Like most superhero stories, The Fantastic Four: First Steps is about the end of the world. Early in the film, the ethereal Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives to warn the titular heroes that Galactus (Ralph Ineson), the cosmic being who feeds on planets, will come to eat the Earth. Like all good heroes, the Fantastic Four take action, journeying deep into space to confront Galactus on his spaceship.
Rather than spend time on the usual origin story, First Steps director Matt Shakman and his team of writers throw the viewers directly into the action. Via a television special celebrating the team’s four-year anniversary, we’re introduced to the Fantastic Four and the retro-futuristic 1960s alternate reality where they live.
The opening establishes two things: One, that the quartet loves one another (even if they do occasionally bicker), and two, that the rest of the world loves them, praising them as protecters. As the movie goes on, however, we learn that their love of the Fantastic Four isn’t unconditional.
When our heroes confront Galactus, he offers the Fantastic Four a way to save the planet: He will not devour Earth if they give him Franklin, the infant son of team leaders Reed Richards and Sue Storm (Pedro Pascal and Vanessa Kirby).
Of course, Reed and Sue refuse. But while their teammates Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) back the decision, the rest of the world does not. At a press conference, reporters demand to know: Isn’t it better to give up one baby and save the whole world?
Because First Steps is a bright and optimistic Marvel movie, the answer is a resounding “no.” But to those of us in the real world, the answer isn’t always so clear. Just take a look at the news of late: Republicans across the U.S. want to roll back work protections for minors. After years of stoking the flames of conspiracies around Jeffrey Epstein, child sex abuse, and Donald Trump’s opponents, many MAGA Republicans now want to downplay and “move on,” from their base’s desire to see more information released from the files related to Jeff Epstein’s child sex abuse. All too often, it seems, we are willing to say, “Yes, give up the baby for my personal gain and to make me feel safe.”
READ: ‘Fantastic Four,’ Gaza, and the Children We’re Willing to Sacrifice
In light of that reality, The Fantastic Four: First Steps isn’t just good escapist fiction. It’s also an imaginative rebuke against those who would give up this world to save the next one.
Still, the Fantastic Four do maintain a good deal of compassion for the people who would sacrifice Franklin to save themselves. Sitting around a table, listening to people protest outside their home, the team discusses the situation. “We can’t blame them,” the scientifically brilliant, but sometimes emotionally limited Reed says of the public’s demand that he give his son to Galactus. “We don’t have a plan. They have a plan. It’s mathematical, ethical, and available.” Although initially shocked at her husband’s cold assessment, Sue realizes that he’s right, precisely because of the lack of emotion. The people of Earth do not see Franklin, or the rest of the team, as human beings; they see them as solutions to a problem.
And so, Sue leaves the tower and goes into the crowd with her son, so they can appeal to them as fellow human beings, as family members. “Family means being part of something larger than yourself. It also means being connected to something larger,” she says to the crowd. “I will not sacrifice my son for this world,” she insists. “But I will not sacrifice the world for my son.”
The world cannot be saved by disposing of the vulnerable.
Minor spoilers follow.
With this statement, Sue refuses a dichotomy between what’s good for herself and what’s good for others. When she ends the speech by declaring “We will solve this, as a family,” she includes the crowd, and the entire world, within that group. What follows, of course, is pure fantasy: In a montage, we watch as the entire world comes together to enact Reed’s plan to stop Galactus. But it’s a fantasy that reminds us of an important point, that the world cannot be saved by disposing of the vulnerable. Sue convinces the world to focus on the people who need help now, rather than place all their hope in a time after the Galactus threat has passed — a future when there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain (or purple, world-eating monsters).
Sue’s logic runs contrary to many people, including Christians who sing “This World is Not My Home” and let visions of a New Heaven and New Earth distract from environmental devastation. Convinced that suffering in this world means glory in the next, they hand-wave systemic injustice.
As described in the gospels, Jesus had his own eschatological beliefs. But his vision of the next world always has a lot to do with how you treat people in this one, particularly the discarded and downtrodden. In Matthew 18, he illustrates the kingdom of heaven by embracing a child, a young one so politically and socially unimportant that the disciples tried to chase the kids away. He rejected a distinction between this world and the next, saying, “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” Jesus connected eternal concerns to caring for people the rest of the world would rather ignore.
Jesus had his own eschatological beliefs. But his vision of the next world always has a lot to do with how you treat people in this one, particularly the discarded and downtrodden.
Even by the standards of a Marvel superhero movie, The Fantastic Four: First Steps does feel like an unrealistic fantasy. But the movie’s fantasy shouldn’t distract Christians from the practical truth that Jesus taught. He has already overcome the world, and thus we need not let fear turn us against one another. We can care for this world because of, and not despite, Christ’s promise of the next world.
Joe George is a pop-culture writer whose work has appeared at Think Christian, Polygon, The Progressive, and elsewhere. He tweets from @jageorgeiii and collects his work at joewriteswords.com.
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