The Fantastic Four: Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts

Fantastic Four #1, released August 8, 1961

Source: Marvel Comics

Sixty years ago, on August 8, 1961, Reed Richards, his girlfriend Susan Storm, her brother Johnny, and Reed’s best friend Benjamin Grimm flew into space on a stolen rocket and were bombarded by cosmic rays. Upon their return to Earth, they learned they had gained miraculous powers, which they immediately dedicated to helping mankind, taking the names Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl (later the Invisible Woman), the Human Torch, and The Thing.

Thus was born the Fantastic Four, the brainchild of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and the concept that launched the Marvel Universe as we know it today in comic books, movies, and television. These were not the anodyne, squeaky clean heroes of other comics found on the spinner racks at the time: Each had his or her own unique personalities, catchphrases, and hang-ups, and they fought with each other as often as supervillains such as Doctor Doom—as well as their fellow tenants in the Baxter Building, who complained about the noise from Reed’s scientific experiments and the fumes from Johnny’s fiery escapades.

The Fantastic Four is different from other superheroes and teams in other ways also. From the beginning, they were portrayed as adventurers first and superheroes second, more interested in exploring new worlds and dimensions than fighting crime. (You will never see The Thing patrolling the streets of New York City like Spider-Man or Daredevil.) And although the members of other superhero teams may call themselves families, the Fantastic Four were a family before they became heroes and only became closer afterward, especially after Reed and Sue got married and had their children, Franklin and Valeria.

What truly sets the Fantastic Four apart from other superhero teams is the balance within the team, along several dimensions, that renders all members irreplaceable. None of them has extraordinary levels of power (like Superman or Wonder Woman), so no single member can confront their mightiest foes alone. Also, no single member has significantly more power than the others, so not only can no member outshine the others, but also they need to work together and use their powers to complement each other to defeat their foes.

On a more personal level, each pair within the team has its own unique relationship. For example, Reed is a partner to Sue, with all the attendant domestic conflicts; a big brother to Johnny, which brings in generational issues; and a pal to Ben, which triggers Reed’s guilt about inviting Ben on the trip that condemned him to the appearance of a rock monster. At the same time, Ben makes fun of Reed’s nerdiness while criticizing his friend’s neglect of his wife, whom Ben had a “thing” for before he met his eventual wife Alicia, and has a “sibling rivalry” with Johnny, as shown by their frequent pranks.

There is almost a geometric precision in the ways the four members balance each other that transformed the Fantastic Four over the years into a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts—and irreplaceable parts at that. To be sure, other heroes have filled in from time to time: She-Hulk and Luke Cage each replaced The Thing, the Inhumans Medusa and Crystal took Sue’s spot, and Spider-Man stood in for the Human Torch, all of which led to interesting stories exploring new combinations of powers and interactions of personalities, but none of them stuck.

The relationships between the original four characters were so well crafted by Lee and Kirby in their original run on the comics and carefully stewarded by dozens of writers and artists in the half-century since that the original team developed into a singular, indivisible concept: a character in its own right. Unlike the Avengers, made up of stars of their own comics who were brought together “to fight the foes no single superhero could withstand,” the Fantastic Four became superheroes together, bonded by a common extraordinary experience that strengthened their family ties. Like all partners in long-term relationships, they grew as people and heroes alongside each other, each retaining his or her individuality in conjunction with the other three, which augments their contribution to the group as a whole.

If the Marvel Cinematic Universe to this point is any guide, the next Fantastic Four movie—the first one produced by Marvel Studios—might give us a version of Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben that is closer to the comics than any of the previous attempts. We’re guaranteed an exciting film with a breathtaking visual display of their amazing powers, but this fan is hoping even more for a renewed focus on the unbreakable bond between the four members. That alone would set it apart from other superhero movies, just as it has set the Fantastic Four apart from other superhero comics for sixty years… and counting.