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Quote1 I learned that the difference between living and dying is managing fear. Not being so afraid of losing the things you love that you hold them too tight. I used to believe in universal contraction. Entropy and the end of all things. Well, I changed my mind. I'm letting go. Because now I believe in expansion. I believe we endure. Don't you see? Everything lives. Quote2
Mister Fantastic[src]

Dr. Reed Richards is a scientist and inventor, better known as Mister Fantastic, who has been considered the smartest man on Earth.[21] He is a Polymath with mastery of all the sciences including, electrical, mechanical, aerospace engineering, electronics, chemistry, physics, biology and beyond.[22] Richards was exposed to high levels of cosmic radiation along with his best friend Ben Grimm, then girlfriend Sue Storm and her younger brother Johnny Storm, during a trip to space in the stolen rocket, the Marvel-1. The radiation mutated him and his friends, allowing him to stretch and mold his body at will.[23] Together they became the Fantastic Four, a team of adventurers who explored space, time and alternate dimensions and saved the world along the way from science-based threats.[24]

Quick Answers

What event led to Reed Richards becoming Mr. Fantastic? toggle section
Reed Richards, also known as Mr. Fantastic, gained his superpowers during a flight into space. He and his friends were exposed to Cosmic Rays, which endowed them with fantastic abilities. As Mr. Fantastic, Richards uses his pliable body and unparalleled intellect for the betterment of the human race.
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What scientific fields does Reed Richards, also known as Mr. Fantastic, specialize in? toggle section
Reed Richards, also known as Mr. Fantastic, is a highly educated individual who attended prestigious universities such as the California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Columbia University, and State University. He has acquired multiple scientific doctorates in fields such as engineering, math, and physics. This makes him a specialist in a wide range of scientific disciplines, contributing to his role as an adventurer, scientist, and member of the Fantastic Four.
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Who were the other individuals exposed to cosmic radiation along with Reed Richards? toggle section
Along with Reed Richards, who later became known as Mr. Fantastic, three other individuals were exposed to cosmic radiation. These were Susan Storm, who became the Invisible Girl, her younger brother Johnny Storm, who became the Human Torch, and Reed's best friend, Ben Grimm, who transformed into the Thing. Together, they formed the superhero team known as the Fantastic Four.
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Why is Reed Richards often referred to as the smartest man on Earth? toggle section
Reed Richards, also known as Mr. Fantastic, is often referred to as the smartest man on Earth due to his extraordinary intellect. He is a scientific genius with a mastery in various fields including electrical, mechanical and aerospace engineering, electronics, chemistry, physics, and both human and alien biology. Not only is he a genius in virtually every science native to Earth, but he has also shown himself to be more knowledgeable than even some of the most highly advanced alien civilizations in the known universe. His intelligence is so renowned that even when others have surpassed him, he is still considered the 'smartest man'.
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What is the significance of the rocket in Reed Richards' transformation into Mr. Fantastic? toggle section
The rocket plays a pivotal role in Reed Richards' transformation into Mr. Fantastic. Originally, Reed Richards was a brilliant mathematician and physicist who dreamt of an experimental space mission. His ambition led him to launch a spaceship, with the initial intention of beating the Soviet Union in the space race. However, a miscalculation resulted in the spaceship being battered by a brutal cosmic storm. The cosmic rays from this storm endowed Reed with the ability to bend, stretch, and expand his body in any imaginable way, thus giving birth to Mr. Fantastic. Over time, the details of this space flight have been updated and generalized in various retellings of the Fantastic Four's origin.
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History

This is an abridged version of Reed Richards' history. For a complete history see Reed Richards' Expanded History.

Early Years[]

Reed Richards was born in Central City, California as the only son of wealthy physicist Nathaniel Richards and his wife Evelyn. He was a child prodigy with special aptitude in mathematics, physics, and mechanics. Evelyn died when Reed was seven,[22] leaving Reed to be raised by his father Nathaniel.[25]

Education[]

Nathaniel encouraged and guided young Reed in his scientific studies, and Reed was taking college-level courses. Reed entered college at fourteen at Caltech (California Institute of Technology).[26] He also attended Harvard University[26] and M.I.T.[27] He studied abroad at the University of Vienna in Austria. It was there he met fellow "super-genius" Alyssa Moy.[28] By the time he was eighteen, he had obtained four degrees in fields such as engineering, math, and physics.[29] However, during Reed's teen years, Nathaniel got recruited by the secret Brotherhood of the Shield and had to leave Reed.[30][31]

Reed Richards (Earth-616) and Victor von Doom (Earth-616) from Fantastic Four vs

Young Reed (front) competing with Victor von Doom (back)

It was when he was working on his fifth at State University in Hegeman, New York, that Reed Richards first met two of the most important individuals in his life. He was assigned to room with a foreign student, a scientific genius named Victor von Doom. The imperious Von Doom, taking an immediate dislike to Richards, decided to take other quarters. Instead, Richards gained as his roommate former high school football star Benjamin J. Grimm, who became Richards' closest friend. Richards was already intending to build a starship for interstellar travel. When he told his ambitions to Grimm, Grimm jokingly said that he would pilot the starship for Richards someday.[32]

While attending State University, Richards rented living quarters at the Manhattan boarding house owned by the aunt of a young woman named Susan Storm.[33][34][35] Reed instantly fell in love with Sue, although he soon deemed it prudent to move out, because he was too distracted from his work due to his romance with Sue.[35]

