Welcome to the Wellington Comic Lover’s Guide, where we take you through the Wellington City Libraries’ collection of a comic book character or series. This post is all about Marvel’s First Family, The Fantastic Four!
Who are the Fantastic Four?
During a space expedition, four astronauts – scientist Reed Richards, pilot Ben Grimm, student Sue Storm and her kid brother Johnny – were bombarded by cosmic rays. After returning to Earth, the team discovered they had gained superpowers: Reed could stretch his body to incredible lengths, Ben became a super-strong rocky being, Sue was now able to turn invisible and create force fields, and Johnny could ignite his body into flame and fly.
Dubbing themselves Mr. Fantastic, The Thing, the Invisible Woman, and the Human Torch (respectively), the quartet now explore the cosmos and fight incredible villains together as the Fantastic Four.
Fantastic Four : Origins
We have the first ten issues of the original Fantastic Four series on our eLibrary, which covers their origin and their first meetings with villains such as the Skrulls and Doctor Doom. The team’s origin and early history has also been retold in the Grand Design graphic novel, the Marvels miniseries, and the History of the Marvel Universe.
Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four Volume 1 (only on Libby)
Fantastic Four : grand design / Scioli, Tom
History of the Marvel Universe / Waid, Mark
Waid and Wieringo run
The definitive Fantastic Four run of the 2000s was by writer Mark Waid and artist Mike Wieringo. This run is regarded as the ideal Fantastic Four series, as it balances family sitcom shenanigans with super-science adventures. Stories collected here include one of Doctor Doom’s greatest revenge plots, Human Torch becoming the herald to Galactus the Devourer of Worlds, and the team travelling to Heaven itself to resurrect The Thing.
Fantastic Four by Waid & Wieringo
Waid would later return to the Four to write the Antithesis miniseries.
Fantastic 4 : antithesis / Waid, Mark
Johnathan Hickman run
Johnathan Hickman is one of Marvel’s most prolific writers, whose runs on Avengers and X-Men have updated and reinvigorated the teams for the 2010s and beyond, but he got his start writing Fantastic Four. Here, Reed meets the multiversal Council of Reeds and is compelled to ‘solve everything’ in his world, establishing the Four’s spinoff super-science team, the Future Foundation, to aid them.
Fantastic Four [1] / Hickman, Jonathan (also on Libby)
Fantastic Four [2] / Hickman, Jonathan (also on Libby)
Fantastic Four. Vol. 3, Unified field theory / Hickman, Jonathan
Fantastic Four. Vol. 4, Three / Hickman, Jonathan
Future Foundation. Vol two, The Supremor seed / Hickman, Jonathan
Future Foundation. Vol. three, All hope lies in doom / Hickman, Jonathan
Fantastic Four. Vol. 6, Foundation / Hickman, Jonathan
The Future Foundation would return in a new series, starring members of another Marvel family superhero quartet, the Power Pack.
Future Foundation / Whitley, Jeremy
The Road to Secret Wars
Hickman would continue to write Mister Fantastic and Doctor Doom in his seminal New Avengers run. The secret council of superheroes, The Illuminati (of which Reed is a member), discover that the Multiverse is destroying itself in events called ‘Incursions’. Their attempts to prevent this crisis continue in the Time Runs Out event, leading to its grand conclusion, Secret Wars.
New Avengers [1] : everything dies / Hickman, Jonathan (also on Libby)
New Avengers : Volume 2 – Infinity (only on Libby)
New Avengers [2] : other worlds / Hickman, Jonathan
New Avengers [4] : a perfect world / Hickman, Jonathan
Avengers : time runs out. Volume one / Hickman, Jonathan (also on Libby)
Avengers. Volume 2 / Time runs out / Hickman, Jonathan
Avengers : time runs out. Volume 3 / Hickman, Jonathan
Avengers : time runs out. Vol. 4 / Hickman, Jonathan
Secret wars / Hickman, Jonathan
Two Sets of Four for Marvel NOW! 
During the publishing reboot know as Marvel NOW!, Iron Man writer Matt Fraction took over Fantastic Four, splitting the team between two series. While the main four went on a family road trip to outer space, the Future Foundation (made up of Ant-Man, She-Hulk, Medusa of the Inhumans, and Johnny’s girlfriend Darla) looked after Earth in their stead.
