No, "Fantastic Four" Will Not Be Good
Surprise, surprise ... when you don't know what a woman is, you don't know what family or superheroes are, either.
Hi Book Family!
Today I will be presenting you with a more controversial post, since this is “Angry CJ” mode, so I hope you will enjoy getting some goodness out of my anger. They say a good way to deal with anger is to write a letter and then pretend to mail it, and then burn it up.
That’s basically why blogs were formed, I think, along with the Internet, so the entire world is able to see we’re angry about something.
So it’s my turn here lol 🤣
Yes, yes, angry, passionate, tomato, potato …
Anyway, here is my lovely “Angry CJ” take for the day.
Fantastic Four: First Steps will not be good.
Yes, there are plenty of things to nitpick about BESIDES the writing—the casting, the regressive CGI, the PR campaign where they’re putting the Invisible Woman front and center …
But it really doesn’t help that I saw this trailer and thought of how Kim Possible: So the Drama did it better.
But the writing of the trailers says it all to me, and I want to zero-in on the big elephant trouncing around the room.
Hollywood can’t write women. 🤦♀️
It’s very clear from Sue’s presentation.
Sue Storm is actually one of the characters of Marvel that I feel some degree of sympathy for, and enough that I would call her someone I would want to write a story for. I don’t know if I have a favorite “woman” superhero in DC or Marvel, since anime does it better, and frankly, so do I, but, having grown up and been that wallflower-invisible kind of girl throughout high school, and even in other circles where I even currently reside, I know why being “Invisible” is actually a really great, ironic sort of power to give to a woman.
Especially one like Sue.
In the comics, Sue is not the leader. She’s not front and center. She’s often doing supportive work and a lot of emotional labor as she supports Reed, manages/mothers Johnny, and works with Ben. She’s often overlooked as a form of power, especially in the beginning of the comics run where she is more passive as a team member.
Most women are like this.
Wives in general carry more of the emotional labor in the family. We are more “agreeable,” and we want to make everyone happy if we can, and if we can’t, we want most people to be about the same amount of miserable. That’s why Orwell wrote that the women Party members were always the more ferocious in 1984, and that’s why more women tend to see communism in a favorable light than men.
Mothers also carry the emotional stress of things—we pack the lunches, chase after the kids, check the homework, and run around all day and night so our kids and families can not only survive, but thrive. It’s an endless job of “to-dos” and “get-dones” that makes all the love and labor of the husband and father fit together more cohesively with the more chaotic growing needs of their children.
Sue is not, as First Steps would like you to think, the one who is supposed to be calling the shots.
And positioning her in this film’s promotion actually diminishes her character. In placing her where she is not meant to be, she will be seen as a flat character, rather than a dynamic one. The flat arc will make her boring, and she’ll get some accusations of being a Mary Sue.
Yes, you can be a flat character and still make exciting things happen in your movies. But given the FF PR focus, I doubt it will be written in a clever enough way to make Sue’s character mesh with the others, and I think it robs her of an excellent chance to shine as a surprising source of heroism. I also think this takes away from her grace as a character overall.
Say what you want about the 2005 films, but Jessica Alba’s Sue Storm had cause to feel invisible—Reed couldn’t notice her because of his work, Johnny was always getting into trouble, and there were limits Sue could do for Ben. When she comforts him when his fiancee breaks up with him at seeing his Rockface form, his problems are not able to be solved, and she feels like because it’s not fixable, her efforts mean nothing. Throughout the movie, she continues to keep the family dynamics agreeable while they’re stuck together. She knows her limits, and does what she can, and pushes herself to defeat Doom at the end despite the dangers (after being concerned with Johnny’s safety so much, this is a dynamic arc for her).
"Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." 💬 Matthew 23:12 (ESV)
Early reviews and reshoots confirm it’s kind of mid already, and usually if it’s mid to begin with, secondary viewings will not bode well (Black Panther says hi 👋 ) even if the hype is high.
Anyway … the MCU won’t be “saved” by FF. The MCU has turned to “MUC” and it will continue to be tolerated while the system it was designed to protect and support quietly shifts gears and gradually moves to a more favorable “restructured” position, where it then can attach itself to something new, suck the soul out, and leak out a profit, before it begins the same exit strategy once more.
I also would argue the MCU as a whole has lost its way with things since they became less Christian.
I know that sounds weird, but the Infinity War has a ton of Biblical imagery in it (Age of Ultron has a lot, too, but it’s inverted thanks to Joss Whedon’s Christophobia), and even the “blip” speaks to a form of rapture, especially how in Endgame, the return of the Avengers’ full cast evokes similar storytelling to when, at the end of times, the Church shall come back to earth to fight the devil, and Jesus shall cast him into the Lake of Fire. Ironman himself becomes a point of critical sacrifice, as he gives his life for his friends and family, which is another Christian motif.
But that’s probably another “Angry CJ” blog 🤣
Nothing about Fantastic Four: First Steps seems very Christian. Reed is the passive, uncertain man, Sue is the voice of authority, Johnny is … just kind of there? And Ben is like a big pet dog made out of rocks. H.E.R.B.I.E. the Robot is the pro-AI, pro-transhumanism element, I suppose?
Writers in the media have largely lost the eternal ties to meaningful things. The good, the beautiful, and the true are all such things that exist, and they exist in a way that is outside our power to redefine them, even though we might try.
If someone can’t define concrete realities like “woman,” he or she likely also can’t define more concrete cultural things “family,” and likely, it’ll be even more trouble with philosophical things like “heroism.” Unfortunately, that truth has been crystal clear since Captain Marvel came in the MCU.
This trailer practically screams all that, all at once.
Anyway, that’s all I have for today! I hope to be “less angry” next time 🤪 Let me know how much you think I’m wrong or right in the comments. Since this is my blog, I engage with objections with good faith.
And for now, I will say, Raiya’s story in my Starlight series is a great take on the “Invisible woman” trope in the figurative manner, so maybe you should check it out!