It’s been a very long time coming, however the Fantastic Four are lastly again in the highlight. Between the crew making their Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in The Fantastic Four: First Steps this July, the One World Underneath 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 focus of Everlasting Night time Falls (the first post-launch season), 2025 is shaping as much as be the 12 months that Marvel’s First Household reclaims their place as one of the Marvel universe’s core pillars.
But the proven fact that they had been ever not is a crime in itself. The 2010s noticed the Fantastic Four lose a lot of their luster between their comedian sequence being cancelled from 2015 to 2018, Josh Trank’s 2015 reboot turning into one of the worst-received comic book movies of all time, and supporting forged members being faraway from cartoons and video video games, corresponding to Physician Doom not showing in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite regardless of being a sequence mainstay. That’s all set to alter in 2025, with all the new media that includes the Fantastic Four being a much-needed correction. Let’s take a have a look at how we obtained right here and why 2025 is the 12 months of the Fantastic Four.
The 2010s: Much less Than Fantastic
The 2010s had been a pivotal decade for Marvel’s ascension to the prime of the popular culture pyramid as a result of of the rise of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The Avengers had been one of Marvel’s longest-running manufacturers going way back to 1963, however they weren’t family names in the similar method Spider-Man or the X-Males 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 the basic public as we speak as they’re by us nerds. However the rise of the MCU additionally had a darkish aspect in the way it handled the franchises Marvel Studios didn’t have entry to on the motion pictures aspect, the place rivals they wanted to outshine managed sure characters. Specifically, we’re speaking about the Fantastic Four and X-Males licenses as soon as held by twentieth Century Fox.
At the top of MCU mania in the mid-2010s, Marvel moved away from Fantastic Four and X-Males merchandise in favor of boosting properties they’d produced or had been growing into movies. That may be one factor, however the Fantastic Four additionally suffered the indignity of having their comedian cancelled over the state of affairs. Longtime Marvel author Jonathan Hickman, who wrote the Fantastic Four e book from 2009 to 2012 and is presently engaged on Final Spider-Man, confirmed that Marvel stopped publishing Fantastic Four “as a result of of their disagreement with Fox.” That Marvel resumed publishing the primary F4 e book when Disney was in the course of of buying twentieth Century Fox is most definitely not a coincidence. To not 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 essential to do not forget that regardless of not being at the top 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 of the Marvel characters we’ve come to know and love in the time since, and their e book featured the first appearances of many Marvel icons corresponding to Physician 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 about the Fantastic Four past their very own comedian from the previous decade or so. Fortunately, we now know issues are about to show round.
2025: The Return of the Fantastic Four
It’s loopy to appreciate that the Fantastic Four will lastly be a 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 case you rely the unreleased 1994 movie), and can carry the F4 again to the massive display. The thrill 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 nervous that we’d by no means see the First Household in live-action ever once more. It’s arduous to overstate simply how doomed (ha) the Fantastic Four felt when Fant4stic (as the title was stylized) bombed in theaters again in 2015. However now that they’re again in Marvel’s fingers, we all know that we’re not simply getting a new tackle the Fantastic Four, however that they’re additionally set to be main gamers in the upcoming Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, the place the crew will confront Robert Downey, Jr’s Physician Doom.
Nevertheless it’s not simply the motion pictures. Ryan North has been penning the primary Fantastic Four comedian for the previous couple of years, and also will be writing Marvel’s massive 2025 crossover occasion One World Underneath Doom. This sequence will function the Avengers and Fantastic Four coping with a world the place Physician Doom has not simply taken up the mantle of Sorcerer Supreme, however can also be the self-declared Emperor of Earth. It’s not the first time Doom has conquered the planet (see David Michelinie and Bob Corridor’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 biggest nemesis at the middle of their publishing 12 months 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 hitch Marvel Rivals as the first batch of post-launch playable characters in Season 1: Everlasting Night time Falls, the place the F4 and the relaxation of the hero roster should confront Dracula and his legions in New York Metropolis. Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Lady will be a part of the battlefield on January 10 as the recreation’s latest Duelist and Strategist respectively, with the Factor and the Human Torch making their debut later in the season. The crew’s robotic companion HERBIE will even seem as a map merchandise, with heroes needing to escort the little man by the vampire-infested NYC. Making the Fantastic Four the focus of the first full chapter of Rivals’ overarching narrative exhibits how essential they need to be to each model of the Marvel universe.
It took a while, however with the Fantastic Four now again in motion pictures, comics and video games, hopefully we by no means once more should undergo an prolonged interval with out Marvel’s First Household.
Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Impact essays. You possibly can observe his fixations on Bluesky.