How Do You Explain the F4’s Absence In The MCU For All This Time?

[Iron Maiden]

All I ask is just keep the story in the present and start them off with no excess baggage.

That doesn't need to mean we need to spend the entire first movie on their origin either. I'd be totally okay with, for example, starting it with the F4 already in action in some mission (maybe mole man?) before moving onto the main story where "what is the F4 and how did they become them?" is answered as the plot unfolds. Or opening with the accident that created the F4 and skipping straight to them already working as a unit. Just, please, no "stuck in the negative zone/quantum realm/time travel" or some other convoluted nonsense that simply isn't needed.

Why not? They've already done it with Janet Van Dyne haven't they?

[danielsan52]

I don’t mind them having been somewhere, perhaps stuck in another time, place, dimension but I hate the idea of them being from the 1960s.

[Iron Maiden]

I don’t mind them having been somewhere, perhaps stuck in another time, place, dimension but I hate the idea of them being from the 1960s.

No, that wouldn't work for me either. Keep them in the current MCU timeline. As mentioned earlier, It will be like being stranded on Gilligan's Island for a few years.

[Kaitou D. Kid]

And what stereotype is that? All I am saying is that she may be aware of Victor by reputation, assuming that Victor would be older than Wanda.

Knowing Victor is fine. Turning Sokovia into Latveria, though, that I'm not sure about. I feel like that continues to perpetuate the Hollywood stereotype that started in the Cold War that all Eastern European countries are essentially "same s--t". Sokovia is next to Poland and Ukraine and has has influences from there as well as Russia. Latveria however is in the Balkan region between Hungary, Romania and Serbia, and has always had more influences from there as well as some Austria (since Austria and Hungary used to be one country).

I didn't mean to come off holier-than-thou, if I did.

Wanda's link to the Romani has been on and off over the years with little consistency. Originally, Roy Thomas revealed that two Golden Age heroes Bob and Madeline Frank also known as the Whizzer and Miss America were the twins parents. And of course there was the involvement of the High Evolultionary. Django and his wife Maryja adopted the twins so they are not genetically related. If we are to accept that Magneto is her father, he is Jewish and definitely not a Roma. But even that has been on again and off again. I have to see what the outcome of the Trial of Magneto is.

It wouldn't surprise me that when Doom is introduced to the MCU they won't link him to any ethnicity at all. Now if Marvel does actually does do an origin story is faithful to the comics and does make a point of his being Romani I will be ecstatic

Hmm, didn't it come up during Uncanny Avengers?

I hope the MCU makes Doom's heritage Romani, too.

[Metro]

Doing time travel or anything rather than just having their take place in present day is stupid and pointless because it adds nothing besides trying to make the F4 keep an arbitrary nickname that isn't even accurate in the comics anymore.
Same thing with people trying retcon Sokovia as really being Latveria, it adds nothing and does nothing interesting.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

The only problem with that is that Marvel risks sending the message that all Eastern European countries are the same and not their own distinct thing, which has been a problem in a lot of Cold War movies. Latveria in 616 is located in the Balkan between Hungary and Romania and has influences from both Balkan and Austro-Hungarian cultures. Whereas Sokovia was more like Ukraine and Russia.

The reason Sokovia was created was because the MCU didn't have the rights to Wundargore, Symkaria and the other fake European states so they had to invent a new one (which has brought into 616 later anyway). Likewise the country that Ultron genocided in the comics, Slorenia, sounds too similar to an actual European micro-state like Slovenia.

Latveria in the comics was always intended as a broad Eastern European stereotype by both Kirby and Lee. The design was a kind of kitsch eternal 19th century ruritanian nation. Jack Kirby's parents were Jews who emigrated to America from the Austro-Hungarian empire which was this big state that covered Central and Eastern Europe, including the Balkan nations so it was a big melange of cultures and Kirby's mother would tell him tales about the "old country" growing up and that all fed into Latveria.

On the other hand, maybe you are right. Maybe Marvel might choose to keep Sokovia and Latveria separate.

At the expense of continuing to perpetrate a Hollywood stereotype about Eastern Europeans?

I think a much better link between Victor and Wanda is to establish they're both of Romani descent like in 616. How they each feel about that and about their heritage could be interesting.

It will be interesting if the MCU makes Victor Romani to start with. The fact is that he's the most famous Romani in comics but the most famous Romani in comics, and potentially the movies, being an Eastern European tyrant has a lot of baggage baked within it.

[cranger]

Just do their 'origin' in a post credit scene.

[Metro]

The reason Sokovia was created was because the MCU didn't have the rights to Wundargore, Symkaria and the other fake European states so they had to invent a new one (which has brought into 616 later anyway).

