The first superhero team created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, The Fantastic Four appeared in The Fantastic Four #1 November 1961.
As much of a family as they were a superhero team, the FF caught on fast and soon became one of Marvel Comic's top sellers.
Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben never went the secret identity route, but embraced their fame and celebrity status.
And their fame with readers sent The Fantastic Four, or "The Greatest Comics Magazine in the World!!" as Marvel said into all kinds of media, including movies.

The first Fantastic Four movie as sadly just an exercise to allow the producers to secure the copyrights to the property.
It was The Fantastic Four, made in 1994.
The film was produced by B-Movie legend Roger Corman and Bernd Eichinger.
Even though the film was made just to hold onto the copyright and never intended for release, the actors and crew were never told that.
The film starred Alex Hyde-White as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic, Rebecca Staab as Sue Storm / The Invisible Woman, Michael Bailey Smith as Ben Grimm and Jay Underwood as    Johnny Storm / The Human Torch. Although Michael Bailey Smith played Ben Grimm, Carl Ciarfalio was under the make-up as The Thing.
Corman made the film for under 2 million dollars.
As far as bad movies go, Wizard Magazine ranks this film as better (worse) than Batman & Robin, Steel, Virus and Red Sonja.
The best way to find this movie is bootleg copies.

The franchise got a major reboot with The Fantastic Four (2005).
This movie was made for $100 million and grossed over $330 million worldwide.
It starred Ioan Gruffudd as Dr. Reed Richards / Mr. Fantastic, Jessica Alba as Susan Storm / Invisible Woman, Michael Chiklis as Ben Grimm / The Thing and Chris Evans as Johnny Storm / Human Torch.
Julian McMahon portrayed a sort of "Ultimates" version of Dr. Doom.
The critics didn't love this movie, but I liked it.
Except for the way they did Dr.Doom.
It wasn't the greatest superhero movie ever made by any means, but I still don't think it was the worst.
And the movie performed well enough for a sequel.

The FF returned in 2007 with Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.
The original cast returned with the addition of Doug Jones as the body of the Silver Surfer, and Laurence Fishburne as his voice.
Some critics liked the sequel better than the original.
But the film didn't pull in enough to go ahead and greenlight a third movie.

Now, rumors are circulating that 20th Century Fox might be getting ready to do another “Fantastic Four” film, but this time edgier and darker.
I know edgier and darker is the current trend.
But does that apply to the FF?
Dark is fine for some stories, great even.
But everything in the world is not gloom and doom.
Despite what the News reports.
Sometimes we need heroes that rise above the darkness and give us escapeisim and hope.
We need to have fun.
We need heros.

UPDATE:
The Fantastic Four reboot is now more than a rumor.
20th Century Fox has announced plans to overhaul the Fantastic Four film franchise with a new movie produced by Akiva Goldsman and scripted by Michael Green.
This coming right after the news of the proposed merger with Disney.
Akiva Goldsman won an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the 2001 film, A Beautiful Mind.
But he also did Lost in Space, Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.
He's currently working on Jonah Hex and the movie adaptation of Teen Titans.
Television and film writer, as well as a comic book scripter, Michael Green has worked on the upcoming Green Lantern movie, the NBC TV series Heroes, Everwood, Jack and Bobby, Smallville, Kings and Snoops.