The FF title started off as a relaunch of the core Fantastic Four title when writer Jonathan Hickman killed off the Human Torch. This led to the Fantastic Four disbanding and focusing their attention entirely on the Future Foundation, an organization that was charged with training the next generation of scientific geniuses. The organization included Reed and Sue’s children, Franklin and Valeria, as well as Alex Power of the Power Pack, the android Dragon Man, mutants Artie Maddicks and Leech, Moloids Mik, Korr, Turg, and Dong, and the Old Atlantian children known as Wu and Vil. Stewarding these children were the surviving former members of the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, as well as Nathaniel Richards, Reed’s father. Things took on a serious tone right away with the revelation that the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, a group of alternate-reality Reed Richards, sought to manipulate their reality. This prompted Reed to recruit other scientific geniuses including Doctor Doom, the Mad Thinker, Diablo, AIM’s Scientist Supreme, and the Wizard to stop them. After 11 issues, the core Fantastic Four title was brought back when the Human Torch turned up alive, however, FF continued on its own, telling stories involving the children of the Future Foundation. Often their adventures would run parallel with what was going on in the core Fantastic Four book. The Future Foundation was joined by future adult versions of Franklin and Valeria who came back in time to ensure that history continued to go on its intended course. Another new addition to the Foundation was Onome, a young girl from the nation of Wakanda.

When Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four and FF ended, both titles were rebooted. The second volume of FF was helmed by writer Matt Fraction with Mike Allred and his wife doing the art. Fraction was also working on the newly rebooted Fantastic Four title as well and like Hickman before him, both titles somewhat worked parallel with each other. In this new run, the Fantastic Four decide to go on a vacation with Franklin and Valeria, leaving the rest of the Future Foundation in the care of a back-up team including Ant-Man, Medusa of the Inhumans, She-Hulk, and the Human Torch’s rockstar girlfriend Darla Deering (who would later wear a suit of Ben Grimm’s old Thing exoskeletons and operate under the name Miss Thing). Although the Fantastic Four’s trip would take a year, they were going to travel through time and space and would return exactly one second after they left. Unfortunately, something goes wrong and the primary team does not return, leaving the back-up team to continue educating the children of the Future Foundation.

Ant-Man takes on the role of a reluctant leader as the character had just recently cheated death at the expense of his own daughter. Long story short: Ant-Man was seemingly killed during Avengers Disassembled but was plucked out of time moments before his death by his daughter, Cassie Lang, during the Children’s Crusade limited series. Cassie was tragically murdered by Doctor Doom near the end of this story.

Adding to the troubles, the replacement Fantastic Four are joined by a time-displaced older version of the Human Torch. Dubbed “Old John Storm”, who warns everyone that the Fantastic Four died and that they will soon face the threat of a being called Doom the Annihilating Conqueror, a powerful entity spawned by the merging of Doctor Doom, Kang the Conqueror and Annihilus.

Despite these threats, FF Volume 2 was a lighthearted series that mostly featured the Future Foundation kids going on various adventures. The team would expand again taking in the Ahura (the son of Black Bolt and Medusa), Luna (daughter of Crystal and Quicksilver), as well as Adolf Impossible, the humorless son of the Impossible Man and Woman. Another interesting angle taken was a sub-plot where Tong the Moloid deciding to identify as female. The assumption prior was that all the Moloid children were either male or genderless, this was an interesting angle to go on and is one of the first instances of Marvel introducing a gender-fluid character.

Ultimately, the threat of Doom the Annihilating Conqueror would come to Earth-616 and the new Fantastic Four and their charges in the Future Foundation would have to work together to stop him. Only in this reality, Doom was stuck working with a teenaged version of Annihilus as well as Kid Immortus, a younger version of Kang who went evil following the death of Cassie Lang. With the aid of the Future Foundation, and the 1940s magician named Monako, Ant-Man manages to defeat Doctor Doom in combat but decides to spare his life, not wanting to lower himself to Doom’s level. With the primary threat over, the original Fantastic Four returns alive and well marking the end of the second volume of FF.

Although the Fantastic Four title was relaunched again, there was not the third volume of FF to accompany it. Allegedly, Marvel was working toward outright canceling the Fantastic Four to blackball 20th Century Fox’s efforts to do a new Fantastic Four movie and ride out the rights deal. In the interim, the Future Foundation made sporadic appearances in the core Fantastic Four book until the end of its run. The Future Foundation later appeared in 2015s Secret Wars which ended with the Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation taking a hiatus to help rebuild the damage multiverse.

Ultimately, in the late 2010s, Marvel’s parent company bought 20th Century Fox, getting back the film rights to the Fantastic Four and, wouldn’t you know it, the Fantastic Four was brought back. Then in 2020, a new Future Foundation limited series followed. But we’ll get into that some other time.

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