Mr. Fantastic

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Mr. Fantastic, born Reed Richards, is an American superhero and the leader of the Fantastic Four. He is considered one of the most brilliant scientific minds in the world, and acts as the liaison between the Fantastic Four and outside organizations. He's most often responsible for the Four's plans to defeat their foes, and is also capable in direct combat. Following the cosmic ray exposure that gave the Four their powers, Richards gained the ability to stretch his body to an extreme extent, both in terms of growing and shrinking. A special suit made of unstable molecules, developed by Richards, stretches and forms with his body as necessary. He is romantically linked with Invisible Girl.

Biography

Origin

Reed Richards attended State University, where he was a stellar science student and met his roommate, Ben Grimm. He also met Victor von Doom, whom was expelled following a dangerous, failed experiment. To this day, Doom blames Richards for the experiment failing.[1] After graduating, Richards served in World War II as an agent for the Office of Strategic Services,[2] and is known to have assisted Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos during a rescue mission in Italy.[3] Following the war, Richards set his sights on the skies, aiming to achieve a manned mission to space. He recruited Ben Grimm to pilot the ship, and Sue Storm and Johnny Storm joined as well. The four were exposed to cosmic rays and crash-landed to earth, not only unharmed but with new powers. Richards discovered he had the ability to stretch, extend, and otherwise reshape his body in superhuman ways, and dubbed himself Mr. Fantastic. Johnny Storm, with the power of flight and flame manipulation, became the Human Torch; Sue Storm, with the power to apparently vanish on command, became the Invisible Girl; and Ben Grimm, covered in rocky orange skin and with incredible power, became the Thing. The four decided they should use their powers to help humanity, and officially formed the Fantastic Four.[4]

Leader of the Fantastic Four

Mr. Fantastic has been involved in the Fantastic Four's battles with Mole Man,[4] the Skrulls,[5] Miracle Man,[6] Namor the Sub-Mariner,[7] and Doctor Doom, his former college acquaintance.[1][8] He was also primarily responsible for saving the people of Planet X from the planet's destruction.[9] The Four then defeated the Puppet Master, and Thing met and fell for the villain's daughter Alicia Masters;[10] fought off another scheme by Namor the Sub-Mariner;[11] and again defeated a returning Doctor Doom. In the process, Doom inadvertently turned a shrink ray on himself, causing him to shrink into apparent nothingness.[12] They then faced and repelled the Impossible Man[13] and the Hulk,[14] and traveled to the Moon to defeat the Red Ghost and the Super-Apes, during which they also met Uatu the Watcher.[15] They then fell victim to a scheme from the returning Puppet Master that set them against Namor once more, but they held their ground in Namor's undersea palace, and Puppet Master's submarine was apparently crushed by a giant octopus.[16] The Four next defeated the Mad Thinker and his Awesome Android;[17] fought Doctor Doom through the Micro-World and their own world with the help of Ant-Man;[18][19] and trapped the invading Super-Skrull in a crater.[20]

Doctor Doom soon returned and took the hero Spider-Man—actually the teenage Flash Thompson in a regretful disguise—hostage, demanding to face the Four again. In the end, the real Spider-Man fought Doom off, leaving the Four confused.[21] Namor the Sub-Mariner committed his boldest act yet, uniting the Atlantean army to invade the surface world. Namor and his followers took over New York, but Mr. Fantastic repeled them with a machine that evaporated the water in their breathing tanks. When Invisible Girl later came into peril, Namor's affection for her took over and he saved her, upsetting many of his Atlantean followers.[22] Mr. Fantastic commandeered Doctor Doom's time machine from a previous conflict to send the team back in time to follow a lead on a potential cure for Alicia's blindness. There they faced Rama-Tut, a pharaoh who had himself time traveled there, forcing him to retreat to the future; they failed to acquire the blindness cure.[23] They then faced the Molecule Man, a threat so dire that Uatu was forced to help (to the extent that his Watcher oath allowed him), dragging Molecule Man into another dimension.[24] They then defeated the Hate-Monger,[25] the returning Mole Man,[26] and Doctor Doom once more, this time casting him into space via a solar wave.[27] After repelling the threat of the Infant Terrible,[28] the Four found themselves interacting with some of the other notable heroes in New York. After the Hulk arrived in New York violently seeking the Avengers, the Four teamed up with them to fend him off and protect the city.[29][30] Sub-Mariner resurfaced to kidnap Invisible Girl and attempt to take her as his wife, causing Mr. Fantastic to act out on his own and attempt to rescue her singlehandedly. While he fought valiantly, Namor's battalion of underlings gave him a severe advantage. Torch and Thing meanwhile acquired the services of the sorcerer Doctor Strange, who proved to be the deciding factor in the battle and allowed the Four to escape with Invisible Girl in tow.[31] The Four then found themselves being bizarrely accosted by the X-Men, a team of young and usually heroic mutants. They soon discovered that the X-Men were being manipulated by the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master, and the X-Men cordially apologized after the villains had been beaten.[32]

