Fantastic Four #1

History

The announcement of the series was kept under wraps at Marvel for months before Dan Slott — coming directly off a celebrated decade-long run on Amazing Spider-Man — personally pitched the concept at a small editorial dinner, reportedly drawing an emotional response from the room. Marvel Editor-in-Chief C.B. Cebulski told the New York Times that the team was waiting for 'the right time and the right creative team' before bringing the FF back, and that once Slott had finished his Spider-Man tenure and Sara Pichelli had wrapped her long collaboration with Miles Morales' stories, they became the uncontested top choices. Editor Tom Brevoort, himself a deep scholar of FF history, was also instrumental in shaping the creative direction and costume designs. The issue shipped August 8, 2018 — timed to the 57th anniversary of the original Fantastic Four #1 — and included bonus anthology-style backup stories illustrated by Simone Bianchi and Skottie Young, as well as an interior tribute to the recently deceased Steve Ditko, whose pages from Strange Tales were reprinted in his honor.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Published August 8, 2018 — timed to the 57th anniversary of the original Fantastic Four #1 (1961) — as part of Marvel's company-wide 'Fresh Start' relaunch initiative.
• Written by Dan Slott, with interior art by Sara Pichelli (lead story), Simone Bianchi, and Skottie Young (backup stories); cover artists include Esad Ribic, Michael Allred, and Sara Pichelli; edited by Tom Brevoort.
• Sara Pichelli is the first woman to serve as the ongoing artist on the Fantastic Four title in its entire history — a landmark in a series dating back to 1961.
• The issue marks the in-universe re-establishment of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Franklin Richards, and Valeria Richards on Earth-616 for the first time since the conclusion of the Secret Wars event.
• Ben Grimm proposes marriage to Alicia Masters in this issue — a relationship milestone decades in the making — setting the course for their eventual wedding in Fantastic Four #5 (the series' legacy 650th issue).
• The issue contains a Steve Ditko tribute, reprinting pages from Strange Tales #138, published in August 2018 following Ditko's death; the tribute appears on the inside front cover across variants.
• Bonus backup stories illustrated by Simone Bianchi and Skottie Young are included alongside the main Pichelli-drawn lead story, making this an oversized anthology-format debut issue.
• The series this issue launches ran for 48 issues (August 2018 – October 2022) before transitioning to a new volume by Ryan North and Iban Coello; Slott's complete run has since been collected in omnibus format.

Key issues in Fantastic Four

Other variants of Fantastic Four #1 (64)