A new Marvel tie-in has quietly changed how the Fantastic Four got their powers. The update also raises questions about Doctor Doom‘s place in the MCU timeline. Marvel avoided retelling the team’s beginnings in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but a companion comic has now added details that could affect future stories.
Fantastic Four: First Foes explains how the MCU team got their powers
Fantastic Four: First Foes #1 quietly rewrites a key part of the team’s origin. In this version, Reed Richards and the rest of the crew didn’t sneak off in a stolen spacecraft as they did in the classic comics. Instead, they were part of an official government-backed mission to study cosmic rays. Things went sideways when the radiation breached the ship’s protection systems and ended up giving the team their powers.
The tie-in also puts a new spin on Doctor Renè Rodin, the man who eventually becomes the Mad Thinker. According to the comic, Rodin was one of Reed’s professors and even played a major role in organizing the mission. He later helped bring the crew safely back to Earth, turning him into something of a public hero before his eventual transformation into a villain (via Direct).
As the years passed, Renè Rodin became increasingly bitter about the Fantastic Four stealing the spotlight and eventually became the Mad Thinker. The comic reveals that Reed later brushed off his former mentor’s failure by saying the villain’s calculations had been “incomplete.”
What’s even more interesting, though, is how little Doctor Doom factors into the story. The Fantastic Four: First Steps drops nods to several iconic foes. It includes Mole Man, Puppet Master, Diablo, and Red Ghost, yet Doom is almost nowhere to be found. Even the seat reserved for Latveria at the Future Foundation is left empty
This might appear odd because most alternate comic versions, along with both Fox movie franchises, made Victor von Doom a central part of the Fantastic Four’s origin story. The MCU seems to be taking a different path, with the Mad Thinker filling some of that narrative space instead. That could mean Robert Downey Jr.’s Doctor Doom either comes from another universe or simply hasn’t crossed paths with the team yet.
Originally reported by Rishabh Shandilya on SuperHeroHype.
