What is the Future Foundation
The Future Foundation began with Reed Richards insulting every scientist in the room. Fantastic Four #579 opens with Reed addressing the closing ceremony of a scientific conference, where he picks apart the presentations his colleagues have just given and calls them cowards grown afraid of the future. Tired of a scientific community that keeps limiting itself, he founds his own alternative: a group dedicated to building a better future for all of humanity. The pitch, in Reed’s own dialogue as ComicBook.com quotes it: “I pictured a place where the greatest minds of a generation could come together…”
The same issue shows how literally he means it. Reed takes in Bentley-23, a young clone of the Wizard, to prove that human potential has no ceiling: genetics, destiny, and predestination are no match for a nurturing environment.
The whole thing happens on-panel: the speech, the founding, the adoption. The group’s first appearance doubles as its origin story.
The class around Reed grew across Hickman’s run, and no two accounts agree on the exact order of arrival. The early roster: Valeria and Franklin Richards, Alex Power, Dragon Man, Bentley-23, the evolved Moloids, Artie Maddicks, Leech, and the Uhari children Vil and Wu.
The Torch Falls and the Four Become FF
The Foundation ran as a project inside the Fantastic Four’s book until the book itself ended. The storyline “Three” concluded in Fantastic Four #587 (cover-dated March 2011, published that January), in which the Human Torch appears to die stopping a horde of monsters from the Negative Zone. Fantastic Four ended with the next issue, #588.
What replaced it in March 2011 was FF, a Modern Age relaunch written by Jonathan Hickman with art by Steve Epting and Paul Mounts. The relaunch promoted the Foundation from subplot to masthead: the Fantastic Four assumed the Future Foundation name and new black-and-white costumes, Sue Storm and Ben Grimm included, and accepted longtime ally Spider-Man as a member. This book, not the debut, is why Steve Epting’s name sits in Wikipedia’s creator list for the Foundation.
The Spider-Man seat was Johnny Storm’s doing. The Torch recorded a final request that Spider-Man take his place, and Amazing Spider-Man #657 (2011), Dan Slott’s memorial issue for Johnny, lays the groundwork for the move. Collector listings flag Amazing Spider-Man #658 (2011) as Spider-Man’s first outing in the white Future Foundation suit.
Doom Joins the Foundation
FF #1 (2011) holds its reveal for the last page: Valeria has invited Doctor Doom into the Foundation. He accepts in #2, pursuing his own agenda against the Council of Reeds. The Foundation’s most notorious recruit got in because a kid asked him.
After Hickman: #600 and the 2019 Revival
The original book came back before Hickman was done. Fantastic Four returned in November 2011 with the 100-page #600, cover-dated January 2012, which restored the original numbering and brought the Human Torch back. The FF series ran 23 issues in all. Fantastic Four itself ended with #611, closing Hickman’s long run on the titles, and Marvel relaunched it under Matt Fraction in November 2012.
The Foundation headlined again in August 2019. Future Foundation, written by Jeremy Whitley with art by Will Robson, caught up with the kids after the Richards family went back to being the Fantastic Four. Marvel’s solicitation, via Bleeding Cool, pitched them as “a think tank of the most brilliant young minds in the universe” with one mission, to “find the pieces of and rebuild their friend Molecule Man.” Alex and Julie Power led the roster, the team fought the Maker (the Ultimate Universe’s Reed Richards), and the series ended after five issues.
Notable issues
- Fantastic Four #579 (2010): first appearance of the Future Foundation. Reed founds the group and adopts Bentley-23 in the same issue.
- Fantastic Four #587 (2011): “Three” concludes; the Human Torch appears to die.
- FF #1 (2011): the relaunch. Spider-Man joins, and the last page reveals Valeria’s invitation to Doctor Doom.
- FF #2 (2011): Doom accepts.
- Amazing Spider-Man #657 (2011): the tie-in that memorializes Johnny Storm and sets up Spider-Man’s move.
- Fantastic Four #600 (2011): the original numbering returns, and so does the Human Torch.
- Future Foundation #1 (2019): the Whitley and Robson revival.
