Marvel decided to do something similar to DC's New 52. Rather than rebooting their whole universe, though, they just sort of established a new status quo within the regular continuity. Marvel Now they're calling it. Lots of new series launches, though the primary focus seems to be on new creative teams taking on characters they haven't really been associated with before. So, Brian Michael Bendis who wrote like a thousand issues of all the different Avengers titles, is now writing All New X-Men.
Marvel Now has been rolling out since September but we are definitely right in the midst of it. I've been trying out a lot of the titles and mostly digging it.
Appropriately enough, the first Marvel Now title to launch was Fantastic Four (the original FF was the first true Marvel Comic back in 1961 yo. As if I needed to tell you that.) Matt Fraction is writing both Fantastic Four and FF. Wait, what? FF stands for Freedom Force. No, that's not right. I just read it too, what was it? Oh yeah- Future Foundation. The Fantastic Four, of course, is Reed "Mr. Fantastic" Richards, his wife Sue Storm-Richards the Invisible Woman, her brother Johnny Storm aka the Human Torch (back from the dead) and Ben Grimm the ever-loving Thing. As Fantastic Four #1 opens, Reed has discovered that the unstable molecules that form his stretchtastic elastic body are decaying. And there is no cure in the entire known universe. Luckily he knows where there are all sorts of unknown universes so he decides it would be cool to grab the other Three of the Four, as well as his kids, and go on a year-long educational trip through the Negative Zone and whatever other alternate dimensions they feel like exploring. Which is a great setup for Lost In Space-type misadventures, which I love. I like Fraction's writing so I know he'll have some good stuff in store. Issue 1 was all setup but you can bet the fantastic fun will begin in earnest next issue.
Reed sets up his little time machine dimension hopper gizmo to return them precisely four minutes after they leave, in subjective time. No big deal, right? But in case something catastrophic happens in those four minutes (and catastrophes happen about every three minutes in the Marvel Universe) he asks four friends to step in for those four minutes just in case. He recruits Ant-man, Medusa, She-Hulk (yay!) and um, Ms. Thing who is apparently Johnny's girlfriend in a Thing-like exoskeleton suit. FF #1 is also all setup, though a lot of fun while at it. I'm guessing issue 2 will go something like this:
Reed Richards: Thanks for covering for us while we're gone, Ant-man.
Ant-man: Yeah no problem. See you in four minutes.
Reed waves
Ant-man waves
Four minutes passes
Reed: Hi! That was so much fun!
Ant-man: Cool! Alright I'll catch ya later.
I was hoping, but failed, to snag the Arthur Adams' (one of my favourite artists from waay back) variant cover for FF#1, a fantastic homage to Fantastic Four #1:
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