Fantastic Four: 1234 #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFantastic Four: 1234 #1 is the opening chapter of the only Fantastic Four story Grant Morrison ever wrote, making it a genuinely singular artifact in the histories of both the creative and the franchise. Published under the Marvel Knights banner, it introduced a deliberately psychological, character-fracture approach to Marvel's First Family — treating their team dynamics as pressure points to be exploited rather than celebrated — at a moment when most FF stories still leaned on cosmic adventure. Jae Lee's gothic linework and José Villarrubia's painterly colors established an aesthetic tone that stood apart from anything the title had seen in years, and the series has since been cited as one of the more formally inventive FF stories of the modern era. The four-issue structure, in which each chapter spotlights a single member, gave the story a rare architectural coherence that influenced how later limited series approached ensemble casts.
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The series was developed under the Marvel Knights imprint, an editorial line that had been built to give creators latitude to tell darker, less continuity-bound stories with Marvel characters. Editors Nanci Dakesian and Stuart Moore shepherded the project, which paired Morrison — then riding enormous critical momentum from his New X-Men run — with Jae Lee, who had recently won a 1999 Eisner Award for Best New Series alongside writer Paul Jenkins on the Marvel Knights Inhumans. Lee functioned as both penciller and inker on the series, with Harvey Award-winning colorist José Villarrubia applying painted colors that became inseparable from the book's identity. The combination of that specific creative team under that specific imprint gave the miniseries an out-of-continuity freedom that allowed Morrison to push the FF's interpersonal tensions further than the main title would have permitted.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Published July 25, 2001, by Marvel Comics under the Marvel Knights imprint; the series ran four issues through November 21, 2001.
- Written by Grant Morrison with art (pencils and inks) by Jae Lee — the only Fantastic Four story Morrison has written.
- Colored by José Villarrubia using painted colors; lettered by Richard Starkings; edited by Nanci Dakesian and Stuart Moore.
- Issue #1 is titled 'Once Upon a Time On Yancy Street' and centers on Ben Grimm (The Thing), setting the miniseries' one-member-per-issue structure.
- The central antagonist is Doctor Doom, who orchestrates a covert plan to divide and destroy the FF — in this issue communicating through a captured Doombot to lure Ben Grimm to Latveria with a promise of human restoration.
- Jae Lee received a 2002 Eisner Award nomination for Best Cover Artist, with Fantastic Four: 1234 cited among the qualifying works.
- Issue #1 was reprinted internationally in Panini Brasil's Paladinos Marvel #1 (2002) and Panini France's 100% Marvel: Fantastic Four #2 (2002), and later collected in Marvel Premiere Classic #77 (2011).
- The complete series was collected in trade paperback form and has received subsequent new printings, including a Marvel Knights-branded edition; the collection also includes supplementary material from Marvel Knights Double-Shot (2002) #2.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Paladinos Marvel #1 (2002), 100% Marvel : Fantastic Four #2 (2002), Fantastic Four: 1234 #[nn] (2002), De Fantastiske Fire: 1234 #[nn] (2005), Quarteto Fantástico 1234 #[nn] (2005), Fantastic Four: 1234 #[nn] (2011), Fantastic Four: 1234 #77 (2011), Colección Extra Superhéroes #68 (2016), Marvel Knights Fantastic Four by Morrison & Lee: 1234 #[nn] (2018), Fantastic Four by Morrison & Lee: 1234 #[nn] (2025)
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