WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #26 by Dan Slott, R.B. Silva, Jesus Aburov, and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
The Fantastic Four have previously committed to helping educate the next generation of geniuses, but recent events have seen their students making their way across the restored multiverse. Now, however, they've finally gotten the chance to come home.
In Fantastic Four #26, the Future Foundation has finally finished its mission across all of creation, and have been able to return to Earth, thanks to the newly constructed Forever Gate.
The Future Foundation was formed by Reed Richards as a think tank to help train and encourage a team of young geniuses for the future. The group consists of Alex Power and Julie Power (two former members of the Power Pack), the erudite android Dragon Man, four advanced Moloids (Korr, Mik, Tong, and Turg,) the young mutants Artie and Leech, a heroic young clone of the Wizard known as Bentley 23, the Wakandan prodigy Onome, and the Atlantean Uhari geniuses Vil and We.
The Future Foundation became crucial to helping save the world multiple times and was even present during the early moments of "Secret Wars, "unfortunately being lost when the multiversal life raft was damaged escaping Earth-616 as it collided with Earth-1610. However, the group was restored along with the rest of the world by the end of the event. They even accompanied the Richards family on their journey to restore the multiverse, spending (from their perspective) years in the wilds of an expanding creation. After a battle with the universe-destroying threat known as the Griever, the Future Foundation elected to remain in space, searching for the remains of their former colleague the Molecule Man so they could attempt to restore him to life.
Their journies ended up saving Rikki Barnes, an ally of Captain America and a version of Bucky from the Franklin Richards-created Counter-Earth, and recruiting Lyja, Johnny Storm's Skrull ex-wife. Back on Earth and after a series of events and crises, the Fantastic Four receive some visitors in the form of James and Margert Powers, as well as Onome's father. They've grown anxious about their children still being somewhere in the cosmos, and ask for their help in bringing them back to Earth. With the help of the newly constructed Forever Gate, Reed and Val Richards can design an interstellar beacon and scanner, which can actually lock onto the Future Foundation's current ship.
Utilizing the Forever Gate, Reed can create a portal for the Future Foundation to fly through. This reunites the various families and fully brings the Future Foundation back together with the Richards family. It also ends up actually leaving open a massive portal on the other side of the universe, which multiple species -- and Griever -- use to make their way to Earth in search of Franklin Richards. But this means the Future Foundation is fully back on Earth and can work with the Richards family to help maintain the Forever Gate as well as any other unexpected work or adventures that come their way.
It'll be nice to have the Marvel Universe's most prominent young think-tank back in operation. With most of the group going home to see their loved ones, however, classes might be out of session for some time. Hopefully, it won't be long before the Future Foundation is taking in new students and helping solve the problems of the universe.