In our previous article, we explored why the Fantastic Four are known as Marvel’s First Family. The title isn’t just a reflection of their place in comic book history as Marvel’s first superhero team of the modern age. It’s something they earned through decades of shared adventures, personal growth, sacrifice, and relationships that allowed them to become a family in ways few superhero teams ever have.
When Marvel relaunched Fantastic Four in 2018 under writer Dan Slott, he didn’t leave that idea behind. Instead, he made it the foundation of his new series. After more than two years without their own comic, Marvel’s First Family returned with a mystery that had been building since the conclusion of Secret Wars. Where had Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Franklin Richards, and Valeria Richards been, and what mission had kept them away for so long?
The answers would lead to a confrontation with the Griever at the End of All Things, one of Marvel’s newest and most intriguing cosmic entities. More importantly, the battle that followed would test not only Reed Richards’ brilliant mind, but also the very idea of what it means to be Marvel’s First Family. By the time the story ended, Dan Slott had shown that the Fantastic Four’s greatest strength had never been their superpowers—it was the family they had become.
To understand how the Fantastic Four defeated the Griever, we first need to understand what Marvel’s First Family had been doing since Secret Wars.
The Return of Marvel’s First Family
The story begins with one of Marvel’s most important crossover events. Published in 2015, Secret Wars was written by Jonathan Hickman with artwork by Esad Ribić. The nine-issue series brought together years of storylines from Avengers and New Avengers, culminating in the destruction of the Marvel multiverse and bringing Hickman’s epic saga to its conclusion.
With every universe destroyed, Doctor Doom used the stolen power of the Beyonders to create Battleworld, a patchwork world assembled from the remnants of countless realities. In the climactic battle, Reed Richards confronted Doom not only physically but philosophically. Even Doom admitted that Reed would have made a better god. Instead of ruling creation, Reed chose to restore it. After Molecule Man transferred the Beyonders’ power to him, Reed, Sue Storm, Franklin Richards, Valeria Richards, and the Future Foundation remained behind to rebuild the multiverse, with Franklin creating new universes and Reed helping shape them into reality.
For Reed, the mission meant more than restoring what had been lost. His scientific pursuits had often come at the expense of time with his family. Rebuilding the multiverse gave him something he had rarely allowed himself—years spent alongside Sue, raising Franklin and Valeria, and sharing that extraordinary journey with the Future Foundation. It was a chance to rebuild creation while strengthening the family at the heart of the Fantastic Four.
Meanwhile, readers experienced a different kind of absence. Following Secret Wars, Marvel ended the Fantastic Four series, leaving comic shop shelves without the team’s flagship title for more than two years. The characters hadn’t disappeared from Marvel Comics entirely. Ben Grimm continued his adventures with the Guardians of the Galaxy, while Johnny Storm became a member of the Inhumans. Reed, Sue, Franklin, Valeria, and the Future Foundation, however, remained missing.
Dan Slott finally answered that mystery when he relaunched Fantastic Four in 2018. But their work rebuilding creation had attracted the attention of a powerful new cosmic entity whose purpose stood in opposition to everything they were doing: the Griever at the End of All Things.
Who Is the Griever at the End of All Things?
Throughout their history, the Fantastic Four have faced some of Marvel’s most powerful cosmic beings. They have battled Galactus, encountered the Watcher, and even defended Galactus during the famous Trial of Reed Richards. As we’ve seen in our previous look at the Fantastic Four’s cosmic encounters, these beings aren’t always villains in the traditional sense. Some represent fundamental forces of the Marvel Universe beyond ordinary concepts of good and evil.
The Griever at the End of All Things belongs in that category. Introduced by writer Dan Slott and artist Sara Pichelli in Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #2 in 2018, the Griever is a cosmic abstract associated with entropy and the eventual heat death of the universe. Her purpose is contained in her name: everything that begins must eventually come to an end. Stars die. Universes cease to exist. Even creation itself cannot continue forever.
That philosophy put her directly at odds with Reed Richards, Franklin Richards, and the Future Foundation. After Secret Wars, Franklin had been creating new universes while Reed helped shape them, effectively rebuilding a multiverse that had already come to an end. To the Griever, their seemingly endless creation interfered with the natural order she represented.
The Griever did not attack immediately. She waited as Franklin continued creating universes and depleted the extraordinary power he had been using to make them. Only after his abilities had significantly diminished did she make her move, threatening the very universes the family had spent years rebuilding.
