Today is April 4, and Marvel would like you to very suddenly pretend that this has long been a day to celebrate the Fantastic Four, a superhero team they have definitely 100% cared about 100% of the time and not at all because they’ve finally been able to put them into one of their own movies soon. But hey, look, free comics!
To announce this celebration, Marvel released a new poster of Johnny Storm inspired by the movie, illustrated by Marvel Studios’ head of visual development Ryan Meinerding, as well as encouraging fans to “celebrate 4-4 Day” at a link to the Marvel website. That link seemingly sent fans to a themed 404 error page, including concept art of the Fantastic Four’s robot companion HERBIE, but it actually held a secret link in the form of a faux-QR code placed on the little robot himself, clicking which sent fans to the real deal: an invite to the Future Foundation, and a recommended reading list “to prepare for the upcoming meeting” that are now free to read on Marvel’s Unlimited digital comics platform.
In the comics, the Future Foundation was established during Jonathan Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four in 2010, and is a wider philanthropic entity/superhero team developed by Reed Richards as a way to advance the Fantastic Four’s own goals and scientific agenda to safeguard humanity’s future. Focusing on a rotating working group of younger heroes and Marvel stalwarts, the Future Foundation operated both as a traditional superhero team—with a combat squad that has included the likes of Spider-Man, She-Hulk, members of the Fantastic Four, Doctor Doom, and more—as well as a research entity, with young members like the Power Pack siblings and alien beings.
Given the retro ‘60s vibe the Fantastic Four movie is going for, the Foundation—if it’s even a thing in the movie and not just cute set dressing for this website—will likely be a very different thing in the MCU. But what matters here is the comics, and what they can tell us about Marvel’s goals for the movie… even if they are, admittedly, very obvious goals. Here’s all five of the comics the publisher is offering as a recommendation, along with why.
Fantastic Four #1
Well, this is the obvious one, isn’t it? The debut of the team, the story of space mission that saw them transformed by cosmic radiation into superheroes, and their first encounter with the villainous Mole Man—who has been stealing nuclear material from power plants across the world to help fuel his subterranean empire, and an army of monsters.
Fantastic Four #48
Things get a bit more interesting here as Marvel is recommending 3 books, but they’re all part of one big story—arguably one of the biggest in the Fantastic Four’s entire history. This issue sees the Fantastic Four, fresh off of a scrap with the Inhuman Maximus, Black Bolt’s insane brother, visited by Uatu the Watcher with a dire warning: his attempts to hide earth from the mysterious cosmic entity known as the Silver Surfer have failed, and the Surfer’s arrival heralds the coming… of Galactus! This is the very first appearance of both these characters, and of course times very well with yesterday afternoon’s news that Ozark star Julia Garner will play the MCU’s version of the Silver Surfer.
Fantastic Four #49
Galactus arrives on Earth, and makes his plan to consume it now—but while the Watcher and the Fantastic Four struggle to fight a seemingly almighty foe, the Silver Surfer crosses paths with Alicia Masters, and realizes that maybe his master’s plans are worth questioning.
A continuation of the debut Galactus story, this issue is interesting for its spotlight on Alicia Masters, who eventually becomes Ben Grimm’s love interest and partner—and how it’s her sympathy to the Surfer that inspires him to turn his back on being Galactus’ herald.
Fantastic Four #50
The conclusion of Galactus’ debut—after the Silver Surfer fails to stop his master, Johnny Storm returns from his mission from Uatu to secure the Ultimate Nullifier, a weapon of vast power designed by the Watchers eons ago, from Galactus’ homeworld. Threatened by its power, Galactus agrees to the Fantastic Four’s demands to leave Earth alone… but not before he punishes his herald by stripping him of his title, and exiling him to Earth.
If it wasn’t already clear The Fantastic Four was going to swing for the fences in their MCU debut, well, now it is—we’re definitely getting the saga of the Surfer and Galactus in this first film.
Fantastic Four: Life Story #1
This one’s a bit of a peculiar, but extremely interesting recommendation: Life Story is the most modern comic on this list, having released in 2021, but it’s actually a very crucial look into the idea and tone Marvel might want to inspire for its movie adaptation. Following on in the vein of the similarly-titled Spider-Man: Life Storythis series follows the Fantastic Four in real time, decade by decade, from their origin in the 1960s all the way to the 2010s—and how what would typically have been 60 years of comic book reboots and sliding timescales impacts a team and family that has to live through those eras, and the sociopolitical ramifications that come with it.
The first issue of the series, offered here, is naturally set in the ‘60s, and covers the Fantastic Four’s creation—blending the arrival of these superpowered beings into the real-world context of the Cold War and the Space Race. We’ve known ever since Marvel revealed the cast for the film and its title card that the studio was seemingly going period for The Fantastic Fourbut here’s another good indicator of the tone they want to strive for.
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