In this review of Fantastic Four #16, Marvel’s first family accidentally causes a civil war on a distant planet while questioning the concept of history.
FANTASTIC FOUR #16
Written by: Ryan North
Art by: Ramón Rosanas
Main Cover: Humberto Ramos
Variant Covers: Greg Land, Simone Di Meo, Alex Ross, Áthila Fabbio
Page Count: 24 pages
Release Date: September 2, 2026
This review contains spoilers
Fantastic Four #16 is quite simply one of the best issues I’ve read all year… and one of the best issues I’ve ever read in general. The 4 crash land onto a distant planet offscreen in a galaxy far, far away (shout out to Star Wars). It’s 1920s themed, and they disguise themselves as inhabitants of the planet and work on repairing their spaceship to go back.
One of the things they discover is that the clay artifacts on this planet can preserve sound, which means they can utilize it to retrace history. What they innocently hoped would be a marvel in science essentially sows the seeds of destruction. The retracing method proves one of the religions on the planet to be false. Conflict breaks out, as the Fantastic 4 have basically created a civil war.
Reed and Ben debate the extent of truth-telling, and both differ. Reed believes truth is always intrinsically the right path, while Ben believes sometimes lies are necessary to maintain righteousness.
The Thing forms a plan where they create another device that claims the audio also recreates corresponding visuals. That’s practically impossible, but the plan is to present a false video where they frame themselves. Footage rolls and shows the Four conspiring to cause a civil war, and then take over the planet in its midst. They get chased off the world, but it ends the conflict as they’re framed as liars.
Back home on Earth, they discuss their actions. Sue says it’s up to the inhabitants to eventually figure out the truth for themselves and decide how to react, while also remarking that history is full of gaps. She comments it led to humans creating stories for the purpose of filling in the gaps, many of which are now reported as legitimate history.
Analysis
Arguably the best part of Fantastic Four #16 for me was the dive into the Fantastic 4 as characters and showing how much they need each other. Some things that are practical aren’t always moral or follow universal standards. If Reed was to have his way, the planet would have internally combusted due to war.
This is where you need the lax nature of Ben Grimm or Johnny Storm. To get Reed out of his head and biases, and reveal to him sometimes the truth isn’t what we need. And sometimes, in life, kindness is to let somebody leave the situation alive, even without the truth intact. Fantastic Four #16 is philosophically rich and a respectful contrast within the Four’s characters. It’s very engaging to read.
Besides that, Fantastic Four #16 follows a similar theme of North’s F4 work thus far, in reframing/deconstructing popular sci-fi tropes. With #16, it utilizes the “visitors from the stars” cliche, common in many ancient astronaut stories.
Except this time instead of visitors visiting humans, humans are the visitors and impacting other worlds, the same way aliens do in these stories. It puts us in the position of control and power, letting us see through a human’s POV how ancient history can be manipulated.
The only nitpick I have with this issue is that it’s a bit hard to fathom that people would listen to a press conference from the Fantastic Four in the middle of a destructive civil war. The battle is exhaustive and their efforts to peacemake are ignored. At one point, the 4 block the sun to prevent fighting, but the armies just waited until the stars showed up to continue. At the very least, the dialogue doesn’t give enough suspension of disbelief.
Still, only a small flaw in an otherwise nearly perfect issue.
Final Thoughts
I’m very excited for the Four’s upcoming participation in the DNX event. F4 #16 reestablishes the complex morality that defines the team’s mythos, before they tackle one of the most morally dubious Marvel events of the decade.
