While *Deniz Camp and Juan Frigeri’s The Ultimates* may have claimed the title of the Best Comic Book Series or Original Graphic Novel of 2024, it's impossible to ignore the stellar run of *Fantastic Four*. Thanks to writer Ryan North and his talented team, the series is experiencing a renaissance, hitting a high not seen in years. With *The Fantastic Four: First Steps* set to premiere in theaters soon, Marvel is poised to capitalize on the momentum and draw in even more fans this summer.
Marvel is set to relaunch *Fantastic Four* in July, and fans can rest easy knowing that North is still at the helm. This new volume introduces artist Humberto Ramos (known for *The Amazing Spider-Man*) to the mix. Together, North and Ramos will embark on a fresh series of adventures with Marvel's First Family, navigating the aftermath of the One World Under Doom crossover and exploring time-travel escapades.
To delve deeper into the new series and understand why it's an ideal entry point for new readers, IGN conducted an email interview with North. Before diving into the interview, take a moment to view an exclusive preview of the first issue in the slideshow gallery below.
Fantastic Four #1: Exclusive Preview Gallery
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It may seem counterintuitive to renumber the series when the writer remains the same and the direction isn't drastically altered, but North sees it as an opportunity to attract new readers. With the upcoming *Fantastic Four* movie, making the comic more accessible to curious newcomers is a strategic move.
“An opportunity comics has as a medium is always to expand,” North tells IGN. “There are millions of people who don't read comics, who think comics aren't for them, and they're wrong! There are a ton of comics that are absolutely for them, but they just haven't found them yet, or maybe haven't felt like they were invited in to read them. Especially in superhero comics, where every book has a number on it and people may think they have to start with number one, it can be a real challenge. So by giving readers that new number one, the hope is that if they see the movie and love it and want to know more about these fantastic people, that's at least one less barrier for them to overcome.”
A significant shift in the new series is the collaboration with Ramos on art. North reveals that he and Ramos have been planning this relaunch for some time.
“We were lucky enough to get to meet and have breakfast at San Diego Comic-Con a while back, before he even started work on this new series and before I even started writing them, so we got to talk about the characters and what we like about them from the word go,” North says. “He is a very creative and generous collaborator, always down to punch up an idea and able to render those ideas with such excitement and verve. I think people are going to really love what he's been coming up with, and it's been a real trial these past several months sitting on top of all this great art and being unable to share it with anyone.”
Ramos's renowned speed as an artist is a major advantage for North. With a more consistent art team, North can write with a specific artist in mind, enhancing the synergy between script and visuals.
“I've been lucky enough to work with a ton of great artists on *Fantastic Four*, but I'm usually so far ahead with the scripting that I don't know who the artist is going to be when I'm writing it,” North says. “It's always my preference to know the artist, because then you can write for them and create something that can be a better melding of the two of your interests, and with knowing Humberto has been on this book for so long, it's been really great to get to write specifically for him for issue after issue.”
While a new #1 issue is always helpful, North's run on *Fantastic Four* has always been easy to jump into. Structured as a series of standalone adventures that contribute to a larger narrative, the book is reminiscent of *Rick and Morty*. Will this format change with the relaunch?
“Not really, but I am using it as an opportunity to lean a bit more into that larger narrative!” North says. “I still want each issue to stand alone, and I want every issue to be a place for someone to jump on and get a fully satisfying story with every issue they pick up, but I am turning the dial a little bit more towards larger and crazier stories for that larger narrative. I'm not changing the special sauce - as Ben would say, ‘I'm just adding a couple cloves of garlic - not because it's not delicious, I just wanna add a little bit of zip.’”
When the relaunch was announced, North expressed a desire to focus on the FF as friends, not just family. We asked about this distinction and how it plays out in the narrative.
“It's maybe a subtle distinction, but I really love my friends, and wanted to tell stories about people who are in these long-running relationships that they don't have to be, but they choose to be,” North says. “And that's not that different from family, in the sense that, yes, you are born into a family, but you have to choose to stay there - you have to put the effort in to maintain and develop the relationships that are important to you. And if you look at the Fantastic Four, we often think of them as a family, but only two of them, Johnny and Sue, actually are family at the start. But they all choose each other, they all choose to stay with each other and become something more, and I think that's really fun and beautiful and interesting. Guess what I'm trying to say is the distance between good friends and found family maybe isn't as wide as I thought it was.”
One challenge of relaunching *Fantastic Four* this summer is the ongoing *One World Under Doom* crossover. North confirms that the new series will not ignore this event but will instead use it as a springboard to tell a major Doctor Doom story from the outset.
“One of the challenges of relaunching like this is we're trying to do a new number one that's an easy on-ramp for new readers, but also it's right in the middle of the *One World Under Doom* event, and we don't want to ignore that either,” North says. “So the first story is a Doom story, giving the Fantastic Four the chance to actually fix everything that Doom has done - this involves a big, weird science fiction idea - and then we're off to the races with a whole bunch of other new, weird, big science fiction ideas.”
A key development in *One World Under Doom* involves Doom curing Ben Grimm of his rocky condition to prove his superiority over Reed Richards. However, previews suggest Ben reverts to The Thing in the new series. North hints that this plot twist will be resolved before the relaunch, though it may have lasting effects.
“We’ll actually get to see how it is resolved in the last moments of the previous run, so that we're not starting this new one with an unresolved plot thread!” North says. “I do really want it to be accessible to that new and curious person who wants to know more about the Fantastic Four, so I'm trying to keep the back story they need to know to as much of a minimum as I can for this first little bit. Which might sound hard, but it's also something that I've been doing the entire run so far. The Fantastic Four have literal decades of history, but I want to make sure that nobody is lost when they pick up an issue and everyone is welcome to the party, you know?”
*Fantastic Four #1* will be released on July 9, just weeks before *The Fantastic Four: First Steps* hits theaters. Below is the solicitation for *Fantastic Four #2*:
FANTASTIC FOUR #2
Written by RYAN NORTH
Art and Cover by HUMBERTO RAMOS
Sue Storm, stranded deep in the future at the end of Earth’s history, is the last thing alive on the once-vibrant world. How can she make it back to her proper time before being killed? Meanwhile, Reed Richards, stranded in Earth’s past, waits for a rescue from her that will never come...unless there’s some way their relationship – the deep and loving understanding this man and woman have for each other – can transcend time itself...
Meanwhile, in the present, Doom reveals precisely how he’s managed to stymie the Fantastic Four for so long: a secret to his invincibility that has transformed every loss into a win! And it’s one that makes Emperor Doom invincible...
On Sale 8/13
In other news, the upcoming *Fantastic Four* movie will be accompanied by a prequel comic that explores the origin of Pedro Pascal's Reed Richards and his family, marking one of the first comics in a while to tie directly into the MCU.
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