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https://blacknerdproblems.com/are-we-back-fantastic-four-first-steps-review/

A Fitting Return

The Fantastic Four was the brainchild of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee. It shifted the paradigm of who could be considered a hero in comic books. By electing to put a family front and center, the space for heroes as humans opens. Not to mention its importance for comic culture, where the book becomes the beginning of the ongoing Marvel Comics Universe. This movie is about relationships. As a married person, I couldn’t help but understand these characters on such a deep level. This is what First Steps got ‘right’ that can’t be undersold.

Matt Shakman bridges the gap between comic purists, MCU purists, and cinephiles masterfully, but is it enough to get comic readers and MCU heads back on board? Are we back?

I don’t care who you have in your ear telling you that Marvel Studios ain’t hitting no more, even if it’s Deadpool himself. Fantastic Four: First Steps is a great comic book movie. It’s a very well-done marriage of the imaginative depth of the comics and the high-level technique of film. A lot of the ingenuity and personality that made Iron Man such a hit in 2008 is present in First Steps. The movie hits all the needed beats and showcases some of the best of both mediums.

Character

While there is no perfect movie, this comes pretty darn close to being a perfect comic book movie in the same way that James Gunn’s Superman and Shawn Levy’s Deadpool & Wolverine were close to perfect. If the production team on a comic book movie focuses on the character and allows the narrative to take shape from that character’s choices, it’s hard to miss the mark.

Fantastic Four: First Steps gives audiences exactly what Kirby and Lee envisioned based on the characters they created. More than anything, the Fantastic Four are a family of explorers and scientists. So First Steps does just that: gives us a movie that follows what happens when a group of people normalize the fantastic. When the Silver Surfer shows up to tell the Earth it’s game over, the FF suit up and go right into space. While the tension is high, Reed is explaining the plan; Ben and Johnny pretend to doze off while he’s telling them the plan! That’s the kind of character choice that makes this thing fun. It’s what makes comic books so great: the ability to get to know the characters on a deep level. It’s also what makes film so impactful, to see how their choices ripple in a fixed amount of time.

Bars

A part of what makes the characters so compelling is how they are written. My goodness, the bars these characters were spitting went so hard. Writing larger-than-life heroes with this high level of emotional intelligence was unheard of. The only comparison I have for some of these monologues is Gunn’s Superman; not because it set the trend, but because I saw it just the week before First Steps. There’s a solid twelve minutes of Clark and Lois going back and forth that just made the world feel so real. That gravity in writing gets split up amongst the Fantastic Four cast, but man, they go off.

To relay the ambivalence and cosmic indifference of Galactus as a universal force of nature, the Fantastic Four ask why he would want to destroy Earth. Silver Surfer simply says, “He doesn’t want. He feeds.” Like, how do you nail down the essence of a cosmic being to five words?

Who can overlook the Sue Storm banger? When the Invisible Woman speaks to the world in full view, after Galactus makes his terms and hits us with, “I’m not sacrificing my son for this planet, but I won’t sacrifice this planet for my son.” They could have played the “Ether” instrumental under the whole speech.

Another slow heater is the monologue Reed delivers to Franklin, realizing he needs to let go of the fear of whether he’ll be “normal” or not; “The more I look at you, the less I know. And the less I know, the more scared I am. So, you know what? I’m not gonna look anymore. I’m gonna let you tell me who you are.” It’s the line every son wishes their dad would say to them in earnest. I’ll be real, that one made me tear up. Writers Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer, and Kat Wood swung for the fences on First Steps, and the whole movie reads like a love letter to Jack and Stan’s baby.

Setting

Shakman and the creative team really knocked the use of the multiverse out of the park. We got the FF four years into their run as a superpowered family. Their use of ‘en media res’ (starting a story midway through) worked phenomenally for Spider-Man: Homecoming and for Superman, as these IPs have sixty-plus-year publication histories. Getting to cook with this version of the Fantastic Four, from their own time, comfortable in their skin (including Ben), is what will set this apart from all the previous phases of the MCU. Moreover, it’s what makes it feel most like a comic book. A retro-futuristic aesthetic grounds the ‘828 universe’ in a way that doesn’t distract audiences from how the family navigates their adventure.

Performances

Fantastic Four: First Steps gets it right; the performances are what make this a good film, outside of the popularity of the source material. Pedro Pascal is a great actor and has been in the game longer than most people notice. As a fan of the Buffy TV show, I remember him from way back. His turn as Oberyn Martell in Game of Thrones is when I became a fan of his work. Pascal’s Reed Richards is as pitch-perfect as can be. Reed is not a stick in the mud; he’s a genius who spends every second thinking about how to solve every problem all at once. So when the other three joke with him, Pascal responds with a deadpan statement that reflects the core of who Reed Richards is, a know-it-all.

