10 Most Essential Characters In The Marvel Cinematic Universe
10. The Fantastic Four
One of the greatest achievements of the Marvel collection of 1960s titles was the establishment of this super-hero team. Not only did this book contain an abundance of characters with separate and interesting lives to create stories from, but also with the rest of the Marvel comic universe. This was an anchor team that had relationships with virtually every major player or group in the continuum and holds a similar promise for characters in the MCU. Located in the heart of New York, the Fantastic Four regularly encountered Spider-Man, was called in by the city to assist with issues like the Hulk, or to team up with the Avengers. Reed Richards scientific prowess was highly respected by the other scientists in the Avengers or by the scientific community at large. Even the second Fantastic Four movie (based on the Ultimates version of the FF) demonstrated just how essential they are as Reed Richards stands up to Nick Fury and reminds him that even though hes the menial pencil pushing geek and Fury is the jock at the top of the social food chain hes the one whos got the girl and is the only one who knows how to save the world. Think about forays into the Negative Zone, cooperation with the US Military to defend against the savage surface invasions by the Mole Man; meeting with the Watcher or the stand-off against Galactus are other examples of how integral the Fantastic Four are to the Marvel Universe. All of these take place in the heart of Manhattan, a central location for all the events of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. If anything is going to happen there, the FF is the natural choice for any tie-in stories to occur. You cant take the Fantastic Four out of the MCU.
John Kirk is a Teacher-Librarian and currently a History/English Teacher with the Toronto District School Board.
But mostly, John teaches Geek.
Comics, Sci-Fi (Notably Star Trek), Fantasy and Role-Playing and table-top games all make up part of John’s repertoire, There is a whole generation of nerds-in-embryo who rely on him to make sense of it all, to teach that with great power comes great responsibility, that the force will be with us always and that a towel IS the most useful thing to have in one’s possession.
When John isn’t in the classroom, he can be found in his basement writing comic reviews for www.popmythology.com and features for Roddenberry Entertainment's www.1701news.com.
