Fantastic Four #1
Fantastic Four (vol. 2) #1 marks one of the most structurally unusual moments in Marvel's publishing history: the company temporarily handed its oldest superhero team title to an outside studio — Jim Lee's WildStorm Productions — as part of the 'Heroes Reborn' event, the direct fallout of the Onslaught crossover. The issue reset the team's origin in a pocket universe created by Franklin Richards, deliberately mirroring the story beats of the original 1961 Fantastic Four #1 with a modern 1990s sensibility, making it a fascinating lens through which to study how Marvel conceived of franchise reinvention during its bankruptcy era. Its commercial performance at launch, topping the direct market charts, temporarily arrested the sales slide that had plagued the team's book, even as the creative experiment drew lasting debate about quality and creative autonomy. The series and its debut issue remain an unavoidable case study in what happens when a publisher outsources the stewardship of cornerstone characters to star talent operating with near-total editorial independence.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
The deal behind this issue was announced at a Marvel press conference in December 1995: in the wake of the Onslaught crossover — in which the Fantastic Four and Avengers apparently died defeating the villain — Marvel contracted Jim Lee's WildStorm studio to produce Fantastic Four and Iron Man, while Rob Liefeld's Extreme Studios took Avengers and Captain America, with both creators receiving substantial autonomy and profit-sharing arrangements largely free of in-house Marvel editorial oversight. Lee plotted all twelve core issues of the Fantastic Four run, with Brandon Choi scripting and Lee penciling; Scott Williams handled inks, with the book edited by Mike Heisler under editor-in-chief Bob Harras. The issue shipped on September 4, 1996, as a double-sized, 56-page debut with two variant covers distributed at a 1:1 ratio, and included a six-page bonus feature called 'Time Slip' reimagining how characters like Iron Man, Doctor Doom, and Nick Fury would look if created in the contemporary era.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published by Marvel Comics; on-sale date September 4, 1996; cover-dated November 1996. Double-sized issue at 56 pages.
- Written (plot) by Jim Lee, scripted by Brandon Choi; pencils by Jim Lee; inks by Scott Williams. Edited by Mike Heisler and Jonathan Peterson, under editor-in-chief Bob Harras.
- Produced by Jim Lee's WildStorm Productions studio under the Heroes Reborn initiative, one of four Marvel flagship titles outsourced to former Image Comics founders Lee and Rob Liefeld.
- Set in the 'Counter-Earth' pocket universe — established in-story as a reality created by Franklin Richards to save the Fantastic Four and Avengers from death during the Onslaught crisis.
- The story is a deliberate re-imagining of the original 1961 Fantastic Four #1, with specific pages mirroring panels from that issue, including the team's iconic hand-stacking gesture before their fateful flight.
- Features the first appearances (in this Counter-Earth continuity) of Matthew Storm and this universe's version of Wyatt Wingfoot, the latter actually being the Skrull Super-Skrull (Kl'rt) in disguise, as revealed in issue #5.
- Also features the behind-the-scenes first appearance of the Heroes Reborn Silver Surfer, who exits a stellar anomaly but is not fully seen until a later issue.
- Shipped with two different variant covers at a 1:1 ratio. The complete 12-issue run was collected in trade paperback in 2000, reprinted again in 2006 for the event's tenth anniversary, with another edition in 2018, and ultimately collected in the Heroes Reborn Omnibus (2019).
Reprints
Reprinted in Die Fantastischen Vier #2 (1999), Heroes Reborn: Fantastic Four #[nn] (2006), Heroes Reborn Omnibus #[nn] (2019)
Key issues in Fantastic Four
Other variants of Fantastic Four #1 (3)
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