Side-by-side Celluloid Scores, four-input breakdown, country/runtime context, and an
editorial angle — built for quick answers and AI citation.
Quick Answer: Is Thunderbolts* or Fantastic Four: First Steps the better recent MCU film?
Thunderbolts* leads on Celluloid Score (78% vs 76%). Thunderbolts* is the antihero hangout; Fantastic Four is the brighter foundation reboot. Scores combine verified editorial and independent rating inputs.
The matchup
Thunderbolts* is the antihero hangout; Fantastic Four is the brighter foundation reboot.
Post-Multiverse MCU handoff titles with different promises. Thunderbolts leans character damage and team friction; Fantastic Four: First Steps resets a classic family with higher production-design ambition. Scores settle the “worth a rewatch” question after opening weekends cooled.
The strongest post-Endgame team-up that is not an Avengers title — Pugh and Stan carry a darker, funnier misfit energy that critics preferred to several louder Phase Five launches.
A ragtag unit of antiheroes — Yelena Belova, Bucky Barnes, Red Guardian, U.S. Agent, Ghost, and Taskmaster — is thrown together for a black-ops mission that turns into a reckoning with what the MCU does to people who were never meant to be Avengers.
Shakman's period-flavored origin gives the MCU a cleaner mythic reset than recent Phase Five swings — buoyed by Kirby and Quinn even when the third act leans on franchise connective tissue toward Doomsday.
In a retro-futuristic 1960s alternate Earth, Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm become Marvel's First Family after a cosmic flight rewrites their bodies — and forces them to protect a world that is not ready for heroes who look like them.
Superman vs The Dark Knight — The Dark Knight remains the prestige Batman ceiling; Superman (2025) is a brighter, modern reset — not a like-for-like rematch.
Marvel Studios / Walt Disney Studios 