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"There comes a time when each generation has outlived its usefulness and must be cast aside for the next one..."
Reed Richards

FF is a spin-off, and for a brief time replacement, to the Fantastic Four comic book. The title FF is a Punny Name that shares the initials of the parent title but can also stand for the Future Foundation, which is a Think Tank/school Reed Richards put together for genius or extremely gifted youth (including his own children) from all walks of life or like minded individuals.

The series started in May, 2011 and originally lasted for 23 issues. It initially replaced the main Fantastic Four ongoing, with the team reorganizing to fit the Future Foundation in the wake of the death of the Human Torch, with Spider-Man filling in his position on the lineup. But eventually, it became a companion series that focused more on the Future Foundation kids themselves, while Fantastic Four focused on the adult characters.

The second volume was written by Matt Fraction and illustrated by Michael Allred as part of Marvel's Marvel NOW! initiative. The series ended after 16 issues due to the events of Inhumanity taking away Medusa and most of the Inhuman cast.

Reed Richards decides to take his family on a trip though time and space, claiming it to be a sort of vacation throughout the multiverse but really he discovered his family is dying from the very cosmic radiation that gave them their powers and wanted time to try to fix things. So while the Richards family, along with Ben and Johnny, are supposed to return four minutes after they leave, Reed has each member pick a replacement to fill in for them while they are gone should something go wrong, as well as watch over the Future Foundation. They are...

  • Ant-Man (Scott Lang): Reed's Choice. Ex-Con, Ex-Avenger, Former member of the Fantastic Four and fellow Science Hero who's been mourning the recent death of his daughter Cassie at the hands of Doctor Doom. Can shrink down to micro size while retaining his full sized strength.
  • Medusa: Sue's Choice. A former member of the Fantastic Four and queen of the Inhumans. She later brings her son to the Future Foundation to be closer to her and is secretly being controlled by the Wizard. She has super strong Prehensile Hair that she has complete control over.
  • She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters): Ben's choice. Yet another Former Fantastic Four member, cousin of Bruce Banner, and Attorney at Law. Has super strength and durability.
  • Miss Thing (Darla Deering): Johnny's Choice. Johnny's Pop Star girlfriend who assumed her being brought in was simply doing Johnny a quick favor. Uses a suit that Ben Grimm used during a time when he was cured of being the Thing, giving her all of his powers.

Weeks later, the new FF watch Marvel's First Family head into a portal in the sky, expecting to see them four minutes later. Naturally, they don't return, and the FF are left to take their predecessors place and fill their rather large shoes, as well as deal with a much older Johnny Storm who proclaims the rest of the team is dead.

See also Ultimate FF, a reimagined version set in the Ultimate Marvel universe.

In 2019, the Future Foundation would get a new series, this time focused on their multiversal adventures. For tropes pertaining to that series, see Future Foundation.

Has nothing to do with the Future Foundation in the Danganronpa franchise.


This series provides examples of:

