Fantastic Four: Next Steps

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzMo-FgRp64

2025 was a big year for Superhero movies. We saw the new Superman and Fantastic Four movies, highlighting the summer. Admittedly, I am a much bigger fan of Marvel/ MCU than DC. I grew up on Spider-Man, The Avengers, and Fantastic Four. I had a comic book collection with over 10,000 comics. When I was in High School, I sold the collection to get a Camaro. Today I no longer have the car or the comics. I kick myself all the time knowing what I had in that collection.

Alright, I could geek out all day, but that is not why you are on Pastor David’s Blog today. I want to focus on Fantastic Four: First Steps.  It was a franchise reboot that achieved what the other Fantastic Four versions had not. With Fantastic Four: First Steps, I was struck by the strong themes of family and marriage. I was genuinely impressed. I mean, how often do we see Hollywood not just acknowledge but also uplift marriage, parenthood, and family as heroic qualities? That’s precisely what The Fantastic Four: First Steps does, and it couldn’t come at a better time. It is hard to find in movies, especially in Superhero movies.

Most of the time, our heroes are strong, silent, mysterious, and lonely. In the DC universe, Bruce Wayne lives at Wayne Manor and dwells in the Bat Cave by himself. Superman has a relationship with Lois Lane, but he is the last son of Krypton, and his home is the Fortress of Solitude, a miniature version of Krypton. In the MCU, Peter Parker has to choose to save the world, but it means no one will remember him, including the girl he loves.

But I have found that, at least in the MCU, there has been a shift towards treating marriage and family as worthy goals. It is no longer the idea that the hero rides off into the sunset by themselves.

Captain America/ Steve Rogers, at the end of Avengers: Endgame, goes on a time travel mission to put the infinity stones back where they needed to go. But he uses the time stone to go back to the girl he loves. He settles down and gets married. In that same movie, after the world suffered a horrible defeat at the hands of Thanos, Tony Stark/ Iron Man packs away the armor and chooses to start a family. Hawkeye loves his wife and kids more than anything. Once he loses them, his life goes dark, and he begins to move away from the things that centered him. While the Avengers movies were about Defeating Thanos, a strong family theme runs through them.

During the pandemic, when there was little available to watch, WandaVision became a runaway hit. It featured the marriage between Wanda Maximoff (The Scarlet Witch) and Vision (A powerful Android). Before you wonder how an Android and a Witch made it work, remember that it's a comic book; don't focus on the logic.

While all of those did well in portraying and uplifting marriage and family. The Fantastic Four outdid all of them. Fantastic Four: First Steps (directed by Matt Shakman was released in July 2025. It is a story set in a retro-futuristic 1960s Earth (Earth-828). It tells the story of an Astronaut family. Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal), his wife Sue Richards (Vanessa Kirby), Sue’s brother Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), and family friend Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach).

Reed is Mr. Fantastic. He can stretch his body to incredible lengths and is genius-level intelligent. Susan can turn invisible and create invisible force fields. Johnny Storm is the Human Torch; his entire body can turn into flames, allowing him to fly like a comet. Ben Grimm is the Thing. His bulky body is entirely made of stone. While each of them is incredibly strong and a force to be reckoned with. When they work together, they are at their best.

Marriage and Family

Many reviewers have recognized the strength of the family themes. Parents Magazine in their review said: Parents review: “Family isn’t just part of the story—it’s the heart of the story … empowered depiction of motherhood as a superpower.” Parents.

Without spoiling the movie entirely, Sue is pregnant. The title, Fantastic Four: First Steps, plays on the themes of family and raising little ones. Because Reed and Sue have powers, it is assumed that their child will be special as well. Common Sense Media praises the film in its review for its positive messages of teamwork, sacrifice, and integrity, which are common in comic book movies. But it is powerful that FF portrays Sue’s pregnancy as central to the story. Decider, in their review, suggests that the pregnancy is not just a personal twist, but it has cosmic stakes.

Their secret power is not invisibility or elasticity; it is their focus on family.

Hollywood rarely frames married life and parenthood in epic terms, but here, marriage is heroic. Their marriage is not an afterthought or an alter ego. Sue’s pregnancy and Reed’s concerns are central. This makes their relationship deeply human and relatable. The Movie Blog sums it up beautifully: “The greatest power in the universe is family.”

