Fantastic Four: First Steps Has One Major Weak Link (And It's Not Who You'd Expect)

This article contains spoilers for "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." 

The Fantastic Four are comic book characters that make perfect sense on the pages of "the world's greatest comic magazine," as the Stan Lee slogan has said on FF covers for decades. Cinematically, they're much trickier. That's because the history of superheroes on screen is distinct from their history in comics, and comic book movies established themselves early on as stories about singular heroes. When the first big comic book movie about a team of heroes occurred with 2000's "X-Men," a new dynamic was established, one which built upon "men on a mission" movies of the past (like "The Dirty Dozen") and eventually developed into films like "The Avengers." The Fantastic Four, as seen in the comics, were created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby as a space-age answer to a then-popular trend of movies and shows that chronicled the adventures of tight-knit family units. Examples include everything from "Swiss Family Robinson" to "Lost in Space" to "The Munsters" and "The Partridge Family."

In other words, there's a difference between the "found family" aspect of most team movies and the dynamic of an actual family in the Fantastic Four. Though the FF certainly have their differences, they're typically not as internally volatile as the Avengers or the Guardians. This can leave some of the supporting characters feeling a little lost, which is exactly what happens in this month's "The Fantastic Four: First Steps." While Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) have clearly defined roles as the patriarch and matriarch of the FF family, Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) aren't so clear. Ben is referred to by Johnny as an uncle of the group, which feels close enough to his brooding but warm character to fit. Johnny also refers to himself as an uncle, but he's also literally Sue's brother and Reed's brother-in-law. He also has a craving for breakfast cereals, which helps inadvertently code him as a manchild rather than a sibling. In the past, Johnny has been seen in a much more defined yet antiquated way, something which Quinn and producer Kevin Feige sought to avoid. The choice leaves Johnny feeling adrift within "First Steps," and Quinn — an otherwise wonderful actor — feeling miscast in the role.

It's abundantly clear how Johnny is supposed to function as a character in "First Steps." He's the sardonic comic relief, and that's traditionally how the Human Torch has been written and portrayed in just about every iteration. On paper, Quinn would be fantastic casting for the character, as his prior film and television work abundantly proves. In season 4 of "Stranger Things" and "A Quiet Place: Day One," he played sensitive young men who were raw nerves, and he was able to channel that intensity for his turn as an Iraq war-era soldier in "Warfare" earlier this year. In last fall's "Gladiator II," he played Emperor Geta as an enfant terrible, and he used punk rock icons as the template for his character. All of this would seem to befit the character of Johnny Storm as traditionally portrayed: a womanizing, self-aggrandizing, hothead who does the right thing when it counts.

Yet it's precisely that version of Johnny that Quinn wished to avoid, saying that a young playboy type wouldn't be that "sexy" for a modern take on the character, and that he wanted him to be "less callous with other people's feelings." While these choices can certainly be seen in Quinn's performance, it leaves Johnny feeling more awkward in the film's ensemble than expected. It's not like he needs to be callous or a womanizer to be engaging, but it feels like neither Quinn nor director Matt Shakman (or the film's several screenwriters) found something else to replace those qualities.

The most egregious example is the awkward tone of Johnny's relationship with Reed. There's some clear unresolved beef, as Johnny ribs Reed every chance he gets. He insists on being the one to solve the mystery of the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) and her language instead of Reed, which he does, and it's a great way for Johnny to be active in the film's plot. Yet the way Pascal plays Reed, he seems completely nonplussed by Johnny's digs and bantering. When Johnny riffs at Reed in one scene, telling the scientist that he's taking back all the bad things he's said about him, the potential humor of the moment falls flat — both because Johnny isn't looking to be that mean and Reed doesn't seem to care. Compare the bit with a highly similar moment from 1984's Ghostbusters, and it's clear that a joke like that needs some edge and contrast for it to work, and it's something which "First Steps" does not contain.

One of the major issues facing the entire Marvel universe is that the majority of its classic characters were created or written by Stan Lee, so there is a lot of characterization overlap. Of course an actor would want to veer in a different direction than what's come before (as seen in Chris Evans' turn as Johnny in the Fox "Fantastic Four" films and last year's "Deadpool & Wolverine") but also in terms of prior characters in the same universe, namely Tony Stark, as played by Robert Downey Jr. The first two "Iron Man" films did not attempt to tone down Stark's unsavory qualities, portraying him as a blowhard playboy as much as a well-intentioned man of integrity. It's entirely likely that Quinn, Shakman, and the other "First Steps" folks didn't want Johnny to merely echo Stark, for while such a characterization would fit in perfectly with an actual period piece set in Earth's 1960s, the alternate Earth of "First Steps" needn't conform to our real history.

The problem is that the last act of "First Steps" sees Johnny make a choice that heavily recalls Stark's actions in the first "Avengers" movie. After the FF open a portal to send Galactus (Ralph Ineson) to another point in spacetime and almost push him through, the raging villain begins to claw his way back with no other member of the Four able to stop him. Johnny then bids a fond farewell to his family, preparing himself to ram into Galactus and push them both through the portal, which would likely mean his imminent death. Fortunately, the Silver Surfer decides to sacrifice herself in his place, in part thanks to Johnny forming a connection and getting through to her earlier in the film. Yet the moment still has that allusion to when Stark attempted to sacrifice himself flying through a portal at the end of the "Avengers," and it rings less hollow. Stark was a character who began as a selfish man and eventually found selflessness, whereas this Johnny Storm, already kinder and gentler, feels like he's not changed all that much from when we first meet him.

Fortunately, there's every possibility that future adventures with this Fantastic Four could deepen the characters further, and Quinn's an excellent actor to have in the role when and if that happens. Until then, this Johnny will feel strangely incomplete. It's a bit ironic that one of Johnny's running gags in "First Steps" is begging Ben to say his iconic "It's Clobberin' Time" catchphrase, but no one is begging him to say his own phrase of "Flame On!" Except me, that is; I hope that you get to say it next time, Johnny.