Reed Richards (Earth-616) and Victor von Doom (Earth-616) from Fantastic Four Annual Vol 1 2 001

Warning Victor von Doom before the accident that scarred Doom's face

While not friends, Richards and Doom saw each other as intellectual peers. Needing a better computer than the university's, they designed a revolutionary new one together. Richards and Doom debated esoteric theories day and night that amazed faculty members, who compared their brilliance to that of Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci. While Richards designed his starship,[36] Doom became obsessed with developing a machine that could project the astral form of a being into other dimensions. Reed pointed out a flaw in Doom's calculations, but Doom arrogantly ignored his warning, feeling that Reed was trying to upstage him. The machine exploded, scarring Doom's face. He was soon expelled for conducting unethical experiments. As Doctor Doom, von Doom would later become Richards' greatest rival and enemy.[37][32] Doom blamed Richards for his deformities and he continually tried to prove himself superior, especially intellectually. They battled many times, but Richards almost always emerged triumphantly.[37][32][38] Reed and Ben later served in the military together. Their time in war increased their trust in each other.[39]

Three years before Richards tested his starship, his father mysteriously disappeared. Nathaniel Richards had devised a time machine which he had used to attempt to journey into the future of his own world. However, the machine actually transported him to an alternate Earth with a history considerably different from their own. Reed Richards would be reunited with him while visiting this alternate Earth years later. Before Nathaniel Richards left his own time, he made arrangements that left two billion dollars to his son. Reed Richards spent most of the money on his project to build and launch his starship. This project, based in Central City, California, received further funding from the federal government.[23][40]

Fantastic Four[]

Richards recruited his old friend Ben Grimm, who had become a successful test pilot and astronaut, to pilot the starship, which was named the Marvel-1. Richards was joined in California by Susan Storm. Richards and Storm were dating at the time.[23] Shortly before the starship was to be launched, Richards used his scientific knowledge to defeat the extraterrestrial being Gormuu, who had intended to conquer Earth. Richards' encounter with Gormuu strengthened his resolve to finish the starship, which he saw as a first step for mankind to defend itself from extraterrestrial threats.[40]

Fantastic Four (Earth-616) from Fantastic Four First Family Vol 1 1 0001

Showered by cosmic rays

When the federal government then threatened to withdraw its funding from the starship project, Richards decided to take the Marvel-1 on a test flight before the funding was withdrawn. Grimm was opposed to the idea, warning that the starship's shielding might prove inadequate protection from the intense radiation storms. Nevertheless, Grimm was persuaded to serve as pilot, and Susan Storm and her adolescent brother Johnny insisted on accompanying Richards as passengers. The four friends stole onto the launch facility, entered the starship, and blasted off. They intended to travel through hyperspace in the ship to another solar system and back in order to convince the government to reconsider. However, when the ship passed through a cosmic ray storm, it was met with an unexpected level of intensity. Since the ship was designed to shield against ordinary levels of radiation, the cabin volume was subjected to intense cosmic ray bombardment which irradiated the four passengers and wrought havoc on the ship's controls. Pilot Grimm was forced to abort the flight and return to Earth.

Fantastic Four (Earth-616) from Fantastic Four Vol 1 1 001

Forming the FF

Once back on Earth, the four passengers discovered that the cosmic radiation had triggered mutagenic changes in their bodies. Reed Richards discovered that his body had become malleable and that he now had the ability to elongate his body at will. Richards convinced the others that the four of them should use their new-found powers for the good of humanity as members of a team he named the Fantastic Four. Richards, who became the team's leader, named himself Mister Fantastic, while Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, and Johnny Storm named themselves the Thing, the Invisible Girl (later the Invisible Woman), and the Human Torch, respectively.[23] The profits from Richard's patents and royalties funded the team's activities.

Under Richards' leadership the Fantastic Four has become Earth's most honored team of superhuman adventurers, and has saved the world from conquest or destruction many times. Richards proposed to[41] and eventually married Susan Storm in a wedding ceremony attended by most of the world's heroes,[42] and they had a son, Franklin.[43]

Franklin proved to be a vastly powerful mutant whose fluctuating abilities have alternately saved or menaced both the Fantastic Four and the world, forcing Reed to take steps to contain Franklin's powers. On one such occasion, Franklin's mind was temporarily shut down. An outraged Sue, already resentful of Reed at this point because she felt that he did not regard her as an equal, left her husband and quit the team. She was replaced in the Fantastic Four for an extended period by Medusa of the Inhumans, but Sue reclaimed her spot on the roster after she and Reed finally reconciled. However, Reed and Sue were separated.[44]

A number of Earth's most powerful heroes -- Mister Fantastic, Doctor Strange, Black Bolt, Professor X, Iron Man, and Namor -- traveled to Skrullos to confront the Skrull King, informing him that the Earth was strictly off-limits. Upon arrival, however, the heroes were captured and experimented upon before they were able to escape. Mr. Fantastic would later blame himself for the Skrulls increased transforming powers. While the meeting predictably turned violent, the experience would provide the basis for the later establishment of the Illuminati. The secretive group of Earth's most influential heroes would meet only a few times, and these, only to tackle events of extraordinary importance. Reed added the viewpoint and perspective of a scientist.[45]

Fantastic Four Vol 1 200

After losing his powers for a time, Reed was imprisoned and impersonated by the Brute, his then-criminally insane counterpart from the High Evolutionary's Counter-Earth, who ultimately exiled himself to the Negative Zone after finally regaining his senses.