Joseph Quinn has been on the rise in the US after Stranger Things and Gladiator 2, but his Johnny Storm is also pitch-perfect. A little less player and a lot more mission-focused, but always a pain in Ben’s neck. Most iterations of Johnny are a playboy idiot with a rockstar lifestyle. First Steps evolves Johnny’s character to be a sharper intellect and a better family member. We’re even treated to a pivotal plot point for the film and a moment of self-sacrifice akin to that moment in the Annihilation comic (issue #587). Again, pitch perfect.

Vanessa Kirby’s Susan Storm had very little competition to begin with but is the gold standard for how to bring that character to life off the page. Although this version of Sue has never been present in the previous films, the ferocious capability of the Invisible Woman is well-known to comic readers. She took on the Avengers single-handedly and handed them their asses soundly. What Kirby brings to Sue is so much more than giving cunty face, but a very poetic strength that can’t be seen, only felt. Going so far as to read the issues exploring Sue’s dark alter ego, Malice. Bringing this badass Susan Storm to the 616 universe is a gift we weren’t expecting.

Ebon Moss-Bacharach has the difficult task of conveying the ‘fight through the sadness’ ethos that lies at the core of Benjamin Grimm’s character. Bacharach’s gruff outside but warm interior is what makes his portrayal of Richie on The Bear so entertaining, and he channels that in First Steps by giving The Thing more security than Richie might ever have. Depending on motion capture and CGI to get the visuals, the things that make Ben human rely on Bacharach to convey with his voice and small tics, and gestures. Pitch. Freaking. Perfect.

Rounding out the cast, Paul Walter Hauser had no reason to make Mole Man so damn compelling and funny. That man steals every scene he’s in, no matter what. Julia Garner is amazing as the Silver Surfer. She picks up where Doug Jones and Laurence Fishburne’s joint performance left off and doesn’t miss a beat. Stoic, conflicted, and badass. Big ups to Sarah Niles as Lynn Nichols, the Future Foundation CEO, FF’s handler, and the sole Black member of this cast.

Impact

I would be remiss not to speak about the way I saw myself and my wife reflected in the peaks and valleys of Sue and Reed’s relationship. Some moments felt lifted from our daily life and placed on film. Mind you, following a couple happens very often in movies, but this is a comic book movie – those familial attachments are usually secondary. When Sue comes out of the bathroom and finds in mere seconds what Reed was searching for twelve minutes to find, I can’t help but feel seen. The peaks and valleys of their interactions are the fabric of any tried-and-true partnership. They are not with each other because they agree on everything, but because they are both invested in fixing everything. No matter the time, no matter the cost. That is the core of my marriage with my partner, not that anything is perfect, but that there is always work to do to get better – and we aren’t afraid of that work. Reed’s monologue to Franklin is what stuck with me. When he admits that the more he learns about fatherhood, the less he realizes he knows. A realization I wish my father had made. But this is what masterful character writing gets you: a family that faces all of its internal challenges with the same grit and transparency as its external ones. This is the kind of exploration that elevates the genre. It hit.

Full Circle

Fantastic Four: First Steps is a good step in the right direction for the MCU. Tonally, it feels like a return to form, focusing on the characters rather than the hullabaloo of studio politics. Marvel’s ‘First Family’ is bringing that love and determination into the 616, come hell or high water. Jack and Stan would be so proud of this film. [Excelsior!]

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The post Are We Back?: ‘Fantastic Four: First Steps’ Review appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.

https://www.themarysue.com/whistle-trailer-sophie-nelisse-dafne-keen/

Shudder has been doing some amazing things recently with their horror films. From Clown in a Cornfield to Dangerous Animals and beyond, the team behind everyone’s favorite horror movies is now bringing us a new film with two stars fans LOVE!

Dafne Keen and Sophie Nélisse are starring in Shudder’s new film Whistle and look, that’s kind of a perfect pairing. Keen, who became a fan favorite as a young girl in the film Logan as X-23, has always been able to capture the anger and the emotion of her characters. And that matched with Nélisse’s performance as Shauna in the hit series Yellowjackets makes this one iconic pairing.

https://blackgirlnerds.com/5-things-i-missed-in-sinners-on-first-viewing/

Now that Ryan Coogler’s ‘Sinners’ is available to stream digitally — and in Black American Sign Language — it is a good time for those of us that might have missed certain nuances to return to one of 2025’s best-reviewed films and see what sticks out on a second (or fiftieth) viewing. Here’s what stuck out to me.

