Last month’s ‘Fantastic Four’ #604 gave us the epic conclusion to writer Jonathan Hickman’s massive storyline. The Mad Celestials from another world were defeated, Franklin and Valeria Richards had come from the future to save their past, and Dr. Doom was seemingly dead on the other side of a dimensional portal.

This issue is the epilogue to that tale, so there’s not nearly as much action as has been going on in previous months in the ‘FF’ and ‘Fantastic Four’ titles. What we get instead is the Fantastic Four and family cleaning up in the aftermath of the galactic throwdown. With the help of some Avengers friends, they begin cleaning up the catastrophic damages in New York and rebuilding the Baxter building. Inside the new Baxter Building the Future Foundation are treated to some awesome new living quarters and given some new costumes courtesy of Reed Richards’ unstable molecule suits. Meanwhile, future Franklin has a quiet aside with Galactus, Johnny Storm makes new living arrangements with his long-time pal Peter Parker, and Valeria takes responsibility for her actions after deceiving her parents… even if it was to save the world.

This issue does a wonderful job wrapping up loose ends and setting up a new status quo going into the next story arc. And you won’t believe what happens in the final few pages! I won’t spoil it for you but it marks the reappearance of one of the Marvel Universe’s greatest weapons… one that is so awesome it had a mini-series named after it 21 years ago.

Jonathan Hickman has done a great job with handling the family dynamics over his time as writer on the two FF series and this issue he gets to focus more on that aspect than the epic battles and high-tech adventures. It’s a nice change of pace and one that I’m enjoying for this issue because it’s sure to get chaotic pretty quick with the hints that were dropped about the coming arc.

The artwork from Nick Dragotta and Steve Epting is wonderful. Dragotta’s lines have a classic look that reminds me of some of Darwyn Cooke’s work and make for a perfect fit with the Fantastic Four. And Epting continues to handle the few epic scenes in this issue, including the meeting with Galactus and the final reveal.

Verdict: Buy

FF #7
Written by JONATHAN HICKMAN
Art by NICK DRAGOTTA and STEVE EPTING
Cover by MIKE CHOI and GURU-EFX