Behold, the new Fantastic Four!

I’m speechless at how awesome that picture is. Ant-Man!? She-Hulk? Medusa? Miss Thing!? Drawn in the amazing pop art style of Mike and Laural Allred? I am sold! Marvel NOW! finally has something really far out and fascinating to offer, instead of just the same old same old with Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and the bunch.

Don’t be too alarmed though. That’s actually the cover of FF#1, the Fantastic Four’s sister title. The actual comic Fantastic Four will still star the usual team of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and the Thing.

Both titles will be written by Matt Fraction, who gave an interview to USA Today that you can read here. Basically his plans for the normal Fantastic Four comic, drawn by Mark Bagley, are the usual family-based stuff. The two kids, Franklin and Val, will be with them. So that’s cool, I suppose. At least they’re keeping the white costumes. I love those. I don’t have much interest in Fraction’s take on the traditional Fantastic Four.

It’s his wacky take on the Future Foundation that I can’t wait to read!

Whereas the Fantastic Four is about the Richards family having all-new adventures, FFis about an all-new Fantastic Four getting to meet the team’s greatest hits, Fraction teases. “Suddenly, there are imposters to the throne and they come out of the woodwork for these guys.”

Ant-Man has an agenda of his own, too, in addition to protecting the world. He blames Doctor Doom for the death of his daughter and, with the power of the Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation, wonders what would happen if they declared war on Latveria and devoted all their time and resources to eliminating Doom once and for all.

“It’s a dark twist on what the Fantastic Four is about — it’s the other side of the coin,” Fraction says. “We have this Fantastic Four with a specific mission in FF and how can he direct and bring these people along with him?”

Basically the premise is that in the main title, Reed is going to take his family on this giant vacation through time and space, which will lead to some awesome adventures. They’ll be gone for exactly 4 minutes. And should something go wrong, Reed has everyone pick a replacement. Reed picks Scott Lang, Ant-Man, Sue picks Medusa, Ben picks She-Hulk, and Johnny…well Johnny forgot, and so he just randomly picks the babe he slept with the night before they leave. That’s Miss Thing, a brand new character who’s wearing Thing armor.

And I guess beyond that, something does go wrong during those 4 minutes, and this is the new Fantastic Four.

I’m very, very excited about this one, folks.