The Fantastic Four are the premier explorers of the Marvel Universe, so the idea of having a home to come back to, a place where you can rest, recharge and spend downtime with friends and family, is a pretty important thing. Home is especially important to the FF these days, because a large portion of the team has been away from it for long time, so when the monstrous armies of Malekith invade Earth as part of Marvel's War of the Realms event, the FF will be more than willing to fight back.
They'll help their fellow heroes defend Earth in the main War of the Realms miniseries by Jason Aaron and Russell Dauterman, and in Fantastic Four #10, writer Dan Slott and a yet to be revealed artist will tell a War of the Realms tie-in story that finds the First Family of the Marvel Universe defending their new neighborhood, Yancy Street.
CBR spoke with Marvel's https://www.cbr.com/interview-avengers-war-of-the-realms-avengers-jason-aaron/ and Senior Editor Tom Brevoort about the issue, the other established Marvel Hero that helps defend Yancy Street, and the possibility of Doctor Doom playing a role in the story.
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CBR: In Fantastic Four #10, Dan Slott kicks off the first FF event tie-in in quite some time. What can you tell us about the issue and the characters involved in it? How does it compare to the team's role in the main War of the Realms title?
Tom Brevoort: The FF are in the main War of the Realms book, but they are in it with everybody else in the Marvel Universe. So they have screen time there and contribute to the war against Malekith and the various realm forces he's put together, but they don't get the same kind of spotlight they'll get in Fantastic Four #10.
That issue is set in and around Yancy Street, so we're dealing with that environment when all kinds of crazy frost giants, trolls, elves, and whatnot come pouring down into it from interdimensional space via the Black Bifrost. We'll also have a few moments to establish the Fantastic Four's place on Yancy Street. We haven't seen a whole lot of it yet, because right after we established that they're moving into 4 Yancy Street, they ran off to get Ben married and then they immediately went off to deal with Doom and Galactus in Latveria. This will be the first time we're dealing with them in and around the confines of their new home environment on the Lower East Side.
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I think it's likely that we'll get a drive by appearance from Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur. We'll also begin to get a sense of how that community will respond and react to the Fantastic Four being among them.
So, in the context of the larger War of the Realms story, the Fantastic Four are among the first line of defense of New York and Manhattan in particular. We'll see that in a more personal, direct and in-depth fashion in the actual FF issue.
Doctor Doom is once again part of the FF's larger network of adversaries, and he's someone who I'm sure would have strong thoughts about Malekith's invasion of Earth. Will he have a role in this issue's story?
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Given that we'll have just done Doom over the past five issues, he won't have a big presence in issue #10. I would not be shocked, though, to see at least a glimpse of Doom and Latveria somewhere within War of the Realms. It might actually even been in FF #10, but it won't be a big part of the issue. That would be a story in and of itself.
War of the Realms is the first big, line wide Marvel Universe event that's come up since the FF's return from Secret Wars, so it's a chance to see them engaged with and side by side with all the big, pillar character of the Marvel Universe in a way that we haven't been able to in the last couple of years. Hopefully, both in the core book and the FF issue, people will find that special and unique again.