Polygon.com / 30.07.25

Fantastic Four: First Steps has an Eternals problem in Doctor Doom

Before Marvel Studios widely derided movie Eternals hit theaters, it faced a range of challenges. It came shortly after 2019s massive Phase 3 climax Avengers: Endgame, and before the Marvel Cinematic Universe defined or built a meaningful hook into Phase 4. Eternals release was delayed by COVID, and affected by critically low post-COVID theater attendance. It centers on comparatively obscure characters who werent interacting with any previous MCU superheroes or plotlines. And its dour, self-important, and stiff compared to the best MCU movies. Still, once the Marvel faithful saw it, another concern trumped those previous ones, and came to define the Eternals conversation. Fans kept asking, Where the hell were all of these supposed planetary-protectors during Endgame, or Avengers: Age of Ultron, or any of the other world-threatening crises that stood to interfere with their supposed core mission? The latest MCU movie, Fantastic Four: First Steps, has a much smaller version of the Eterna...
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