Future Foundation

Future Foundation (2019) #1-5

by Jeremy Whitley, Alti Firmansyah (Illustrations), Will Robson (Illustrations)

From the pages of FANTASTIC FOUR, the next generation of Imaginauts! When the Richards family was called back to Earth to be the FF again, they left behind the Future Foundation - a think tank of the most brilliant young minds in the universe - with one mission: to find the pieces of their friend the Molecule Man and rebuild him. But that's proving harder than imagined as this crew of young geniuses, Atlanteans, mutants, Moloids and androids has run into every problem in the Multiverse. Now, with the leadership of Alex and Julie Power and a little extra firepower from Guest Professor Yondu Udonta, the team will undergo their most dangerous mission yet -a prison break! Brace yourself for a heart-pounding journey across time and space!

COLLECTING: FUTURE FOUNDATION (2019) 1-5 and material from FANTASTIC FOUR (2018) #12

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Graphic Novels, Superheroes, Fiction, Comic Book, Science Fiction

120 pages, Paperback

First published February 26, 2020

About the author

Jeremy Whitley is the son of two teachers and the husband of a third.

Born in La Mesa, CA, Jeremy went to high school in Lenoir, NC and college at The University of North Carolina. He graduated with a Bachelors in English, and a minor in Creative Writing.

Jeremy lives in Durham, North Carolina with his wife Alicia and his two daughters Zuri and Amara.

Jeremy is the writer/creator of the comic series Princeless, Raven the Pirate Princess, School for Extraterrestrial Girls, and The Dog Knight. He is also the writer of the acclaimed Marvel series "The Unstoppable Wasp". His other works include extensive work for Marvel, the "Sea of Thieves" comics, and over sixty issues of My Little Pony comics.

Awards and Nominations:
3 time Glyph Winner
5 time Glyph Nominee
2 time Eisner Nominee
2 time Cyblis Nominee
2 time Bloomer Nominee
1 time Most Likely to Succeed Winner

Reviews

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh, man, I was so exited for this book and it’s over already?

Jeremy Whitley did a great job breathing life into some of my favourite characters and told a nice, little heist story while he was at it. The art was no great shakes but perfectly serviceable. I could have delightedly followed this crew for years but, alas, ‘tis not to be.

>shakes fist at Marvel boss men<

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a real shame this title didn't stick around longer. It was a ton of fun. It got canceled right after the first issue came out. Still, I love the Future Foundation cast. It's pretty much the same as when Jonathan Hickman was writing FF. Now Alex Power and his sister Julie are in charge. They are all in space trying to track down the fragments of the Molecule Man that have been scattered across the multiverse during Secret Wars. The Maker could have been used a bit better but I still really liked this.

[Rod Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

Spinning out of Fantastic Four by Dan Slott, Vol. 1: Fourever and canceled immediately after issue #1 was published, this aborted series is all frantic adventure and set-up that goes nowhere other than teasing a Power Pack revival (that did show up as a limited series a year or so later).

Alex and Julie Power are teachers for a group of young prodigies who are barely named and definitely given only a single personality trait (except for those who get none). A bunch of other B-level Marvel characters are shoehorned in, but even with each of their full complex histories crammed into a couple of pages of small panels, they don't have much personality, appeal, or reason for being in this story other than maybe no other writer is currently using them right now.

There's an LGBTQ+ storyline, but like everything else here, it is zipped through too quickly for its own good, coming off more as a stunt than an organic development. Still the best part though.

[Steven · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'd give this five stars but the immense potential & positivity of this book was cut short at five issues. Hope we'll see these characters again soon.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Future Foundation could have been so much more. An already eclectic cast of crazy characters expands with Rikki Barnes and Julie Power, facing off against insane villains like The Maker, with a plot that makes perfect sense for them and opens up all manner of storytelling potential - track down the pieces of the Molecule Man and reconstitute him after Secret Wars.

And instead, as always, anything slightly off-centre at Marvel gets canned.

So we get five issues and a little back-up story from Fantastic Four...#13, I think(?) that try to cram as much in as possible. It becomes especially apparent in the later half of the story, where writer Jeremy Whitley shoves multiple panel recap pages onto the reader to introduce new characters with lots of baggage and catch them up to speed. It's probably a little overwhelming, but it means the story can keep moving rather than stop for lots of exposition.