The importance of invitations is immediately established

Besides the opening voiceover that establishes the intimate relationship between music and spirituality, one of the first lines we hear is Sammie being invited into the church by his father. Sammie’s ultimate fate has been the focus of many fan theories, including one that suggests he sold his soul to the devil, and one might be forgiven for momentarily thinking that his hesitation to enter the church, combined with his ability to do so seemingly being predicated on his father’s invitation, means that Sammie has joined the ranks of the undead.

There’s just one problem with that. Sinners, while highly imaginative, is still very conventional as far as its vampire lore is concerned: garlic hurts them, silver has great stopping power, and one of the only ways to truly defeat them is with a stake to the heart. What that also means is that Sammie can’t be a vampire in this opening scene because the morning sun would have cooked him long before he could complete his drive to the church. Still, what this helps establish is one of the film’s themes: A sanctuary, whether it is a church, a home, or a cherished juke joint, is sacred, and one must always be wary of who and what one invites in. There’s a reason Swedish writer John Ajvide Lindqvist titled his 2004 vampire novel and its later film adaptation Let the Right One In. 

Adding to this, in a line I missed during a first viewing, when Sammie sees a guitar in his unnamed father’s church, his father says, “I brought it in here.” Once again, we see that someone is making a choice as to who or what can enter sacred spaces. The guitar makes Sammie’s father uncomfortable, but he risks “inviting” whatever risks it might bring in order to make his son more likely to enter his church. It is, like later invitations we will see in the film, one that will not end well for the father as far as his pastoral hopes for his son are concerned.

Smoke and Stack’s outfits reveal their character and backgrounds

Obviously, a first-time viewing will reveal that Smoke and Stack wear contrasting colors: Stack in his fiery red and Smoke in his cool blue. Besides telling us that these two adult twins no longer feel the need to wear cute matching outfits, it also allows the audience a shorthand of who is who before we can dive deeper into their character traits. However, there is more than meets the eye with the costume design.

Besides wearing different colors, Smoke and Stack also wear different subculture-specific accessories that reveal much about their Chicago affiliations. Stack, with his red fedora and tie combo, has all the trappings of a Prohibition-era Italian mobster. For reference, look at any image of Al Capone from this same time period. What you will see is a similar fedora-tie-vest combo as what we see on Stack. Contrast that with Smoke who brings a decidedly more Peaky Blinders flair to the table. That is no accident, as his scally cap, tweed suit, and blue button-up shirt are more typical of the era’s Irish gangs.

The visual storytelling here foreshadows the reveal that the guys have been playing both factions against one another in order to steal wine (from the Italians) and beer (from the Irish) that will supply their Mississippi juke joint. Other than providing an easy way to tell characters apart, this easily overlooked detail also lets audience members know that the Smokestack Twins are well apprenticed in the art of being a gangster.

Bo and Grace own two Stores: one for whites and one for Blacks

I’ll confess, on my first watch, I simply thought that Chinese-American couple Bo and Grace were very prosperous. In the shot where we follow their daughter Lisa from the general store Bo is managing to the grocery store Grace is manning, I figured that the most this scene signified was that the couple were effective business owners. On a second viewing, however, it becomes clear that Lisa is not simply crossing the street but also traversing worlds. One side of the town’s main drag is entirely Black while the other is wholly white.

As Chinese-Americans living in the segregated South, the Chow family represent part of the messiness inherent to a world divided by absolutist notions of “Black” or “white.” As histories of Asian-Americans living during segregation can attest, not falling into either category left one both freer and more restricted. You could exist in the white world, but you could not comfortably inhabit it. You could relate to the color prejudice experienced in the Black world, but your unique identity also made it possible to (in some cases, at least) attend alleged “whites-only” public schools. Bo, Grace, and Lisa Chow represent the limits of Black/white segregation that would almost be comical had they not also been so deadly. 

Stack foreshadows his and Mary’s fate

In the scene where we are introduced to Mary, we learn about her romantic (and X-rated) history with Stack. Stack, ever brash and apparently unsentimental, tries to brush her off. For one, she is white-passing and married to a white man in St. Louis. One wrong eye on their interaction and any knowledge of her past could result in her being shunned from white society or, more likely, worse. In his attempt to protect Mary, Stack dismisses her rudely. As a result, she tells him to rot in hell. He responds, “Yeah, I will,” and adds that he will save her a room next to him.

This presages the fact that these two sinners will eventually be doomed to share a fate arguably worse than hell. According to Annie, vampires exist in a perpetual state of hatred because their souls are trapped and cannot rejoin the ancestors. They are cursed to live in the shadows, thriving on blood and manipulation. The only seeming silver lining is that Stack and Mary, as Stack teasingly promised, share this fate together. In a post-credits scene (that I stupidly missed during my first theater viewing), we see that they are still together, sharing this hellish existence with one another and even offering Sammie a place with them. Stack has finally allowed Mary fully into what is left of his heart.

