SPOILER WARNING: The following article contains major spoilers for Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 by Chip Zdarsky, Declan Shalvey, Jordie Bellaire and Joe Caramagna, on sale now.


The Future Foundation is still missing, but we haven’t been short on Fantastic Fours over the past few months. Aside from the makeshift team featuring Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur, we’ve got The Thing, Johnny Storm, Rachna Koul and Victor Von Doom travelling the multiverse in search of the missing team. Over the course of their search, they’re coming across many alternate Fantastic Fours, such as the fractured team of Marvel Two-In-One’s first arc, and the seemingly deceased Fantastic Four of the title's new annual.

However, there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes; during Victor Von Doom’s clash with his alternate evil self, he discovers that The Council of Reeds has reformed despite the interdimensional cabal's earlier failings. Though they help him learn more about his shift to the side of angels, they have an ulterior motive which could spell disaster for the former villain as Victor Von Doom’s irrational hatred of Reed Richardses may turn out to be warranted after all.

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Council Meetings

Reed Richards of Earth-616 first discovered The Council of Reeds when he built The Bridge, a multiversal viewing platform that allowed him to observe other universes filtered by specific criteria, such as “every world where Captain America won Civil War,” or “every world where Earth was conquered by Skrulls during the Secret Invasion.” Though he was asked to dismantle The Bridge by his wife, Sue Storm, he rebuilt it in secret and used it to access The Council of Reeds, a multiversal group of Mr. Fantastics who had come together to solve everything on a truly cosmic scale.

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As a member of The Council of Reeds, Mr. Fantastic did life-changing work that saved countless people in numerous universes, but his fellow Reeds expected too much of him. He was expected to give up his family in order to pursue their goals and became the first Reed to turn them down — partly due to his being the only Reed to grow up with a father as every Nathaniel Richards in the multiverse was pitted against each other in a cross-world battle royale — and when the Mad Celestials attacked the Council’s chambers, he was one of five surviving Reeds left in the multiverse and eventually the four leaders of the Council were killed as part of their plans to escape Earth-616.

The Rebirth of The Multiverse

The end of the Council of Reeds left Mr. Fantastic as one of the final two Reeds in the multiverse, along with his doppelganger from Earth-1610, The Maker. This is why during Secret Wars there aren’t any other Reed Richards counterparts in any of the realms on Battleworld, because the two remaining Reeds were in stasis in their respective escape pods and there were no more left in the multiverse.

Secret Wars ended with Molecule Man transferring the godlike power he’d granted Doctor Doom to Mr. Fantastic, who used it to not only bring back Earth-616 but set off on a quest with the Future Foundation to restore the worlds of the multiverse. Where there was nothing, there was once again infinite Earths and though all the Reeds were killed prior to Secret Wars, they lived once again in this new incarnation of the multiverse created by their Prime counterpart.

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Setting The Agenda

The new Council of Reeds which Doctor Doom meets in Marvel Two-In-One Annual #1 is doing everything it can to separate itself from its previous incarnation, and has learned from the Prime Reed the importance of maintaining a strong balance between work and home and the importance of keeping their family at the heart of everything. To that end, they created a device which duplicates their consciousness and sends it to the Council chambers, allowing their physical body to continue to act in the physical world. When they’re done at the chambers, the duplicate consciousness returns to its body and merges with itself, and the physical Reed retains all the knowledge and memories from his time with the Council.

As a sidenote, being on the Council of Reeds must come with a certain level of existential terror. They know about Secret Wars and they know about how their Prime counterpart recreated the multiverse, which must have happened a year ago at most, going by Marvel’s sliding timescale. However, these Reeds are all in their thirties or forties and no doubt have memories of that entire time. What must it be like to be the smartest man in the world and know with absolute certainty, that your vibrant world filled with history, art, culture and life has only existed for less than a year? It’s enough to drive someone crazy.

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Though the Council attempts to help Victor Von Doom, when they see him kill his alternate counterpart in battle, they realize there was never saving any Doom in any world. The Prime Reed attempted to give Doom a chance by faking his death so that Victor would not pursue his lifelong vendetta, but upon learning the truth, it’s only made him madder at the very idea of a Reed Richards than ever before. It’s this that leads the Council of Reeds to make the decision that the goal of the Council of Reeds is “No More Dooms”

No More Dooms

While that sounds ominous, the intention behind it is still valid... at least for now. By saying they want “No More Dooms,” they’re not saying that they want to round up all the Dooms and lobotomized them; they’re saying they want to make sure no child grows up in an environment that leads them to becoming as broken and damaged as Victor Von Doom. It’s a noble goal in spirit, but it could lead them down some dark paths.

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Doom sees the Council of Reeds as an act of great hubris and warns them that this council will end as the last one did, and the last Council of Reeds solved their Doctor Doom problem by rounding up all the Dooms and lobotomizing them. While the Council is doing good work for now, there are as many evil Reed Richards counterparts in the multiverse as their are good ones, and it wouldn’t be hard for a cabal of evil Reeds to wrest control of the Council for their old ends. It’s happened before, and with the Fantastic Four’s return only two months away, the behind-closed-doors activities of the Council of Reeds should be watched closely.