FF vol1 #1 (2011)
by Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
Following the death of the Human Torch, the Fantastic Four re-brand as the Future Foundation.
But I guess they wanted to save on the title, so for a year the series is just “FF”.
If you don’t know the Human Torch, it might sound weird for him to record his last will… but he’s always had hidden depth.
The fact that he wants Spider-Man to take his place in the team is 100% Johnny Storm.
The Future Foundation suits are a bit divisive, since they’re so different from what we’re used to with the Fantastic Four.
However I think we can all agree Susan looks great in hers, because of course she does, but I like her black variant better. It’s just more suitable for a character called “Invisible Woman” to have a costume that blends with the environment.
The regular white version works fine with her. But Spider-Man in all-white feels wrong.
Spider-Man has such a long history with the Fantastic Four that he’s not out of place. They still feel like the Fantastic Four, instead of “the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man”, if that makes sense.
The Future Foundation has a huge cast, besides the actual Fantastic Four and family.
In the picture above, starting from the middle and going left to right we have:
- the ponytail guy is Nathaniel Richards, Reed’s time-traveling father. A different version from what we say in the DeFalco years: this one is actually a very well-written character!
- Bentley, the child clone of Wizard (and future sort-of-love-interest for Valeria)
- Leech, the power-dampening Morlock mutant who’s been friend with Frankling since Onslaught
- Dragon Man, classic FF villain android. He’s been redeemed and is now a genius.
- Valeria
- Franklin
- the Thing
- Artie, the other Morlock mutant kid
- Mister Fantastic
- Invisible Woman
- Spider-Man
- Alex Powers, the oldest member of Power Pack.
- three Moloid kids (Tong, Mik and Turg) rescued by the FF
- Wu and Vil, two water-breathing kids from a lost underwater kingdom (also rescued by the FF)
The Hickman run is generally VERY serious, but he can have some fun with the sheer ridiculousness of a superhero universe.
But to bring this back to the reason why I’m reviewing it, Reed then discovers that Valeria has been working with Doctor Doom.
You might want to pause to check that out since I initially skipped that issue.
The issue then ends with the revelation that Valeria has invited Doctor Doom to join the Future Foundation!
FF vol1 #2 (2011)
by Jonathan Hickman & Steve Epting
cover by Daniel Acuna
DOOM DEMANDS TO BE ON THE BEST COVER OF THE RUN!!!
Honestly, the Thing is taking the idea of being in the same team with Doom better than expected.
Well I’m sure Doom will be capable of being a good teammate.
Holy crap, Doom… that was cold. Below absolute zero cold.
Leave it to Susan to be the only person capable of handling those two.
Not that she’s on board with this any more than the Thing.
Is there any other person on the planet that Doom would let speak to him this way? I don’t think even Namor could get away with it.
Many writers struggle to have Spider-Man in a team-up during a serious moment because, since he’s a well-known jokester, they make him crack jokes at the most inopportune times and he comes across as childish.
I think Hickman avoids that problem by having Spider-Man stick to joking around as a coping mechanism for tense situations, which is what he’s SUPPOSED to do.
It helps that he’s hilarious instead of annoying, but of course your mileage may vary on that.
This is where the Future Foundation concept kicks in: Reed doesn’t solve the issue on his own, but he asks for the help of all the super-smart kids he’s gathered.
This makes the membership of Spider-Man even more appropriate.
As smart as Hickman’s Reed is, you can’t just have him come up with a cure for brain damage without wondering how anyone has Alzheimer after this story. So naturally Doom’s problem is a completely made-up one.
This is also the only moment when Doom’s brain damage is represented as him having what DOES look like brain damage.
It takes him TWO PAGES with the same panel repeated TEN TIMES to answer.
Since Kristoff is the solution, Doom then flies back to Latveria.
Where Kristoff is posing as Doom? Then what was the point of having the whole ceremony in #588 if he was just going to pretend to be Doom???
The reason for using Kristoff to restore Doom’s brain is pretty obvious, since he had all of his memories. It does create a bit of a problem, though: Kristoff only received Doom’s memories and knowledge up to roughly Fantastic Four #6, not the later ones.
This is solved by specifying that what the team is actually doing is just fixing the physical makeup of Doom’s brain.
Which kind of contradicts Reed’s earlier statement of Doom’s brain being physically unaffected and Valeria talking about restoring data; that’s not exactly what is happening here.
You might recall that, during the DeFalco years, that Nathaniel Richards claimed that Kristoff was his biological son. There is absolutely no mention whatsoever of that here, even though there IS a version of Nathaniel present.
I guess this one might have chosen to stay silent about it, or perhaps it’s due to him being from a different timeline… but I’ve always thought Nathaniel was lying during the DeFalco years, so for me this is just further proof of that.
In a subtle moment, Reed has the opportunity to completely wipe out Doom’s brain and he’s tempted to do so.
This is what happens when you trust the artist and the audience. Nobody comments on it, but that silent exchange of stares between Reed and Spider-Man speaks volumes.
I know I should stay impartial, but sometime you just have to take a moment to appreciate just how freaking cool Doctor Doom can be!
And now that Valeria has done her part, Doctor Doom is going to hold up his part of the bargain… defeating Reed Richards.
Doom’s not talking about THIS Reed, however, but about the Council of Reeds.
So a bit of housecleaning, since the sequence of events is a bit confusing. This will be the sequence of the following Doom reviews:
-Doom’s appearances on the pages of Hulk and X-Men, where he’s unquestionably in the Future Foundation
-the entire Hickman run, all the way up to Fantastic Four #611
-Avengers: Children’s Crusade. While it technically takes place BEFORE the Future Foundation stories, I’m reviewing it afterwards because thematically it leads directly into…
-FF vol.2 by Matt Fraction. Which I’m most definitely NOT looking forward to, because it has one of the worst takes on Doom I’ve ever read. So I will probably interrupt it with Doom’s various cameos to retain at least part of my sanity.
Doom significance: 10/10
In addition to being the reason why Doom is in the Future Foundation as long as it’s around, it’s also a small step towards the new Secret Wars.
Silver Age-ness: 6/10
That dinner scene is hilarious!
Does it stand the test of time? 10/10
I just love the Huckman run; here he does a fantastic (pun intended) job with just about everyone.
He’s also the only one to do SOMETHING with the idea of a brain damaged Doom besides making fun of him, and that silent interaction between Reed and Spider-Man needs to be studied by comic book writers.
It was a Doombot all along
I’m guessing they couldn’t do the brain transfer thing with a Doombot because they needed an actual human brain for this one.
Superhero teams Doom has joined: 1
He’s been on the side of the good guys many times, even joining the Fantastic Four in specific missions, but I don’t think we can classify ANY of them as him joining before the Future Foundation.
Crazy tech
It’s modified by Reed and Valeria, sure, but even after all those years Doom’s brain transfer technology still gets a lot of points!