One thing Reed stresses is that they enjoy spending time together at mealtimes. He says, “Sunday at seven, on the dot, no matter what. We are all here.” In the 1960s, this would not have shocked anyone. The family meal was a much more commonplace occurrence. But when it lands on our ears in 2025, there is a sense of nostalgia that rose in me. Their secret power is not invisibility or elasticity; it is their focus on family.

One of the key scenes is when our heroes fly out into space to confront Galactus, the giant planet-eating bad guy. He has threatened to devour the planet that the Fantastic Four are dedicated to defending. The twist is when Galactus demands Sue’s unborn child. He wants the child’s power. If they give him the child, he will spare Earth. Not only do the Fantastic Four know how amazing their child is, but the universe knows it as well.  Galactus attempts to force the team to choose between Earth's safety and their families. The Fantastic Four refused and escaped back to Earth to plan for Galactus’s arrival. Sue gives birth on the way home to Earth, right in the middle of the action.

Super Mom

Throughout the movie, Sue Storm delivers some of the movie's best quotes. Sue declares, "I will not sacrifice my son for this planet, but I will not sacrifice this planet for my son," and her definition of family is "fighting for something bigger than yourself. Connecting to something bigger than yourself."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXQRuee6r34

Sue, while reflecting on her own past loss and the importance of maintaining the family unit, says to Reed,  "Ben has always been a rock. Johnny is... Johnny. And I am right here. Whatever life throws at us, we'll face it together, as a family." Even though they have different personalities, they share a commitment to facing challenges together.

Finally, when Sue is measuring her commitment to her son, she says, "My mother used to say, A mother would move heaven and earth for her child.'" This actually makes Sue the strongest of all of them. And the fact that Sue is the big hero at the end makes the story even more spectacular. Mom saves the day.

A Child Shall Lead Them

We are approaching Christmas in a few weeks, and the theme that truly jumped off the screen was the child theme. Fantastic Four is not the first movie to use the idea of the promised, chosen, gifted, or special child. Star Wars, Harry Potter, and dozens of other films have used this motif. But the way the baby is presented in Fantastic Four feels very New Testament—especially the Gospels and the Book of Revelation.

In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, we have the Christmas/ Advent stories. While the holidays and tradition try to make the birth narratives into a Hallmark movie, in reality, nothing was safe from the moment the Angels announced the Good News to Mary. An Angel tells Mary she will have a child. When she shares the news with her fiancé, his first thought is not to believe her and tries to call off the wedding. An Angel has to visit Joseph as well. A decree by the Emperor forced them to travel over 100 miles to the town of Bethlehem in her final trimester. On arrival, they cannot find any relatives who will allow them to stay, so they go to the local innkeeper. The promise to Mary said:

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end (Luke 1:32-33).

And yet, he is born in a stable, a barn. Soon after, King Herod threatens the child’s life, and they must flee to Egypt, which is over 400 miles away. The picture we get in the book of Revelation tells the spiritual version of the earthly birth narrative:

And a great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was pregnant and was crying out in birth pains and the agony of giving birth. And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven diadems.  His tail swept down a third of the stars of heaven and cast them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she bore her child, he might devour it.  She gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God, in which she is to be nourished for 1,260 days (Revelation 12:1-6).

What we see in Revelation feels like it could be filmed for next summer’s action movie. As I was watching the climactic scenes in Fantastic Four, my mind kept coming back to this passage. Whether Galactus or Satan, all of this just for a child? The stakes are very high.

What Fantastic Four showed us is that marriage and family can be a superpower. You do not need cosmic rays. Just start by planning family mealtimes together. Recognize the hero you have in your spouse. You may not save the world, but you will undoubtedly make an impact. And Hollywood cannot escape telling and retelling the most powerful story in the world. In essence, every good superhero story is just a retelling of the coming of Jesus. The world was in trouble; we needed a savior. God sent his Son, Jesus, and through him, the evil of this world is defeated, and we can be saved.

A version of this article was originally posted on my wedding website blog at weddingchaplain.com