Marvel’s First Family Returns, and Finally Gets It Right!

By Mildred Dominici

Special to Tejano Tribune

After ten years of silence regarding Marvel's first family, The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) brings the sixties classicsto life once more. The latest Marvel movie has grossed $117 million domestically and already passed $520 million worldwide, earning strong reviews among critics and fans compared to its predecessors, mainly due to their faithful comic spirit, retro-futuristic tone, and a message of family.

But this isn't the first time the family has made its debut on the big screen; the franchise has been known for having a bumpy trajectory in theaters even before the Marvel Cinematic Universe existed. The saga began with a little-known 1944 unreleased film produced by Roger Corman, made on a tight $1 million budget. Despite not reaching the public eye, the unreleased film became a cult legend for fanatics, naming it the most comic-accurate of the original 1961 comics compared to what followed.

The first official attempt came up in 2005's Fantastic Four, which earned $333 million worldwide, but faced mixed reviews by fans and critics alike. Its sequel, 2007's Rise of the Silver Surfer, suffered a worse fate; it failed to impress critics and fans with its "cloud-form" Galactus, Marvel's most powerful villain, destroying all the hype the movie everhad. This era is remembered by mischaracterizing the main four and the underdevelopment of iconic villains.

In the era of darker Superhero movies, the Fantastic Four shot in the trend in 2015, attempting to modernize the storywith a more adult tone that did not match the FF's morals in the comics. Fant4stic is widely remembered among critics as one of the decade's worst superhero films.

After years of trial and error, First Steps has finally found its balance: a comic style world, emotional depth, memorable characters, and a touch of humor for which the comics were remembered. With critical acclaim, a strong box office and a renewed fan enthusiasm in superhero movies, it seems Marvel's oldest heroes finally arrived to stay in our modern cinematic age. We give this effort 4.5 out 5 stars.