This sounds made up, so I'd like to see where this was said or the evidence that supports this.
I doubt I'll get either

[John Venus]

The year is 2009, the Fantastic Four is part of an experimental flight trip bankrolled by either AIM or Roxxon to observe a rare theoretical phenomenon in space called the cosmic belt. Unfortunately funding for the space operation gets pulled but Reed, insistent on his theories, decide to steal the shuttle anyway. His co workers are his best friend Ben Grim, wife and fellow scientists and they bring along Johnny Storm who recently enlisted in the military and they needed an extra hand on the ship. The ship arrives at the belt but are bombarded by cosmic rays and they almost get sucked into a worm hole. See, Reed's bosses wanted to invest in space tourism while Reed was more interested in exploring space, Reed's bosses didn't think the space craft could handle the bombardment of unknown radiation and pulled funding but Reed was too confident in his science and that his plates would hold that he went ahead with the launch anyway. Back on earth, the four realize that they've not just been transformed with superpowers but now they are about two decades ahead and in a world where superheroes were now common place. Out of guilt, Reed rebrands his fellow co workers as the 'Fantastic Four' and begins to use funding for their heroics to find a way to cure them, especially Ben and his research into the wormhole leads him to discover the Negative Zone. Do a quasi adaptation of 'This Man...This Monster' for the third act wherein one of Reed's old rivals tries to sabotage his journey into the Negative Zone but has a change of heart at the last minute. Then do a post credit scene where Doom is watching them from afar.

[youthoftoday]

They were able to skip the Spider-man origin(thankfully) because even the most casual fan knows that, but even with 2 movies, I'm not sure if everyone is familiar enough with the F4 to skip the origin completely. I want them becoming heroes in the present day, no time travel or multiverse stuff. Maybe they can pull off the origin in like a 15 minute flashback in the beginning of the movie that takes place like 6 months ago, then we jump to present day. How it goes from there is up to the smart minds at Marvel.
Also, why I don't want to use a time travel/multiverse scenario is that I think they are going to need to do something like that to introduce the X-Men.

[Iron Maiden]

Knowing Victor is fine. Turning Sokovia into Latveria, though, that I'm not sure about. I feel like that continues to perpetuate the Hollywood stereotype that started in the Cold War that all Eastern European countries are essentially "same s--t". Sokovia is next to Poland and Ukraine and has has influences from there as well as Russia. Latveria however is in the Balkan region between Hungary, Romania and Serbia, and has always had more influences from there as well as some Austria (since Austria and Hungary used to be one country).

I didn't mean to come off holier-than-thou, if I did.

No, you're OK. I just got confused by that part about stereotyping. You probably may have some concerns with it but at one time I thought it would be a good idea to liken Latveria to what Yugoslavia went through after Tito's death. And in the chaos Doom would step in to take control. It just would be a fun scene to see Doom kill the corrupt reigning ruler of Latveria by dropping of the the highest turret in the royal Castle as he did with Prince Zorba when he regained the throne in Byrne's Fantastic Four after being deposed in FF #200

I am disappointed that so far there has been no mention of a country called Latveria in the MCU unless I missed it. At least the Fox films did. In Trank's movie you have to look fast because there is one scene were someone is looking at Victor's dossier and it does give Latveria as his homeland.

Hmm, didn't it come up during Uncanny Avengers?

I hope the MCU makes Doom's heritage Romani, too.

Sadly, I think Disney/Marvel will avoid giving us a Doom that true to one Stan and Jack gave us. They may consider it too controversial.

It's been a while since I read Uncanny Avengers so I will have to check into that.

[Iron Maiden]

The year is 2009, the Fantastic Four is part of an experimental flight trip bankrolled by either AIM or Roxxon to observe a rare theoretical phenomenon in space called the cosmic belt. Unfortunately funding for the space operation gets pulled but Reed, insistent on his theories, decide to steal the shuttle anyway. His co workers are his best friend Ben Grim, wife and fellow scientists and they bring along Johnny Storm who recently enlisted in the military and they needed an extra hand on the ship. The ship arrives at the belt but are bombarded by cosmic and they almost get sucked into a worm hole. See Reed's bosses wanted to invest in space tourism while Reed was more interested in exploring space, Reed's bosses didn't think the space craft could handle the bombardment of unknown but Reed was too confident in his discoveries. Back on earth, the four realize that they've not just been transformed with superpowers but now they are about two decades ahead and in a world where superheroes were now common place. Out of guilt, Reed rebrands his fellow co workers as the 'Fantastic Four' and begins to use funding for their heroics to find a way to cure them, especially Ben and his research into the wormhole leads him to discover the Negative Zone. Do a quasi adaptation of 'This Man...This Monster' for the third act wherein one of Reed's old rivals tries to sabotage his journey into the Negative Zone but has a change of heart at the last minute. Then do a post credit scene where Doom is watching them from afar.

Hmmmm. ..... I think this could work

[Metro]

I'll be entirely fine if they just flat out ignore Doom.
He's the exact definition of character wank.

[JudicatorPrime]

Would it be asking too much, I wonder, to have the Impossible Man appear in the MCU along with the FF? Someone to add a little quirky comic relief to the doom and gloom.

[John Venus]

Please no. I really dislike the Impossible Man.

I always found him annoying. I have no problem with Bat mite or Mxy from DC but somehow Marvel's version of a 5th dimensional imp left a bad taste in my mouth.