The Fantastic Four will head into the Negative Zone this fall, courtesy of another fantastic foursome — Mike Carey and Stefano Caselli, along with Ryan North and Steve Uy.
Fantastic Four: Negative Zone will feature two stories, the first of which will feature the FF heading into the Negative Zone to deal with the fallout from one of Reed’s experiments — one that didn’t go that well. Carey and Caselli will tell that story.
“The very first Marvel comic I ever read was Fantastic Four #62, a Negative Zone story entitled ‘And One Shall Save Him!’ Maybe for that reason, both the FF and the Negative Zone have always seemed to me to be part of the Marvel Universe’s center of gravity — and part of my imaginative comfort zone,” Carey said. “In writing this story, I was trying to capture some of the anarchic wonder and craziness of those early FF epics. Do I love my job? Why yes, I do.”
Caselli added: “I’ve always loved the Fantastic Four, since I was a kid: space monsters, great superpowers, family matters, best villains ever… just WOW! Every time I put my hand on the ‘super family’ I feel honored and scared — I have HUGE shoes to fill! But what’s important is that I totally love to be part of their next adventure, and what I want is to deliver another fantastic story for the readers! And this story is going to be great! I do love my job!”
The comic will also include a back-up story by Ryan North and Steve Uy, featuring the recently introduced Fantastix.
“The Fantastix are a newly created team that nobody really takes seriously in the Marvel Universe, and they’re starting from this really tricky position: even their NAME is a knock-off,” North said. “Who wants the Fantastix to rescue your cat stuck in a tree when you can have the Fantastic Four? I thought it’d be really interesting to see how these newer, younger heroes could live up to that, trying to explore what it’s like living and working in the shadow of someone else. The whole team really surprised me, and I think you’ll be very interested to see where the Fantastix end up!”
Kim Jacinto will provide the cover for the comic, which is due out in November.