Why Fantastic Four and Superman Just Worked: A Story of Family, Humanity, and the Return of Feeling

There are moments in culture where the right story arrives at the right time—and something shifts. Maybe not drastically. Maybe not loudly. But people feel it. They resonate with it. They keep coming back to it.

That’s what we saw with Fantastic Four and James Gunn’s Superman. Two films with wildly different heroes, different tones, and different legacies—but somehow, both cut through the noise and connected. Why?

The answer may not be about superpowers. It may be about sincerity.

PART I: Fantastic Four and the Quiet Power of Family

The MCU has spent the last decade building galaxies. But somewhere in that vastness, people got lost. Not just the characters—but the viewers too. Lately, many MCU entries have felt more like obligations than opportunities. Everything tied to everything. Sequels setting up sequels. And plots stitched together with multiversal threads.

But Fantastic Four did something countercultural: it slowed down.

It’s a self-contained film. A movie that doesn't require 15 hours of pre-watch homework or an encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel lore. If you’ve never heard of the MCU, you could walk into Fantastic Four, sit down, and simply enjoy a good story about a family that loves, fights, grows, and learns. That’s rare.

More importantly, that’s needed.

Because underneath the suits and powers is something even more potent: the theme of family. Real, imperfect, layered family. A family bound not by blood alone but by shared struggle and chosen commitment. And that’s the heartbeat of the film.

This same emotional architecture is what made Thunderbolts successful as well. It too was a self-contained story rooted in broken people trying to build something whole—emphasizing connection over continuity, and loyalty over legacy.

People showed up for these movies because, consciously or not, they were drawn to that energy. Because in 2025, we are lonelier than we’ve ever been. Social media connects us to content, but not to one another. Friendships feel more digital than rooted. Eye contact feels like a lost art. So when a film shows us family—messy, protective, healing—it wakes something up in us.

It reminds us of what we miss. What we want. What we need.

Fantastic Four succeeded because it didn’t try to be everything. It tried to be real. And people noticed.

PART II: Superman and the Art of Being Human

If Fantastic Four gave us family, James Gunn’s Superman gave us vulnerability.

And to understand why that matters, we have to talk about tone.

Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel was many things: epic, cinematic, bold. But it was also a story about an alien. A being from another world dropped into ours. Snyder’s camera looked at Superman the way a scientist might look at a meteor—powerful, unpredictable, untouchable. And that worked, for what it was. It asked: “What would happen if a god came to Earth?” And then answered with weight and scale and philosophical consequence.

But James Gunn asked a different question: “What if a kid from Kansas grew up to be a hero?”

The result is a Superman story that feels less like watching a deity and more like watching a brother, a son, a friend. Gunn doesn’t ignore Clark Kent’s powers, but he prioritizes his heart. We see Superman make mistakes. We see him doubt. We see him try. And we root for him not because he’s invincible—but because he’s trying to do the right thing with what he’s been given.

Where Snyder leaned into myth, Gunn leaned into humanity. And that choice changes everything.

The tone is brighter—not just visually, but emotionally. The world of Gunn’s Superman feels like it belongs to a comic book. It’s not trying to rationalize itself into the real world. It’s not asking us to believe in aliens landing on Earth tomorrow. It’s inviting us into a world where hope can fly—and we believe it because it’s honest, not because it’s realistic.

That openness makes room for connection. And connection makes room for investment.

It’s not about which version is better. It’s about which version speaks to this moment. And right now, after years of darkness, grit, and stoicism—we were ready for a hero who smiles. A hero who cares. A hero who bleeds and believes.

Two very different stories. Two very different tones. But the reason Fantastic Four and Superman worked is the same:

They gave us something to feel.
They gave us someone to care about.
They gave us a reason to believe again.

“Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another.” — Romans 12:10