Silver Surfer Sex Exchange is the best thing about Fantastic Four: First Steps

By Joshua Tyler
| Endless 1 hour ago

In the period before the release of Marvel’s The Four Fantastic: First StepsMuch of the discussion focused on culture war issues. The main among them was the film’s decision to make the silver surfer a woman when people are used to the surfer.

One side argued that making the surfer a slightly more panro woman and a sure sign that the film was a creative bankrupt. The other side argued that they wanted more dei bandro and excited to see another male character who was formerly going full of Girlboss. Both sides were wrong.

Once you see the film, sex change in sex makes sense. They obviously changed the surfer into a woman for narrative reasons. It was made not to fill some quota with a bishop rating, but because it makes the film script better.

If there is one thing you can highlight as why modern films are inferior to work even the recent past, the writing is. Hollywood has damaged its ability to create decent scripts by crafting content with motivations other than good storytelling. But not this time.

Silver Surfer (Julia Garner) became a woman allowing the film to give Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn) Something to do, other than running around set things on fire. This is an essential part of developing his character and personality. It gives the surfer connection with one of our heroes, an essential motivation that he would not have had, if he were a man.

It is impossible to discuss this further without spoiling Fantastic Four: first steps, so if you haven’t seen it yet, stop reading here and watching. You will have to trust me that it is worth it.

Read no further if you have not seen Fantastic Four: First Steps

One of Johnny Storm’s key character features is that he is a kind of women’s man. So by making the silver surfer an attractive woman, those current features become relevant not only to Johnny’s character but also to the story.

Johnny has attracted to her, and motivates him to give her a chance when other members are not the Fantastic Four. She is actively trying to understand what she means, perhaps even saving her. That decision by Johnny leads to a link between the human torch and the silver surfer would not have existed if the surfer was a man.

Ultimately, that connection, that attraction between the two, saves the whole planet. Johnny wakes up the humanity of the silver surfer, leading her to land the last shot against Galactica and sending him spin to oblivion.

The decision to exchange Silver Surfer is one of the best narrative decisions in the film. It’s not the heart of the film or anything, but it is the clever piece of writing the film pulling away. That’s worth noting in a modern world where writing scripts are lost art, and most of what we watch is re -growing junk tapped out on a keyboard by some unconditional idiot that is more interested in marketing and social engineering than good storytelling.

It’s amazing that Wonders pull this away. The script of the film has four different authors credited, and a screen writing by the committee rarely leads to good decisions. In this case he did, and all four writers deserve praise for how firm their First steps It is a script. Well done Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer.