At Daily Wire, Andrew McDiarmid suggests that the Fantastic Four in the recent Marvel film First Steps would not have much use for scientific materialism:

First here’s a trailer:

It’s now four years later, and Sue is reading The Hungry Caterpillar to Franklin in their living room. When he asks for more, Mom calls to H.E.R.B.I.E, the family’s helpful robotic assistant, to fetch another book to read. We see H.E.R.B.I.E hold up an old copy of Charles Darwin’s famous 19th century volume On The Origin of Species. Mom says that’s not the book she’s looking for, but comments that they love reading that one too. Having found the story she had in mind, Sue returns to the living room and, in typical Marvel fashion, the scene concludes with a little foreshadowing to set up the next installment.

“Marvel’s Fantastic Four: Pro-Family Film With A Darwinian Curveball,” August 5, 2025

What? Survival of the fittest? Nature red in tooth and claw? McDiarmid comments,

Throughout the movie, the Four demonstrate countless examples of sacrificial love and commitment to a higher purpose. Reed and Susan deny themselves regularly for the greater good. Johnny Storm is often the first to leap into the path of danger, even willing to die for others if necessary, and Ben is about as selfless as they come. But in a world where life is the result of chance processes like unguided natural selection and random mutations, things like love and purpose are merely social constructs, irrelevant to the struggle for life. Life boils down to survival and power, qualities that are actually espoused by the Four’s formidable foe, Galactus. No purpose means no value, and no value means no moral order. But the Fantastic Four act like human lives and relationships have inherent worth, not just a utilitarian function. Their willingness to suffer and even die for one another and for strangers only makes sense in a universe where life and love have meaning beyond survival.

The lives of this remarkable family also revolve around a universe teeming with intelligent design. “Darwinian Curveball”

Well, maybe Richard Dawkins will picket the theatre then and we can have a good discussion about whether the universe exists by design or by chance…