Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four are a superhero team consisting of Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch, the Thing, and Invisible Girl. The Four were exposed to cosmic rays during a manned mission to space, and landed on Earth with new powers. Based in New York City, they are arguably America's premier superhero entity, and the first heroes of the modern era. It is unclear who coined the Fantastic Four moniker. The Four primarily work in New York City, operating out of the Baxter Building. Mr. Fantastic and Invisible Girl are a couple—those close to them have anxiously awaited their engagement for some time—and Invisible Girl is the older sister of Human Torch.

History

Origin

Reed Richards, a brilliant and ambitious scientist, prepared a flight into space in an attempt to defeat the U.S.S.R. in the ongoing Space Race on behalf of the United States. He enlisted Benjamin Grimm to pilot the spaceship, but Grimm was reluctant, citing the risks of cosmic rays in outer space. Richards' partner, Susan Storm, implored Grimm to step up, calling him a "coward." The prideful Grimm agreed, and Storm decided to come along on account of being Reed's partner, against Reed's wishes. This in turn prompted Sue's brother, Johnny Storm, to join them. As Grimm feared, the space flight was a disaster, as cosmic rays bombarded the insufficiently-shielded ship and caused it to crash back to Earth. The astronauts emerged from the ship not only unharmed, but with new, bizarre abilities. Sue found herself turning invisible; Ben's skin was replaced with thick, orange rock; Reed could stretch his body to inhuman lengths; and Johnny could instantly cover his body with flame. The four mutually decided to use their newfound powers to help mankind, calling themselves the Fantastic Four: Invisible Girl, The Thing, Mr. Fantastic, and Human Torch.

1962

Full article: History of the Fantastic Four, 1962

During their first year as a team, the Fantastic Four encountered villains such as the Mole Man, the alien Skrulls, and the Miracle Man. A few such villains warrant special attention: after the Four defeated the Puppet Master, his daughter, Alicia Masters, was grateful to them for freeing her from his thrall. She especially grew fond of the Thing—a blind sculptor, Alicia uniquely recognized the beauty in Grimm's singular form. Doctor Doom, a former classmate of Reed Richards, forced the men on the team to carry out his wishes by kidnapping Invisible Girl. This plan involved time travel, which bizarrely led to Thing retroactively becoming the legendary pirate known as Blackbeard. The Four managed to outfox Doom, but this was only the first of many such encounters he would have with them for years to come. Throughout the year, Torch and Thing regularly got into altercations, to the point that Torch briefly left the team. While away, he found Namor the Sub-Mariner, an Atlantean antihero of sorts from years past. Namor was amnesiac after being away from the water for too long. Remembering the great deeds Namor had accomplished in his day, Johnny returned Namor to the sea and restored him to his former glory. Unfortunately, Namor found that the Atlantis he knew had been destroyed, apparently by humanity. Namor vowed revenge, and frequently came up against the Four, even teaming with Doom, though any such alliance with a human proved short-lived for Namor. In spite of his xenophobia, Namor developed an infatuation for Invisible Girl, one that she shamefully found herself requiting. Her fondness for Namor would prove to be a sticking point in the Four's battles for some time.

1963

Full article: History of the Fantastic Four, 1963

In 1963, the Four encountered new and bizarre enemies such as the Impossible Man, Molecule Man, the Super-Skrull, the Mad Thinker, and the Hate-Monger, while teaming up with new allies like Ant-Man and Nick Fury, Richards's war buddy. They also ran afoul of the Hulk, a monstrous beast who, while not strictly malicious, was difficult to control when angered. The Four became the first known humans to walk on the Moon after Richards took the risk of sending them into space again. While there were no such disasters as last time, on the Moon itself they encountered the Red Ghost and his Super-Apes, as well as Uatu the Watcher, one of an ancient race devoted to observing and chronicling the universe. The Four defeated Red Ghost, while Uatu was forced to find an alternative point from which to observe Earth now that the Moon had been compromised. At various points throughout the year, Mr. Fantastic tried to cure the Thing's physical malady as well as Alicia's blindness. A bold attempt to cure the latter led to the team utilizing Doom's time machine to travel to ancient Egypt, where hieroglyphics suggested a blindness-curing herb lay. They found the malevolent pharaoh Rama-Tut, who himself was a traveler from an alternate universe. The herb in question had cured his blindness when combined with the latent radioactivity from his time travel. The Four overcame Rama-Tut forcing them into indentured servitude, forcing him to flee back to his own time and recovering the herb, but finding that the radioactivity it had been exposed to prohibited it from traveling through time.

During another conflict with Doctor Doom, Mr. Fantastic used a shrink ray to shrink him down into seemingly nothing. In fact, Doom had simply been made small enough to transport to the Micro-World. The Four teamed with Ant-Man to pursue him after Doom had begun tampering with them from far beneath. The heroes pursued Doom through the Micro-World and Earth, rescuing Alicia after Doom kidnapped her. Namor came substantially close to defeating the surface world after reorganizing the Atlantean military, invading and claiming New York City in a matter of hours. Richards devised a device to remotely evaporate the water that the Atlanteans kept in their helmets to breathe, forcing them to retreat. Namor kidnapped Invisible Girl for leverage, but the others fought back and rescued her. Namor returned to Atlantis only to find that, having previously been championed as a monarch, he had now been abandoned by his people.

1964

Full article: History of the Fantastic Four, 1964

Team overview and personal traits

The Fantastic Four live in New York City in the Baxter Building, a tower that they purchased shortly after their formation. The Baxter Building is specially designed to house them and their equipment, including transportation and scientific implements.

While they generally work extremely well as a team, relationships within the Fantastic Four are sometimes strained. In particular, Thing and Human Torch are very often at odds, though this rarely goes beyond good-natured roughhousing. Mr. Fantastic acts as the leader of the team, perhaps because he feels responsible for their transformations, particularly Thing's disfigurement. He typically comes up with the team's plan of action in a crisis, and acts as the liaison between the Fantastic Four and outside organizations. Invisible Girl often plays a more defensive role due to her relatively passive powers, but does assist in more subtle, stealthy ways that can be critical to the team's victory.