She also demonstrated the magnitude of the threat by turning her attention to Owen Reece, the Molecule Man, whose tremendous power had been essential to Franklin’s creation of new universes. The Griever utterly destroyed Owen’s physical body, seemingly eliminating one of the most powerful beings in existence.
But Owen wasn’t completely gone. Before his destruction was complete, he managed to condense his essence and consciousness into a single molecule and send it deep into the multiverse, beyond the Griever’s reach. Reed and the others did not know where it had gone, leaving Owen’s fate uncertain.
For all her immense power, however, the Griever had limitations of her own. As an embodiment of entropy, she could destroy, but she could not create. More importantly, she could not simply travel wherever she wished throughout the multiverse. She depended upon technology to move between realities.
Franklin’s powers were nearly exhausted, Molecule Man was missing, and the Griever seemed unstoppable. But Reed Richards had spent a lifetime confronting impossible problems. And seemingly insignificant details had a way of becoming very important once Reed began putting the pieces together.
How Reed Richards Changed the Battle
Normally, I try not to give away every detail of a comic book battle. Part of the fun of reading these stories is discovering for yourself how the heroes overcome seemingly impossible odds. But The End of All Things is different. To understand why this story so perfectly demonstrates what it means to be Marvel’s First Family, we need to look more closely at how Reed Richards confronted the Griever—and that means revealing how the battle ends.
With Franklin’s powers nearly exhausted and Molecule Man missing, Reed Richards and the Future Foundation were running out of options. Reed needed help, and he asked the Griever for permission to summon the rest of the Fantastic Four.
The Griever agreed, apparently believing Reed meant only the two missing members of the original team—Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm.
But Reed Richards had a much broader definition of the Fantastic Four.
His signal reached across the Marvel Universe, summoning Ben and Johnny along with an extraordinary collection of heroes who had served as members of the Fantastic Four over the years. Spider-Man, She-Hulk, Wolverine, Ghost Rider, Crystal, Medusa, Luke Cage, Ant-Man, and others answered Reed’s call. What the Griever expected to be two additional heroes became a gathering drawn from decades of Fantastic Four history.
Even Iceman appeared, much to Johnny Storm’s annoyance. Johnny immediately questioned whether Bobby Drake had ever really been a member of the Fantastic Four. Slott would revisit that seemingly petty argument later in his run, when Johnny learned that Bobby really had served with the team during a time when Johnny himself had walked away. Eventually, Johnny accepted the lesson Reed already understood: being part of the Fantastic Four meant becoming part of the family.
But Reed wasn’t simply assembling enough superhuman power to overwhelm the Griever. Even as the battle raged, he gave his family specific instructions that didn’t necessarily seem aimed at defeating her.
One of those instructions went to Johnny.
Reed ordered the Human Torch to destroy the Telepods aboard the Griever’s ship until only one remained. As Johnny went after them, he received some unexpected help from another former member of the Fantastic Four—the Hulk. Hulk was keeping his presence hidden from the rest of the universe and wanted it to stay that way. After secretly carrying out Reed’s order, he told Johnny to keep his involvement quiet and allowed the Torch to take the credit.
Destroying the Telepods might have seemed like a relatively small accomplishment in a battle against a cosmic being capable of wiping out entire universes. But Reed rarely did anything without a reason.
As we have already seen, for all her incredible power, the Griever depended upon technology to travel between realities. Now only one Telepod remained.
Still, the assembled Fantastic Four family had not defeated her. Even with all the power Reed had brought together, the Griever remained an almost impossibly powerful opponent.
But Reed Richards was no longer trying to solve the problem everyone else thought they were solving.
The Fantastic Four didn’t necessarily have to find a way to overpower the Griever. Reed had begun to understand that there might be another way to win.
Why Only the Fantastic Four Could Have Won
Even with decades of Fantastic Four members fighting at his side, Reed Richards understood something that changed the entire battle: they couldn’t defeat the Griever.
Fortunately, they didn’t have to.
Reed realized that defeating the Griever had never really been the problem he needed to solve. The Fantastic Four only needed to make her stop what she was doing and leave. Once Reed changed the definition of victory, he could use what he had learned about the Griever against her.
That’s why Reed had ordered the destruction of all but one of her Telepods. For all her tremendous power, the Griever couldn’t move freely between realities without them. And as an embodiment of entropy, she could destroy, but she could not create.
Reed confronted the Griever with the reality of her situation. If she continued the battle, he could destroy the final Telepod and strand her in that reality. She couldn’t create another one and would have no way to return to her own realm.