The Fantastic Four even broke up for a while, during which time Doom hypnotized Reed into capturing his former teammates as the Invincible Man. The team regrouped after Reed took a solo space flight into the Van Allen radiation belts, guided by information from colleague Stephen Beckley (later Comet Man), regaining his powers at amplified levels, and the Fantastic Four foiled Doom's latest world-conquering plot. Later, seeking a more normal family life, Reed and Sue established a household in small town Belle Porte, Connecticut for a while, living quietly in disguise there as the Benjamin family while continuing to serve with the Fantastic Four in their original identities.

Later Adventures[]

After a conflict during which he mercifully spared the life of the planet-eater Galactus, Reed found himself placed on trial in an interstellar court by survivors of the many worlds Galactus had consumed; but Reed was exonerated once the last-minute testimony of Eternity proved to the court that Galactus was a necessary aspect of the cosmos.

On the family front, Sue's second child was stillborn despite Reed's frantic efforts to save their unborn baby; Reed discovered that his own long-lost father Nathaniel was living a new life with a new family on Other Earth; and an embittered Thing quit the Fantastic Four, partly because a well-intentioned Reed had withheld information from him regarding the state of Ben's ability to resume human form, an ability Ben lost due in part to Reed's misinformation. Ben's hand-picked replacement, She-Hulk, served a long stint with the Fantastic Four, but eventually left after Ben finally reconciled with the group and rejoined their ranks.

During the period She-Hulk replaced The Thing as member of the Fantastic Four, the symbiote escaped from the Baxter Building with the help of Kristoff Vernard. It possessed Reed briefly before deciding to use Franklin as its new host. The symbiote fought the Fantastic Four and Spider-Man until it managed to successfully possess Franklin, but the child was able to reject the symbiote thanks to his father and Spider-Man's help.[18]

Avengers Vol 1 300

Reed's brief stint as a member of the Avengers.

Seeking a more normal family life again, Reed and Sue retired from the Fantastic Four altogether to concentrate on raising Franklin, leaving Ben in charge of the group. To replace them, Ben recruited his friend Ms. Marvel (Sharon Ventura) and Crystal (who had already served as Sue's substitute during and after Sue's first pregnancy); however, Reed and Sue's retirement was short-lived. After teaming with several Avengers to rescue a captured Franklin during a demonic invasion, Reed and Sue reluctantly agreed to join the Avengers, who were critically short-handed at the time. But Reed was too accustomed to leadership himself to serve smoothly under Captain America for long, so Reed and Sue amicably stepped down from active Avengers membership after only a few missions with the team. They later resigned their Avengers membership altogether after rejoining the Fantastic Four. They remained friends and allies to the Avengers, though.

When Reed and Doom seemingly died[46] as a result of their conflict with the alien Hunger, they were actually spirited away by the space-time-warping Hyperstorm, mad son of an alternate-future Franklin Richards. Hyperstorm kept Doom as a tortured captive and trapped Reed in the distant past for months, during which time the world believed both Reed and Doom to be dead. In Reed's absence, Sue took over leadership of the Fantastic Four and served capably in the role, recruiting Ant-Man as the team's new scientist. However, she refused to believe Reed was truly dead, and she rebuffed romantic advances from Namor. Reed was eventually rescued.

The entire Fantastic Four appeared to die in battle with the psychic monster Onslaught. Instead they (and the Avengers) found themselves on Counter-Earth, in a pocket universe Franklin had created to save them. In a sense, they had been reborn and had to start their lives over.[47] Once the heroes on Counter-Earth realized what had happened, they returned to their original homes.[48]

An even more surprising resurrection unfolded during the team's reality-warping conflict with the cosmic being Abraxas when Franklin revealed he had used his powers to rescue Sue's seemingly stillborn second child years earlier, and that this child had been raised in an alternate future to become the Marvel Girl (Valeria Von Doom) who was now an ally of the present-day Fantastic Four. As a side-effect of Abraxas' defeat, Marvel Girl was restored to her original state, as an unborn child in Sue's womb. This time, Sue's pregnancy resulted in the birth of a healthy baby girl, christened Valeria in memory of Doctor Doom's first love. (Doom had insisted on naming the child in exchange for assisting with the difficult birth.) Later, Doom would exploit his special bond with the child to employ her as a mystical familiar, using sorcery to mount one of his most ruthless and terrifying attacks on the Fantastic Four ever.

In the end, Doom was taken by his own demonic benefactors, but not before he hideously disfigured Reed's face as a petty parting gesture. Physically and emotionally scarred, Reed led the Fantastic Four into Doom's now-leaderless Latveria, where he worked obsessively to dismantle Doom's regime, neutralize his arsenal, erase Doom's legacy and create a better state, becoming increasingly tyrannical himself in the process and ignoring threats of international criminal charges from the United Nations. At the same time, unknown even to his teammates, Reed was secretly plotting to retrieve Doom from Hell and place him in a specially prepared other-dimensional prison from which he could never escape; but this transfer was unwittingly interrupted by the rest of the Fantastic Four, allowing Doom to escape long enough to kill the Thing.

