The Fantastic Four will celebrate their 60th anniversary with a super-sized issue -- featuring John Romita Jr.'s official return to Marvel Comics.
Fantastic Four #35 will see Romita illustrating a story by current Fantastic Four writer Dan Slott, which sees the Four under attack by multiple versions of Kang the Conqueror. Mark Waid and Paul Renaud will also provide a backup story that takes another look at the Four's origin. Finally, Jason Loo (The Pitiful Human-Lizard) will write and illustrate a story in his Marvel Comics debut.
"I’ve read, and been told by much smarter people, that 'luck is the residue of design' so I won’t even attempt to claim I designed the events of these last few months, but I will take this kind of luck any day any time," Romita Jr. said in a statement. "I was lucky to begin my career with Marvel and now am extremely lucky to re-connect with Marvel. That’s an enormous amount of good fortune. I sincerely thank all the folks up at Marvel, and Disney, who worked for this fortunate re-connection to happen."
He continued, "To add to all this, and I hate to add a third section to my good fortune, is the opportunity to start off with a huge project, which is the 60th anniversary of the Fantastic Four! It is an honor and extreme privilege to be asked to work on this along with a friend and former collaborator, Dan Slott! Along with ink artist JP Mayer, I am looking forward to this being up for viewing in August!"
Romita Jr.'s return to Marvel was first announced in March, along with the announcement that he would be working on a secret project. Romita has illustrated multiple Marvel characters and is well known for his tenure on Amazing Spider-Man with J. Michael Straczynski.
Written by Dan Slott, Mark Waid, & Jason Loo and illustrated by John Romita Jr., Paul Renaud, & Loo, Fantastic Four #35 goes on sale on Aug. 25 from Marvel.