Fantastic Four Reviews Show MCU Can’t Be Counted Out Before Avengers: Doomsday

It’s been a bumpy, oftentimes frustrating journey keeping up with the MCU in recent years, but the overwhelmingly positive reviews for The Fantastic Four: First Steps are a very good sign for the future.

Marvel was on top of the world when Avengers: Endgame was released. Everybody — like, literally just about everybody — was following along the MCU and showed up to the theater to see the conclusion of the Infinity Saga. It was an event that you just kind of had to be there for. And it felt like the perfect ending to an epic that took over a decade to tell.

But, as often happens with these big money-making franchises, the story kept going. While there were still some good entries in there, Phases 4 and 5 of the MCU offered more misses than hits. Even some of the better ones, like Thunderbolts*, didn’t exactly do huge numbers at the box office.

While we’ll have to wait until next week to see how much money Fantastic Four makes (things are looking good), the reviews suggest that things are now looking up for Marvel Studios.

Fantastic Four reviews are a good indicator for the MCU’s future

At the time of this article’s publication, The Fantastic Four: First Steps has an 88 percent score on Rotten Tomatoes. Thunderbolts* received a similar score, but the last MCU entry before that, Captain America: Brave New World, landed at 46 percent. That 87 percent is also miles better than how previous Fantastic Four films fared: the 2005 movie has a 27 percent score, while Rise of the Silver Surfer’s is 37 percent and the 2015 flick’s is nine percent.

Marvel needed this win. The studio is trying to get everyone excited for Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, but that’s been hard to do when a lot of the Multiverse Saga projects have been relatively disappointing. 

Fantastic Four: First Steps’ reviews inspire some optimism that will hopefully carry into future projects — not only can we start getting excited about Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Avengers: Doomsday, and Avengers: Secret Wars, but the era of mutants is expected to begin after that, and fans desperately want to see some good X-Men movies.

MCU might finally be back on track with Avengers: Doomsday after stumbling on Kang plotline

A lot of the problems in Marvel’s Multiverse Saga arose when they dropped the ball on the Kang the Conqueror storyline. Before Robert Downey Jr.’s casting was announced, Avengers: Doomsday was initially titled Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and would have focused on Jonathan Majors’ villain character.

Those plans were abandoned not just because of the controversy surrounding Majors’ personal life, but also because Marvel “started to realize that Kang…wasn’t Thanos,” as explained by Kevin Feige. Focusing on Doctor Doom instead of Kang may turn out to be a good call, but it doesn’t exactly boost confidence in the brand if the studio heads didn’t think this all through ahead of time.

Now, though, Marvel seems to have found their footing and is plotting ahead with an actual plan. The Fantastic Four: First Steps is the first MCU Phase 6 project, meaning we’re starting a new chapter. And fans can breathe a little easier knowing this chapter is starting off on the right foot.