Fantastic Four. Vol. 1, New departure, new arrivals / Fraction, Matt
FF. Vol. 1, Fantastic faux / Fraction, Matt
Fantastic Four. Vol. 2, Road trip / Fraction, Matt
Fantastic Four [3] : doomed / Fraction, Matt
Following this was James Robinson’s run on the series, where the Four were beset with a number of personal tragedies, including the Thing going to jail and the Human Torch losing his powers.
Fantastic Four. 1, The fall of the Fantastic Four / Robinson, James Dale
Fantastic 4 [2] : original sin / Robinson, James Dale
Fantastic Four [3] : back in blue / Robinson, James Dale
Fantastic Four [4] : the end is fourever / Robinson, James Dale
Four down to Two-in-One
After Secret Wars, Reed, Sue and the Future Foundation took a leave of absence in another plane of existence, leaving Ben and Johnny to protect the world as a duo. In the Marvel Two-in-One series by Chip Zdarsky (Daredevil), the pair set off through the multiverse to reunite the team.
The Thing and the Human Torch [1] : fate of the Four / Zdarsky, Chip
The Thing and the Human Torch [2] : next of kin / Zdarsky, Chip
Dan Slott run
Long-time Spider-Man writer Dan Slott reunited the Fantastic Four for a run of new adventures. In this series, the Thing finally tied the knot with longtime partner Alicia Masters, and the Four teamed up with the Avengers to save Earth from a Kree-Skrull invasion in Empyre.
Fantastic Four [1] : fourever / Slott, Dan (also on Libby)
Fantastic Four. Vol. 2, Mr. and Mrs. Grimm / Simone, Gail
Fantastic Four [3] : the herald of doom / Slott, Dan
Fantastic Four [4] : Thing vs. Immortal Hulk / Slott, Dan
Fantastic Four [5] : point of origin / Slott, Dan
Fantastic Four [6] : Empyre / Slott, Dan
Fantastic Four. Vol. 7, The forever gate / Slott, Dan
Fantastic Four. Vol. 8, The bride of Doom / Slott, Dan
Fantastic Four. Vol. 9, Eternal flame / Slott, Dan
Fantastic Four. Vol. 10, Reckoning War, part 1 / Slott, Dan
Ryan North run
The current run of Fantastic Four is written by Squirrel Girl and How to Invent Everything scribe Ryan North, who brings his own background in science and engineering to the Four’s adventures. The first arc deals with the Four going their separate ways after the mysterious disappearance of the team’s home, the Baxter Building.
Fantastic Four [1] : whatever happened to the Fantastic Four / North, Ryan
Fantastic Four [2] : four stories about hope / North, Ryan
Other Fantastic Four books
Fantastic Four : 1234 / Morrison, Grant
Fantastic Four : full circle / Ross, Alex
(also on Libby)
Fantastic Four : the beginning of the end / McDuffie, Dwayne
Fantastic Four : world’s greatest / Millar, Mark
Fantastic Four : the prodigal sun / David, Peter
The Fantastic One – solo series
Some of the Four have had their own solo books; the Invisible Woman had a series where she was an Agent of SHIELD, and the Thing recently got his due in the series Clobberin’ Time.
Invisible Woman : partners in crime / Waid, Mark
Clobberin’ time / Skroce, Steve
New Fantastic Four
In one storyline, the Fantastic Four were replaced by a ‘New’ Fantastic Four, made up of solo heroes Wolverine, Spider-Man, Ghost Rider Daniel Ketch, and the Hulk (specifically, his grey-skinned ‘Joe Fixit’ persona). This team has occasionally been reunited or recreated with characters that stand in for the original team (ie, X-23 for Wolverine).
New Fantastic Four appearances or variations
New Fantastic Four : hell in a handbasket / David, Peter
Fantastic Four [6] : Empyre / Slott, Dan
Venom : the complete collection. Volume 2 / Remender, Rick – In the ‘Circle of Four’ storyline, Agent Venom, X-23, Red Hulk and Ghost Rider Alejandra Jones have to team up to save Las Vegas from a demonic invasion.
