It’s become the norm to jumpstart a title’s numbering whenever a new creative team comes aboard.

New writer. New artist. Release a new issue No. 1 … no matter how many hundreds of previous issues there may have been in past decades. Or how recently a new No. 1 has already been released for the same title.

In Marvel Comics anyway, turning the issue meter back to No. 1 doesn’t erase everything or anything from the past. No. 1 doesn’t mark a blank slate new start. All of the stories and characters from the past issues remain the history of the title.

Rather, No. 1 means a title is going in a new direction with the introduction of a new creative team. Look at Thor, Spider-Man, Hulk and now the Fantastic Four, again.

With the start of writer Ryan North, artist Iban Coello, color artist Jesus Aburtov and letterer VC’s Joe Caramagna’s run, the Fantastic Four – around since 1961 – is back to issue No. 1.

And it’s an intriguing start. North opens Fantastic Four No. 1 with a mystery. Issues 1-6 are collected in “Fantastic Four: Whatever Happened to the Fantastic Four?”

The first three issues do not feature all of the FF together.

Issue No. 1 features Ben Grimm/The Thing and wife Alicia Masters-Grimm on the road, alone, alluding to something that happened to the FF in New York, during a stop in a town stuck in a “Groundhog Day” repeat cycle since the 1940s.

Issue No. 2 features Reed and Susan Richards, a.k.a. Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, alone, also alluding to something happening to the FF in New York, on the road, driving around in the conspicuous Fantasticar, stopped in a small town run by Dr. Doom robots.

Issue No. 3 features just Johnny Storm/the Human Torch, using an assumed identity working retail, with allusions to something happening to the FF in New York, dealing with a bad boss.

Issue No. 4 deals with what happened to the FF in New York then new adventures on the road.

The creative team breathes fresh life into the Fantastic Four while touching upon the familiar characteristics and history of Marvel’s first family.

This collection of the first six issues of their FF run reveals there’s a lot happening with the Fantastic Four again.