Every Adaptation of the Fantastic Four Ranked

The Fantastic Four is such a staple in Marvel, superhero fiction, and really just pop culture in general that it feels insane how much hope there was that the MCU’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps would be the one to do it justice. It feels so odd that these characters have seldom stood out in the modern mainstream like the X-Men did in the ‘90s or the Avengers in the 2010s. And it’s not for a lack of trying.

There have been many attempts to showcase Reed, Sue, and the rest in non-comic media, so much so that we thought it’d be curious to rank and compare them. This is not going to include video games, cameos, beloved Pixar movies that looked suspiciously similar, guest appearances, or Ron Burgundy’s sad tale of the Human Torch being denied a bank loan. Although even then, it was never specified if it was Johnny Storm or the original Jim Hammond version.

10. Fred and Barney Meet the Thing (1979)

In both the new movie and the first Tim Story film from the 2000s, there’s a gag about the Thing’s “it’s clobberin’ time!” catchphrase not being something he said on his own. Rather it came from merchandising. He even says in First Steps that it’s just something made for the cartoon. Hey, it could be worse! For instance, there’s Fred and Barney Meet the Thing where Benji Grimm is a skinny teenager who henshins himself into being the rocky superhero by yelling, “Thing Ring, do your thing!” Afterward rocks accumulate all over his body and a blue speedo just magically appears. Does that mean that the rocks jumping onto his body form a—you know what?

The wacky Hanna-Barbera adventures of Benji and his supporting cast of Mystery Inc. knockoff friends had nothing to do with the rest of the Fantastic Four, making it an odd footnote in its history. It was especially a letdown because much like Heathcliff and Riff Raff, the Flintstones and Thing segments were completely separate, meaning that Fred and Barney never actually do meet the Thing. Those two would get to meet Booster Gold in the comics at one point, but it’s not the same. What a revolting development.

9. Fan4stic (2015)

Trying a new direction isn’t an inherently bad idea. After Josh Trank made waves with the original found footage superhero thriller, Chronicle, it made sense to try and put him on an established superhero title. Unfortunately sticking him on Fantastic Four and making it a drab, lifeless, stretched-out origin movie that lacked any semblance of a pulse ended up being a disaster. Hell, at the time it was seen as an excuse to keep the Fantastic Four film rights from falling back to Marvel. If so, even that ambition proved mooted since Disney bought out Fox a few years later anyway.

Sure, the idea of a “gloomy Superman movie” was good enough to springboard an entire cinematic universe, but the gloomy Fantastic Four movie was always… doomed. Behind-the-scenes conflicts and extensive reshoots also did it zero favors. “Fan4stic,” as it mockingly became known due to a poster styling, ended up being such a dud that Deadpool & Wolverine, a celebration of the Fox superhero films, did not even reference it outside of showing some clips during the montage of 20th Century Fox Marvel films in the credits. Interestingly, the idea of violently killing off the Chris Evans Human Torch may have been inspired by a cut cameo from the Trank Fantastic Four line-up in Deadpool 2 where they too were probably not long for this world.

8. The New Fantastic Four (1978)

Well, a Fantastic Four cartoon missing 25 percent of the cast is at least a step up from a Fantastic Four cartoon missing 75 percent. New Fantastic Four takes everything the previous version from a decade earlier did and drops it down in quality. The animation is outright terrible. The writing is abysmal, remembered mainly for that laughable episode where Reed psyches out Magneto with a wooden gun. Due to standards and practices, Thing isn’t even allowed to punch anyone.

Of course what makes this “new” is that due to a rights issue, they couldn’t use Human Torch at all. Apparently, there was intent to give him his own live-action show, but it didn’t pan out. Instead we were introduced to HERBIE, a sarcastic robot there to press Thing’s buttons and annoy him the way Johnny would have.  HERBIE has become synonymous with what’s wrong with this show, though he’s honestly not that bad. There’s a reason he gets to be reintroduced in First Steps.

7. Hanna-Barbera Fantastic Four (1967)

Despite the limitations of 1960s Hanna-Barbera superhero cartoons, their attempt at Fantastic Four is fairly solid. It’s an incredibly faithful adaptation of a comic that was only just a few years old at this point. It’s a show where you can see an accurate take on the original Galactus saga, as long as you can ignore the oddball color scheme. Hey, did you know he was voiced by Lurch from the original 1960s Addams Family sitcom? That’s neat.

Speaking of voice acting, it’s all top notch almost across the board and still holds up. The main caveat of the show was that its animation and budget could only do so much. It got so ridiculous that the final two episodes were both clip shows! One of these clip shows featured a segment of Thing reminiscing about every time he punched someone throughout the series. That’s right, Thing punched a bunch of people! Get wrecked, ‘70s cartoon!

6. Fantastic Four (2005) and Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007)

We’re merging both mid-‘00s Fantastic Four movies into one entry, so this will include Rise of the Silver Surfer. Tim Story’s first Fantastic Four is an odd duck. It has some amazing casting with Chris Evans as Human Torch and Michael Chiklis as Thing. It’s fine as an introduction to the Fantastic Four themselves and their family dynamics. Its main problem, as was the big flaw of many Fox superhero movies, was that it was too afraid to really spread its wings and embrace the comic book shit. Julian McMahon, for instance, did a good job with what they gave him as Doctor Doom, but what they gave him wasn’t enough or Doctor Doom.