Sammie named his own juke joint after Pearline

Finally, speaking of the post-credits scene, we see that the aged Sammie is still playing his heart out. But as Sammie jams onstage, we see the name “Pearline” blazoned on large display behind him. It seems that decades later, that night has left him scars of every kind, but that day, “before the sun went down,” was one of his brightest. And he has chosen to carry the best part of it with him to his dying day.

Sinners is now streaming on HBO Max.

The post 5 Things I Missed in ‘Sinners’ on First Viewing appeared first on Black Girl Nerds.

https://blacknerdproblems.com/exclusive-ancestral-recall-first-look/

We at Black Nerd Problems are happy to present an exclusive look at ANCESTRAL RECALL, a few days ahead of its release on August 6. If you haven’t heard of the latest from AHOY Comics, ANCESTRAL RECALL is a historical science fiction comedy from writer Jordan Clark (Aquaman, Star Wars Adventures) and artist Atagun İlhan (Poison Ivy, Milestone Universe: The Shadow Cabinet) about an eccentric abstract painter who taps into the literal power of Black History to solve a series of supernatural disappearances with the help of his wife and preteen neighbor.

The Milestone Initiative members masterfully blend science fiction and comedy to explore the importance of Black history, the connections between the past and present, and learning to push through difficult life changes.

In the original press release, “As Black history is literally being erased all around us, ANCESTRAL RECALL feels like an urgent call to not just preserve it but celebrate the links between our past, present, and future,” said writer Jordan Clark. “Melvin’s journey takes readers through time and space and introduces them to figures who are rarely seen in history books such as Jean-Louis Michel, the greatest swordsman of the 17th century and Cheryl Linn Glass, the first Black woman race car driver. The series is my love letter to those who paved the way and hopefully an affirmation for us here in the now.”

Melvin Warring is a famed abstract painter, known for some groundbreaking work in the late 80s, who now lives a reclusive life in East Oakland with his wife and business manager June. One day as he’s picking up June’s prescription after her hip surgery, a force suddenly overcomes Melvin, displacing him from time itself. Meanwhile Myran Kang, Melvin and June’s preteen next door neighbor, has noticed a string of disappearances: a few unhoused people who normally set up in the park, some people at her grandmother’s nursing home, a few of the bus drivers on her normal route… She has a feeling it’s more than a coincidence but can’t get anyone to listen to her — until June disappears too. As Melvin and Myran dig deeper into the mystery, Melvin finds he’s literally able to tap into the power of Black history when under duress and access the knowledge and abilities of Black people throughout time — everyone from writers and musicians to sword fighters and acrobats, transforming Black history into an actual super power. Will it be enough for Melvin and Myran to discover and disrupt the plans of the mysterious organization disappearing people and find a way to bring them back?

You can expect our review of the first issue next week.

About the Creators

Jordan Clark has been writing comics for over a decade, with work most recently being published by DC Comics and past stories at IDW, Image Comics, and Dynamite Comics. He was also selected as an inaugural member of the Milestone Initiative at DC Comics, which is geared towards uplifting a new generation of comic creators of color. He believes fiction has the power to imagine a better world and aims to tell stories that allow readers to imagine themselves in that better future.

Atagun İlhan is a seasoned illustrator who works primarily in sequential art, fantasy art, and book illustration. He was born in Turkey and graduated with a BFA in Animation. He pursued an MFA in Illustration at Syracuse University and is a graduate of DC Comics’ Milestone Initiative program.

About AHOY Comics

AHOY Comics debuted in the fall of 2018 with the bold promise for readers to expect more from its line of comic book magazines, featuring comic book stories, poetry, prose fiction, and cartoons. Brainchild of publisher Hart Seely, editor-in-chief Tom Peyer, CCO Frank Cammuso, and Ops guy Stuart Moore, the Syracuse-based indie publisher has made its reputation on witty satires, acclaimed creators, and commitment to bold and risk-taking storytelling — with critically acclaimed titles such as THE TOXIC AVENGER by Matt Bors and Fred Harper, SECOND COMING by Mark Russell and Richard Pace, BABS by Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows, HOWL by Alisa Kwitney and Mauricet, THE WRONG EARTH by Tom Peyer and Jamal Igle, JUSTICE WARRIORS by Matt Bors and Ben Clarkson, the quirky monster anthology PROJECT: CRYPTID, and many more.

For more updates on AHOY Comics, visit them on X, Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. 

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The post EXCLUSIVE: An Eccentric Painter Taps into the Literal Power of Black History in ANCESTRAL RECALL appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.