t see him). Johnny is younger and more handsome than Reed and Ben, and he doesn’t have their limitations – Reed’s love for Sue and Ben’s self-consciousness – so he takes advantage of his matinee-idol looks and the Four’s popularity (their identities were never secret) and went out with girls. It wasn’t all club-hopping; Johnny went on actual dates, too. And when he was on a date, the Fantastic Four would almost always be needed, so Johnny had to be mature beyond his years and put aside frolicking with the ladies to help save the world. Aside from how obnoxious the whole lecture about sexism is, this is the MCU tossing aside core aspects of the character and how he relates to the rest of the team.

Next is Vanessa Kirby discussing Sue Storm, and her comments aren’t as worrisome until you factor in some of the buzzwords and phrases:

“If you played an exact ‘60s Sue today, everyone would think she was a bit of a doormat… So figuring out how to capture the essence of what she represented to each generation, where the gender politics were different, and embody that today, was one of the greatest joys of this…  Matt and I were really aware that there hasn’t really been a mother with a baby in these superhero archetypes women have been getting… One of the things I love most from Sue’s history is when she becomes Malice, and all her dark stuff comes out. I was obsessed with that chapter of her life. So I wanted to make sure that there were tones of Malice in there with her, that she wasn’t  just the stereotype of a goody, sweet mother… I’ve always been really interested in the mess of femininity, and how can you be both? How can you be all the things? Not just the tough, invincible, powerful woman, but also a mother who gives birth, which is itself a superhero act. I love that these characters are real humans in a messy family who argue and try to work it out and get things wrong.”

“Gender politics” is the biggest worry. I don’t want a Sue Storm with a “don’t need no man” attitude, and I really don’t want Sue to be the spokesperson for social causes that grinds the movie to a halt. Referring to her original incarnation as a “doormat” is unfair as well; just because she wasn’t constantly hectoring Reed doesn’t mean she was a Stepford Wife. She even waffled on their relationship for a while, including harboring an attraction to the Sub-Mariner that caused Reed plenty of consternation. It’s also kind of funny, although par for the course with modern Hollywood, that they’re setting this movie in the 60s but want the social mores to be those of 2025. Earlier in the article, EW says that Sue was mostly a damsel in distress in the original comics, and her title, the Invisible Girl, was “relatively demeaning.” I assume the latter is because she was called “girl” and not “woman,” as she would be later; whatever. But the former is interesting because readers had the same hangup and wrote letters to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby saying as much; their response was to acknowledge it and put more effort into showing off Sue’s powers and how they’re instrumental to the Fantastic Four’s adventures. This all happened early in the run, too; it’s not a problem that needs the greatest minds of progressive Hollywood to fix. It was also Lee and Kirby’s intention from the start, with the problem being in the execution. Watch this clip, where Stan Lee talks about creating the Fantastic Four, and see if the Sue and Johnny issues addressed by their co-creator:

My other worry with some of the things Vanessa Kirby says is that they’re cramming too much into their first Fantastic Four movie. They’re already jumping to Sue being pregnant? That should come later, after they’ve had a few adventures on their own, met Doctor Doom, etc. I know this film starts with the FF having been a team for a while, but that just reinforces the issue: they’re doing what Marvel movies and shows constantly do now and fast-forwarding through much of the characters’ histories. I assume she’s pregnant with Franklin Richards, unless they pull a Disney/Marvel/Hollywood and give all of Franklin’s powers and storylines to his sister, which, in a movie where the Silver Surfer is a woman, is entirely possible. Why force that right away? Establish the Four as a family, then get into the expansions. Based on what Kirby says, I don’t think they’re actually going to put Malice in First Steps, but if they do, that’s another problem. (I’m fine if they just lay the groundwork for that, which is what it sounds like to me.) I want to love The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but man, I’m worried that this will be another big-screen bust for Marvel’s First Family.

Let us know what you think about Joseph Quinn and Vanessa Kirby’s comments on their characters in The Fantastic Four: First Steps in the comments!

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