The Future Foundation # 1

 By Mark Rodriguez

Back in 2011, there was a time where the Fantastic Four tragically lost Johnny Storm, the Human Torch. After some time off to grieve, Reed decided to bring back the Fantastic Four, but as the Future Foundation, with all new costumes and so forth. The biggest change was bringing in Spider-Man to replace his buddy Johnny. Let's take a look at their first couple of issues. 

Issue 1 begins with some scientists about to activate some machinery. One of them seems hesitant about the whole thing, but they decide to proceed anyways.

Elsewhere, Reed watches Johnny Storm's will in hologram form. I assume most of the superheroes do something like this in case they die on the next mission and actually stay dead. His video tells them that if he dies, give his spot to Spider-Man, which Reed agrees to.

Later on Spider-Man arrives on the roof and is greeted by Susan in her brand new costume. Spidey is impressed by their new location and Susan explains that sometime before this, Reed met his father, Nathaniel who was trapped in time and helped him get home. His father knew of things to come, so Reed and the 'science kids' work hard on scientific achievements. Susan has also regained control of Old Atlantis. Spidey sees The Thing in his room and waves to him. Ben slams the door and Spidey thinks it was a mistake for him to come. Susan says he's welcome to stay, but Ben is also dealing with his own grief, blaming himself for the loss of Johnny.

Spider-Man is fitted into his new outfit, which matches the outfits of the others with the new white color scheme. Spidey asks what happened to the blue outfits as well as the 4 and Susan says she was in the mood for something new in this black and white world. The outfits are made of unstable molecules and they can change colors. An alarm goes off, a level 5 threat, and Sue tells Pete that it's time for them to go to work.

C'mon Pete... they're the Fantastic Four and they just lost one of their members. You don't ask them 'what happened to the 4'. Even if you're replacing him, you still don't ask about the 4.

The P.A.V.L.O.V workers (the scientists from earlier) go deeper underground where they find a naked man in a meditative position. The heroes arrive 5 minutes later and Reed, Sue, Ben and Spidey jump in to fight the workers. As they fight their way through them they see that they were trying to set The Wizard free, one of their old foes. The villain is already free and is ready to make the place explode (and he's also naked for some reason). The bad guys escape in a flash as Wizard tells them that Reed has something of his and he will be back for it soon.

The gang reunites at the Baxter Building, where Reed's father is making dinner. Spidey is about to sit in Johny's old seat, but Reed and Sue's son, Franklin, stops him. Spidey apologizes after Sue explains. As they have dinner, Reed says they have to deal with the Inhumans and also considers terraforming the sun. Everyone agrees except his father, which surprises everyone. His father muses how it seems everyone just agrees with whatever Reed says without anyone speaking out.

Later on, Nathaniel and Valerie (Reed and Sue's daughter) want to talk to their father alone. Val wants to do something that Reed objects to. Nathanial says it's for the best and the others will need for Reed to see that this is fine and that he's ok with this. Reed agrees, and we see that Valerie has invited Doctor Doom to join the Future Foundation!!

My Thoughts-

Comics sure changed compared to back in the day. So the Wizard just gets way and is all 'muahahaha' and the heroes just shrug and go have dinner. You know if this was released in the 90's the issue would have been about the heroes trying to find and stop whatever his evil plan would be.

I do find it amusing how the topic of terraforming the moon is like 'yeah, sure, whatever', but I guess it's not too weird in the Marvel Universe... And it was interesting to see them pray to all sorts of gods and deities (and this kid that even prays to Mephisto) as they bless their meal.

The comic does an decent job of explaining what the Fantastic Four have been up to and the fact that Reed's father is now living with them. Spider-Man and Johnny Storm have been good friends that poke fun at each other over the years, so it was cool to have him consider Spidey should take his place in case of comic book death. I wish they went over a brief summary or flashback of how exactly Johnny so that new readers jumping on would know. Yeah, I can Google it, but I shouldn't have to. My understanding is he died in a battle in the Negative Zone, but as comics go, he eventually got better and came back.

I like the new outfits. They were cool and really show off the 'new-ness' of this new superhero team, and I like that Spider-Man got to wear a Spidey version of that uniform. It just makes it look more official that he's part of the gang and not just a cameo and I liked how it looked on him.

It was an interesting series, at least near the beginning. It did kinda bore me eventually, but the first issues did grab my attention. The thought of a new version of the Fantastic Four with new costumes AND having Spider-Man be a member really sold me back in 2011.