Marvel Studios has outdone itself again with “The Fantastic Four: First Steps” [spoiler alert].  At the heart of the plot is the importance of family life—centered on the child to be born.

The movie briefly explains how four astronauts turn into super-heroes via cosmic rays while in space, Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), his wife Sue (Invisible Woman), her brother Johnny (Human Torch), and their best friend Ben (The Thing). They form the Fantastic Four, more of a family than a team.  Early in the movie it’s revealed that after a prolonged struggle to get pregnant, Sue is finally expecting. The family of four rejoices—number five is on his way.

Enter Galactus, a planet-consuming supervillain from outer space with extraordinary power rivalling that of an ancient pagan god. Thanks to Galactus’ messenger, a female Silver Surfer who travels through space on a surfboard, the earth learns that it’s next on the menu.  Our four heroes spring into action and decide to head Galactus off at the pass—deep in space. They manage an audience, and Galactus agrees to spare the earth in exchange for Reed and Sue’s unborn child, due at any moment. Apparently, the child has sufficient power to enable him to replace and relieve Galactus of his own undesirable journey of perennial planetary consumption. Our family of four balks and are, barely, able to escape Galactus and the Surfer.

Once back on earth our heroes reveal that Galactus is still coming to consume the earth and that they rejected sacrificing their son (born on the return trip to earth) to save the planet. Naturally, a frightened society thinks it a reasonable exchange—the child for the world. In perhaps the film’s central moment, Sue declares to a worried crowd, “I will not sacrifice my child for the world; nor will I sacrifice the world for my child.”  Our four heroes now mobilize the world to fight Galactus. Plan A fails, but eventually the four lure Galactus into a trap that sends him far from earth and unable to return, but not before Sue dies in expending all her energy to protect Franklin, her infant, from the supervillain. After failing to resuscitate his wife, Reed places the crying baby on Sue’s body, and through some power of his own, the baby shocks his mother back to life—a defibrillating hug of sorts.

There are several lessons here.  Let’s focus on three: the fear behind child sacrifice, the mystery of the child, and the gift of the child.

Firstly, Galactus represents a pagan god not only in his power but in what he demands—a type of human sacrifice to spare the earth.  Human sacrifices and specifically the sacrifice of children to pagan gods was common in numerous pre-Christian cultures. The same held true in the Old Testament, with the Canaanites sacrificing their children to Baal (see Jeremiah 19:5). The idea was to appease the gods. If there was no sacrifice, there might be a drought or some other calamity. The motivation was fear.

Even our four face an Abraham-like dilemma, knowing that only their child would draw Galactus into their trap. Like Isaac, however, the child is spared.

Today, fear is a prime motivator of abortion. As one pro-life blogger put it, statistics show that women don’t have abortions because they don’t want a baby but because “they don’t believe they have the support they need to raise a child.” Sue found that support from her family, which enabled her to resist both Galactus and societal pressure to do otherwise. As a Church, we must continue to support women who find themselves alone in a crisis pregnancy.

Secondly, the child is a mystery. Due to their superpowers, Reed, a scientific genius, is particularly concerned that the baby is born healthy. At one point, he tells his infant son that he’s tried to figure him out and that “you will just have to show me who you are.” The child is not an object to be calculated and managed, but a person to encounter.  Parental responsibility notwithstanding, a mother and father stand before the enigma of their child’s personality, gifts, and vocation—all given by God, and all to be gradually revealed.

Finally, when the baby saves his mother’s life, he represents the amazing gift every newborn is to his parents and to the world. The child’s need inspires generosity in the parents and siblings. Children’s innocence helps the parents and grandparents renew their own childlike simplicity. Even one-time atheist and communist, Whitiker Chambers, became a believer after contemplating the intricate beauty of his infant’s ears, which “were not created by any chance.”’ It has been said that every newborn child is a sign that God has not given up on humanity. How much life, grace, and joy a baby brings to a family!

Family values are omnipresent in this movie. There is no sense of it being ‘preachy,’ it simply tells a beautiful story. Through super-hero-level challenges, our foursome knows itself blessed with the fifth and smallest member.  Even saving the world seemed to take second place in their joy.  Marvel might have to rebrand the sequel to “The Fantastic Family of Five.”

Your Friend in Christ,

Fr. John Bullock, LC
Author of the RC Essay A Heart Like Jesus: A Regnum Christi Essay on Contemplating and Imitating Jesus and book A Cyclist’s Spirituality – Spiritual lessons learned from riding a bike.