Marvel Announces Fantastic Four: Life Story

While fans are still buzzing about the Fantastic Four coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, [...]

While fans are still buzzing about the Fantastic Four coming to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Marvel Comics is celebrating the 60th anniversary of Jack Kirby and Stan Lee's creation of The Fantastic Four, which helped define the Silver Age of comic books and founded the Marvel Universe, with a new series titled Fantastic Four: Life Story. The miniseries is written by Mark Russell (Second Coming, Wonder Twins) and features art by Sean Izaakse (Fantastic Four, Avengers No Road Home) and is built in the same mold as Chip Zdarsky and Mark Bagley's 2019 hit Spider-Man: Life Story. As that series did with Spider-Man, Fantastic Four: Life Story will reimagine the adventures of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm as if they occurred in realtime from the first family's debut in 1961, setting their lives against real historical events.

Fantastic Four: Life Story #1 begins the tale in the "Swinging Sixties" as Reed, Ben, Sue, and Johnny journey into outer space only to come crashing back to Earth as Mr. Fantastic, the Thing, Invisible Woman, and the Human Torch. From there, their lives will be cast against the backdrop of the Cold War, and the Space Race after the accident that bestows their powers upon them also saddles them with a secret that forever binds them to Earth's history as the Fantastic Four.

Fantastic Four Life Story #1 Cover
(Photo: Marvel Comics)

"What I've always loved about the Fantastic Four is how it reduces the cosmic struggle of human survival to the scale of a family squabble while treating personal relationships as a matter of truly galactic importance," Russell said in a press release. "Weaving their story and their world into our story and what's happened in our world over the last sixty years was an important reminder to me of how smart it is to approach life like that."

"Working on a story about Marvel's First Family is not only an honor in itself, but what makes it even more so, is being part of the team that gets to tell such a moving and heartfelt story about these iconic characters, their struggles and triumphs in a new way that draws on what has come before," Izaakse said. "If I do my job right, this story will be one that Fantastic Four fans will remember for a long, long time."

You can see Daniel Acuña's cover of Fantastic Four: Life Story #1 above. The issue goes on sale in May. Marvel also promises more to come as it continues to celebrate the Fantastic Four's 60th anniversary.

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