History ComicBook / FantasticFourLifeStory

The first issue is set in the 1960s, and explains how the team got their powers during UsefulNotes/TheSpaceRace. Desperate to send Americans to space ASAP, before falling too much behind the Soviets that already did so, Reed launches his experimental ship before the higher ops dismantle it. But he did not work on the cosmic radiation, and they were all mutated by it. And while America wonders if there is alien life out there in the universe, Reed '''knows''', and fears, that there is a being of incredible power out there somewhere: Galactus.

''Fantastic Four: Life Story'' is a 2021-2022 Creator/MarvelComics miniseries by Creator/MarkRussell, Sean Izaakse and Nolan Woodard. Released on the 60th anniversary of the creation of the ComicBook/FantasticFour, it reimagines the history of the team in a setting without ComicBookTime, as it had been done in ''ComicBook/SpiderManLifeStory''.

* AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome: In the 1990s, with the Cold War over and the need for military tech diminished, superheroes and supergeniuses other than Reed start to contribute their works to the world. Tony Stark is building a hydrogen engine to make power cheap, clean and plentiful, and curbing global warming. Wakanda, which had been improving Africa to form the African Alliance for the past three decades, invented an vaccine for the AIDS virus and gives it to the world for free.

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Reed and Sue's marriage in the main continuity had its ups and downs, but for the most part stayed wholesome and functional. In this version, [[spoiler:Reed's paranoia about Galactus and increasing focus on work above all else leaves Sue bereft and hurt, and she leaves him for Namor (although she returns after seeing Namor's disregard for Franklin when Doom nearly triggered a nuclear war)]].

** The team sneaked into the ship in ''ComicBook/FantasticFourNumber1'', but there was little explanation on why it had to be that way and not a proper and authorized flight. This comic changes it: the ship that Reed was building was experimental, and the project was canceled because it couldn't be properly tested. So Reed called his friends and infiltrated into the place in order to launch the ship, because they had barely enough time to do that before it was dismantled.
** It also explains why they took Johnny Storm in there, who would fail any tests for becoming an astronaut: they simply had no time to select a proper crew.

** The Silver Surfer's reason why he cannot lead Galactus to feed on uninhabited planets is because Galactus truly feeds on planets that possessed the Power Cosmic, namely the "power of consciousness" of every living being on a planet.

* AltarTheSpeed: The Silver Surfer warns humanity: Galactus is coming, the end of the world will be in 10 years, and there's nothing you can do about it. Ben decides he does not have a second to lose, and proposes marriage to Alicia.

* AlternateUniverseReedRichardsIsAwesome: In the 1990s, with the Cold War over and the need for military tech diminished, superheroes and supergeniuses other than Reed start to contribute their works to the world. Tony Stark is building a hydrogen engine to make power cheap, clean and plentiful, and curbing global warming. Wakanda, which had been improving Africa to form the African Alliance for the past three decades, invented an vaccine for the AIDS virus and giving it to the world for free.

* BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu: [[spoiler:Reed successfully stops Galactus by frying his mind, but becomes a vegetative invalid who needs on-the-clock-care as a result]].

* DatingServiceDisaster: The 1990s and the advent of personal computers encouraged Ben to try online dating. It was a disaster after another, sometimes his fault (he uploads a photo from when he was human, and the girl finds her date is a huge man made of rocks!), and sometimes the other's (a LoonyFan more interested in presuming that she dated the Thing than in him). It may be said that Alicia ''was'' a dating disaster as well (Ben was not expecting a blind woman), but they turned out to be soulmates anyway, so he can't complain.

** Ben Grimm had just lost his job and his girl, when the other three found him.

* IndustrializedEvil: Doctor Doom proposed to the Silver Surfer of his way of saving his Earth from Galactus: he would rule the planet on Galactus's behalf, and under Doom's rule, he would have establish an aggressive breeding program and allowing Galactus to consume ''five hundred million people every year'', thereby satisfying Galactus's hunger far more than if he had consume Earth on arrival. The Surfer describes Doom’s horrific plan “refreshing” because no other race he had encountered ever thought of this before other than futilely begging Galactus to spare their worlds. Fortunately the Surfer doesn’t accept Doom as Galactus’s new herald to carry this out.
* KnowsAGuyWhoKnowsAGuy: Sue and Johnny will help Reed to launch the ship, but it's not enough, they need a pilot. Fortunately, Johnny knows someone...

* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: While serving in the Korean War, Ben Grimm was horrified and guilt-ridden to learn that his bombing runs had destroyed villages and rendering Korean children orphaned. [[ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight He then get himself court-martialed]] by assaulting a commanding officer and taking the military's food rations to give them to the orphans.

* SecondPlaceIsForLosers: The Soviets sent the first man to space, Yuri Gagarin. JFK did not like to lose, and asked Reed to boost the space program.
* SkewedPriorities: Ronald Reagan and his advisors are deeply skeptical with Reed Richards' warnings about Galactus and they wanted the SDI to be use against the Soviets, whom they see them as the biggest security threat to the United States.

* MythologyGag: Galactus states that he is "coming" for all of them. The storyline in which he first appears is called, of course, "ComicBook/TheComingOfGalactus."

** The team sneaked into the ship in ''ComicBook/FantasticFourNumberOne'', but there was little explanation on why it had to be that way and not a proper and authorized flight. This comic changes it: the ship that Reed was building was experimental, and the project was canceled because it couldn't be properly tested. So Reed called his friends and infiltrated into the place in order to launch the ship, because they had barely enough time to do that before it was dismantled.

* AlternateHistory: Reed Richards, Benjamin Grimm, Susan Storm, and Jonathan Storm became the first Americans in space, displacing Alan B. Shepard from that honor. UsefulNotes/YuriGagarin and UsefulNotes/NeilArmstrong, however, retain their milestones as the first man in space and the first man on the Moon.

* AdaptationalAngstUpgrade: Reed and Sue's marriage in the main continuity had its ups and downs, but for the most part stayed wholesome and functional. In this version, [[spoiler:Reed's paranoia about Galactus and increasing focus on work above all else leaves Sue bereft and hurt, and she leaves him for Namor]].

-->'''[[spoiler:Johnny Storm]]:''' [[spoiler:If I have to die someday, which I imagine I will, I hope people won't think that I stayed too long. That I left while I was still too interesting. While people were still asking, who was that guy? But even if you left the party unnoticed, that's okay. Because the party carries on without us.]]