The art begins with Will Robson, he of Great Lakes Avengers and Secret Warriors fame, and ends with Alti Firmansyah of Unstoppable Wasp fame. Two good artists, a little disparate in places, with Robson the more 'cartoony' of the pair, but a solid pairing overall.

The first (and only) arc of the book includes a breakout, a multiversal reincarnate, The Maker being The Maker, and Bentley-23's trademark snark. It's got all the ingredients to be something really special, but, of course, it didn't have the time to grow into the book it could have become.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad. But I'm not sure what the creative team was going for here. Was it a whiny X-Man wanna be comic as the Power kids (teens / adults) care for a bunch of unique children. Did the team want it to be nothing but Bentley 23 being an rude unkind ass the entire time? Bentley is normally not that bad and really if you can't write him well don't use the character. The story was all over the place. Unless the story was repeating and repeating the back story of a character several times in what felt like one issue. The back story thing got old quick and since the book only lasted 5 issues all the time on more backstory was wasted. I really liked the character Rikki. It looks like the team got enough warning on cancellation to give the team a happy ending. I wish the story had been given the time to develop properly.

I don't know, the comic was not as good as I remember in single issues yet somehow better. 3.5 stars.

[TJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I followed Jeremy Whitley into this series blindly after loving his run on Unstoppable Wasp. While this was a lot to take in (having not read anything about Future Foundation or Fantastic Four before now), I still really enjoyed this volume. The art styles were all very nice, but sometimes it was jarring to switch between styles issue to issue. To me, it felt like the changes in art style mid-story interfered with the overall flow. The characters were fun though and the concept seems like it is full of potential; it's sad that the series is not continuing on after issue 5. I would have loved to see the story and characters progress and grow! 4/5 stars

[Scratch · Rating 5 out of 5]

I despise Bentley and find most of the non-human characters unnecessary. (At the very least, why do we need 3+ moloids and 2 uhari? We couldn't have just had one representative from each?) Still, I automatically had to give this 5 stars as soon as I found out the writer included Lyja.

I'm... floored. Lyja has fallen into obscurity pretty badly in the last 20 years. The 2-page recap of her history was almost spot on, except for the part where it said she and Human Torch married "in secret." It was a big wedding issue, bro. White dress, church full of people, the works. Anyway, she means a lot to me, and I am particularly thrilled that she was finally able to join a team and talk about how she wanted to be with people who wanted her around. While it may have been accidental, the writer even got one part of her personality right, by always showing her (even in flashbacks) protecting children. Lyja saves Franklin Richards a lot. It's kind've her thing.

This whole book could also have been called, "Friends of Franklin Richards." Maybe "Franklin Friends" to keep the FF alliteration? The Heroes Reborn Bucky, the Future Foundation, and Lyja all know Franklin separately, but hadn't met each other before. Now, Franklin's friends all get to meet each other and save the day.

It's all sweet. A little corny at times, but still with classic superheroism, and even an LGBT romance. Thank God.

[Alex Sarll]

The child prodigies and assorted oddballs assembled in Hickman's Fantastic Four run roam the universe, looking for the scattered pieces of Molecule Man - this is a premise I can get behind. Alas, it's written by Jeremy Whitley, and shares the attributes I often find grating in his work. I don't know whether he's actually popular on Tumblr, but it has that feel of being written for there, so that an individual panel or page will be cool or funny or empowering or whatever, but won't really connect to the next scene. Case in point: one character is first encountered in space prison, where she reacts to an offer of rescue without much interest, saying she's just sitting there waiting for the end of the universe. Five minutes later, she's defiantly monologuing about how some people need their weapon, but she can operate anywhere. Huh? There's also that specifically Whitley thing which was so vexing in Unstoppable Wasp, where he turns characters into de facto replicas of other characters who already exist in the same universe. Onome, for instance: as a Wakandan girl genius engineer, she's already fairly close to the post-film take on Shuri, so why make that even more glaring by making her a Shuri fangirl? Or Bentley, always the most obnoxious member of the team, who here would have been twice as funny with half as many lines. I realised early on that he was coming across like the Quentin Quire you ordered from Wish, then had that confirmed with a MAGNETO WAS RIGHT poster in his bedroom. The umpteen artists do their best, though their tendency to make everyone look really fresh-faced, while fine with the young core cast, does too much to forgive a plot in which it's possible - SPOILER - to mistake Ultimate Reed Richards for his 616 self, who's usually depicted as markedly older. There's fun stuff in here, for sure, but it feels a lot like eating a whole tube of sweets.

