Spoiler Alert: Spoilers follow for The Fantastic Four: First StepsIt’s taken over three decades, but Marvel’s First Family finally has a good movie to their name. Last weekend saw the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, both a love letter to one of the earliest Marvel properties and a welcome return to form for the MCU. In a time in which too many installments in the franchise feel too tonally similar to each other, First Steps fully embraces 1960s retro-futuristic aesthetics and pulpy sci-fi (like the original comics did), and it’s a breath of fresh air.
The cast is every bit as good as we hoped for. Pedro Pascal proves effortlessly charismatic as Reed Richards, Vanessa Kirby’s Sue Storm is the emotional heart of the picture, Joseph Quinn nails Johnny Storm, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach, while admittedly underutilized, clobbers it as The Thing. Yet as wonderful as it is to see such a beloved property finally done justice on the big screen, it’s even more exciting to see one of the greatest Marvel villains of all time, Galactus, get his due at long last.
Galactus Is a Marvel Icon, and the Films Have Failed Him
20th Century Studios
Few Marvel Comics villains have been as feared, or as beloved by fans, as Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds. Created by Jack Kirby and Stan Lee and first appearing in the Fantastic Four comics, the character was originally a mortal man turned cosmic entity, who needed to feast on entire planets to sustain his life force.
What made Galactus so terrifying was the fact that he wasn’t a traditional supervillain, but an omnipotent being who operated beyond the boundaries of conventional morality. He was never actively malicious; he was simply acting according to his programming, and the lives of mortals didn’t matter to him. Galactus was also a key factor in developing the cosmic side of the Marvel universe, as his introduction paved the way for some of the trippier comic storylines, and for iconic characters like the Silver Surfer.
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As much bad luck as the Fantastic Four have had on the big screen (until now), Galactus has arguably had it just as rough. The character was only included in one film prior, 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, but this incarnation was effectively Galactus in name only. In a telltale sign that Fox executives were embarrassed by the cosmic elements of the property, Galactus was depicted as a giant cloud that consumed everything in its wake. To say fans were unhappy would be an understatement.
While a comic-accurate take on the character was supposed to appear in 2015’s derided Fantastic Four, his appearance was cut early on. Much like the characters themselves, Hollywood executives spent too long scared to embrace the inherent pulpiness behind Galactus, and the films never delved into complete science fiction the way they should have.
‘First Steps’ Finally Gets Galactus Right
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
One of the smartest things First Steps does is fully lean into the property’s pulp sci-fi roots. It’s a joy to report that it also extends to this fan-favorite villain: partway through the picture, as the Silver Surfer leads the titular team onto her master’s spacecraft, we feel a sense of foreboding. When the head of Galactus enters the frame, literally dwarfing our heroes in size, he feels like every bit the cosmic threat he’s been built up as.
Within seconds, Ralph Ineson’s booming voice proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was the only person for the role. He’s commanding, terrifying, and unnervingly detached. Like his best depictions in the comics, he’s less an outright evildoer than a being cursed to act purely for his survival, whatever the cost to everyone else. When he promises to spare Earth if Reed and Sue offer him their unborn son, Franklin, we sense resignation; he’s tired of playing the part demanded of him and wants a successor to take his place, and his concerns are omnipotent and detached from human suffering.
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Said detachment adds a degree of natural disaster to the character during the climax: buildings crumble with every step he takes, and while he’s thankfully not an actual storm cloud this time around, he’s certainly one in spirit. This is all before getting into the breathtaking visuals, a noticeable step above recent installments in the MCU, that give life to a fully comic-accurate design of Galactus. He simply looks great, and fans who’ve waited so long to see him get the cinematic treatment should be thrilled.
To be sure, it’s wonderful to see Marvel’s First Family achieve their big-screen redemption, and the film is a huge step in the right direction for the MCU as a whole. Yet the wait to see a movie get Galactus right has arguably been just as long, and now that it’s here, it’s cause for celebration. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.
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