Marvel’s Fantastic Four is a superteam that has been through it all, with the respective heads of this familial group, Reed Richards aka Mr. Fantastic, and Sue Storm aka The Invisible Woman, acting as the glue that holds everyone together whether out in the field or home safe at the Baxter Building. But how exactly does their decades-long superhero story end? Fortunately for fans, Marvel has already revealed how Reed and Sue go out, and it’s absolutely perfect for their characters.
Introduced alongside The Human Torch and The Thing in 1961’s The Fantastic Four #1, Reed and Sue started as friends, eventually got married, had two children, Franklin and Valeria, and somehow still found the time to save the world when needed, making them one of the few comic characters with a progressive story that reflects their evolution as a family and as heroes.
In Fantastic Four: The Wedding Special #1, it’s revealed that at the end of their lives, Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s last act is to leave Earth in one final excursion into the unknown.
Reed Richards and Sue Storm’s Story Ends With Them Going off To Explore the Universe
Fantastic Four: The Wedding Special #1 – 2005 (Karl Kesel and Drew Johnson)
Following present-day Reed and Sue as they attend a surprise “engagement” celebration populated by Reeds and Sues plucked from across the time stream, this event was put together by an elderly version of the characters, with this story seeing them discuss what their last few years might hold. Toasting to their younger selves, Old Reed and Sue explain that they have no idea where or when their next “grand adventure” will take them or if they’ll even return from it, and by issue’s end, they make good on that by disappearing into a portal to conclude their “Life Fantastic.”
During the years that followed 2015’s Secret Wars, The Fantastic Four as a team and a comic series went on hiatus, with the canon reason being they were off rebuilding and exploring the multiverse, solidifying Reed and Sue’s need to discover new and cosmically significant things whenever their superhero responsibilities allow. Making total sense that in the twilight of their lives, they would do this again, and this issue showing Reed and Sue end their story by doing the one thing they lived for — exploring the uncharted depths of what the universe and multiverse hold — cannot be understated.
Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman’s End Makes Perfect Sense for These Scientific Adventurers
It may be a while yet before Reed and Sue get their final in-continuity send-off, but the fact that they made exploration, science, and being together a priority even in their old age says a lot about who they are as people and what they mean in the grand scheme of the Marvel Universe. The Fantastic Four are primed to make their MCU debut next summer, so hopefully, by the time that iteration of the team makes their final bow, both Reed Richards and Sue Storm will get the ending they’ve always deserved, an ending that Marvel already gave them.
Fantastic Four: The Wedding Special #1 is available from Marvel Comics.
