Difficult as the process surely is for Shakman and his team, the fans certainly appreciate it. The previous attempt at visualizing Galactus in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer remains one of the most embarrassing moments in superhero movie history. For all the warnings provided by the Silver Surfer (voiced by Laurence Fishburne and physically performed by Doug Jones) about the threat posed by Galactus, the being only appears in the form of a cloud, which only takes the shape of his signature helmet. Or perhaps he is a great Kirby-esque being hidden inside a cloud? It’s intentionally vague.
Although irritating, the Galactus cloud fell in line with the approach taken by most superhero movies of that era. Use the names and basic concepts from the comics, but strip away everything else. Thus we get Batman in body armor blowing up buildings full of people and the X-Men in black leather.
All of that changed when Kevin Feige inaugurated the MCU in 2008, making movies that embraced comic book wackiness. More recently, however, Marvel’s garnered a reputation for shoddy aesthetics, making movies and television shows that fall far short of the source material’s visuals despite spending millions and overworking animators past ethical limits.
For that reason, it’s easy to imagine that the Galactus who appears in the finished version of First Steps would be much like the Galactus who shows up at the end of the sizzle reel footage leaked last summer. Giant and comics-accurate, complete with the improbable purple headpiece designed by Kirby back in the mid-’60s, and all rendered in CGI. It’s easy to imagine a final stand-off not unlike those in Captain America: Brave New World or Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, with actors making faces as they float weightlessly through badly-composited artificial environments.
To be sure, that might still be the case. But at least Shakman’s making Galactus a real person in a real suit on a real set. One of many, in fact, according to the EW report. Marvel has built practical sets for Reed’s high-tech lab and for Yancy Street, the Thing’s New York neighborhood. Ebon Moss-Bachrach wears a costume as the Thing, and the team’s robot assistant H.E.R.B.I.E. is a remote controlled machine that interacts with the actors.
Honestly, it wouldn’t take much to improve on the previous four Fantastic Four live action films, all of which have their shortcomings. But the combination of a comic book accurate Galactus and practical sets gives us hope that the World Devourer’s arrival will be as terrifying as it has been in our imaginations.
