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The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman has named several classic FF comics as inspirations for his big MCU reboot film, but there's one above all that the filmmaker has cited as his main influence: writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Dale Eaglesham's all-timer Fantastic Four run that lasted from 2009-2012.
By many, Hickman and Eaglesham's Fantastic Four is considered the pinnacle of the team's modern history, with a lasting impact that not only redefined the FF and their legacy in the Marvel Universe, but also set the stage for the reshaping of Marvel continuity in 2015's massive Secret Wars event.
The Fantastic Three
Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four run (which also involved numerous other creators, including main artist Dale Eaglesham and many others) lasted for nearly four years, kicking off with 2009's Fantastic Four #509 with far too many adventures and events to sum up entirely. But there are a few major bullet points that are worth running down, especially going into The Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Though the story starts relatively normally for the FF - dealing with cosmic beings, interdimensional portals, and even time travel - as Hickman's run goes on, it drastically reshapes the team, leaving one member of the Fantastic Four for dead and remaking the group from a foursome into something much, much bigger.
The pivotal moment comes midway through the run, pulling in threads of tragedy that were quietly sewn throughout the previous issues with the untimely death of Johnny Storm, which sends his family and friends spiraling into grief before re-envisioning the Fantastic Four as something new altogether.
Johnny's death happens at the hands of a group known as the Cult of the Negative Zone, who break into the Baxter Building, using the team's interdimensional gateway to open a portal to the object of their worship, the dimension of nightmarish chaos known as the Negative Zone, allowing the so-called Annihilation Wave of insectoid aliens to begin invading.
Left alone at the Baxter Building, it's up to Johnny and Ben Grimm to stop the invasion - but there's one big problem. Ben is actually in his human form, thanks to a special serum derived by Reed Richards that allows him to revert back to his normal, fleshy body for 24 hours, once a year.
It quickly becomes clear that the only way to stop the invasion of the Annihilation Wave, led by the monstrous villain Annihilus, is for either Johnny or Ben to close the portal from the other side - stranding one of them in the Negative Zone. Ben tries to make the sacrifice, but Johnny forces his way in, leaving Ben to watch in horror as his best friend is overwhelmed, seemingly dying before his eyes.
And to make matters worse, Ben's powers - which would have allowed him to survive almost indefinitely in the Negative Zone - return just as Johnny is lost, leaving Ben to grieve the loss of Johnny in a deeply personal way.
Founding the future
In the wake of Johnny's Death, Spider-Man joins the team in accordance with Johnny's wishes, as Peter Parker and Johnny Storm are extremely close friends in comics. Along with Spidey joining up, the team expands into a whole Future Foundation, bringing in Doctor Doom, who had been partially mind-wiped at the time, and a whole host of other super-scientists, including a class of young students.
Even after Johnny's eventual return (it's comics, after all), the Future Foundation remained in place as a supplementary organization for the Fantastic Four, existing all the way up through the end of 2015's Secret Wars, in which the entire Multiverse is destroyed.
Following the destruction, Reed Richards builds a machine that helps him bring the Multiverse back, with Reed, Sue, their kids, and most of the Future Foundation remaining outside of the Marvel Universe for years afterwards, leaving no Fantastic Four around at all, and Johnny and Ben believing that they were all dead.
Thankfully, they did eventually return, leading to the current status quo in which the Fantastic Four are once again at the forefront of the Marvel Universe, with their old enemy Doctor Doom, himself restored to his full power, currently ruling over Earth as the Sorcerer Supreme.
What does this mean for the MCU?
With The Fantastic Four: First Steps director Matt Shakman naming Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four as one of his primary comic inspirations, there's a lot that could potentially come into play in the MCU.
The death of Johnny Storm is simply the most pivotal moment of Hickman's run, which also touches on topics that could have some MCU influence. There's The Bridge, a portal used by Reed Richards to meet with his Variants from around the Multiverse, working on solutions to major existential problems before finding himself at odds with their methods. And there's the revelation of the cosmically powerful destiny of Franklin Richards and his reality-warping powers, with a much older Franklin, who is heralded by Galactus himself, playing a pivotal role in the end of the run.
And of course, there's the lead up to the aforementioned Secret Wars, which spiraled out of Hickman's Fantastic Four run and into his subsequent time on Avengers through a series of stories that involved nearly everyone in the Marvel Universe, including Thanos himself returning as a villain a short time prior, in the story Infinity.
Given that Fantastic Four starts in another reality before moving into the MCU, and that baby Franklin Richards is part of the story, it's easy to see how aspects of Hickman's Fantastic Four run could have some major impact on what happens not just in The Fantastic Four: First Steps, but in Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars, which could follow the exact pattern of Hickman's progression from his Fantastic Four run, to his Infinity event, and finally into Secret Wars.
And if all that's on the table, we could be looking at a vastly different MCU by the time it's all said and done.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps hits theaters on July 25. For more, check out our guides to upcoming Marvel movies and shows and how to watch the Marvel movies in order. And while you're at it, check out the best Fantastic Four comics to read before the movie.
