Four heroes, each with amazing powers. One with remarkable strength; another can turn herself invisible; the next has a body that can stretch in odd configurations; and the last leaves a trail of flames as he zooms by. Remarkable as these abilities certainly are, the quartet’s most important quality is the love they share for one another. Because, more than superheroes, these four are family. That description applies to Marvel‘s first family the Fantastic Four, whose shared affection (and occasional antagonism) is on full display in the latest trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. However, it also describes Disney‘s first superhero family, as seen in the Pixar film The Incredibles. Although some people might prefer the red-attired quartet over the group in blue, the similarities between the two superhero teams is a good thing. First Family? Voiced by Craig T. Nelson, Mr. Incredible introduced himself to the world in a teaser released in 2003. The two-minute clip opened with nostalgic shots of the hero in his glory days, inspirational images matched by a soaring score. We see Mr. Incredible suiting up, proudly pulling on his gloves and mask. But the tone changes abruptly when he gets to his belt, which no longer fits over his protruding gut. That short clip identifies the central emotional spine of the finished movie. Written and directed by Brad Bird, The Incredibles finds Bob Parr in the midst of a midlife crisis. Worried that his glory days are behind him and dissatisfied by his dull office job, Bob puts his own needs above those of his wife and children when an alluring stranger allows him to recapture his youth. Of course all of this suburban strife plays out less in the form of troubling self-medication and more as superhero adventurism, complete with discovering a volcano lair and a rampaging robot. Remembering that teaser and the focus on a midlife crisis does a lot to dissuade folks convinced that The Incredibles ripped off the Fantastic Four, despite having a family of superheroes, three quarters of whom share similar power sets. Bird claims the similarities between his team and the FF were entirely unintentional, stating that he drew more overtly from James Bond movies (thus the ’60s setting, the volcano lair, and Michael Giacchino’s jaunty Monty Norman-inspired score). In fact, the only comic book Bird acknowledges is Watchmen, which also has a plot about the government outlawing superheroes, and even then calls it a coincidence. That said, The Incredibles felt similar enough to the Fantastic Four that producers at 20th Century Fox were compelled to rework their 2005 take on the Marvel heroes. In particular, they found Bird’s depiction of Elasti-Girl’s (Holly Hunter) stretching powers so impressive that they needed to reimagine the way their Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) used his abilities. Obviously, it wasn’t enough as The Incredibles remains one of the greatest superhero movies of all time while 2005’s Fantastic Four is only defended by contrarians or victims of nostalgia. Moreover, it doesn’t really matter if Bird took direct inspiration from Stan Lee and Jack Kirby or if he just happened on the same territory. What is important is how The Incredibles highlights the best parts of the Fantastic Four. Family First. Late in The Incredibles, Mr. Incredible snaps. A shadow covers his face and he grabs Mirage (Elizabeth Peña), the assistant of supervillain Syndrome (Jason Lee), and threatens to kill her. What accounts for this sudden change in tone? Simple. He just overheard a message from his wife Helen, stating that she and her children (Sarah Vowell and Spencer Fox) were flying in a plane over Syndrome’s island, a plane that was just destroyed. Without his family, Mr. Incredible turned into a violent monster. Early in Jonathan Hickman’s influential run on Fantastic Four, Reed Richards uses a multiversal bridge to encounter the Council of Reeds, an organization filled with all of his variants. While the Reeds initially help one another to solve every problem, the main Reed soon gets unsettled by their utilitarian coldness. They reveal a willingness to sacrifice innocents in pursuit of their goals. Eventually, Reed realizes the difference between himself and these other selves; the thing that makes him caring and them as cruel as Doctor Doom. This Reed still has his Sue, still has his brother-in-law Johnny, and his best friend Ben. He has two children in Franklin and Valeria while the other Reeds considered their families a distraction from the real work. In Hickman’s hands—and indeed those of the great Fantastic Four creators, starting with Lee and Kirby—Reed’s family is the source of his heroism, not a distraction. It leads to a wonderful conclusion in which the mere existence of Franklin and Valeria allows Earth-616 Reed to succeed where the others failed. Join our mailing list Get the best of Den of Geek delivered right to your inbox! However, with the exception of the unreleased 1996 movie, none of the Fantastic Four movies that came before emphasized the family element. Neither Gruffudd nor co-star Jessica Alba had the chemistry to make Reed and Sue feel like a loving, supportive couple in 2005’s Fantastic Four or its 2007 sequel. Worse the 2015 movie leans hard into darkness, so that even brother and sister Johnny and Sue (Michael B. Jordan and Kate Mara) feel like enemies. The Incredibles foregrounds heroes as family, setting a high bar that no Fantastic Four film to date has cleared. Family Forever The latest trailer for The Fantastic Four: First Steps features lots of intergalactic adventure, including our first look at Julia Garner as the Silver Surfer and Galactus’ foot, stomping through the city like he’s Godzilla. But the center of the trailer is on more mundane issues, namely the quartet’s excitement over Sue’s pregnancy. That combination of the mundane and the superheroic certainly exists in the comics. But it took The Incredibles to put the mixture on screen, opening the way for the Fantastic Four to take its next steps and become the legendary team they’re meant to be. The Fantastic Four: First Steps arrives in theaters on July 25, 2025.