Just in time for the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps this summer, Marvel Comics has announced the ongoing Fantastic Four series will be relaunched with a brand new issue #1 this July. Ryan North will continue to write the comic and will be joined by artist Humberto Ramos for the new jumping-on point, which will find Marvel’s First Family separated and stranded across time.
The official synopsis elaborates, “Their only hope [to reunite and return home] is to reach the Forever Stone: a mass of dense granite that happens to be one of the longest-lasting rocks on the planet, which – through a combination of obscurity and raw geologic luck – has stayed both intact and accessible for most of Earth’s history.”
North, who is also writing Marvel’s newly launched event series One World Under Doom, tells The Hollywood Reporter, “This book comes in the middle of our One World Under Doom event, so you can be certain that [Doctor Doom] plays a role in those first few issues – and after that we’ve got science mysteries, monsters, and trips into space.”
While promising Ben Grimm will fight a dinosaur, North elaborates, “As much as this first story involves dinosaurs and time travel, it’s really about these four remarkable people and the depth of love they have for each other. People often think of the FF in terms of family, and they’re not wrong, but I think there’s something really beautiful about friendship too, and we get to see that with these characters. It’s high-concept science fiction with real emotion. What’s not to like?”
Ramos adds, “I’ve been lucky to illustrate many of the most iconic superheroes in the universe, but this book felt different from the start. The weight of history and legacy of these characters lay upon your shoulders, no matter who you are or how you’ve worked in this industry.”
In the meantime, North’s initial Fantastic Four run (which kicked off in 2023) will conclude with issue #33 in June, while a story by him and Ramos will appear in the Free Comic Book Day issue Fantastic Four/Giant-Size X-Men, releasing Saturday, May 3. This relaunch will mark the eighth renumbering of the series created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in 1961, and the 726th issue overall under Marvel’s legacy numbering. (No doubt, that number would’ve been a bit higher if Marvel hadn’t canceled the comic ahead of the last time a Fantastic Four movie was released in 2015.)
The Fantastic Four: First Steps itself will follow into theaters on July 25.
