Fantastic Four: How Marvel’s First Family Launched The Modern Comic Universe
The Fantastic Four shaped Marvel’s shared universe with groundbreaking storytelling. Discover how Stan Lee and Jack Kirby’s creation set the foundation for modern superhero comics.
Fantastic Four Origins Unveiled (Photo Credit – Facebook)
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The Fantastic Four is making its long-awaited debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with the release of the upcoming The Fantastic Four: First Steps in July 2025. This is the third major cinematic adaptation of the seminal comic book series, following the 2005 duology and the 2015 reboot.
For those familiar with the true history of Marvel Comics, The Fantastic Four is a seminal series that serves as the very foundation for the modern Marvel mythos. Originally created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the series served as the foundation for the original Marvel shared universe, which wouldn’t be replicated in film until Kevin Feige’s Marvel Cinematic Universe. Read on to learn more about how Marvel as we know it was born.
The Fantastic Four was Marvel’s breakout Silver Age title
The Fantastic Four was Marvel Comics’s breakthrough title after the disruptions that ended the Golden Age of comic books. Prior to the Fantastic Four, Marvel had created several successful characters, such as Captain America and Namor the Submariner. Still, there wasn’t a strong editorial effort to create a cohesive universe around their titles.
That changed under the editorial reign of Stan Lee. Initially an office gopher hired by his uncle Martin Goodman, Stan would gain more significant creative input when working for the Captain America comics, which were co-created by Joe Simon and his future collaborator Jack Kirby.
After the post-war decline of the comic book industry, the medium experienced a resurgence in the late 1950s, ushering in the Silver Age of comic books. During this time, DC Comics’s Justice League was among the most successful series. Marvel Comics owner Martin Goodman tasked Stan Lee with creating a competitor to the Justice League, setting Stan and Jack Kirby’s collaboration in motion.
The two decided that the best way to make Marvel stand out was to introduce a greater level of character complexity in their next superhero title. Jack Kirby’s prior work for DC Comics on Challengers of the Unknown also served as a major inspiration for the work.
When the Fantastic Four finally debuted in 1961, the superhero team was notable for its family dynamic. Reed Richards served as the level-headed leader and patriarch of the group. His coworker-turned-monstrosity, Ben Grimm, served as a hotheaded rival figure with a rebellious streak. Sue Storm, Reed’s girlfriend, served as the group’s mediator and emotional center, while Johnny Storm, Sue’s brother, embodied a youthful, carefree personality.
In their origin storyline, the four obtain their superpowers by rushing through with a spaceflight in a desperate bid to outdo the Soviet Union in the 1960s space race. However, this reckless decision exposes them to cosmic rays from outer space, which permanently alters all four of them. Ben Grimm becomes a golem-like monstrosity known as The Thing, Reed Richard’s body becomes rubberlike, Sue Storm gains invisibility powers, and Johnny Storm can ignite his body at will, like a Human Torch.
Stan Lee and Jack Kirby continued working on The Fantastic Four series until the 1970s, when Kirby left the title. Kirby would eventually leave Marvel altogether, and his subsequent conflicts with Marvel’s management, Lee included, have been the cause of considerable controversy. Nonetheless, the enduring impact of Lee and Kirby’s creation continues to be felt to this day across all Marvel properties.
