It’s renumberin’ time. It’s been a little more than two years since Marvel relaunched The Fantastic Four with a new creative team (writer Ryan North with artists Iban Coello, Ivan Fiorelli, and Carlos Gomez) in 2022 and returned to a new No. 1 following Dan Slott’s 46-issue run on the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine. Last month, Marvel announced that the current Fantastic Four comic run — written by North with art by Cory Smith (Wolverine) — would be ending with issue #33 in June, and the new Fantastic Four #1 (legacy #727) would launch the eighth volume in time for Marvel Studios’ The Fantastic Four: First Steps movie in July.
North, who is also scripting the core title of the ongoing Doctor Doom-centric One World Under Doom publishing initiative, will remain on writing duties and will be joined by artist Humberto Ramos (The Spectacular Spider-Men).
Before sending Marvel’s First Family to four different time periods, North and Ramos will first team up for a story in Free Comic Book Day 2025: Fantastic Four/Giant-Size X-Men #1 (May 3) before the Fantastic Four’s new era begins in the extra-sized Fantastic Four Vol. 8 #1 (July 9).
“There’s a big new Fantastic Four film on the way, which means that a whole bunch of new people are suddenly going to be interested in our cosmic quartet,” Marvel’s Fantastic Four editor Tom Brevoort wrote on his Substack blog. Brevoort responded to a fan’s question about why the publisher resets the title’s numbering while keeping the same writer on the book, which led to two Chip Zdarsky-penned Daredevil #1s in 2019 and 2022.
“It’s always nice to give folks like that an easy access ramp with a new #1 rather than hoping that they’ll jump on for#34 or whatever,” Brevoort continued. “And we do have a new artist, the terrific Humberto Ramos, as well as a big story to start with, so hopefully it’ll feel like it’s worth it to you. Or it’s a big cash grab, I’m fine with that since I like cash and it enables us to keep the lights on and the presses running.”
Marvel will also be launching a more evergreen title, the four-issue Fantastic Four Fanfare, that will appeal to both longtime fans and new readers ahead of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing taking their first steps into the MCU this summer.
In advance of Marvel’s First Family arriving on the big screen this summer, Ryan North and Humberto Ramos craft an unusual story in which the FANTASTIC FOUR respond to a most unusual interdimensional summons! And on the eve of the birth of the ALL-NEW, ALL-DIFFERENT X-MEN, there is one extra mutant in attendance. WHO is it? Only Collin Kelly and Jackson Lanzing can tell you! Plus, ANOTHER surprise! We’re simply too good to you!
On stands: May 3
MARVEL’S FIRST FAMILY! In this special, full-color anthology series, each issue focuses on a particular member of the team! For this inaugural outing, Mark Waid and Ramon Rosanas depict an escalating prank war between the Human Torch and the Thing; Alan Davis sends the team into hazards deep underground; and Andrew Wheeler and Sara Pichelli reveal what happens when the Mole Man interrupts Johnny Storm’s star-making turn on reality television!
On sale: May 7
FANTASTIC ZERO! It all comes down to this! Thirty-three issues of fantastic adventure culminate in a final stirring adventure, back to the beginning…of EVERYTHING. When the solution to what Doom did to Ben can only be found in the past, the Fantastic Four must voyage back four hundred and thirty-six quadrillion seconds into the Big Bang! Of course, the tremendous energies there make it unsurvivable – unless H.E.R.B.I.E. is in control of the precise timing required. Action, adventure and big ideas collide in this special finale issue – which leads into our even more special new #1 issue, coming next month!
On sale: June 25
A NEW ERA FOR MARVEL’S FIRST FAMILY!
The FANTASTIC FOUR return with a new issue #1, kicking off a whole new volume of their adventures through time, space, science and the human condition! When the Fantastic Four take on Doom, things go well until they suddenly go catastrophically wrong – and they’re sent to four different eras in Earth’s history! Alone and isolated in wildly different time periods, Reed, Johnny, Ben and Sue all have to fight to survive. Their only hope 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 geological luck – has stayed both intact and accessible for most of Earth’s history! Also featured in this extra-big, extra-special issue: Ben Grimm fights a dinosaur! No other comic DARES to feature the Thing battling several Mapusauruses, but that’s just where WE get started! And it’s all brought to life by the incredible new series artist Humberto Ramos!
On sale: July 9
It’s renumberin’ time. It’s been a little more than two years since Marvel relaunched The Fantastic Four with a new creative team (writer Ryan North with artists Iban Coello, Ivan Fiorelli, and Carlos Gomez) in 2022 and returned to a new No. 1 following Dan Slott’s 46-issue run on the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine. Last Read More