Ghost Rider : four on the floor / Smith, Felipe – Ghost Rider Robbie Reyes teams up with Amadeus Cho (the Totally Awesome Hulk), Silk, and X-23.
Devil’s reign : Superior Four / Thompson, Zac – While under the employ of the Kingpin, Doctor Octopus assembles a team of alternate versions of himself, including a gamma-powered Doc Ock, an adamantium-infused mutant Doc Ock, and a possessed Doc Ock with flaming chain tentacles.
Team-Ups and Crossovers
The Fantastic Four have played a role in just about every Marvel Comics event. As a member of the secret superhero council The Illuminati, Reed has played a role in many of them, such as building a prison for unregistered superhumans during Civil War, or facing God Emperor Doom in Secret Wars.
Secret wars / Shooter, Jim (original 1980s series)
Illuminati / Bendis, Brian Michael
Civil war : Fantastic Four / Straczynski, J. Michael
World War Hulk (only on Libby)
Secret invasion / Bendis, Brian Michael
Secret wars / Hickman, Jonathan (later 2015 series)
Empyre : Avengers, Fantastic Four / Ewing, Al
The Thing has also been a member of the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy (see our blog on the latter for when he joined), and the Human Torch was on the Uncanny Avengers, a team made up of human heroes, Inhumans and mutants. Speaking of mutants, the Four also have a contentious relationship with the X-Men, as Reed and Sue’s son Franklin is an extremely powerful mutant and the X-Men have occasionally made a plea to recruit him.
The New Avengers [2] / Bendis, Brian Michael
Guardians of the Galaxy. Vol. 1, Emperor Quill / Bendis, Brian Michael
The uncanny Avengers [1] : lost future / Duggan, Gerry
X-Men/Fantastic Four. the world has changed / 4X / Zdarsky, Chip
Doctor Doom
Victor von Doom is a brilliant scientist, accomplished mystic, despotic ruler of the nation Latveria, and the Fantastic Four’s greatest enemy. Compelled by his massive ego and a hatred of Reed Richards, Doom will stop at nothing to gain the ultimate power he believes he deserves. Occasionally, he gets it, such as when he rebuilt the multiverse and made himself its God Emperor in Secret Wars.
Notable Doctor Doom appearances
Doctor Strange & Doctor Doom : triumph & torment / Stern, Roger
Fantastic Four by Waid & Wieringo
Avengers : time runs out. Volume one / Hickman, Jonathan (also on Libby)
Avengers. Volume 2 / Time runs out / Hickman, Jonathan
Avengers : time runs out. Volume 3 / Hickman, Jonathan
Avengers : time runs out. Vol. 4 / Hickman, Jonathan
Secret wars / Hickman, Jonathan
After Secret Wars, Doom turned over a new leaf and restyled himself as a new Iron Man after Tony Stark was out of commission. However, he eventually returned to his own egotistical pursuit of power.
Infamous Iron Man [1] : infamous / Bendis, Brian Michael
Infamous Iron Man [2] : the absolution of doom / Bendis, Brian Michael
Doctor Doom. Vol. 1, Pottersville / Cantwell, Christopher (also on Libby)
Doctor Doom. Vol. 2, Bedford Falls / Cantwell, Christopher (also on Libby)
The Maker
In the alternate continuity of the Ultimate Universe, a younger Mister Fantastic founded the Fantastic Four, but eventually grew cold and maniacal to the point where he betrayed the team and became a supervillain. Redubbing himself ‘The Maker’, this Reed tasked himself with creating a world free from imperfection, coming into conflict with the Ultimates, his universe’s version of the Avengers.
The Maker in the Ultimate Universe
Ultimate Comics. The Ultimates : vol. 1 / Hickman, Jonathan
The Ultimates [2] / Hickman, Jonathan
Avengers : time runs out. Volume one / Hickman, Jonathan (also on Libby)
Avengers. Volume 2 / Time runs out / Hickman, Jonathan
Avengers : time runs out. Volume 3 / Hickman, Jonathan
Avengers : time runs out. Vol. 4 / Hickman, Jonathan
Secret wars / Hickman, Jonathan
The Maker survives the destruction of the Ultimate Universe in Secret Wars, and continues his evil schemes in the main Marvel universe of Earth-616, where he faced resistance from the New Avengers, the Ultimates, and Venom.
