Spoilers for "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" to follow.
All of the previous Fantastic Four films started with the team's superheroic origin. (The sequel "Rise of the Silver Surfer" being the obvious exception.) To avoid any rehashing, however, "The Fantastic Four: First Steps" does something different and begins its story years into the Four's careers as heroes.
Not to worry, though, because the film doesn't leave out all context. One of the first scenes is the Fantastic Four guest-starring on "The
Ted Gilbert Show." Its Ed Sullivan-esque host (Mark Gatiss) narrates a montage walking viewers (both within the movie and those watching in the real-world) on the Four's history, showing that they were astronauts dosed in cosmic rays that gave them incredible powers and are already celebrated as scientists, diplomatic leaders, and superheroes ... and what's a hero without a villain?
The primary villain of "First Steps" is Galactus (Ralph Ineson), but this version of the Four have also fought many other antagonists during their previous, offscreen adventures. Indeed, one of Sue Storm's (Vanessa Kirby) great achievements was negotiating a peace settlement with the Four's former enemy, the Mole Man (Paul Walter Hauser).
Along the way, several other classic foes from the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby "Fantastic Four" comics get name-dropped as well.
Read more: Every Marvel Character Locked Up In The Raft
The Mad Thinker
In the opening Ted Gilbert-narrated montage, he mentions that the Fantastic Four once saved New York City from an evil plan by the Mad Thinker. Though not seen in the movie, the Thinker is generally drawn in the comics as a wrinkle-faced man with long brown hair who wears a green jumpsuit.
True to his name, the Thinker is an evil genius. Specifically, he's a master statistician who can calculate probability and predict events with such accuracy it borders on clairvoyance. He is also an accomplished inventor, especially when it comes to robotics.
In the Thinker's first appearance in "Fantastic Four" #15, he and his gang raid the Baxter Building. Stealing some research from Reed Richards, he creates an "Awesome Android" to battle the Fantastic Four. (As the Human Torch throws back in the villain's face, he's not much of a Thinker if he needs to plagiarize a real genius like Reed.)
Lee and Kirby did not give the Mad Thinker a backstory or even a true name; he was already a gang leader when he first appeared. Apparently, he was just a genius who decided he could best profit from a criminal life, but the Fantastic Four threw a wrench in those calculations.
The Red Ghost And His Super-Apes
The third villain mentioned in the opening montage, after Mole Man and the Mad Thinker, are Red Ghost and his Super-Apes. We actually see Reed (Pedro Pascal) sparring with one of the Apes, but not the man himself. Originally, the Red Ghost was actually going to appear onscreen (played by John Malkovich), but his scenes were cut from the final film.
While the Marvel Universe endures today, one must not forget its original 1960s context. These were stories born out of Cold War America; that's one reason all the A-list heroes got their power from radiation. In these early comics, you also see a lot of Soviet Russian villains. Black Widow may be a hero now, but she was an evil spy in her first appearances.
Red Ghost, aka Ivan Kragoff, debuted in "Fantastic Four" #13 as one of these villains. True to his name, he hailed from communist Russia (Red), and he can become intangible and invisible (ghost). His apes have superpowers too: Mikhlo the Gorilla is super-strong, Peotr the Orangutan can attract or repel objects, and Igor the Baboon is a shapeshifter.
With Malkovich already cast, we'll see if the Red Ghost has any part to play in a future "Fantastic Four" film.
The Puppet Master
In "Fantastic Four: First Steps," Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) sparks a connection with schoolteacher Rachel Rozman (Natasha Lyonne), who lives in Ben's childhood neighborhood Yancy Street.
Traditionally, though, Ben's girlfriend is Alicia Masters, a blind sculptor. Without her sight, Alicia can overlook Ben's stony appearance and appreciate who he is inside.
Ben met Alicia through work — in her first appearance, "Fantastic Four" #8, the Four fought her stepfather, Philip Masters/the Puppet Master. The Puppet Master is a sculptor who possesses radioactive clay; he uses it to make voodoo doll puppets of people to control them, including The Thing.
The Puppet Master is mentioned later in "First Steps." Reed and his robot assistant H.E.R.B.I.E. have been baby-proofing the Baxter Building for Reed and Sue's to-come son. It turns out Reed went further than that; he tracked down all the major criminal masterminds in New York City and rooted them out, including the Puppet Master. Of course, this happens just before Galactus' herald the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) arrives on Earth and shows Reed a danger he couldn't have accounted for.
Diablo
Another criminal who Reed drops the dime on is Diablo, aka Esteban Corazón de Ablo. Diablo is a Spanish alchemist — if you think alchemy has gone out of fashion centuries ago, well, Diablo is from centuries ago. Thanks to a pact with the devilish Mephisto, Diablo is also near immortal.
Diablo first appeared in "Fantastic Four" #30, when the Four were visiting Transylvania. He had been sealed inside a castle by villagers 100 years prior, but Ben freed him when Diablo promised to restore his human appearance with alchemic potions. When that was revealed as an act of deceit, Ben turned on Diablo and helped his teammates defeat him.
One of Diablo's greatest claims to fame is that he was the first villain in John Byrne's seminal run on "Fantastic Four" in the 1980s. In "Fantastic Four" #232, Diablo conjures four golems, each representing one of the four classical elements (water, earth, fire, air), and sends them to attack the Four. The Four themselves also represent these elements, resulting in some high-contrast fights. (Ben and Johnny are clearly earth and fire. After that it gets looser, but Reed's super-flexibility reflects the liquid flow of water, while Sue can seemingly become as vaporous as air.)
The Wizard
The third villain caught up in Reed's crime sweep is the Wizard, aka Bentley Wittman. His name is deceptive, because he fights with technology (specifically anti-gravity tech), not magic.
The Wizard first debuted as the villain of "Strange Tales" #102 — at the time, that comic featured the solo adventures of the Human Torch. It wasn't long, though, before Lee and Kirby brought the Wizard over as a villain in the main "Fantastic Four" book.
Though introduced as an enemy of the Human Torch, the Wizard more so contrasts Reed Richards. A genius (though one far below Reed's caliber), he wants to upstage Richards and prove himself the superior scientist. Unlike the similarly envious Doctor Doom, however, the Wizard never even comes close to doing this.
The Wizard is most famous as leader of the Frightful Four (debuting in "Fantastic Four" #36), a group of — you guessed it — four super-villains that contrast the heroic Four. The initial line-up was the Wizard, the Trapster, the Sandman (on loan from "The Amazing Spider-Man"), and the brainwashed Inhuman queen Medusa. The line-up has changed over the years, but the Wizard is almost always leading them ... which might be why the Frightful Four always come in second to the Fantastic Four.
"The Fantastic Four: First Steps" is now playing in theaters.
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