FF #1-6

FF #1-6

Originally released in 2011

Written by Jonathan Hickman

Art by Steve Epting (#1-3), Barry Kitson (#4-5), Greg Tocchini (#6)

Following up from Fantastic Four #588, Reed, Sue, and Ben are no longer going by "The Fantastic Four" after the apparent death of Johnny.  Instead, the FF in the title stands for Future Foundation, with Spider-Man taking Johnny's place on the cover. (I wanted to avoid mentioning too many spoilers, but the cover has Reed, Sue, and Ben on it, with Johnny conspicuously absent, so it likely would have been obvious that Johnny was the "dead" one even if I hadn't mentioned it)  Despite the title change, the plot continues from where Fantastic Four left off - Valeria's deal with Doom comes into effect, and the surviving members of the Council of Reeds plot to begin the War of the Four Cities.

Valeria had tried to find out what Reed was hiding, and in the process, she gave the four remaining members of the Council of Reeds access to their universe.  With four versions of Reed with questionable morals running loose, Valeria turned to Doom following the comments of the future version of Franklin.  Doom had suffered brain damage at some recent point in time, and Valeria made a deal - she'd help with fixing Doom's brain damage, and Doom would work with Reed and the Future Foundation to stop these other Reeds.

You can't see much of Doom's face in the mask, but this is clearly like Christmas to him, and he wastes no time with bringing together some of the Fantastic Four's most intelligent enemies (and also Diablo) to plot how to kill the alternate universe Reed Richardses... in the Baxter Building, of all places. (the sheer audacity of it all is hilarious)

Reed and Valeria meet with these villains (which, aside from Doom and Diablo, consist of the Wizard, the High Evolutionary, the Mad Thinker, and two representatives of AIM, a group of mad scientists for hire who split off from HYDRA), and given how dire the situation is, the Watcher shows up to these meetings as well.

The Reeds are planning to use the Four Cities to create something called "Sol's Anvil", planning to sacrifice a world (presumably Reed's Earth) for the greater good. (or at least for killing the Celestials that attacked their base)  Mole Man and Annihilus are taking advantage of this to get what they want (for Mole Man, a way to stop his Moloids from leaving him; for Annihilus, a portal out of the Negative Zone that his army can go through), and by the sixth issue, Black Bolt returns to Earth, having taken over the Kree Empire and taken part in something called "the War of Kings".

The focus is on Reed, Valeria, and the various villains, but Sue and Ben get their focus as well.  Ben's still grieving from the loss of Johnny, distancing himself from everyone until he and Alicia have a heart-to-heart about it.  Meanwhile, given the presence of a bunch of their old foes in the Baxter Building, Sue knows that Reed is hiding the purpose of their extended stay from her - the truth comes out when she goes to defend Old Atlantis from a civil war and finds that one of the alternate universe Reeds caused it, and she presumably won't be too happy that Reed kept that from her.

It feels like events are building up to the climax of Hickman's run, even if I know that there's a long way to go yet. (His run on Fantastic Four continues after FF, or maybe alongside it, and he also has the Avengers and New Avengers in the future, all leading to Secret Wars)  The various plot lines are coming together and intertwining - the future versions of Franklin and Valeria aren't brought up here, though their actions caused Nathaniel Richards, Reed's father, to arrive in the present, and he serves as a more grounded but still intelligent perspective, even if he hasn't had a huge impact on the plot.

Spider-Man hasn't done much at this point, which kind of has me questioning why he was added to this team, but if anyone was going to take Johnny's place, he makes a lot of sense - over the years, he's arguably become the fifth member of the Fantastic Four, or at least he has a close bond with them. (a case could probably made for either him or She-Hulk)  I'm not super familiar with the Inhumans beyond Black Bolt, Medusa, and Crystal, but their appearance here should help to turn the tide in the favour of the Future Foundation. (though then again, I'm not sure what happened to them when they were in space, or why they left the moon to begin with; for all I know, there's some bad blood between the Inhumans and Earth)