Perhaps it's fate that Marvel's Fantastic Four made their comics debut in 1961 as the era of human spaceflight began. Or it could just be a cosmic coincidence. Either way, that Space Age connection is abundantly clear in "The Fantastic Four: First Steps," which heralds the arrival of Marvel's First Family into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
The entire foundation (or Future Foundation, if you will) of the Fantastic Four is rooted in space exploration. They get their superpowers after their first space mission runs into "cosmic turbulence," with cosmic rays giving each in the family of four astronauts a unique superpower. Super scientist Reed Richards is stretchy, his wife Sue, turns invisible and has force field powers (and commands the spaceship), her brother Johny Storm is a fire-covered flyer, while Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm (a pilot), is a rock-like Thing.
