The Perfect Villain For MCU’s Fantastic Four Movie

Marvel Studios already have the perfect choice of villain for the MCU debut of Marvel’s First Family in Fantastic Four. The Fantastic Four were confirmed to be making their way to the MCU after Disney’s acquisition of Fox in 2019, announced to be part of the Phase 6 slate. However, an alternate version of Reed Richards, portrayed by The Office’s John Krasinski, has already made an appearance in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. After two failed attempts to bring the team to live-action over at Fox, Marvel Studios need to be very careful about how they introduce the Fantastic Four to the MCU.

Marvel Studios chief Kevin Feige revealed that Fantastic Four won’t be the typical MCU origin story, suggesting the team has already been formed in the background of the established franchise. In order to avoid the mistakes of the past, the MCU’s Fantastic Four debut should be a more personal account of the team’s activities rather than an Avengers-level spectacle. Marvel Studios have the chance to pull this off easily by carefully choosing which villain to pit the team against for their first MCU battle, and for that, they need only turn to the Marvel Comics source material.

Mole Man Would Be The Perfect Villain For The Fantastic Four’s MCU Debut

Mole Man is a recurring enemy of the Fantastic Four, but he will always be remembered as the team’s first villain, which means that he could play a very important role in Marvel Studios’ first foray into the world of the Fantastic Four. Many recent MCU projects have received criticism for too-heavily setting up subsequent projects, so Fantastic Four should set up a different villain approach. This approach would provide a more personal introduction to Marvel’s First Family before using them more in Phase 6’s climactic films, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and Avengers: Secret Wars.

Debuting in 1961’s Fantastic Four #1, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and the Thing’s first adventure into the world of superheroes saw them go up against Mole Man, formerly known as Harvey Elder. Mole Man was the ruler of a branch of subterranean creatures referred to as the Moloids, which he used to perform attacks on the surface world that had once shunned and rejected him. After Mole Man destroyed nuclear power plants in the Eastern Bloc, Australia, South America, and French Equatorial Africa, he fell on the radar of the newly-formed Fantastic Four, becoming the team’s first villain.

Marvel Studios’ Fantastic Four Shouldn’t Be An Avengers-Level Film

When introducing the Fantastic Four into the MCU, Marvel Studios should take a leaf out of their Phase 1 book since the MCU’s six initial films perfectly set up some of the most iconic Marvel superheroes in smaller and more personal stories. Except for 2012’s The Avengers, none of the Phase 1 projects featured an Avengers-level threat, but each of them perfectly set the stage for the eventual team-up of the original MCU heroes. This same technique would work perfectly with the Fantastic Four since the team shouldn’t be battling some massive, all-powerful enemy but should lean on their teamwork and family dynamics to take down a lower-level threat.

It’s rumored that Fantastic Four will have a 1960s setting, which would make the lower-level Mole Man even more perfect as the Fantastic Four’s premier villain, since it’s likely that the more present-day heroes wouldn’t remember those events. After their tumultuous career over at Fox, the Fantastic Four deserves a proper introduction before being featured more heavily in the MCU. Mole Man would be the perfect Fantastic Four villain to fit this purpose.