Suddenly, the Griever had a choice. She could continue fighting the enormous Fantastic Four family Reed had assembled and risk losing her only way home, or she could stop the battle and use the final Telepod to leave.
She chose to leave.
The Griever wasn’t destroyed, knocked unconscious, or imprisoned. In fact, she departed with a promise of vengeance. But Reed had accomplished exactly what the Fantastic Four needed. The attack was over, and the Griever had returned to her own realm.
It was a classic Reed Richards victory. Faced with an opponent the Fantastic Four couldn’t overpower, Reed stopped asking how they could defeat her and started asking what they actually needed to accomplish.
And he couldn’t have done it alone. His plan depended on the extraordinary family that had grown around the Fantastic Four over the decades—a family large enough to surprise even a cosmic entity at the end of all things.
The Griever thought Reed was asking for two more heroes.
What she got was a family.
A New Beginning for Marvel’s First Family
With the Griever gone, Reed Richards could finally turn his attention toward getting everyone home. The many heroes who had answered his call were returned to the places from which they had been summoned, but not everyone chose to go back to Earth.
Dragon Man and the Future Foundation remained behind. Although the Griever had destroyed Molecule Man’s physical body, Owen Reece had survived by reducing his essence to a single molecule and hiding it somewhere within the multiverse. The Future Foundation decided to continue searching for him, a mission that would later be explored in Marvel’s Future Foundation series in 2019.
For Reed, Sue, Franklin, and Valeria, however, the time had finally come to go home. Ben Grimm and Johnny Storm were once again beside them, and after years spent rebuilding the multiverse, the Fantastic Four were finally returning to Earth as a family.
Of course, coming home is rarely simple for the Fantastic Four.
When they arrived, they discovered that things had changed during their absence—including a new superhero team called the Fantastix, who had taken up residence in the Fantastic Four’s former headquarters. After years spent creating universes and battling a cosmic embodiment of entropy, Marvel’s First Family returned home to discover that life on Earth had continued without them.
It was an appropriate beginning to Dan Slott’s new era. The End of All Things didn’t simply bring the Fantastic Four back together. Reed’s call demonstrated how much the family had grown over the decades to include children, friends, teammates, and heroes who had stood beside them when they were needed.
Dan Slott began his Fantastic Four run by bringing Marvel’s First Family home. In doing so, he reminded readers that their greatest strength wasn’t cosmic power, advanced technology, or even Reed Richards’ remarkable intellect.
It was—and always had been—family.
What Do You Think?
What did you think of Reed’s solution to the Griever? And did you enjoy seeing his definition of the Fantastic Four family extend to the many heroes who had served with the team over the years?
Did The End of All Things feel like a fitting way to bring Marvel’s First Family back together after their long absence? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Let me know in the comments below.
And if you enjoyed this article, please use the share buttons to pass it along on your favorite social media site. You never know when another Fantastic Four fan might enjoy joining the conversation!
Suggested Comic Reading
If you’d like to experience these stories for yourself, here are the comics that provide the most important background and follow-up:
- Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #1–4 (2018), written by Dan Slott — Start with the return of the Fantastic Four and follow the story through their confrontation with the Griever at the End of All Things.
- Secret Wars #1–9 (2015–2016), written by Jonathan Hickman — This Marvel crossover covers the destruction of the multiverse, Battleworld, Molecule Man’s role, and the events that led Reed and his family to begin rebuilding the multiverse.
- Future Foundation #1–5 (2019) — Follow Dragon Man and the Future Foundation as they continue their journey through the multiverse in search of Owen Reece, the Molecule Man.
Many of these stories can also be read digitally through Marvel Unlimited, Marvel’s subscription comic-reading service.
Continue Exploring the Fantastic Four
If you’d like to continue our journey through Fantastic Four history, you may also enjoy:
- Why Is the Fantastic Four Considered Marvel’s First Family? — Discover how Reed, Sue, Ben, and Johnny grew from four adventurers into one of Marvel’s most unusual families.
- The Fantastic Four’s Cosmic Encounters: Galactus and Beyond — Explore the team’s encounters with Galactus, the Silver Surfer, the Watcher, and other cosmic forces that helped define their place in the Marvel Universe.
- The Fantastic Four’s Greatest Villains: A Legacy of Conflict — Look back at the enemies who have challenged the Fantastic Four and why their greatest conflicts often involve more than simply defeating a villain.