The Maker on Earth-616
The new Avengers A.I.M. Vol. 1, Everything is new / Ewing, Al
Infamous Iron Man [2] : the absolution of doom / Bendis, Brian Michael
The Ultimates 2. Vol. 2, Eternity War / Ewing, Al
Future Foundation / Whitley, Jeremy
Venom. Vol. 2, The abyss / Cates, Donny (also on Libby)
Venom. Vol. 3, Absolute Carnage / Cates, Donny (also on Libby)
Absolute Carnage / Cates, Donny
Characters that debuted in Fantastic Four
The original Fantastic Four series laid the groundwork for several new characters and concepts in the Marvel Universe, and even revived characters that had fallen into obscurity. Here are just some of them:
The Skrulls
First appearing in Fantastic Four #2, the shapeshifting Skrulls have been a perennial threat to Earth. They are usually duplicitous invaders, like in Secret Invasion where they covertly replaced various Marvel heroes. Recently, the Skrulls have appeared in a more sympathetic light, such as the recent series Meet the Skrulls.
Notable Skrull appearances
Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four Volume 1 (only on Libby)
Secret invasion / Bendis, Brian Michael (original crossover series)
Meet the Skrulls / Thompson, Robbie
Empyre : Avengers, Fantastic Four / Ewing, Al
Secret invasion [1] : Mission Earth / North, Ryan
Namor the Sub-Mariner
The son of a water-breathing Atlantean and a human, Namor is the proud but arrogant ruler of Atlantis. After fighting in WWII as a member of the superteam The Invaders, Namor the Sub-Mariner fell into obscurity, until he was revived in Fantastic Four #4 in 1962 as an FF enemy and occasional ally.
Notable Namor appearances
Fantastic Four : 1234 / Morrison, Grant
Invaders. Vol. 1, War ghosts / Zdarsky, Chip
The defenders : the best defense / Ewing, Al
King in black : Namor / Busiek, Kurt
Namor the Sub-Mariner [1] : conquered shores / Cantwell, Christopher
The Inhumans
The Inhumans are a secretive race of superhumans that gain their powers in a coming-of-age ritual where they are exposed to the transformative Terrigen Mist. Recently, a Terrigen storm triggered transformations in all people with latent Inhuman genes (including Kamala Khan), and the Inhumans came out of hiding to offer sanctuary to these ‘nuHumans’.
Notable Inhuman series
Inhuman [1] : Genesis / Soule, Charles
Inhumans : Attilan rising / Soule, Charles
All-new Inhumans. Vol. 1, Global outreach / Asmus, James
Royals [1] : beyond Inhuman / Ewing, Al
Black Bolt [1] : hard time / Ahmed, Saladin
Karnak : the flaw in all things / Ellis, Warren
Black Panther
Black Panther and Wakanda first appeared in the pages of Fantastic Four #52. We did a blog about Black Panther a while ago, but I’ll note here that T’Challa did briefly lead the Fantastic Four alongside his then-wife, Storm of the X-Men, and has been a member of the Illuminati along with Mr. Fantastic.
Black Panther in the Fantastic Four
Fantastic Four : grand design / Scioli, Tom
Black Panther : little green men / Hudlin, Reginald
The Silver Surfer
One of the most famous stories in Fantastic Four was the introduction of Galactus, the Devourer of Worlds, and Silver Surfer, his reluctant herald who scouts new planets for his master to consume. The Surfer has had a few series of his own and has been a member of the Defenders, with whom he recently travelled to the universe where Galactus was born.
Silver Surfer appearances
The Silver Surfer : Thanos quest / Starlin, Jim
Silver Surfer [1] : new dawn / Slott, Dan
Silver Surfer [2] : worlds apart / Slott, Dan
Silver Surfer [3] : last days / Slott, Dan
Silver Surfer [4] : citizen of Earth / Slott, Dan
Silver Surfer [5] : a power greater than cosmic / Slott, Dan
Silver Surfer : black / Cates, Donny
Silver Surfer : rebirth / Marz, Ron
The defenders : the best defense / Ewing, Al
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