Reed Richards (Earth-616) from Fantastic Four Vol 1 570 0002

Devastated, the remaining Fantastic Four returned to America, where their standing with the authorities and their reputation with the general public had taken a terrible beating due to the Latverian controversy. The Fantastic Four broke up, Reed and Sue split up, and Reed was even forced to sign over most of his patents to the government as part of a deal to escape prosecution. However, Reed was certain that Ben could be resurrected. He convinced Sue and Johnny to join him in this quest, which ultimately led them to the gates of Heaven itself using a modified model of Doom's old afterlife machine. Persuaded it was not yet his time, Ben agreed to return to the land of the living with his friends-and the Creators allowed it, even healing Reed's facial scars as a parting gift. With the Fantastic Four back together, Reed led them in rebuilding their reputations and their finances. For a time, he also steered the team into taking on more conventional civilian occupations as life experience; but his chief goals continued to be raising a family, protecting humanity and seeking knowledge in all corners of the universe and beyond.

Civil War[]

During the Civil War, Reed Richards was one of the leading figures, along with Iron Man, on the side favoring the Superhuman Registration Act. Reed's true motive for supporting the registration act was due to his development of a working version of Isaac Asimov's (fictional) Psychohistory concept. His application of this science indicated to him that billions would die in escalating conflicts without the presence of the act.[49] He speculated that this would lead to conflict with his wife, which came true when a clone of Thor, created by him and Iron Man, lost control, killed Goliath and nearly killed all the rest of the Secret Avengers as well until Sue stepped in and saved them.[50]

Reed Richards (Earth-616) Peter Parker (Earth-616) Civil War Vol 1 7

Soon after, Sue left Reed, along with Johnny, to join the Secret Avengers in hopes that it would drive Reed to end the conflict quickly. In the final battle of the war, Reed was shot by Taskmaster as he was saving Invisible Woman's life.[51] He survived, however, and Sue returned to him in the aftermath of the battle, having been granted amnesty. With their marriage in jeopardy, Reed and Sue agreed to "take a break" from the Fantastic Four to focus on each other. While away on a second honeymoon Reed asked the Black Panther and Storm to take their places on the team.[52]

Criti Noll (Clone) (Earth-616) and Reed Richards (Earth-616) and Secret Invasion Vol 1 1 0001

Betrayed by a Skrulls disguised as Hank Pym

World War Hulk[]

Reed and Sue reunited with the Four when the Hulk returned to Earth seeking revenge on the Illuminati.[53] Reed was defeated and thrown into Madison Square Garden, which had been turned into a gladiatorial arena by the Hulk. Hulk implanted the Illuminati members with obedience discs and forced them to fight each other. However the Hulk spared them from being forced to kill each other, deciding that he had shown them and that he had proved his point to the world. They survived the encounter by Hulk's mercy and the timely intervention of the Sentry, who weakened Hulk enough for Stark to use prototype defense satellites to negate the Hulk's powers.

Secret Invasion[]

Mister Fantastic was at the Illuminati's meeting discussing the threat of the Skrulls when the Black Bolt with them was revealed to be a Skrull in disguise.

Mister Fantastic and Hank Pym autopsy the body of the Skrull who impersonated Elektra (with Reed pretending to be seeing the corpse for the first time, thus keeping the secret of the Illuminati). After completing the dissection, Reed claimed to have discovered the secret of how the Skrulls have been able to conceal their identities. Before he could elaborate, "Hank Pym" revealed himself to be a Skrull and shot Richards with a weapon that violently left his elastic body in a state of chaotic disarray.[54]

A conscious but still mostly shapeless Reed Richards was later forcibly stretched in all directions to cover the floor of a medium-sized arena aboard a Skrull ship, with all of the seats filled by Skrull onlookers. He was freed by Abigail Brand, and then traveled with her to the Savage Land and used a device to reveal all the Skrull invaders present. After helping the Avengers to defeat the imposters and return to New York, Reed aided the heroes and villains of Earth in their battle against the Skrulls.[55]

The Bridge[]

Reed created a device called The Bridge to explore alternate realities. Meanwhile, Johnny, Sue, and Ben fought off the agents of H.A.M.M.E.R. Reed's machine sent Johnny, Ben and Sue to a different reality where a super hero Civil War was happening sometime in the Hyborian Age. Reed continued to study parallel worlds where the Civil War ended differently to find the reason his reality had become the way it was while Ben, Sue, and Johnny traveled throughout collapsed space-time. When Reed shut down the Bridge and the others returned, Sue told Reed to destroy The Bridge. He did so, but then secretly put it back together, and met beings from another reality who told him how he could fix things.[56]

Future Foundation[]

Future Foundation (Earth-616) from FF Vol 1 13 cover

Reed and the Future Foundation

After the Human Torch sacrificed himself to save the Baxter Building from the Annihilus' Annihilation Wave, the Fantastic Four disbanded. The Future Foundation started acting in its place.[57]

Due the presence of Reed Richards of alternate universes, Mr. Fantastic made an alliance with many villains such as Mad Thinker, AIM, Wizard, Diablo and High Evolutionary to plan how to stop them. Then they lead the battle to the High Evolutionary's city where one of the Richards escaped with Doctor Doom and the others two were captured by the Kree army. After returning to Baxter Building, Richards reunited other heroes to fight the Inhumans in Attilan, but once they were preparing to go at the rooftop, a Kree invasion started. Reed used Iron Man's armor and Sue's power to create a force field around Manhattan, at the same time the Cult of the Negative Zone opened the portal to the Negative Zone after Spider-Man failed at stop them, the portal revealed a living Johnny Storm with a enslaved Annihilus.[58]