  • Alliterative Name: Miss Thing's real name is Darla Deering.
  • Ambiguous Syntax: In the second volume, while the Fantastic Four are busy recruiting potential replacements, the Human Torch spends his time sleeping with Darla and forgets his actual agenda. He checks his notes, which say, "Ask somebody about that thing," so he assumes that by "that thing", he meant Ben Grimm and asks Darla what she thinks of him.
  • Arc Villain: The Wizard shows up for a few issues to try and take Bentley back. He's dealt with fairly quickly and the comic moves on to the real threat soon after.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Medusa as of FF #4.
  • Beard of Sorrow: Scott as a Perma-Stubble version of this trope. He drops it once he starts leading the team.
  • Berserk Button:
    • Darla is absolutely furious when she finds out the Yancy Street Gang hacked her phone.
    • Bringing up Cassie's death causes Scott to throw Alex out of the Future Foundation.
    • As always threatening or harming, or in this case brainwashing and trying to steal, Medusa is one, as the Wizard finds out the hard way.
  • Big Bad: Doctor Doom.
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Doctor Doom reluctantly forms one with Annhilus and Kid Immortus, the latter of whom is trying to make Doom the Annhilating Conquerer a reality. Doom later betrays both and gains Immortus' power, and the main team's plan revolves around stopping him from getting the rest.
  • The Constant: The Negative Zone, after a lot of implicating, is revealed to be this to the multiverse. It's a singular constant to the variable positive universes and Annihilus' power, underutilized by him, is the key to being a master of them all.
  • Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Darla is modeled after pop singer Katy Perry.
  • Coming-Out Story: Issue #6 has Tong coming out as transgender to her brothers. They hug her and tell her they love her no matter what.
  • Creator Cameo:
    • Matt Fraction, Mike Allred, and Tom Brevoort themselves appear in FF #10.
    • Matt Fraction's picture can be spotted on a milk carton in a later issue.
  • Doomed New Clothes: Jennifer's Stella McCartney suit she takes into battle with the Mole Man.
  • Evil Costume Switch: Iron Lad from the Young Avengers shows up in a purple and green outfit, now going by the name Kid Immortus.
  • Evil Is One Big, Happy Family: The Wizard tries to invoke this by creating one consisting of himself, a brainwashed Medusa, and Blastaar and wants to destroy the non-traditional family that is the Future Foundation.
  • Eye Scream: Future!Johnny has lost an eye by the time he gets to our time period. Scott ends up climbing in said open eye socket later on to get inside his head (literally) to calm him down.
  • Faceā€“Heel Turn: The "Kang" that was prophesied to join forces with Doom and Annihilus turns out to be Iron Lad, a former member of the Young Avengers.
  • Fate Worse than Death: What Scott inflicts on Doom in revenge for killing Cassie. Rather than kill him as originally planned, he beats him down, strips him of his money and technology, and stops him from becoming Doom the Annihilating Conqueror.
  • Frivolous Lawsuit: Miracle Man is suing She-Hulk for a fight he had with her and the rest of the FF offscreen in issue 4.
  • Fusion Dance: Annhilus, Doom and Kang do one in Future Johnny's Bad Future.
  • Generation Xerox: Subverted with Adolf Impossible. The only thing he and his father the Impossible Man share is being good-natured: Adolf is a quiet bookworm who dosen't like interacting with most people. Impossible Man is a Large Ham who loves people, perhaps too much.
  • Greater-Scope Villain: Doctor Doom is this for the first part of the comic, up until The Wizard is dealt with.
  • Humiliation Conga: Done to Dr. Doom. How bad did he get it? Well... The Future Foundation utterly wreck his property including breaking all his Doombots. They hire a second-string wizard/mystery man to dispell anything Doom can cook up magically (and revealing that Doom is actually just a 4th rate magician). After that Scott Lang not only prevents Doom from getting new powers, but also breaks Doom's arm. Scott then takes Doom outside to show him off to the Latverian peasantry and then tells Doom that he's going to show him some of the things he learnt in prison. He then brutally beats Doom so badly that the guy can't make intelligible words. Then he takes off Doom's mask to reveal to everyone that underneath Doom has no scars! It was all a lie to excuse the fact that Doom is really petty and just hates Reed Richards for being better. After enduring some more taunting from Scott Lang, the Living Tribunal shows up and curses Doom so that every time he does something evil, Doom's face will get mutilated and no power in the universe can fix it. Finally the future version of Valeria gets in the act. She makes an allusion of her childhood self running headlong into danger and this utterly freaks out Doom who sees her almost as his own daughter. So ol' Victor really got bent over in the finale.
  • Improbably Female Cast: Not really, but the team is a nice aversion of the Affirmative Action Girl trope, with three women and only one male.
  • Love Triangle: Subverted. Due to thinking he might be dead and seeing that Future!Johnny dosen't remember her at all, Darla slowly but surely drifts to Scott. When Johnny returns, the issue is quietly resolved with him casually accepting she'd moved on and plotting a music career.
