The first steps make us wish that another Marvel character was the villain instead

This article contains spoilers For “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” brings Marvel’s first family to the Marvel cinematographic universe for the first time and gives us the best version of the superhero team dressed in blue that the big screen has ever seen, thanks to the superb performances of Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby (The Real MVP), Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn. Of course, this does not mean that every aspect of the Marvel Studios film is perfect. In fact, the film has a major villain problem in the form of the galactus deviating from the planet.

The villain Marvel, portrayed by the star of “The Witch” Ralph Ineson, can be too big for the fantastic four to face for their first MCU release (a symptom of many superhero films from the era 2000). This is largely why Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) can make a large part of the fights in the name of Galactus for the first two acts of the film, but the nature of such a massive cosmic villain still creates difficulties for the third act of the film. The scenes involving Galactus as a physical threat feels like weightlessness, and the resulting action leaves much to be desired. Even the plan to deceive Galactus is “Looney Tunes” in nature, and it does not seem worthy of a team made up of brilliant scientists, especially when Reed Richards simply understood how to teleport the whole planet in another universe.

We cannot prevent ourselves from being even more disappointed with the use of galactus as bad when there is another fascinating rival that drags around the superhero film by Matt Shakman which has proven to be much more interesting in the limited time that was offered to him in “The Fantastic Four: First Steps”.

We are talking, of course, of Paul Walter Hauser as head of Subterranea, the one and only mole man.

In Marvel Comics, Mole Man was in fact the first opponent to whom the Fantastic Four faced. Even in the Earth-828 universe that the Fantastic Four occupy, it is one of their first bad guys, as told in the editing of the television coil which presents their exploits since a cosmic accident gave the astronauts Reed Richards, Ben Grimm and Sue & Johnny Storm superimposers.

Although Mole Man (real name: Harvey Rupert Elder) has been thwarted, he now acts as the head of the Underground company known as Subterreanea, which extends over the tunnels under the New York version of Terre-828. As played by the star of “Blackklansman” and the winner of the Emmy Emmy Paul Walter Hauser, Mole Man is an eccentric guy, but he is also mainly respectful of the fantastic four, despite their previous conflicts. Admittedly, he cannot help but take a blow to the fashion senses of Johnny Storm, which is even more hilarious coming from a guy who always resembles a mixture between a minor and a man of an tracksuit. In addition, when the fantastic four need his help from millions of New Yorkers to assure them to security when Galactus arrives, he is ready to nod with their request, but only if Reed Richards asks him personally.

The time of Mole Man in “Fantastic Four: First Steps” is limited, but his personality and his particular ambitions would have made him a fascinating and entertaining threat so that the team would face during their first outing on the big screen. Of course, it is good that it is part of their story which is already unfolded, but making Mole Man the main antagonist would have allowed this version of Fantastic Four to do something that the best version of the superhero team never really had to do.

It is undeniable that the animated adventure of Pixar “The Incredibles” took more than a few inspirations of Fantastic Four Comics from Marvel. Not only is the aesthetics linked to the classic comics of the 1960s, that “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” uses perfectly this time, but we have a family of four superheroes (plus another when Jack-Jack gets its powers), and they have to work together to stop dangerous super-vilains.

One of these bad guys is the sub-minor, clearly inspired by Mole Man. After arising at the very end of “The Incredibles”, he gives the superhero team a race for their money in the opening sequence of “Incredible 2.” Although there is a catchy action of action which tears the city of Metroville of the Incredibles, the sub-minor still has no chance of being the main villain, because an antagonist known as Screnslaver becomes the main villain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wix6ge5NTYC

If “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” would have given Mole Man a more important role of antagonist, it might not have had so much trouble building a third act which had a certain weight. Imagine having a villain which is a threat to most of the film, but ultimately ultimately living especially harmoniously with the superhero team in the same city. It is not something that happens very often, because most bad guys end up being completely erased or at the very least imprisoned for a long time.

Using Mole Man as an antagonist who finally compromises with the Fantastic Four, we can see in real time how the superhero team makes his world a better place, not only by fighting the bad guys if necessary, but determining what will ultimately help to improve society.

“The Fantastic Four: First Steps” is now in theaters.