Then Johnny gathered the team drawing with fire the symbolical "4" at the sky above the Baxter Building. Reed, Sue, Ben and Peter boarded one of the Annihilation Wave's ships controlled by Johnny, who used the rest of the ships to battle the Kree army until the Inhumans asked to finish them by their own hand.[59] Meanwhile the other heroes on Earth where dealing with the scraps of the battle which could damage the Earth, Reed and Sue summons Galactus, who destroys completely the Kree army. That moment, the Mad Celestials appeared to destroy this universe. Although the team tried to use the Hub (a weapon of mass destruction created by the Reeds), they couldn't defeat the Mad Celestials. Then, a future version of Franklin and Valeria appeared as part of Nathaniel Richards' plan.[60] The Future Franklin used his power to heal Galactus and destroy the Mad Celestials, saving the day.[61] Later, the Baxter Building was easily rebuilt, Mr. Fantastic showed a new secondary headquarters called Foundation and new costumes were given to the members of the Future Foundation, as part of the reformation of the Fantastic Four.[62]

Voyagers[]

Fantastic Four (Earth-616) from Fantastic Four Vol 4 1 0001

Reed's cells begin degenerating.

After finding out that during one of their explorations he developed a sickness which caused the cells of his body to start degenerating, Reed decided to disguise a travel through time and space to find a cure as a family excursion.[63]

They discovered their sickness had been caused by an overload of their powers, as the abilities of an alternate reality version of themselves had them stripped from them when trying to stop Doctor Doom, who had conquered their Earth.[64] After helping their depowered counterparts from that alternate universe defeat Doom the Annihilating Conqueror, the Fantastic Four re-stabilized their powers and returned home.[65]

The Quiet Man[]

The Fantastic Four were systematically attacked by the mysterious Quiet Man, a figure who revealed that he had been behind many of the villain attacks the FF have faced over the years, now stepping forward to take a more active role as he shut down Johnny's powers, framed the Thing for murder, had Reed and Sue Richards declared unfit guardians for their children, and then abducted Reed with the intention of framing him for a series of attacks committed by the heroes created in Franklin's pocket universe. However, Reed was able to defeat the Quiet Man's plan to proclaim himself the hero who defeated Reed's 'attack' on the world when he realized that the Psycho-Man -- one of the Quiet Man's allies -- intended to betray him, forcing Reed and the Quiet Man to work together to deactivate the Psycho-Man's equipment.

Time Runs Out[]

Reed had returned to form part of the Illuminati with the presence of a new threat: the Incursions,[66] events in which universes collided with their respective planet Earths as the focal point, and the only way to prevent the death of one's own Earth was to destroy the colliding one,[67] for which the Illuminati had to prepare themselves to do "the unthinkable", destroy an innocent planet.[68]

Soon after being forced to confront a colliding Earth inhabited by noble heroes,[69] an event after which none of the Illuminati were willing to destroy that Earth, Namor decided to take matters to his hands and do it.[70]

After Captain America discovered the Illuminati's activities regarding the possible destruction of worlds,[71] he decided that the Illuminati's actions shouldn't be tolerated, and disposed the Avengers to hunt them down.[72]

While on the run, the Illuminati attempted to find numerous times a way to solve the problem of Incursions, from trying to create a new Earth with a Cosmic Cube and then with Franklin Richards' powers, to asking for help to the Celestials. However, all of their plans failed.[73] After setting a trap to Steve Rogers and his forces,[74][75] both parties managed to reach a middle ground[76] and started working together.[77]

Secret Wars[]

Reed and the Future Foundation began working on vessels capable of surviving the imminent destruction of the Multiverse.[78] When the final incursion took place between Earth-616 and Earth-1610, Mister Fantastic gathered in the life raft every person he could and deployed its measures. When the vessel approached the central point of the incursion, it suffered a hull breach that led to the death of Reed's family.[79]

The life raft reached its destination, whatever thing which was left of the Multiverse, namely Battleworld, a patchwork planet composed of the remnants of different realities, created by Doctor Doom, who had seized the power of the Beyonders as his own.[80] The raft was found five years after Battleworld's creation by Stephen Strange, the sheriff of this planet and right hand to Doom, who kept it hidden in his sanctuary, the Isle of Agamotto, fearing something of great consequence was inside it, but not knowing it was the bodies in stasis of the few other survivors of Earth-616.

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Reed vs Doom

With the public discovery of another similar vessel, which was revealed to contain the survivors of Earth-1610, the Maker and the Cabal, Strange investigated the one he had found, and freed Mr. Fantastic and the other survivors. After learning about Battleworld, Reed immediately opposed the idea of such a man as Doom governing everything that was left of reality,[81] and began working together with the Maker, Reed's own counterpart from Earth-1610, to bring him down.[82]

When discord arose in Battleworld as a consequence of the Cabal's meddling, Mr. Fantastic and the Maker infiltrated Doom's castle in Doomstadt while the God Emperor was dealing with the marching forces that opposed him.[83] Mr. Fantastic and the Maker came across an alternate version of Sue Storm who was married to Doom and had his children, realizing that Doom had basically stolen his life. The two Reeds soon came across the Molecule Man, the source of Doom's power.

