Fantastic Four #570
Fantastic Four #570 marks the formal debut of Jonathan Hickman as the ongoing writer of Marvel's first family, opening a multi-year arc — rooted in hard science-fiction and intergenerational family drama — that many readers and critics regard as among the finest extended runs the title has seen. The issue introduces the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, a group of alternate-universe versions of Reed Richards who have each sacrificed family for the sake of solving every problem in their respective realities; the concept reframes Reed as a character defined not by his intellect alone, but by the moral choice he alone among his multiversal counterparts is willing to make: choosing Sue, Franklin, and Valeria over the 'great work.' That thematic engine — fathers and sons, the cost of genius, the ethics of ambition — powered Hickman's run all the way through to 2015's Secret Wars, and the Council of Reeds itself has continued to reverberate through Marvel's multiverse storytelling. In June 2025, director Matthew Shakman confirmed that Hickman's run beginning with this issue was a primary source of inspiration for the screenplay of the 2025 Fantastic Four film.
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Hickman arrived on the flagship title after the preceding Mark Millar/Bryan Hitch run concluded, stepping in as part of Marvel's Dark Reign editorial period. He had already been eased onto the property through the five-issue Dark Reign: Fantastic Four miniseries (illustrated by Sean Chen), which introduced the Bridge — Reed's device for peering across alternate realities — before Hickman inherited the monthly series proper with #570. According to a podcast retrospective on the run, Hickman has acknowledged he was not a longtime Fantastic Four enthusiast before receiving the assignment, and deliberately did his homework across every era of the book — Kirby and Lee, John Byrne, Tom DeFalco — channeling the result into a visual approach he described in conversation with artist Dale Eaglesham: that every character should look as they did when Jack Kirby drew them. Eaglesham was joined in the production credits by colorist Paul Mounts and letterer Rus Wooton, with Lauren Sankovitch and senior editor Tom Brevoort overseeing the book.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First team appearance of the Interdimensional Council of Reeds — alternate-universe versions of Reed Richards who convene in a pocket reality outside normal universal structure to collectively address multiversal threats.
- Written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Dale Eaglesham, colors by Paul Mounts, and letters by Rus Wooton; edited by Lauren Sankovitch and Tom Brevoort.
- Cover-dated October 2009; shipped to stores on August 26, 2009. The story title is 'Solve Everything, Part One,' opening a three-part arc spanning issues #570–572.
- The issue is the launch point of Hickman's full ongoing run on Fantastic Four, which continued through #588 before the title relaunched as FF, and later returned at #600; the complete run extends to #611 and concludes with thematic payoff in the 2015 event Secret Wars.
- Reed's invention 'the Bridge' — the cross-dimensional viewer that makes contact with the Council possible — was first introduced in Hickman's Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #1 (2009) and then hidden in issue #5 of that miniseries, making it a direct continuation of that prologue.
- Several variant covers were produced for the issue, including a 1:4 Dale Eaglesham connecting variant, a 1:10 70th Anniversary Frame variant, a 1:20 John Cassaday variant, and a 1:100 John Cassaday black-and-white sketch variant.
- The issue was later collected in Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman, Vol. 1 (collecting #570–574) and anchors the larger Complete Collection Vol. 1 (collecting Dark Reign: Fantastic Four #1–5 plus Fantastic Four #570–578), as well as both volumes of the Hickman Omnibus.
- In June 2025, Fantastic Four film writer Matthew Shakman publicly cited Hickman's run — which begins with this issue — as a major creative inspiration for the screenplay of the 2025 Marvel Studios film.
Reprints
Reprinted in Marvel 70th Anniversary Frame Art #[nn] (2009), Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection #1 (2018)
Key issues in Fantastic Four
Other variants of Fantastic Four #570 (4)
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