With the ‘end’ of Fantastic Four we have a new series giving us the further adventures of Marvel’s First (Incomplete) Family. Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting gave us, arguably, the two best issues of Fantastic Four in a row the last two months. It’s gonna be really hard to top what came before even though this is just a continuation of the same story. But we’re off to a good start with Spider-Man revealed to be on the team. Can this Future Foundation bring just as much fun as the Fantastic Four did?

Well we’re off to a good start with Hickman giving us the new lay of the land for the Richard’s household. We still have a ton of childs, creatures, and new additions to the family seemingly every page. Even if this is a new series, there is really nothing different about this from what we read before. Except for that Nathanial Richards is back, still not tying to SHIELD yet, and he does bring an X-factor to be series in a lot of ways. Now Reed has a definite rival in terms of his ideas and I think there’s gonna be a lot of great moments with this Father and Son team. With Spider-Man on the team, I don’t think Hickman fully showed that potentional yet. I think it’s going to be good in the long run but nothing really jumped out at me to say ‘Yes he deserves to be in this book now.’ This issue really is nothing more then a refresher in a lot of ways for new readers. Not saying that’s a bad thing; but unlike the last couple of issues this didn’t quite resonate me as much as they did. I mean the last page reveal is kind of a shocker, but we all kinda saw it coming considering it was the one plot thread Hickman didn’t resolve yet.

Steve Epting does continue to prove he is the best man for the job in this series. Just a lot of great detail on each page whether it be just talking heads or a little bit of action. This issue does make me want to see a Epting drawn Spider-Man story though. He just nails the web slinging and I’d love to see it someday. There are also some great special effects here with a lot of kirby dots and a good effect to the new costumes. They still look ugly as sin to me but I Epting tries to show how cool they can possibly be. Epting also has a good handle on emotions so when you see Ben being sad, or the tension between Reed/Nathanial you really can see it.

This was a pretty good first issue, but to be honest I have no idea why this had to be a new series. Yes they aren’t called the Fantastic Four anymore, but what stopping them before from calling themselves that when a family member died/left? This really just felt like another issue of Fantastic Four and not the start of a brand new series by Hickman/Epting. In that regard, the issue is a bit of a failure. But if you look at it as just another issue of a long running series, like I will, then it’s another fantastic issue by both men. I’m excited for the future of the Fantastic Four, or Future Foundation, or whatever the hell you want to call them.