  • Minovsky Physics: This series introduces the concept of Pym Particles varying more than size, but also strength and durability. When Scott figures it out for himself, the Watcher wants him to keep mum on discussing the implications given how unscrupulous humans can be. A visual aid suggest that Wonder Man and Vision's powers are derived from the same process.
  • The One Guy: Of the four leading the foundation, Scott Lang is the only male.
  • Papa Wolf: Messing with Scott's team or the Future Foundation kids doesn't end well, to put it mildly.
  • Precocious Crush: The Molonoids have one on She-Hulk.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Scott delivers a scathing, venomous one to Doom in issue #16 while beating him down:
    Scott: I guess if you want your armor, you can keep your armor. At least until I peel it off of you piece by piece by piece. Not that there was anyone inside that empty suit of armor. Oh, there may have been seventy or eighty kilograms of breathing, bleeding flesh housed inside—but certainly nothing I'd call human. You'd have to have a conscience, a soul to be a human being. And now I've saved the best for last.
    Doom: No! Not the mask! NO!
    Scott: Looky, looky! Imagine that. No scars at all. You think the world doesn't know you fix your face the instant you steal ultimate power? The Beyonder, the Life Force—all those fixed faces, all those mind transfers into new bodies and new faces. And yet every single time, you somehow end up scarred again afterwards. You know what I think, Doom? You scar your face yourself. For a man like you, it's much easier inflicting a fake imperfection on yourself than admitting to having a real one. It's not the ugly dead scar tissue of your face that isolated you from humanity, Doom. It's the ugly dead scar tissue of your soul. There's a word for people like you: sociopath. Someone utterly incapable of even conceiving—let alone comprehending—that other people are real. It's Planet Doom, population 1 — with 7 billion people-shaped cardboard cutouts for you to fold, spindle, and mutilate at will. I've had the misfortune of meeting people convinced you're not a monster. That you're nuanced. Layered. Deep. Having some of the cell-mates I had would soon cure them of that view. Sociopaths mimic human virtues the way jackdaws mimic human voices. Your nuance is the solid gold toilet seat in Saddam's palace. Your sophistication is the Wagner phonograph playing in the background at the Wannsee conference. Your depth is the hopper capacity of Uday's and Qusay's wood chipper. Your boast that "Doom never lies" is always the first lie out of your mouth. Your ruritanian code of honor is as constant and real as a Potemkin village, only a pretense to be the man you know you're not.
    Doom: And how are you any different than I am...hero? You invade my country, you destroy my property, you assault my person with the goal of first maiming and crippling and then murdering me.
    Scott: I know one way I'm different--I know I'm not God and don't deserve to be.
    Doom: Noooooo!
  • Ret-Canon: The Thing Ring from Fred and Barney Meet the Thing was incorporated into the book as Darla's means of summoning her Instant Armor.
  • Revenge: What's mainly driving Scott Lang is his anger towards Doctor Doom for killing his daughter. Alex calls him out on it.
  • Rose-Haired Sweetie: Darla has pink hair, which is her trademark in-universe. She is also an enthusiastic young woman, was dating Johnny Storm and later dates Scott Lang.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Darla in issue 2, though Scott convinces her to come back.
  • Sequel Hook: One of the final scenes of issue #16 reveals that there's a chance that Scott's daughter Cassie may be able to regenerate her form and return to life thanks to the newly discovered secrets of the Pym Particles.
  • Sizeshifter: Scott, shrinking only.
  • Ship Tease: Between Scott and Darla from issue 3 onward. The final issue has a Relationship Upgrade.
    • Adolf Impossible and Luna.
  • Shipper on Deck: The Molonoids try to ruin She-Hulk's date with Wyatt Wingfoot, with Bentley's help, to save her for Ben when he gets back. Not only does this fail spectacularly, but when Ben returns at the end of the series nothing happens due to the two being Like Brother and Sister.
  • Shout-Out:
    • Volume 2 #15, to City of Heroes: "Go. Hunt. Kill Skrulls."
    • The cover to issue 7 of the same volume is a MAD Magazine style fold-in. "Do you know where death will come from when you least expect it?" Answer: Doom.
  • Show Within a Show: Issue #10 revolves around a comic book based off the Future Foundation. Issue #12 has Luna watching a Shoujo anime about Marvel heroes.
  • Spanner in the Works: Ravonna has been secretly working against Kid Immortus and Doom. She subtly manipulated the former into attempting Doom the Annihilating Conqueror before he or Annihilus were mature enough to make it unstoppable.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Alex calls Scott out for telling the Future Foundation they had to end Doom, using a group of children to put a man's life in his own hands, a man Scott has a personal vendetta against.

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