Reed Richards (Earth-616) and Franklin Richards (Earth-616) from Secret Wars Vol 1 9 001

Recreating the Multiverse with his son and Molecule Man

After discovering Richards' meddling, Doom confronted him, but as he wished to make the fight fair, the Molecule Man reduced his powers. During a furious battle, Doom accused Richards of believing he could've done better had he had Doom's power, and when Reed conceded he did, so did Doom. On the grounds that both agreed, Molecule Man gave the power of the Beyonders to Reed, destroying Battleworld in the process. With the power of a god in his hands, Reed rebuilt Earth-616, bringing all of its inhabitants back with no memories of what had occurred. Mr. Fantastic also brought his family back from the dead, and together with their help, began to reconstruct the entire Multiverse.[84] Since he came to terms with the fact that Victor would eternally resent him, Reed decided to alter his memories so he believed he was dead, in hopes that Victor would walk a fairer path if he no longer pursued ultimate power and believed his greatest rival was gone.[85] Before returning Doom to Earth-616, Reed also healed his scars.[84] Hoping they could keep Victor in check, Reed also left behind Johnny and Ben on their native universe.[85] Because of this, to the inhabitants of Reed's native universe, it seemed like he and those accompanying him in his journey of reconstruction had perished.[86][87]

The Fate of the Four[]

Years into the Future Foundation's multiversal adventures, Franklin became depleted of his ability to create entirely new realities. At this moment the team was confronted by an abstract entity called the Griever at the End of All Things who repudiated their mission of creating new universes. She caused the collapse of the hundreds of universes charted by the Future Foundation, forcing the team to make a final stand. The Fantastic Four were reunited when Mister Fantastic tricked the Griever into giving them the chance to summon the remaining members of the Fantastic Four for backup. In addition to teleporting Ben and Johnny, Reed also brought every super hero who had been part of the team at one point in order to defeat the new foe.[88] After the Griever was driven away, the Future Foundation continued their multiversal travels, but Reed, Sue, Franklin and Valeria returned with Ben and Johnny to Earth, where only months had passed since the Foundation's years-long journey.[89]

Sometime after returning to Earth, Reed was filled with the desire to resume the team's original failed flight that had given them powers. Building a Marvel-2,[90] Mister Fantastic took the rest of the Fantastic Four to their original destination, the planet Spyre. They faced a group of superpowered protectors named the Unparalleled, who had been imbued with cosmic radiation to face the Fantastic Four. Spyricans had been aware of the team's initial failed attempt to reach their planet and had prepared for a second try.[91] The Fantastic Four initially became at odds with the patriarch of Spyre, the Overseer, after discovering that he had been responsible for the intensity of the cosmic ray storm that gave them powers during their first flight due to an attempt to scuttle their mission.[92] After making peace with the Spyricans, the Fantastic Four returned to Earth.[93] Although no longer held responsible by Ben Grimm for turning him into The Thing, Reed remained remorseful for the kind of dangerous adventures that he took his family into. Reed swore to prepare himself of every eventuality in order to keep his loved ones safe.[94]

Fantastic Four No More[]

During an invasion of aliens from the Negative Zone on the Baxter Building, Reed decided to teleport the building one year into the future, causing the aliens to be stranded in space since by that Earth along with the solar system would have moved through space. However, Reed and Sue's children, Franklin and Valeria remained inside the Baxter Building alongside Ben's adopted children Jo-Venn and N'Kalla, meaning that the kids would be gone for an entire year. Although heartbroken by this decision, Reed kept his calm which infuriated some of his teammates, and coupled with the scorn the public had for the Fantastic Four, the team disbanded.[95]

Attempting to make things right, Reed and his wife tried to find Ben and Alicia. One day, they found themselves in a town that at first appeared to be normal, but soon found that it was solely inhabited by Doombots masquerading as normal human citizens. Investigating the town, the couple came across the only actual human, an elder lady named Mary Ann Davis. Reed first introduced himself to her, learning that back when Doctor Doom first arrived in America when he was younger Mary Ann gave him hospitality and was determined to repay the favor. Reed deduced that Doom had first created the Doombots to keep Mary Ann company as she had felt alone for most of her life. However, when Sue came to meet her she discovered that Mary Ann was actually a Doombot herself which contained the remains of the real Mary Ann. After temporarily disabling all of the Doombots, the couple properly buried Mary Ann's remains and decided to reprogram the Doombots to live as normal humans in their own accord without being concerned about Davis' anymore.[96]

Reed and Sue, eventually regrouped with their teammates when they were forced to fight a parasitic alien. During the battle, the Four relived the painful moment of the Baxter Building's disappearance, but despite this they were able to overcome the influence and defeat it. From this battle, the Four realized that Reed was also suffering the loss of his children and faked being calm in the first place since this was what it was expected of him. Reconciling with each other, the Fantastic Four was reformed.[95]

Personality

Reed is an intellectual who prefers to examine foes and if possible negotiate with them before actually fighting them. He is often intrigued by the scientific implications of a problem, so much so that he almost forgets there is a problem in the first place. As Ben once put it, "...if an alien stubbed his toe, Reed would want to spend ten years studying it." Reed is an extremely likable fellow who keeps a pleasant smile on his face and cares deeply about those he is close to, particularly his extended family. However, he does occasionally lapse into depression and self-hatred over long-standing unsolved problems, most notably Ben's inability to return to human form and Franklin's mysterious potential. Reed is a humanitarian who will try to prevent any intelligent being from suffering. This can lead him to do controversial things that fly in the face of all apparent logic, such as when he once saved Galactus from dying due to exhaustion from his hunger and attacking Earth. Susan once speculated that Reed's eccentric behavior may be due to autism.[97][note 1]

Attributes

Power Grid[127]
:Category:Power Grid/Fighting Skills/Some Training:Category:Power Grid/Energy Projection/None:Category:Power Grid/Durability/Bulletproof:Category:Power Grid/Speed/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Strength/Normal:Category:Power Grid/Intelligence/Super-Genius

Powers

Gifted superhuman powers by cosmic rays bombarding his body.

