Fabian Nicieza Introduces a New King of Atlantis in Giant-Size Fantastic Four #1 (Exclusive)

A forgotten ruler of Atlantis is coming back in a major way. 2024 is the 50th anniversary of Marvel’s Giant-Size comics, with the publisher celebrating by returning to the format each month of the year. Acclaimed writer Fabian Nicieza is penning February’s Giant-Size Fantastic Four #1, featuring a story that uncovers a dirty secret in Atlantis in the form of Natlus. Namor the Sub-Mariner has been the face of Atlantis ever since his debut, but his time as ruler is in a rocky status quo since he’s now in an Atlantis prison. Unfortunately, Natlus’ return will only bring more drama to the sea world. The question is how will the Fantastic Four factor into the political intrigue.

ComicBook.com spoke to Fabian Nicieza about Giant-Size Fantastic Four #1 to learn how Nicieza came up with the backstory for Natlus, what Namor thinks about Atlantis having a secret ruler he didn’t know about, and how the Fantastic Four find themselves stuck in the middle, and collaborating with artist Creees Lee. Plus, we can exclusively reveal interior pages for Giant-Size Fantastic Four #1 with art by Creees Lee and colors by Arif Prianto. 

What Namor thinks of Natlus

ComicBook.com: Atlantis appears to be in a period of transition with Namor imprisoned. What’s his state of mind before and after Natlus arrives?

Fabian Nicieza: I imagine his state of mind is frustrated on account of that whole imprisonment thing you mentioned. Namor has a very brief role in the Giant Size FF issue and I imagine he has a lot more to deal with right now that resuscitated thousand-year-old former monarchs.

.

Atlantis drama

How do the Fantastic Four get involved in the Atlantis drama with Natlus?

You know that ol’ pesky Walt Newell aka Stingray asking Reed if he can help some underwater exploration for new algae-driven energy resources is going to lead to buried tombs every single time!

.

Natlus backstory

I love how Natlus’ name reversed is “Sultan.” Obviously, you can’t tell us too much about him, but can you talk about how you went about crafting his backstory?

Well, the story goes when creating Namor, Bill Everett just spelled Roman backwards, and I wanted Imperius Rex to have a similar approach — sultan defined as sovereign, ruler and strength, seemed to fit the bill and Natlus has a good two-syllable ring to it that went well with Namor.

I wanted to dig into Atlantean and Lemurean lore and say a little something about modern times as well, but I can’t give too much away about Natlus without revealing a story twist, but I will say he ruled a few thousand years ago and his reign lasted for about 100 years before he was exiled. And, he was also the first — and probably last — king who was an Atlantean/Lemurian hybrid.

.

Collaboration w/ Crees Lee

What has the collaboration been like with Creees Lee? Are there any pages that you’re excited for fans to check out?

We didn’t have a lot of contact! I wish we had, but Creees agreed to draw it after I’d delivered the script and then a few weeks later just as I was about to ask when pages would be dropping a PDF of the entire issue, fully inked, landed in my inbox!

So, I said, “Hmm, I guess pages dropped.” And I opened up the file and said, “Hmm. That’s nice. Oooh, that’s good. Hey, that worked. Man, this kid’s pretty good. Oh, nice intro of Natlus.” I did dialogue tweaks and off it went.

Every book has its own process and this one was sort of done in mutual isolation, but I’m happy with the end results.

.

The future of Natlus

Lastly, anything else you’d like to leave with fans for what to look forward to in Giant-Size Fantastic Four?

I think Natus could be a real interesting character if future writers choose to continue the things I set up in the issue, but time will tell on that. I hope readers enjoy the issue. I openly wish I’d had more pages to tell as big a story as the original Giant Size titles, whose 50th anniversary we’re celebrating, were able to tell, but I’m really happy any time I can write the FF and getting to add a little to the mythology of Atlantis was a lot of fun, too!

.