In the past year, for the first time, I checked out some Fantastic Four comic books. They seemed like the biggest gap in my superhero education. I didn't even know at first about their influence on the Incredibles, let alone later Marvel properties. Alas, they've had a hard time getting popular screen outings, so this reputedly middling one would have to suffice.
Four years after the four astronauts gained powers from radiation exposure, Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards (Pedro Pascal) and Sue "The Invisible Woman" Storm (Vanessa Kirby) are expecting their first child, Franklin. Johnny "The Human Torch" Storm (Joseph Quinn) looks forward to being an uncle, and even Ben "The Thing" Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) sees Franklin as family. Then the alien Silver Surfer (a woman for once, Julia Garner) announces that she has selected Earth for the next meal of giant Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and recommends making the most of the time people have left. The Fantastic Four travel to meet Galactus, who offers to spare Earth if he can have the secretly powerful Franklin absorb his curse of insatiable appetite. Since Galactus, like Dormammu, is too mighty to consider fighting head on, the four struggle to come up with a third option....
