Marvel Legacy Hints at the Fantastic Four's Return, But Where Have They Been?

SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Marvel Legacy #1, on sale now.

The Marvel Legacy one-shot was jam-packed with reveals and surprises, but perhaps the most unexpected was the hint at a return for the Fantastic Four, who have been missing from the Marvel Universe since the end of Secret Wars. Unlike their fellow returning character Logan, the FF haven’t been dead for the last couple of years; rather, they've been off on a very important mission. It's pretty safe to bet, then, that anything that ends up bringing them back to the Prime Marvel Universe will no doubt be incredibly important and eventful.

A Whole New World

Prior to the FF's disappearance, the Marvel Multiverse had collapsed and been reformed into the singular Battleworld, with Doctor Doom as its God Emperor. Reed Richards survived the change to reality in his ark -- a hi-tech vehicle that protected Reed and a handful of heroes from the field of Doom's reality re-shaping influence -- but the rest of his family wasn't so lucky and were folded into the new history of Battleworld. There, Sue Storm married Victor Von Doom, while Franklin and Valeria were their children; Johnny Storm was turned into Battleworld’s sun; and The Thing was transformed into The Shield, a massive sentient wall which separated Battleworld from the dangerous southern territories filled with zombies, bugs and Ultrons.

Secret Wars ended — as it was always going to — with a clash between Mr. Fantastic and Doctor Doom, placed on an even playing field by The Molecule Man who had been managing Doom’s god-like power for him. When Mr. Fantastic forced Doom to finally concede that Reed would have done a better job with all that power, Molecule Man took that literally; he assumed Doom was conceding the fight, and that Reed should be the new wielder of the power of The Beyonders. Thus, Owen Reece gave Mr. Fantastic the ability to turn the world back into how it should be. Of course, there were a few changes here and there, such as Miles Morales living in the Prime Marvel Universe with a resurrected mother, a thank you from Molecule Man in return for previous kindness shown him by the young Spider-Man.

Following the restructuring of Earth-616, now known as The Prime Marvel Universe, the Future Foundation was tasked with rebuilding an entire Multiverse and had just the people to do it. The Molecule Man provided the raw power, anchored and channelled through the genius and precision of Mr. Fantastic; Franklin Richards — no stranger to creating worlds and universes from whole cloth — would dream up new aspects of the multiverse and Reed Richards would place them where they’re supposed to go. Then, an aspect of the Molecule Man would be sliced off and rooted in that universe to give it something to grow around while acting as a common bond throughout the myriad of alternate worlds. The job of the Future Foundation was to then explore and catalogue these new worlds as part of the new multiverse, in order to better understand the iteration of reality they had helped create.

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The End Is The Beginning Is The End

Until Marvel Legacy #1, this was the last we’d heard of the Future Foundation, who are still out there cataloging and exploring all the new worlds of the multiverse. However, their efforts have had effects in the Prime Marvel Universe, as reality entered what is now its eighth state of being, triggering various cosmic aspects to either protect the new status quo, or revert it to a previous one of their choosing. The Molecule Man himself appeared to Galactus and hinted at his work rebuilding the multiverse with Reed Richards and the Future Foundation, but admitted he was mostly out of the cosmic business and considered himself retired.

All of the work the Future Foundation has been doing was placed into jeopardy when The First Firmament — the personification of the first universe — attempted to subsume all of reality into itself, thus destroying the omniverse as we know it. After manipulating The Maker into linking all of the universes and destroying the Superflow, the Ultimates teams of two realities were able to put everything back how it should be, saving the precious work that the Future Foundation had done and firmly establishing a new multiverse full of possibilities for exploration and adventure.

Family Ties

While the Future Foundation may be on their way home very soon, two of their number never left and have recently decided to remind people why the Fantastic Four are so important. The Human Torch and The Thing have been off having their own separate adventures since the unofficial disbanding of the Fantastic Four, and its clear that while we the readers know what happened to Reed, Sue and the rest of the Foundation, Ben and Johnny don’t and they want to find their family and reunite the team.

Following the disappearance of the Future Foundation, Ben Grimm fulfilled his life’s dream and left Earth for space, joining the Guardians of the Galaxy where he helped liberate a planet-sized concentration camp and fell in love with an alien. Since returning to Earth, The Thing was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. to keep track down Victor Von Doom, who has taken up the mantle of Iron Man. Agent Ben Grimm has been steadfast in his belief that Doom cannot change, regardless of evidence to the contrary, or those around him shifting their opinions on the matter.

Johnny, meanwhile, took up residency on New Attilan and fell in love with Medusa following her split from her husband, Black Bolt. He also became an Avenger, serving on the Unity Squad, colloquially known as the Uncanny Avengers. Johnny and Medusa eventually broke up, and he's since spent a lot of his free time bugging his best friend Spider-Man and catching up with Ben Grimm.

There's no doubt that the Fantastic Four will return to the Marvel Universe -- it’s just a question of when. With the upcoming Marvel Two-In-One dedicated to the question of where the Future Foundation went and the tease at the end of Marvel Legacy #1, it seems for the first time in ages, Marvel Comics does indeed have a plan for the return of the cornerstone of the Marvel Universe. We're pretty confident, then, to predict that it won’t be too long until we see the World’s Greatest Comic Magazine back on the stands where it belongs.