It's been awhile since I've picked up a copy of the Fantastic Four, but right before 2021 hit I decided to check out Mr. Fantastic's extraordinary team again after perusing the new release wall at Conquest Comics in Bayville, New Jersey. All I can say is that the family unit is expanding. They are still handling the dangers that plague our planet from the outer realms of the universe. The Cotati was definitely one of those threats! Ben Grimm, otherwise referred to as The Thing, and Alicia have adopted two young aliens named Jo-Venn and N'Kalla. It's not often within a comic setting that I witness a superhero and his wife tackle the issue of home-schooling.
Over at Reed Richards' home, he is excited to give everyone their newly designed super costumes. Franklin Richards, also known as Powerhouse, is still coming to terms with being a mutant and finding his escape by running off to the island nation of Krakoa. When he is just being a kid by listening to mutant music with his guitar in hand in his room, I figure that my parents probably considered some of the stuff I listened to as a kid to be mutant! I don't believe that Reed and Sue Storm Richards (Invisible Woman) realize just how intelligent their other child Valeria, also referred to as Brain Storm, really is. Of course, Johnny Storm (The Human Torch), Sue's brother, is still in the picture.
The issue also focuses on some heavy secrets that both Reed and Sue have been keeping from each other. I guess mind-reading should have been one of their powers. While Sue has been going on missions for Sergeant Fury, Reed has been hiding a power in container zero that could actually destroy a universe, while conversely building another universe in its place! When Sue mistakenly gets Doctor Doom and his knight Victorious involved, it takes a teleporter that Valeria put together to contain the zero force that was released by a creature from a greater existence. Dan Slott's story is definitely setting up something much bigger in upcoming issues.
In the last pages of the issue, a separate but related strip focuses on the return of Uatu and how he forces Nicolas Joseph Fury, Sr., to allow him to see what has gone down since Fury thought he killed him. This happens on the Blue Area of the Moon, where the Unseen resides. From here, they are able to see the actions of all the Avengers and more. Fury is now upgrading from Watcher to Soldier. Besides the cool artwork by Will Robson and Marcio Menyz for the Fantastic Forum, which is really the letters section, there is also a very nice tribute to Chadwick Boseman written by Ta-Nehisi Coates. There should be some good "Clobberin' Time" ahead!