Johnny Storm became upset that Reed was the "leader" of the Fantastic Four, believing himself to be every bit as great a hero as anyone else in the group, and saying just the same for Ben. Reed resented Johnny's suggestion that there was no value to his leadership, and invited Johnny and Ben to leave the group if they so desired. He later devised a plan to prove to them just how necessary his leadership was. He sent an anonymous telegram to the two inviting them to an auto race, where they would race only each other. The two arrived as planned and found themselves automatically driven by their vehicles into a cave where Richards waited disguised as an enemy. Reed seemed to have a perfect counter to everything they could do, leaving Torch and Thing with little recourse. As Torch and Thing began to gave up hope, Reed revealed his true identity, having taught a lesson to his frustrated partners.[33]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Fantastic Four #5: "Prisoners of Doctor Doom!" (July 1962) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Sinnott, Joe (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  2. ↑ The Fantastic Four #11a: "A Visit with the Fantastic Four." (February 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  3. ↑ Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #3: "Midnight on Massacre Mountain!" (September 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 The Fantastic Four #1: "The Fantastic Four!" (November 1961) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Klein, George (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  5. ↑ The Fantastic Four #2: "The Fantastic Four Meet the Skrulls from Outer Space!" (January 1962) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Klein, George and Brodsky, Sol (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Duffy, John (let).
  6. ↑ The Fantastic Four #3: "The Menace of the Miracle Man!" (March 1962) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Brodsky, Sol (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  7. ↑ The Fantastic Four #4: "The Coming of the Sub-Mariner!" (May 1962) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Brodsky, Sol (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  8. ↑ The Fantastic Four #6: "Captives of the Deadly Duo!" (September 1962) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  9. ↑ The Fantastic Four #7: "Prisoners of Kurrgo, Master of Planet X." (October 1962) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  10. ↑ The Fantastic Four #8: "Prisoners of the Puppet Master!" (November 1962) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  11. ↑ The Fantastic Four #9: "The End of the Fantastic Four!" (December 1962) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  12. ↑ The Fantastic Four #10: "The Return of Doctor Doom!" (January 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  13. ↑ The Fantastic Four #11b: "The Impossible Man!" (February 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  14. ↑ The Fantastic Four #12: "The Incredible Hulk." (March 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  15. ↑ The Fantastic Four #13: "The Red Ghost and His Indescribable Super-Apes!" (April 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ditko, Steve (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  16. ↑ The Fantastic Four #14: "The Merciless Puppet Master." (May 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  17. ↑ The Fantastic Four #15: "The Mad Thinker and His Awesome Android!" (June 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  18. ↑ Fantastic Four #16: "The Micro-World of Doctor Doom!" (July 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  19. ↑ Fantastic Four #17: "Defeated by Doctor Doom!" (August 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  20. ↑ Fantastic Four #18: "A Skrull Walks Among Us!" (September 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  21. ↑ The Amazing Spider-Man #5: "Marked for Destruction by Dr. Doom!" (October 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Ditko, Steve (art), Rosen, Sam (let).
  22. ↑ Fantastic Four Annual #1a: "Sub-Mariner Versus the Human Race!" (June 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  23. ↑ Fantastic Four #19: "Prisoners of the Pharoah!" [sic] (October 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  24. ↑ Fantastic Four #20: "The Mysterious Molecule Man!" (November 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Ayers, Dick (i), Goldberg, Stan (col), Simek, Artie (let).
  25. ↑ Fantastic Four #21: "The Hate-Monger!" (December 1963) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Bell, George (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  26. ↑ Fantastic Four #22: "The Return of the Mole Man!" (January 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Bell, George (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  27. ↑ Fantastic Four #23: "The Master Plan of Doctor Doom!" (February 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Bell, George (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  28. ↑ Fantastic Four #24: "The Infant Terrible!" (March 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Bell, George (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  29. ↑ Fantastic Four #25: "The Hulk vs. the Thing." (April 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Bell, George (i), Rosen, Sam (let).
  30. ↑ Fantastic Four #26: "The Avengers Take Over!" (May 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Bell, George (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  31. ↑ Fantastic Four #27: "The Search for Sub-Mariner!" (July 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  32. ↑ Fantastic Four #28: "We Have to Fight the X-Men!" (July 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Kirby, Jack (p), Stone, Chic (i), Simek, Artie (let).
  33. ↑ Strange Tales #127a: "The Mystery Villain!" (December 1964) Lee, Stan (w), Ayers, Dick (p), Reinman, Paul (i), Simek, Artie (let).
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