Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. We’ve reached an interesting and exciting time in the series’ history. This is still two comics, Fantastic Four and FF, now restarted with new #1 issues, both written by Matt Fraction, and both telling a single ongoing story meant to go for more than a year in real-world time.

Gimmie a gimmick: This issue is adorned with a “Marvel Now!” logo, and the tagline, “Join the Re-evolution.” I believe the idea behind “Marvel Now” was to draw in readers who had only seen the Marvel movies but hadn’t tried the comics. No idea how well it worked.

We begin with the caption “One year from now.” The Fantastic Four, along with Franklin and Valeria, are inside what looks like a crashing spaceship. Oh, and Ben is human again. But then we turn the page and see Franklin waking up, with this being a nightmare he’s having. He calls out for his mom, only to comforted by very creepy “Mombots.”

Then we cut to “The moment when everything went wrong,” according to the caption. The Fantastic Four are in some sort of cave, where Reed’s arm is crushed between two large sharp objects. Despite his stretching power, this injures him. As the scene goes on, we learn this is the distant past, and the four heroes are actually trapped inside the mouth of a giant dinosaur. Its teeth are what bit down on Reed’s arm. They debate the best way to get out of the dinosaur, when a portal opens and drops the four of them back to the new Baxter Building, onto the breakfast table no less.

There are a lot of comedy antics with the kids of the Future Foundation reunite with the heroes for breakfast. Franklin wants comfort from his mom, still troubled by his dream. He tries warning them not to go to space. Reed gets distracted during breakfast and wanders off. In his private “think tank,” Reed experiments on his own injured arm and concludes by saying, “Uh-oh.”

Cut to outer space (again!) where Johnny is on a date with his new girlfriend, a pink-haired pop star Darla Deering. She chides him for only talking about himself. We then see their romantic dinner is floating on a platform inside the Negative Zone, with Annihilus leading his insect armies into battle in the background. He says he brought her there so they could have a little privacy without paparazzi around. He pulls out a small box, and she thinks he’s about to propose. But inside is merely a slip of paper with his phone number. She says, “You sure know how to make a girl feel special.”

At the Grimm Youth Center on Yancy Street. We see the modern-day Yancy Street Gang has broken in during the middle of the night for some illegal boxing. (A fight club, as it were…) Ben shows up and breaks up the fight, but not before a bunch of the Yancy Streeters push him over (!). He then sees that the whole thing has been caught on camera and broadcast on the internet with the headline “Yancy Street Gang vs. Dummy.”

Back in Reed’s think tank, he deduces that the unstable molecules that give him his stretching power have reached cellular entropy. His body is slowly breaking apart. He further deduces that there is nothing in the known universe that can reverse this molecular decay, and that just leaves… unknown universes.

That night, after Sue checks in on the sleeping Future Foundation kids, Franklin tells her he’s been having nightmares and wants to sleep in her and Reed’s room. Still later that night, Reed returns from the think tank and says he’s had an amazing idea. In the morning, we’re reunited with Johnny’s warship from the Negative Zone. Reed is remodeling it from a warship into a flying classroom. He wants the Fantastic Four to take the Future Foundation with them on their adventures. It’s now a space-time machine, suggests taking one year to explore all of the universe, history, and the future. Then there’s a flashback of Franklin waking up from his nightmare, saying he doesn’t want to go to space.

Reed further says that it will be one year for the FF, but only a few seconds for New York. He suggests recruiting four replacements, so that there will still be an active Fantastic Four during those few seconds. Sue asks him if a year-long adventure is wise considering Reed was just injured. Reed answers, “I’m fine. Trust me.”

To be continued!

Unstable molecule: What I find interesting about this issue is how Matt Fraction picks and chooses various bits of recent-ish FF continuity to play around with. Reed’s so-called think tank was his secret room in the lead-up to Civil War, which he later wiped clean when he changed his ways. In this issue, the think tank is redesigned to be less creepy and more high tech.

Fade out: When Reed’s arm is injured, Sue puts an invisible force field cast around it, and she maintains the cast throughout their escape from the dinosaur.

Clobberin’ time: The Grimm Youth Center is a leftover story bit from when Ben became super-rich during the J. Michael Straczynski era (era). Another example of Fraction pulling out surprise pieces of continuity.

Flame on: During Johnny’s date with Darla, we can see he still wields the cosmic control rod, with it attached to his arm via some kind of alien armor. We’ll see how much longer this goes on.

Fantastic fifth wheel: Contrary to popular belief, this is not the first appearance of Darla Deering. She previously appeared in Marvel Now Point One, an anthology comic of various short stories. In the Ant-Man story, Darla and Johnny were seen attending a fancy banquet.

When discussing possible temporary replacements for the FF, Reed shows an image of potential candidates. These include former alternate members of the team Medusa, Luke Cage, She-Hulk, Black Panther, Ant-Man, and Spider-Man. Wolverine and the Hulk of the ad-hoc New Fantastic Four are also included.

Reed chats with a new version of H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot while inside the think tank. This one is taller and thinner than previous versions. Freakin’ H.E.R.B.I.E. the robot.  

Four and a half: After all this business about Franklin being an omega-level mutant who can create pocket universes, now we’re back to him having dream-based powers. This is no doubt a shoutout to his old Power Pack days.

Our gal Val: If Franklin was sleeping in Sue and Reed’s room, then who is the blonde boy sharing a bedroom with Valeria? Process of elimination suggests it’s Alex Power. Either that, or Franklin left that bedroom and went to Sue’s room between panels.

Foundational: The Moloid kids are enamored of Ben, delighted to see him return from time traveling, and even having a poster of him on their wall. Ben plays along, horsing around with them during breakfast.

Trivia time: Hey, remember when Reed reprogrammed a bunch of Doombots so they could help around the house? We see a couple of them in this issue, working on the new space-time ship.

Fantastic or frightful? This is a prelude of what’s to come, mostly table-setting. It shows a lot of patience, telling readers “We’re in this for the long haul.” I don’t know about Reed keeping his condition secret from his family, as previous stories had him learn his lesson about doing this and being open and honest instead. But, again, we’ll be in this story for a long time, so we’ll see.

Next: Seconds, anyone?

* * * *

Want more? Check out my novel MOM, I’M BULLETPROOF. It’s a comedic/romantic/dramatic superhero epic! https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XPXBK14.