Plasticity: Mister Fantastic possesses the ability to convert the mass of his entire body into a highly malleable state at will. How his body's respiration and circulatory systems function at these distorted extremes is as yet unknown. Mister Fantastic can alter his form in a matter of seconds, often much less (depending on the complexity of the shape), and revert to his normal humanoid shape within a similar time. The greater the distance he stretches or the more extended the size of the object he becomes, the weaker his overall strength becomes. Mister Fantastic's transformation to a malleable state is reflexive and nearly instantaneous: if he was at his normal form and taken unaware by machine gun fire, his body would still absorb the bullets' impact through radical deformation. In fact, it was revealed that it was Mr. Fantastic, despite being in a weakened state, who protected all the heroes other than Hulk from the impact of the 150 billion ton mountain falling on them before the Jade Giant caught the mountain, although the strain caused him to pass out.[98] Mister Fantastic's skin is virtually impervious to laceration or punctures unless he willfully relaxes his reflexive control over small areas of his body. In that case, scalpels and ordinary needles can penetrate his skin.

  • Dense Flesh: Due to the great malleability and elasticity of his molecular structure, Mister Fantastic is able to absorb the impact of any type of man-made ballistic projectile by deforming his body along the path of the projectile's trajectory at the point of initial impact.
    • Contain Explosions: Mister Fantastic may use his elastic form to contain explosions by enveloping them and allowing their force to expand him. He can enclose and absorb the energy of a large explosive, on the order of 8 to 12 pounds of TNT (excluding exotic, high density explosives). Such shocks to his system are physically exhausting.
    • Redirect Projectiles: After his body absorbs the kinetic energy of a ballistic projectile's impact, Mister Fantastic can expel the object back along its trajectory by flexing his body like a trampoline if he is adequately braced.
  • Elongation: Mister Fantastic can extend his limbs, torso, or neck to great distances: the maximum length he can distend before his body segments become painful is about 1,500 feet. (Although he can extend discrete body parts, such as a single finger, an ear, or an eye, he seldom if ever isolates such parts in his elongations.)
    • Grappling: Mister Fantastic may restrain opponents very efficiently by using his elastic form to entangle them.
    • Movement: Mister Fantastic can move at great speeds by stretching to his destination.
  • Shape Changing: Mister Fantastic can stretch, deform, expand, or compress his entire body or parts into any contiguous shape he can imagine for a variety of uses.
    • Imitation: Mister Fantastic may alter his basic physical features, allowing him to take on the appearance of any other man with similar hair and skin tone. One time, Mister Fantastic actually increased his size and mass density, in effect bulking his body to "Thing"-like proportions while increasing his strength to the same levels as well. The force of his strikes was enough to stagger even Onslaught.[99]
    • Canopy, Parachute or Sheath: Mister Fantastic can extend his body in two directions, creating a canopy, parachute, or sheath, its thickness determined by the extent of its distention.
    • Gliding: Mister Fantastic can transform himself into aerodynamic shapes such as parachutes or hang-gliders. In this form he can support an additional 1000 pounds (enough to hold the rest of Fantastic Four, even the Thing).
    • Cushion: Mister Fantastic may form his elastic form into a trampoline and other cushion-like objects, allowing him to safely catch falling people and objects.[100]
    • Sling Shot: Mister Fantastic may use his elastic form as a slingshot to hurl objects with great force. Johnny Storm used his body to hurl the Thing and Medusa ten New York City blocks.[101]
    • Geometric Shapes: Mister Fantastic has compressed his body into the shape of a solid sphere, a cylinder, a cube, a toroid, and a rectangular prism: he can assume the shape of any solid that he can envision clearly, of a volume no greater than 1.7 cubic feet (a sphere about 18 inches in diameter). He can generate thin-walled shapes that enclose great volumes of space.
    • Bludgeoning Weapons: Mister Fantastic may form his fists into large hammers, maces, etc., which improve his physical effectiveness in hand-to-hand combat.
    • Bouncing Ball: Mister Fantastic can transform himself into any of a number of resilient shapes, such as balls or springs that allow him to leap or bounce great distances.[100]
    • Two-Dimensionality: Mister Fantastic can flatten himself to the thickness of an average sheet of typing paper (.0035 inch) or narrow himself to a diameter small enough to pass through the eye of a #10 beading needle (about .045 x .06 inches).
    • Infiltration: Mister Fantastic can lower his body's cohesion to such an extent that he can actually flow through minute openings.
    • Open Locks: Mister Fantastic may form his fingers into various types of keys, allowing him to open most forms of mechanical locks.
    • Wind Generation: Mister Fantastic may form his hands into fans, allowing him to generate wind by twirling them at great speeds.
    • Semi-Solid Liquid State: Mister Fantastic can willfully reduce his body into an almost liquid state in order to flow out of small cracks or passages, even through needle-sized holes.

