Marvel Is Reprinting These Classic Fantastic 4 Comics — Do They Hint at The Fantastic Four: First Steps Plot?

In 1961, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby birthed the Marvel Age of Comics with The Fantastic Four #1. The issue introduced the quartet who would be bombarded by cosmic rays during an unsanctioned space flight at the height of the Space Race: scientific genius Reed Richards, his fiancée Sue Storm, her kid brother Johnny Storm, and test pilot Ben Grimm. After finding themselves transformed by the cosmic radiation that gave them their powers, they named themselves the Fantastic Four: stretchy and super-malleable Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the blazing-hot Human Torch, and the orange, rocky-hided man-monster the Thing.

Over the first dozen issues published between 1961 and 1962, the adventurers faced such threats as the Mole Man and his subterranean army of monsters, the alien shape-shifters the Skrulls, the resurfaced Namor the Sub-Mariner, and Reed’s university nemesis Victor Von Doom, who became the metal-masked monarch called Doctor Doom.

RELATED: Everything We Know About Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps Movie

The foursome would eventually gain their matching uniforms, Baxter Building base, and their flying Fantasti-Car (in The Fantastic Four #3), and subsequent adventures would pit the dysfunctional family against the likes of the hypnotizing magician Miracle Man, the would-be conqueror Kurrgo from Planet X, the mind-controlling Puppet Master, the molecule-manipulating Impossible Man, the Incredible Hulk, and the diabolical duo of Namor and Doctor Doom.

Starting with Fantastic Four #1 on Jan. 8, Marvel Comics will reprint the first 12 issues of The Fantastic Four as facsimile editions — exact replicas complete with the magazine’s original advertisements. The Fantastic Four Facsimile Editions are timed to the release of Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps movie, which is set in a 1960s-inspired, retro-futuristic world and brings Marvel’s First Family into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Director Matt Shakman has named the classic Lee-Kirby run of Fantastic Four as one of the influences on First Steps (along with John Byrne, who wrote and penciled the title for five years during the 1980s, and more recent runs scripted by Mark Waid, Ryan North, and Secret Wars architect Jonathan Hickman).

Recently revealed plot details teased that the family of imaginauts — Reed Richards/Mister Fantastic (Pedro Pascal), Sue Storm/Invisible Woman (Vanessa Kirby), Johnny Storm/Human Torch (Joseph Quinn), and Ben Grimm/the Thing (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) — will “face their most daunting challenge yet”: the planet-devouring space god Galactus (Ralph Ineson) and his cosmic-powered herald, the Silver Surfer (Julia Garner).

While the Eater of Worlds and his herald, Norrin Radd, didn’t debut until 1966’s Fantastic Four #48 — part of the Galactus Trilogy that helped define the 108-issue Lee-Kirby run on the book that introduced such colorful characters as Agatha Harkness, the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android, the Soviet supervillain Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, and the Black Panther — the reprints could hint at some of the other characters who might appear in First Steps.

RELATED: How to Watch Every Marvel Movie and TV Show in Order on Disney+

John Malkovich (Space Force), Paul Walter Hauser (Inside Out 2), and Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face) have been cast in undisclosed roles, and it’s unknown who is voicing the Fantastic Four’s robot sidekick H.E.R.B.I.E. Malkovich could be playing Puppet Master (who debuted in 1962’s Fantastic Four #8 alongside his step-daughter, Alicia Masters, a blind woman who falls in love with the Thing), with Lyonne playing Alicia. Hauser might be Harvey Elder, a.k.a. Mole Man, the subterranean supervillain who made his debut in the pages of Fantastic Four #1 as the first villain to battle the newly-formed Fantastic Four when they traveled to Monster Isle and the Mole Man’s kingdom of Subterranea.

Another possibility: Robert Downey Jr. as Doctor Doom. The Iron Man actor will be returning to the MCU as Victor von Doom in 2026’s Avengers: Doomsday and 2027’s Avengers: Secret Wars, inspired by the 2015 storyline of the same name that saw the arch-nemesis of the Fantastic Four reign as God Emperor Doom after the destruction of the multiverse.

The Fantastic Four Facsimile Editions will release monthly starting with Fantastic Four #1 on Jan. 8. Marvel’s The Fantastic Four: First Steps premieres in theaters July 25, 2025.

The Fantastic Four #1 Facsimile Edition

First appearance and origin of the Fantastic Four (Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Girl, the Human Torch, the Thing) and the Mole Man.

The Fantastic Four #2 Facsimile Edition

First appearance of the Skrulls.

The Fantastic Four #3 Facsimile Edition

The Fantastic Four debut their “4” uniforms for the first time; the issue also features the debut of the Baxter Building, the Fantasti-Car, and Miracle Man.

The Fantastic Four #4 Facsimile Edition

The Fantastic Four encounter Namor the Sub-Mariner, who makes his first Marvel Age appearance in the modern age — decades after his first official appearance in 1939’s Marvel Comics #1. This also also marks the first use of the “World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” branding.

The Fantastic Four #5 Facsimile Edition

Doctor Doom makes his first appearance and becomes the Fantastic Four’s frequent nemesis. ‘Nuff said.

The Fantastic Four #6 Facsimile Edition

Following Doom’s defeat and escape in the previous issue, he forms a “diabolical duo” with Namor to get their revenge against the Fantastic Four.

The Fantastic Four #7 Facsimile Edition

The Fantastic Four travel to “Planet X” (Xantha) and save the inhabitants of Xantha from Kurrgo and his mentally-controlled robot.

The Fantastic Four #8 Facsimile Edition

This issue introduces Alicia Master and her step-father, Phillip Masters, who uses a unique form of radioactive modeling clay to create puppets which can control the living persons they’re modeled after. Puppet Master would become one of the FF’s recurring foes, while Alicia would become Ben’s girlfriend — and eventual wife.

The Fantastic Four #9 Facsimile Edition

Forced to declare bankruptcy due to their financial troubles, the Fantastic Four accept an offer to star in a movie for “SM Studios.” The Namor-owned movie studio turns out to be a ploy of Namor’s to destroy the male members of the Fantastic Four and take Sue as his bride, but when the Fantastic Four defeat the Sub-Mariner once more, he honors the deal and the subsequent blockbuster reverses their fortunes.

The Fantastic Four #10 Facsimile Edition

In “The Return of Doctor Doom,” the villain uses his newfound ability to switch bodies to swap his mind with Reed’s. Doom impersonates Reed, but he’s eventually found out and is once again defeated by the Fantastic Four.

The Fantastic Four #11 Facsimile Edition

The issue introduces the Impossible Man, an impish alien from the planet Poppup who can change his body into anything with just a thought.

The Fantastic Four #12 Facsimile Edition

In another first, the Fantastic Four meet the Hulk when U.S. Army General Thaddeus “Thunderbolt” Ross enlists the four to find and destroy the monstrous Hulk. The issue also marks the first appearance of the four-sectioned Fantasti-Car Mark II, which no longer resembled “a flying bathtub.” The Fantastic Four fight the Hulk to a standstill, but their mutual enemy is Karl Kort: the “Wrecker” who is sabotaging military bases and letting the Hulk take the blame.