Robinson adds to legacy with relaunched 'Fantastic Four'

Brian Truitt | USA TODAY

James Robinson relaunches Fantastic Four with a new No. 1 next year, and with the past in mind, the writer harbors grand plans for the near future of Marvel Comics' first family.

The FF evicted from the Baxter Building and facing the Avengers. The Thing in prison for murder. Johnny Storm powerless. Dragon Man sentenced to death. The imagination of Sue and Reed Richards' son Franklin becoming all too real while his younger sister is on her own.

Ultimately, Robinson reveals, his upcoming run is about "a family finding the strength to face adversity through the help and love of each other."

Debuting in February as part of Marvel's "All-New Marvel Now" initiative, the new Fantastic Four series brings together Robinson and artist Leonard Kirk to add to the legacy of the supergroup Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created in 1961.

"What I hope to do is tie in their past without making it too referential and (touch on) how the past can affect the future," Robinson says. "While I'm not reinventing the book, I'm certainly adding a side to it we maybe haven't seen for a while."

Fantastic Four and his other new comic All-New Invaders highlight Robinson's return to Marvel after many years at DC Comics penning Starman, Superman, Justice League of America and most recently Earth 2.

But that was his work — for his entertainment, he's kept up with the Marvel comics such as Fantastic Four that he's been a fan of since he was a kid.

Robinson followed both Jonathan Hickman's science-oriented, expansive run that introduced the Future Foundation as well as Matt Fraction's recent time-travel adventure with the family. Robinson is bringing them back down to Earth — specifically their longtime home in Manhattan — and will have them interacting more with the Marvel Universe, with the Fantastic Four in turn affecting the larger world.

"We're going to see the fragmentation of the family due to villainous outside forces that are slowing picking at them and eroding them," Robinson says. "The arc I'm going to be telling is basically the fall and the rise of the Fantastic Four, and especially the fall and rise of Johnny Storm."

Robinson keyed in on the Human Torch because of the four core members, he's the one who's had the most extreme lifestyle change of late. He went from being the kid brother of the girlfriend of the smartest guy in the world — with some cool fire powers, to boot — "to being Justin Timberlake times 100," the writer says.

"That whole world of superstardom and falling prey to the temptations and the travails of it will be an aspect of it based upon things that happen to Johnny as the Human Torch. Both things tie in with each other and are a part of the nefarious bigger picture."

In addition, Robinson is reigniting — "in a hopefully charming way" — the romance between the Thing, Ben Grimm, and Alicia Masters, plus exploring Johnny's relationship with Ben and returning Wyatt Wingfoot to the fold to play an important role in Johnny's story.

It's still early days, Robinson says, but already Reed Richards is a favorite. "I really like writing Mr. Fantastic, the way that even in battle he's thinking and planning and narrating his thoughts to everyone else.

And so is Reed's wife Sue, as Robinson makes sure she's a vibrant character on his watch.

"For me it really started to happen with John Byrne (in the 1970s and '80s) where he started to really make Sue less of the Invisible Woman and, even though that's her name, give her this whole range of powers and abilities around her power — to make her in many ways the strongest and most versatile member of the team."

Franklin and Valeria Richards will continue to play roles in the book, as will the other "strays and waifs" plucked by the Fantastic Four to be part of the Future Foundation.

"They're all geniuses and all have superpowers and they come from exotic alien or underground locations but they're still kids," says Robinson, who's also keeping around Ant-Man Scott Lang and Darla Deering from Fraction's FF series.

Arch nemesis Doctor Doom will definitely be a factor in Robinson's Fantastic Four, and he promises to show as many of the team's villains as he possibly can, plus some outside baddies. The Frightful Four is back to come at them over and over again, and they'll be comprised of different quartets of enemies, Robinson says, "each group more and more powerful and deadly."

Inhumans are enjoying a big push in the Marvel Universe, and while they have a strong connection to Fantastic Four history, Robinson says, "I'm not sure how much I'll be using them at the moment, mainly due to my not being sure quite what direction Matt Fraction is taking it." (The concept at the core of Inhumanity will definitely tie into Robinson's Invaders comic, according to the writer, specifically with Toro and a new female Invader who's a legacy character with ties to the group's past.)

The Inhumans starred on the cover of the first Fantastic Four issue, No. 99, that Robinson bought from a newsstand when he was a very, very young boy and made him a Fantastic Four fan for life. And he's determined to honor, reference and draw from all the creators who've come before him, from Roy Thomas and Walt Simonson to Mark Millar and Mark Waid to Hickman and Fraction.

As Robinson's saga unfolds starting next year, he says, "adventures that all of these writers have done will all tie in some way with what I'm planning to do."