[Sesana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Incredibly disappointed. I normally love Whitley's work, and Unstoppable Wasp in particular was a sheer delight. But this just isn't even on the same level. It reads like somebody imitating his style. It felt like the characters were the most annoying versions of themselves, especially Bentley. I hated that kid already, and Whitley turned his obnoxiousness so far off the charts that I couldn't understand what he was doing here at all. Whitley also makes the main characters all look like total idiots by having them mistake the Ultimate version of Reed Richards for the one from their universe, and that's just not going to happen. At some point, Alex finally puts two and two together, but his big plan at that point is to just... wait for the sudden but inevitable betrayal, apparently. The pacing is just a wreck. Not only is there way too much book for this much story, it was apparently supposed to be eve longer. It's obvious the cancellation took Whitley by surprise, because the ending is rushed to the point where the last couple of pages are on a beach while the characters chuckle about how great it is they got out of that mess, and... What? This just isn't Whitley's best work.

[Shaun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this issue by issue and it has continued to make me a fan of writer Jeremy Whitley. It is a shame it was cancelled so swiftly, because it was a really fun and well written title.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

What starts out as an interesting idea gets derailed pretty easily and then goes...nowhere. I really this loveable group of kids, especially Bentley and the Moloids, but their story gets eclipsed but a couple of surprising guest stars that show up. Their story seems more important than the Future Foundation. The antagonist is used more often than I'd like. The art was okay but unspectacular. Overall, this was a missed opportunity to say the least but seeing Bentley fall in love was worth it.

[Carlos J. Eguren · Rating 3 out of 5]

199/365

No porque un cómic tenga todo lo que te gusta tiene que ser un cómic que te encante. Depende de cómo el guionista y el dibujante sepan utilizar los ingredientes como un grupo de adolescentes, aventuras galácticas, tono aventurero, acción, personajes extraños... Me ha gustado el regreso de Rikki Barnes (la Bucky o la Capi sin universo), eso sí. Lástima que no se explotasen todas las amplias posibilidades de esta serie.

[P Fosten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well this is an odd one. I quite like the evolution of the elder Power siblings but the voices don't quite feel right (I'm going by the 80s series here). And there are a lot of characters at play here and they don't get much screen time, let alone development. But it's an entertaining if generic plot largely well done on art and containing one of my favourite spin outs from 90s Heroes Return. Don't regret the time spent on it.

[Sarospice · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had a ton of potential and an interesting main concept: collect the pieces of the molecule man across the multiverse. It was fun to see the powers kids lead a team and I liked most of the other kids. They didn't gice this time to grow...

[Stephen Adkison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. Wish it was more substantial. I like the characters but they felt a bit cartoonish.

[Miguel · Rating 3 out of 5]

3'5/5 en realidad

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very all ages for the kids Fantastic Four spinoff....I'm likely a bit too old for it.

[Gillian Dawson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Raymond Paquette · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked how they made Onome a more interesting character in addition to developing the future Supervillain Bentley.

[Gary Lee · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Great Marvel Readthrough, pt 301

[Pochodnia fandomu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh my god I can't give it more stars. It was nice till Lyja showed up - the same Lyja who raped and gaslighted Johnny. And here she gets to be the hero AND STAY WITH THE KIDS???

Czemu autor stwierdził, że to dobry pomysł? W ostatnim zeszycie zmienił jej historię tak, żeby była ojojana, A NIC W HISTORII LYJI NIE POWINNO TAKIE BYĆ. Marvel jest tchórzem jakich mało, ale dziwi mnie też autor, który pisze takie fajne rzeczy, jak Nadia-Wasp, ale potem wali czymś tak okropnym przy okazji Lyji?? UGH.

[link do posta, w którym opisuję toksyczny związek Lyji i Johnny'ego]

[Shannon · Rating 1 out of 5]

It says a lot about a book when you can’t even keep the same artist for 5 issues. At least the later art was better. The story never improved.

[Peter · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had some hopes about this series, but it was mostly totally confusing. I guess you really need to understand the story behind these characters to fully appreciate it. What really ruined the story was the unnecessary LGBT+romance in the end of the series. The characters have some interaction together, but just add some LGBT+ romance just for the sake for it ruined the end of the comic. It also added zero value to the story. Nice art, but very shallow characters. A shame really since the premise were interesting.