Iron Man May Have JARVIS, But The Fantastic Four's HERBIE Should Be Your Marvel Fave
With the highly anticipated debut of Marvel's first trailer for Fantastic Four: First Steps, it has been officially confirmed that the First Family's iconic robot helper, H.E.R.B.I.E., is set to make its MCU debut. First introduced in 1979's Fantastic Four #209, the original H.E.R.B.I.E. was created by Mister Fantastic as a tool to seek out and travel to Galactus' domain.
H.E.R.B.I.E. stands for Highly Engineered Robot Built for Interdimensional Exploration.
H.E.R.B.I.E. serves many similar functions as Iron Man and the Avengers "butler," Jarvis, a character who was adapted into the MCU as an artificial intelligence created by Tony Stark named J.A.R.V.I.S., but H.E.R.B.I.E. is a much more exciting comic character.
H.E.R.B.I.E., an intelligent robot with lasers, various tools, and flight, who was perhaps inspired by Rosie the Robot, the helper from the beloved 1960s TV show The Jetsons, has an incredibly sassy attitude and penchant for getting into trouble, making it a hilarious addition to the ever-expanding MCU.
H.E.R.B.I.E. Is Finally Set To Debut In Fantastic Four: First Steps
But will the robot be an ally or an enemy of the First Family?
Similar to other iconic Marvel characters like Firestar and Laura Kinney, H.E.R.B.I.E. first debuted in a Marvel animated series - created by Marvel icons Stan Lee and Jack Kirby - before being introduced into the comics. First appearing in an episode of the 1970's cartoon The New Fantastic Four, H.E.R.B.I.E. was then built in the comic universe by Reed Richards. In a fun twist, the brilliant inventor was inspired by seeing H.E.R.B.I.E. on the animated series, which was considered canon in the Marvel Universe at the time. Created using Xandarian technology, H.E.R.B.I.E. was designed to help Reed find Galactus but unfortunately has his AI mind taken over by the villain Doctor Sun, who used the robot against The Fantastic Four.
Eventually, H.E.R.B.I.E. was freed of Sun's influence, and became a regular helper for the heroic team, helping around the base, with Frank and Valeria Richards, and delivering messages for The Fantastic Four. Over the years Reed Richards has created many H.E.R.B.I.E. robots, and H.E.R.B.I.E. units have been found scattered across the timeline and throughout various dimensions. In an interesting twist, Valeria Richards disabled H.E.R.B.I.E.'s inhibitor chip in 2019's Incoming! one-shot, which allowed the robot to verbally assault Reed and Sue before storming out of the Baxter building, hinting that it has never enjoyed working for the Richards. A H.E.R.B.I.E. unit was also a big part of the Iron Man 2020 event, joining forces with AI Tony Stark's AI Army, fighting for the rights of robots everywhere.
Will H.E.R.B.I.E. Betray The Fantastic Four?
It may be essential to defeating Galactus
Marvel's upcoming Fantastic Four film will see the First Family battling against Galactus, a titular event from Fantastic Four comics that occurred years before H.E.R.B.I.E. was ever introduced. It will be interesting to see what role the robot plays in the FF family: Will it simply be a robotic helper, will it help the heroes defeat Galactus, or will it turn out to be a corrupted AI, just like the character was introduced in comics?
Only time will tell, but it is exciting to see the powerful yet retro robot finally debut in film. Marvel has still not revealed how The Fantastic Four will travel to Earth-616, or through time, to be able to interact with the current MCU timeline, but hopefully, however this happens, the Richards family won't forget the iconic H.E.R.B.I.E.!
