The Fantastic Four and their universe
Franklin Richards
Alive, roughly four years old, with reality-altering power nobody understands
- Appearances
- 1
Along the chronological spine
Where the guide talks about them (3)
Galactus is a cosmic entity who consumes planets. He isn't evil in a moral sense — he describes an insatiable hunger he cannot refuse, and he predates the current universe. He wants Franklin Richards because Franklin's cosmic potential could take on that hunger permanently: a successor who would free him.
| Character | Premiered | Appeared in | Status now |
|---|---|---|---|
| Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm | First Steps (2025) | First Steps | Alive. Sue died and was resurrected by her son. All four D |
| Franklin Richards | First Steps (2025) | First Steps | Alive, roughly four years old, with reality-altering power nobody understands |
| Victor von Doom | First Steps (2025, mid-credits) | First Steps | Active — the antagonist of Doomsday. D |
| Galactus | First Steps (2025) | First Steps | Banished through a portal, not killed |
| Shalla-Bal / Silver Surfer | First Steps (2025) | First Steps | Alive, freed from Galactus's service |
And the one thing most worth carrying into December: Doom is not a villain-of-the-week. In the comics he is the Fantastic Four's antagonist first, and the fact that First Steps ends with him standing silently over Franklin Richards is the actual load-bearing setup — more than anything in Quantumania or Loki. Watch that mid-credits scene twice.