There Can Be Only One (And That's FOUR)
Have you seen the meme where Geordi from Star Trek: TNG asks fans to not choose between James Gunn’s Superman and The Fantastic Four: First Steps–but to instead give them both a chance? Why, some ask, can’t we just be grateful that there are two highly anticipated comic book movies in theaters, both of which are meant to re-invigorate a flagging genre? Can’t the Snyder Bros, CorenStans, and Gunn Nuts just get along?
This cute kumbaya sentiment assumes that both movies are equally worth watching because they’re essentially the same. They’re not, even though there’s an astonishing degree of overlap between their screenplays. The difference comes down to the ways in which the combatants (i.e. filmmakers) handle these similarities–as outlined in this spoilerific, five-point blow-by-blow of the match, which ends with a clear winner:
Let’s Not Keep Those Origins Secret
In the 25 years since the comic book movie renaissance sprang to life with X-Men and got super-charged with Iron Man, moviegoers have been treated to (or bludgeoned by) origin stories for their favorite characters. Decades of countless sequels, spin-offs, and reboots, have many wondering if CBM’s could just do away with Martha Wayne’s pearls exploding across Crime Alley or a radioactive spider creeping toward an unsuspecting Peter Parker. We know the story, the logic goes, let’s get to the action!
Superman 2025 allegedly grants fans their wish by planting us firmly in a world where metahumans have existed for centuries and Supes already has three years on the job. Previous big-screen iterations devoted significant runtime to Krypton’s demise; Kal-El’s journey to Earth; growing up in Kansas, and his first days as a cub reporter for the Daily Planet. Skipping all this would be a welcome reprieve if James Gunn hadn’t so fundamentally broken DC lore that an origin isn’t only necessary–it’s required in the form of an apology.
Kal-El’s parents are genetic supremacists? Superman never asks his cousin, Supergirl, if A) maybe she’d been given similar world-dominating instructions, or B) she could use some help with her underage alcoholism? If metahumans are part of the fabric of Earth, why would Superman be seen as special to regular humans? For that matter, why do we only see/hear about a handful of metahumans in the whole movie, all of whom are conveniently located in the same city?
On the other hand, Matt Shakman’s new Fantastic Four places audiences firmly in a world they recognize from comics and/or other attempts to bring Marvel’s First Family to the big screen. All it took to set up the characters, the world, and the stakes was a lighthearted, inventive, and exciting TV talk show intro whose contents didn’t raise a critic's notebook full of questions throughout the rest of the film.
Black Holes Belong in Space
Both Superman and FF use black holes as perilous set pieces, but only one of them does so in a way that makes sense (even by fantastical comics logic standards). The Fantastic Four skirt the edges of one in order to shake off the missile-like Silver Surfer. Though I’m sure Neil deGrasse Tyson would find lots to nitpick about the scene’s physics, the drama is in line with what normies likely know about light-trapping space phenomena–as well as what they’ve seen in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar.
In Superman, one of Lex Luthor’s pocket universe portals becomes unstable, opening up a rift that conveniently cuts a straight path toward Metropolis. While fighting a clone of himself, Superman uses his ice breath to propel himself away from a black hole that has opened up beneath the rift. That’s right, a rift on top of a black hole that has opened up within the Earth. Yet somehow there’s 30 minutes of movie left that isn’t just a black screen and end credits.
Language Lessons
Early in Superman, Lex Luthor breaks into the Fortress of Solitude and uses a nanobot-infused henchwoman to steal all the data from Kal-El’s supercomputer. The most important file is a corrupted message from Kal’s parents, which is later revealed to be partially a message of love, but mostly one of merciless colonization and conquest. This film takes place in a week, and within a couple days (tops), Lex is able to A) recruit the world’s top cryptographers to repair the damaged recording, and B) decipher the rest of the message from a wholly alien language.
James Gunn confirms (in the film and in subsequent interviews) that the conquest message is genuine, i.e. not a trick on Lex’s part to discredit Superman. The rest of the movie deals with this fundamental break in continuity with all the seriousness and ramifications of a paper cut, and never addresses the fact that we’re now dealing with magical, superspeed technology.
When the Fantastic Four encounter Shalla-Bal (the Silver Surfer), she cautions Johnny Storm in her native alien tongue–which sounds similar to various deep-space recordings the team has collected over the years. Shalla-Bal also translates the message for him, which he uses as a sort of Rosetta Stone for unlocking the rest of the language. This process takes months, and Johnny uses the newfound information to pull off one of the film’s most surprising and emotionally captivating scenes.
Get Out
Metropolis, a city containing tens of millions of people, is evacuated within hours. Had Gunn written a second draft of his screenplay, he might have used his own lore to make Lex the beloved inventor of a portal technology that offers instant escape routes in a world where interdimensional imps, kaiju, and metahuman mayhem are regular concerns. Instead, the audience is asked to turn off the backup generator to their already powered-down brains.
The Fantastic Four, in contrast, reach out to the subterranean villain Mole Man during their darkest hour. They ask to use his vast network of tunnels, hideouts, and minions to supplement an evacuation of New York ahead of Galactus’ impending arrival in the Big Apple. Like Johnny Storm’s translation project, this process takes several months to complete. Its visual message of unity and resilience is also oddly inspiring to watch.
Superfantastic Next Steps
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a self-contained movie up until the mid-credits stinger (it doesn’t even lead into the team’s appearance at the end of May’s Thunderbolts, which turned out to be a red herring). Though this ostensibly sets up The Avengers: Doomsday, it’s the first MCU endeavor in more than a decade that doesn’t require mountains of homework to comprehend and enjoy. Whatever comes next, it feels like Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben are rocketing into uncharted territory.
On the polar opposite of that spectrum is Superman 2025, a movie whose follow-up is set to feature a belligerent, drunk Supergirl; a movie that sabotages its own claims to nuanced politics by having the Justice Gang take sides in a war between two countries (it was controversial when Superman did it, but now Hawk Girl can just murder one of their leaders for the LOLs); and a movie where Lois Lane spends much of the second act whining to Mr. Terrific about possibly dumping Superman–before professing her love for the Man of Steel at the very end. Gunn’s vision is brightly colored, joke-packed, and overflowing with Stuff, but make no mistake: the spirit and themes are far more disturbing than whatever grim-and-gritty muck the Snyder Bros have long been accused of bathing in.
So, yes, The Fantastic Four emerge victorious from the dust and the wreckage. You’re free to disagree, of course, but you’d better bring some heavy duty receipts to the rematch.
Eager for more fightin’ words? Check out Earth’s Mightiest Critics’ recent roundtable review of Superman 2025, and our upcoming “Here We Go Again” review of The Fantastic Four: First Steps!
