FF Volume 4: You Are Whatever You Want to Be

Comic Info

FF (1) #17

Reprints FF (1) #17-23 (June 2012-December 2012).  The Future Foundation is on a fast-track to greatness.  With the return of Johnny Storm, the FF is at full ranks…plus Spider-Man.  As Peter and Johnny try to work together as teammates, the return of the Inhumans to Earth could mean big changes for Ronan the Accuser and his betrothed wife Crystal.  Bentley finally gets the confrontation he wants with his father the Wizard and the older versions of Franklin and Valeria make a big decision about their future with the FF.

Written by Jonathan Hickman, FF Volume 4:  You Are Whatever You Want to Be is the final volume in the first run of the FF series.  Following the events of FF Volume 3:  All Hope Lies in Doom, FF Volume 4:  You Are Whatever You Want to Be ties up the loose ends of Hickman’s run on the series and features art by Nick Dragotta, Gabriel Hernandez Walta, and Andre Araujo.

I loved FF.  It was a fun little series that took the core of what made the Fantastic Four fun and reinvented it.  The Fantastic Four is a family and the Future Foundation is the expanded family.  The unfortunate part of the series is that it felt like Hickman just used it as his filler for events happening in Fantastic Four…but it still has some great issues.

FF (1) #20

This volume starts out with a bang in one of the best issues of the whole series.  In a Friends-esque issue, Peter and Johnny are roommates.  The whole issue is taken lightly and has great art by Nick Dragotta.  It is the strongest issue of the volume because it is a stand-alone that doesn’t relate to much of anything (it almost feels like a short from Marvel Comics Presents)…an issue that ends with Annihilus on the toilet just can’t be taken too seriously.

Some of the other issues in this collection are problematic however.  The whole Inhumans/Kree saga is wrapped up here and it feels a bit lackluster.  The Crystal/Ronan romance was one of the better aspects of the storyline and the conclusion to it feels rushed and out of place in this series since the best issues of FF relate to the kids and the Future Foundation itself.

The adult Valeria and Franklin wrap-up issue is nice and a good way to end the series.  You knew that the characters couldn’t and wouldn’t stick around so it seems appropriate that Hickman sends them off in the issue…I just wish the series as a whole was slightly less episodic.

FF was a fun series and it was sad to see it go.  I can remember reading the original issues and not even being sure if it had ended since Marvel was very vague about its cancellation.  When it was announced that the series was coming back with Matt Fraction at the helm I was a little concerned but learning Michael Allred was taking up artists duties alieved that fear.  FF Volume 4:  You Are Whatever You Want to Be is followed by the new FF title FF 1:  Fantastic Faux.

Related Links:

FF Volume 1:  Tomorrow

FF Volume 2:  Supremor Seed

FF Volume 3:  All Hope Lies in Doom

FF 1:  Fantastic Faux