The Fantastic Four: First Steps opens with a montage recounting the team's origin story and their first battle with Mole Man. It's a brief sequence that sees the classic comic book villain sink the Pan Am Building in Midtown Manhattan.
He's captured by Marvel's First Family after the team battles Giganto in their classic blue and black costumes. We later learn that Sue Storm managed to broker a peace deal between Subterranea and the surface through her work with the United Nations.
Mole Man can be seen watching the team's press conference shortly after the Silver Surfer's dire warning, and is invited to the Baxter Building by Sue during The Fantastic Four: First Steps' final act. With Galactus heading to New York, the city needs to be evacuated, and Sue manages to convince Harvey Elder to allow its citizens to take refuge in Subterranea.
However, that only comes after Harvey has exchanged barbs with the Human Torch and Mister Fantastic, with the latter branding him "Mole Man" in one of the movie's most comedic exchanges.
In the days that follow, Harvey welcomes the surface-dwellers to his underground home, including Natasha Lyonne's Rachel Rozman. We've heard that there were once bigger plans for both characters in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but it seems their respective arcs were trimmed down to get this reboot under the two-hour mark.
As for Mole Man's Moloids, they're simply normal people, rather than ancient creatures, who have joined Harvey in living deep beneath New York. They look like miners, wearing googles that bear a passing resemblance to the Moloids' massive eyes.
That's a little disappointing, but Marvel Studios portraying Mole Man in a heroic light is unexpected and offers a wild new spin on the Fantastic Four's first foe. Still, they have plenty of villains to potentially square off with down the line, as Wizard, the Mad Thinker, and Diablo are just some of those referenced throughout this story.
Whether we'll see more of Paul Walter Hauser's Mole Man in the MCU remains to be seen, but he serves a purpose in evacuating New York, ensuring there are no Man of Steel-style complaints about mass casualties after the team fights Galactus.
In our review of the movie, we concluded, "The Fantastic Four is an exceptional introduction to the MCU’s First Family, and thanks to a Jack Kirby-infused feel that’s unlike anything we’ve seen before, it proves to be a quintessential superhero movie with Marvel Studios at its brilliant best."
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.