Future Foundation is a 2019 comic book series that's effectively a Spin-Off of the Fantastic Four, continuing from the pages of the title. The comic series is written by Jeremy Whitley (The Unstoppable Wasp) and drawn by Will Robson (Great Lakes Avengers, Spawn). It is the third comic starring the Future Foundation, after two FF series.
The series begins after Fantastic Four Vol. 6, where Reed, Sue, Franklin and Valeria returned to Earth and reformed the Fantastic Four. The rest stayed behind to chart the multiverse in order to rebuild their friend the Molecule Man. The Future Foundation, consisting of Alex and Julie Power, guest professor Yondu Udonta, and many others, our crew of young geniuses, mutants, Atlanteans, Moloids, androids and more, begin their multiversal quest. The first mission? A prison break!
The first issue was released on August 7, 2019. The book was cancelled after issue two, and ended on its fifth issue in December.
Future Foundation provides the following tropes:
- Aerith and Bob: Naturally, there's a contrast in naming convention given the science fiction cultures the members are from. We have the mundane Alex and Julie Power, as well as Bentley and Artie Maddricks, in contrast to names like Dragon Man and Adolf Impossible. Then there's Korr, Leech, Mik, Onome, Tong, Turg, Vil, Wu and Yondu Udonta.
- The Big Damn Kiss: Julie and Rikki share one in Issue 5, after Julie's rescued Rikki, acting on their obvious mutual attraction. Rikki's then called her girlfriend.
- The Bus Came Back: The team's first mission has them rescue Rikki Barnes, formerly Bucky from the Heroes Reborn universe and more recently Nomad, the Girl Without a World, who disappeared from existence a few years ago.
- Catapult Nightmare: In one of her lives, Rikki jolts up in bed after remembering her deaths at the hands of the Griever. Judging by how the narration text says Toni "sometimes was just the girl who held Rikki when she woke up screaming," this has happened before.
- Designated Girl Fight: Rikki, on the good guys' side, fights evil Dr. Richards' lieutenant Al'ti, a female Winged Humanoid. Both are very skilled, with Rikki specifically challenging her so she won't kill Bentley-23.
- Dimensional Traveler: The entire premise is the crew traveling the Multiverse to repair the Molecule Man. When they encounter Rikki, herself a Dimensional Traveler, she checks to see what universe they're from by asking Julie a detail so stupidly unique to their own universe (the existence of the Spider-Mobile), it could verify she was in the right one.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: When the team stage a prison break-out, both the people they rescue have visible facial scars. Rikki Barnes, an Action Girl and former protege of Captain America, has three scars on her cheek and a bullet scar in her shoulder. The Maker, the dark and sociopathic Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome with little regard for human life, has a very nasty burn on his face around his eye.
- Genre Shift: Future Foundation is more of a science fiction comic than a superhero one.
- Give My Regards in the Next World:"Yondu": [looming menacingly] Tell me, Kl'rath, does your race believe in an afterlife?Kl'rath: You ask a lot of questions. Why does it matter?"Yondu": Oh, I was just thinking. When you get there —-Lyja : — Tell them Lyja the Lazerfist sent you. [cuts off his head]
- Guest-Star Party Member: Yondu is described this way — he's the "guest professor", but isn't officially a member.
- Happy Ending Override: One of Rikki's previous incarnations in the multiverse was that of Becky Barnes of Exiles (2018), which ended on an And the Adventure Continues note, with Becky pursuing a romantic relationship with a Valkyrie. Since Rikki is placed into a new body every time the Griever destroys the universe she's in, with the narration explicitly saying "blackness came" after her time in Becky's body, things don't look so great for the Exiles...
- Masculine–Feminine Gay Couple: Julie and Rikki are both bisexual, getting into a relationship over the course of the series. In Julie's case, she's more feminine, long-haired, girly and her superhero outfit emphasizes her figure. Rikki is a short-haired tomboy and her outfit's far more utilitarian, akin to a Wrench Wench getup.
- Most Writers Are Human: The comic stars a diverse, Sci-Fi Kitchen Sink cast of all shapes and sizes. However, the two characters of focus are Alex and Julie Power, easily the two most human characters of the bunch (i.e. not an alien, uhari, android, moloid, morlock, or interdimensional being) and have the most normal of backstories (relatively speaking for a superhero world, of course) as White Americans who grew up in a stable environment before getting powers from an alien unicorn.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: The solicits confirm that Alex, Yondu, Dragon Man and Bentley break out Reed Richards from the secure galactic prison under the belief they're rescuing their friend and mentor. Thing is, the real and good Reed Richards is on Earth, and the one they break out is The Maker. Uh oh.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Rikki is called this instead of her legal name Rebecca, at her preference, and is only referred to with the latter a couple times.
- Prisons Are Gymnasiums: Having spent an unknown amount of time in an alien prison, Rikki has gotten ripped. It actually helps to keep it ambiguous as to who she is when they rescue her, as combined with the scars she's gotten and her messier brown hair, she looks rather different from the last time she appeared.
- The Reveal: Leech explains to Rikki both why she's been resurrecting in parallel universes when she dies and why she's the sole Original Generation on Franklin's Counter-Earth. She was created by Franklin as one of his rules, modeled after Captain America because of his Big Good status but she's a girl because the most powerful hero Franklin personally knows is his Mom. Since Franklin recreated the multiverse, he put her on every version he made, which from her perspective has been one continuous existence.
- Sci-Fi Kitchen Sink: Unsurprisingly, this series qualifies because the members are from all walks of life and draw together by being gifted. You have two mutates (Alex, Julie), an android (Dragon Man), a poppupian (Adolf Impossible), four moloids (Korr, Mik, Tong, Turg), two mutants (Leech, Artie Maddricks), a baseline human from Wakanda (Onome), a clone (Bentley-23), and two uharis (Vil, Wu). Their guest professor is also an interdimensional alien (Yondu), and their first mission involves recruiting a Badass Normal from another universe (Rikki).
- Spin-Off: Of the Fantastic Four, showing their adventures continuing without them.
- Stealth Sequel: While a spin-off of the Fantastic Four, this could loosely be a continuation of the cult classic Power Pack series due to Alex and Julie Power being the protagonists.
- Superhero Team Uniform: The crew wears primarily white uniforms with some black as the secondary color. For example, Spider-Man used a white variation of his costume with black lenses and chest spider-symbol when he temporarily joined the team.
- Tomboyish Name: Rikki is a tomboy whose full legal first name is Rebecca, but she prefers this.
- Your Makeup Is Running: Julie in the Fantastic Four #11 backup after the break up with Karolina in Runaways (Rainbow Rowell).
- Winged Humanoid: Al'ti Vidua is a Shi'ar Warbird, looking like a normal human women most of the time but able to sprout two huge wings when she wants to.
- World of Action Girls: Given this is a superhero comic, all the women are skilled fighters, whether or not they have superpowers.
