Who Should Be The Villain For The First MCU F4 Film?

[Amadeus Arkham]

Who should be the bad guy for the first MCU F4 film?

[gurkle]

I voted Diablo because of the callback to the way John Byrne's run started and because I approve of Feige's Spider-Man policy of starting with villains who haven't been used in a movie before.

[Tulku]

I went with Annihilus, but only because "Paste-Pot Pete" was not a choice.

[Jabare]

Moleman. y'all know why

[Huntsman Spider]

So many good choices, but I'd start with Mad Thinker, who sees himself (or herself, as some adaptations have been female, like Ultimate Fantastic Four or Iron Man: Armored Adventures) as a "superior mind" to Reed Richards and is determined to prove that at any cost, including the cost to sanity, morality, and eventually humanity (his or her own, as well as the human race in general). I would rather the MCU Fantastic Four build up to a proper Doctor Doom appearance as opposed to blowing their shot on him in the first film, having the Mad Thinker ultimately be an unwitting agent or pawn of Doom trying to test the Fantastic Four, especially his erstwhile college friend-turned-rival Reed Richards, or as a would-be obstacle for Doom's own agenda for the Fantastic Four that Doom secretly has dispatched once the FF have successfully bested him/her.

The same could happen with the Frightful Four in the second FF movie, assembled by the Wizard in the belief that matching the Fantastic Four's numbers, along with his own "superior genius" in comparison to Reed, will be the key to beating the FF, only for them to again be either unwitting agents of or would-be roadblocks to Doom's own quest to destroy Reed that Doom ends up covertly disposing of, whether for their failure or because they came too close to succeeding.

The third movie would reveal Doom and the tangled web that is his rivalry with Reed to the Fantastic Four, although the arrival of Annihilus from the Negative Zone would force them to come together in an "enemy of my enemy" situation, since the FF want to protect Earth and Doom wants to rule Earth, and neither can succeed in their respective goals if Annihilus goes off and completely ravages the planet. Of course, Doom then somehow wrests the Cosmic Control Rod held by Annihilus from Annihilus, and the Fantastic Four have to fight and stop him at the climax of the film, though naturally, Doom swears this is just the beginning, not the end, for their feud. Oh, and throw in a Kang the Conqueror connection or cameo, seeing that in the comics proper, Kang is potentially the future descendant of either Reed or Doom, or both Reed and Doom and thus could be used to hint at or show the Fantastic Four's future legacy.

[Chris0013]

Mole Man. Keep Doom in the back ground til the 3rd movie.

[Frontier]

I'm betting on Mole Man.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Mole Man makes a lot of sense. Because you establish the Four as explorers, you have a threat and an environment where you can have all Four unleash their powers (Thing can go nuts against the Moloids) and the concept of "journey to the center of Earth" has a touch of a disaster movie and thriller to it and that's a hook you can run with for the F4.

Puppetmaster is another option because obviously if you do the Fantastic Four's origin than The Thing has to be the main character because he's the tragic figure in that story and connecting Thing's transformation with the love story with Alicia Masters the blind sculptor and her father is a great hook.

All the others are either:
-- characters who aren't big enough to command a movie where all four should use their powers in a believable expansive setting: Mad Thinker, Red Ghost, Psycho Man, Diablo.

-- characters who are way too big to introduce in the origin: Doctor Doom, Galactus, Annihilus.

[Frontier]

Mole Man makes a lot of sense. Because you establish the Four as explorers, you have a threat and an environment where you can have all Four unleash their powers (Thing can go nuts against the Moloids) and the concept of "journey to the center of Earth" has a touch of a disaster movie and thriller to it and that's a hook you can run with for the F4.

Puppetmaster is another option because obviously if you do the Fantastic Four's origin than The Thing has to be the main character because he's the tragic figure in that story and connecting Thing's transformation with the love story with Alicia Masters the blind sculptor and her father is a great hook.

All the others are either:
-- characters who aren't big enough to command a movie where all four should use their powers in a believable expansive setting: Mad Thinker, Red Ghost, Psycho Man, Diablo.

-- characters who are way too big to introduce in the origin: Doctor Doom, Galactus, Annihilus.

Not to mention Mole Man was the first villain the FF ever fought. Just like how Watts used Vulture in Homecoming.

[Mike_Murdock]

I voted Annihilus for a Negative Zone storyline, but I also like the idea of Mole Man - go with the classic choice.

[BlackClaw]

Mole Man. Doom should be another big overarching threat like Thanos or Kang.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Not to mention Mole Man was the first villain the FF ever fought. Just like how Watts used Vulture in Homecoming.

Chameleon was the first supervillain Spider-Man fought in ASM#1, Vulture was second place, coming in the second issue.

To be honest, I wouldn't put Jon Watts' taste and center it so much, the fact is that the reason Spider-Man fought Vulture in Homecoming wasn't ought of some pedantic dedication to continuity but because he was a villain mooted in the abandoned and scrapped Spider-Man 4 and was kicked around for a while and they just did a sequel TASM-2 where they featured Green Goblin and his legacy as a major threat and screwed up the Gwen Stacy Dies story, which means they needed to shelve the goblin for a while.

The reason for using Mole Man now is that the Fantastic Four have never been properly introduced and adapted well in any of the movies before, all four of them have featured Doctor Doom (with Rise of Silver Surfer featuring a floating gas cloud vaguely in Galactus' shape), Fantastic Four 2015 also had the Negative Zone as the basis for their powers (using Ultimate Fantastic Four as a resource).

So if you need to do FF in the movies first, you need to focus on the 4 and get them right as a team. The best way to do that is feature a villain who's visually interesting in action and environment but not psychologically big enough to take focus away from them...Mole Man fits. And besides audiences would vaguely recognize Mole Man because the character and his name has had a pop-culture imprint (Hans Moleman in Simpsons is named after him, The Underminer at the end of Incredibles 1 is also the same guy) and having a "fun villain" would be a nice change of piece from the bar-room philosophy 101 rejects you see among Marvel bad guys lately.

[Somecrazyaussie]

I say Mole Man first or perhaps Annihilus (either Subterranea or Negative Zone to display the F4 as explorers). Then do Puppet Master in the second (especially if Alicia is introduced in the first film).

Doom, as great as he is, needs to come later. Galactus and Silver Surfer too. Purely because the former has been used in all the adaptations to date and the latter two were in one of the crappiest Superhero films going.

[Crimz]

Mole Man.

The first film should be about establishing the team, so the focus should be on them and therefore the villain needs to be simple. Mole Man is a simple and recognizable villain that doesn't need a big backstory and his monsters provide a real threat to the team, and one not often seen in the MCU. The MCU haven't had anyone tackle Kaiju-like monsters before. Also, going to Subterranea shows the teams adventure aspect that every previous film attempt has completely failed to do.

He ticks all the right boxes for a first villain. It would also be nice that he's their first villain both in comics and in the MCU.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Gotta say when I voted for Mole Man I didn't really think he'd be such a consensus pick. It's kinda cool.