That they even had the Silver Surfer in the first place for the sequel feels like a miracle, amplified more so by the fact that it’s such a perfect depiction of the character. Yet at the same time, there’s the whole Galactus is a Cloud debacle. Remember when people were defending Cloud Galactus because, “If you pause it at the right spot, the evil gas sort of looks like his helmet?” These movies were a draft or two away from being something, but at the end of the day, we were left with a Fantastic Four that just didn’t feel fantastic.

5. Fantastic Four Radio Show (1975)

It only lasted 13 episodes but back in 1975, there was an audio adaptation of early Fantastic Four comics in the form of a radio show. Stan Lee narrated it, because of course he did, and it did a great job translating the drawn page to pure audio. Sure, a radio show can only go so far in a list like this, but listening to these are worth your time, and it’s a shame that they only produced a handful of episodes.

The main memorable thing about this is the cast. They were all excellent, but Johnny Storm was played by none other than Bill Murray prior to his breaking out via Saturday Night Live. Using his experience from the National Lampoon Radio Hour, Murray felt strangely at home as Johnny. It was definitely better than his Marvel role as… whatever that guy’s name was in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. No, I’m not looking that up. No, guys, I don’t care that research is part of my job, I refuse to look up who…

He was Lord Krylar. Happy?

4. Fantastic Four: The Animated Series (1994)

The Marvel Action Hour version of Fantastic Four lasted for two seasons, and each year was a very different beast. The first season was rough, had bad animation, and suffered from questionable creative decisions. It’s the season where Johnny is at a wedding, gets on stage, and a rap video breaks out. Oh, and the Fantastic Four’s snooty landlady is there. The cartoon was bad enough that the Fantastic Four comic at the time had Ant-Man laughing his ass off while watching it.

Then the second season happened and washed all that away. With new direction, better writing, and better animation, the show felt like it could have been an all-timer if it had at least another season to go. Fun team-ups with Black Panther and Daredevil, better storylines, some great Doom action, etc. If they had this kind of quality in the ungrammatical first season, this probably could have made the top of the list.

3. Roger Corman Fantastic Four (1994)

For years it was a laughingstock. The Fantastic Four movie made in secret with only a few involved knowing that it was never intended to get released. It was just a piece of cheap content made to allow a studio to hold onto the rights just a little bit longer. Then it became one of the most bootlegged videos that wasn’t about Wookiee Life Day; a movie that was believably from the ‘70s due to how low-rent the special effects were, up until seeing the silly CGI Human Torch during the finale.

After Fan4stic happened, some were ready to accept this movie for what it was: an entertaining and faithful Fantastic Four movie buried under piles of cheese and bad acting. Even with the endless clacking of his fingers, it was still nice that Joseph Culp’s Doctor Doom actually acted like Doctor Doom. Even Thing’s animatronic prosthetics bring in some charm, distracting from Carl Ciarfalio’s screams of, “Reed, what have you done to me?! What have you DUUUUUUN?”

It’s stupid a lot of the time, but it’s still entertaining and feels like Fantastic Four.

2. Fantastic Four: World’s Greatest Heroes (2006)

Released shortly after Fox’s first Fantastic Four movie, this take on the team came with an interesting, dynamic look that tried to add some new personality to the cast without changing them drastically. The heroes and their villains are still the same, only Doom now has a popped collar and the Thing has the team logo painted on his chest. Interestingly enough while the spirit is definitely there, the cartoon didn’t try to retell a bunch of classic stories like previous takes on the franchise.

There was a lot to love with this short-lived series, from the memorable Hulk episode to the great She-Hulk installment where she temporarily replaced Thing on the team. It also features a quick Squirrel Girl cameo. Unfortunately Cartoon Network was incredibly weird and inconsistent with broadcasting the show, so it never had a chance. To give you an idea, episodes were run out of order and what was supposed to be the second episode didn’t air until three years after the first.

Still, it did give us a scene where a cab driver thinks Doctor Doom and Iron Man are the same guy. The show was very ahead of its time.

1. The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

The MCU violently turned a Reed Richards variant into spaghetti and then transformed Chris Evans’ Johnny Storm into a foul-mouthed, skinless pile of death. The third time must have been the charm then, because the MCU’s actual Fantastic Four movie hit it out of the park. And really it had to. Not only did this need to do the team justice, but it needed to succeed as a Marvel movie or else the writing was on the wall and the superhero bubble would finally be on the way to popping.

The 1960s retro-futuristic style looked straight out of Disney World’s Tomorrowland and added the right balance of familiarity and a fresh coat of paint. The main four were likewise right on the money, Galactus was both frightening and completely comic-accurate, and it’s even the first Fantastic Four adaptation to bring Franklin Richards into the equation. Marvel needed to have their game face on and showed that there is still gas left in the tank. Right when we needed them most, it seems the Fantastic Four might have just saved their universe as we know it.