If there’s one thing that the promotion for Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps has made clear, it’s that the new movie is lifting heavily from the 1960s era the characters were first created in, to create a retro-future take on Marvel’s First Family. Before you head to the theater to check out Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny, perhaps you owe it to yourself to get as immersed in the era as the movie’s creators did. Ladies, gentlemen, and everyone else, may I present for your consideration: three mid-20th century sci-fi classics.

This is For Your Consideration, in which we try to come to terms with the inescapable fact that, honestly, there’s too much out there to have time to watch, read, or hear everything — by making some suggestions about things that you might have overlooked but would enjoy, anyway. Think of it as recommendations from a well-meaning friend.

First Man into Space has the transformative powers of The Fantastic Four: First Stepa

Two years before Yuri Gagarin became the first man in space — and Marvel’s FF got superpowers by trying to reach the moon — this MGM sci-fi classic laid the groundwork for both in the public consciousness. Air Force Space Command pilot Dan Prescott is set to be a test pilot on an experimental flight but things go wrong when he pushes too far… and he (spoilers) becomes transformed into an inhuman thing. Melodramatic monster movie greatness ensues, and it’s not too much of a stretch to imagine that Jack Kirby and Stan Lee had this in mind when coming up with the origin of the FF a couple years later. To be fair, this movie is, itself, pretty much lifted from 1955’s The Quatermass Xperiment, which was known as The Creeping Unknown in the US; people were just seemingly convinced that anyone trying to go into space would come back and turn into a hideous creature for awhile there… at least the Fantastic Four got three good powers for their one monster transformation.

Available to stream on HBO Max

Fantastic Voyage has the explorative spirit of The Fantastic Four: First Steps

There’s so much that’s great about this 1966 sci-fi classic, not least of which is how absolutely over-the-top the basic idea is: it’s not enough that the US and Soviet Union are stuck in a Cold War over technology to shrink down human beings — there’s a Russian defector who perfects the technology, betrays his country and is almost killed because of it… leaving a team of Americans to save him by being shrunk down and traveling around his body. Oh, and that’s not all; they only have 60 minutes to do it, or else they’ll start growing back to their usual size and kill him in the process. With a story that good, it’s easy to see why 20th Century Fox was so excited by the screenplay they announced it as “the most expensive science fiction film ever made” ahead of time. The end result is as good as it sounds, thanks in no small part to some amazing design work, great effects, and a cast that includes Donald Pleasance and Raquel Welch. It's got the pioneering spirit of the Fantastic Four at their best, mixed with a bonkers ticking bomb plot that Lee and Kirby would have been proud of.

Available to stream on Prime Video

2001: A Space Odyssey has the cosmic grandeur of The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The Fantastic Four has flirted with going full-on cosmic at times, and we already know that co-creator Jack Kirby would have approved of the characters going the 2001 route — he ended up working on a 2001: A Space Odyssey comic book for Marvel in the mid-1970s, expanding the mythology in wild new directions. A heady mix of intellectual sci-fi that Reed Richards would approve of and psychedelic visuals that Johnny would likely declare “far out,” 2001: A Space Odyssey feels like the far end of a spectrum that the Fantastic Four fits firmly into, although the FF has more heart and emotion — perhaps that’s what might have changed HAL from cold, logical Dave-killer to family-friendly HERBIE. We can only imagine…

Available to stream on HBO Max

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