Abilities

Super-Genius Intelligence: Dr. Richards is one of the most intelligent beings on the planet. Reed possesses a mastery of electrical, mechanical and aerospace engineering, electronics, chemistry, all levels of physics, and human and alien biology. A visionary theoretician and inspired machine smith, he has made breakthroughs in such varied fields as space travel, time travel, extra-dimensional travel, biochemistry, robotics, computers, synthetic polymers, communications, mutations, transportation, holography, energy generation, spectral analysis and more. He is one of the few people on Earth to be an expert on other dimensions and the methods by which to travel to and through them. Reed's patents are so valuable that he is able to bankroll the Fantastic Four, Inc., without any undue financial stress. Not only has Reed proven himself to be a genius in virtually every science native to Earth, he has shown himself to be more knowledgeable than even some of the most highly advanced alien civilizations in the known universe as well.[104] He has often been stated to be the smartest man on Earth,[21] and possesses a photographic memory.[105]

Hypnotism: Mister Fantastic is trained in hypnosis.[106]

Martial Arts: Mister Fantastic is one of Earth's best Judo experts.[107] He is the master of Atemi-Waza (body-striking techniques).[108]

Weaknesses

Fantastic Four Power Synergism: The original members of the Fantastic Four are tethered to each other, and act as as their own conduits of power. They can be apart within their own universe and retain a connection, but prolonged periods cut off from each other in other universes result in a gradual decline in power levels. If they spend too much time separated this way, they would eventually become powerless.[109]

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Although the Fantastic Four have numerous devices, crafts, and weapons, there are some items that Reed Richards carries with him at all times:

Fantasti-Flare: Launches a fiery "4" symbol into the sky that is used during combat situations to let other members of the group know their location.

Fantastic Four Uniforms: Like all the Fantastic Four's costumes and the rest of Reed's wardrobe, his suit is made of "unstable molecules". This means that the suit is attuned to his powers, which is why Reed's costume stretches with him. The costume also insulates them from electrical assaults. In addition, the team's uniforms are also, in essence, wearable computers. Their costumes have a complete data processing and telemetry system woven into the material of the uniform on a molecular level. This forms a network with the entire team, providing a constant, real-time uplink of everyone's physical condition as well as their location and current situation. The suit is capable of displaying data and touch-pad controls on the gauntlets. Its sensors can track all of the team's uniforms and provide a picture of their immediate vicinity. The suit has an intricate scanner system which can detect things around the wearer, from how many people are in the next room to what dimension or planet they are on. Reed can also up-link the bodysuit to any computer by stretching his fingertips to filament size and plugging them in to an I/O data-port. With this, Reed can establish a fairly comprehensive database of any computer's cybernetic protocols and encryption algorithms.

Universal Translator: Reed has a Universal Translator that can decipher and interpret languages, both alien and terrestrial, into the native language of the user.[110]

Memorium Device: This device allowed the Fantastic Four to look through the memories of individuals.[111]

Notes

  • Along with his penchant for inventing, Dr. Richards is often known to rewrite works of Stephen Hawking[114] and decode alien languages.[115]
  • Reed allegedly won Nobel prizes.[116] One of which was for the discovery of the Negative Zone.[54]
  • Reed Richard is Agnostic and does not believe any human religion could be the one true religion.[117] He well aware that Abstract Entities exist but would in no way worship them, considering them as highly evolved life forms,[citation needed] but also believes in a higher power that guides the universe, "Something bigger than us; something we can't totally comprehend". When asked by his son if he believed in God he answered "Yes I do Franklin. Because I believe religion and science go hand-in-hand".[118]
    • Reed has stated that the accident that gave him and the other members of the Fantastic Four their powers, as well as the fact that they survived the exposure and crash landing, led him to believe that there was "Something or someone bigger and more mysterious than us, who was watching us that day, protecting us".[119] He cites the frequent resurrection of super heroes as "almost proof of a higher power, of someone who needs us to live to stop what's coming. To fight the good fight".[120]
  • Mr. Fantastic was one of the characters featured in Series A of the Marvel Value Stamps issued in the 1970s.
    Mr

    Marvel Value Stamp #34

  • Despite the clear and obvious use of magic in the Marvel Universe, Reed admits to having a poor understanding of it, often calling it a form of other dimensional science he doesn't understand. This may be why he duplicated Doctor Doom's Time Platform instead of inventing his own.[121]
  • Based on the novel "Foundation" by Isaac Asimov, Reed put into practice one of the fictional concepts presented by said book, "Psychohistory:" the ability to use equations to predict future trends by mathematically modeling history. It was the first field ever created by Richards, and with it he can predict social trends to an extremely high degree of accuracy.[49]

Trivia

See Also

Links and References

References

  1. While Reed's autism has been explicitly confirmed in Fantastic Four: Season One #1, which takes place on Earth-TRN563, an alternate universe, it has not yet been confirmed on Earth-616, the Prime Marvel Universe.
  1. Strange Tales #127
  2. 2.0 2.1 Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #35
  3. Fantastic Four #554
  4. 4.0 4.1 Secret Invasion #7
  5. Mighty Avengers #30
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  7. Sensational Spider-Man (Vol. 2) #35
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  10. Marvel Team-Up #3
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  30. S.H.I.E.L.D. #5
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  70. New Avengers (Vol. 3) #21
  71. Avengers (Vol. 5) #29
  72. Avengers (Vol. 5) #34
  73. New Avengers (Vol. 3) #29
  74. Avengers (Vol. 5) #39
  75. New Avengers (Vol. 3) #28
  76. Avengers (Vol. 5) #40
  77. Avengers (Vol. 5) #41
  78. Free Comic Book Day 2015 (Secret Wars) #1
  79. Secret Wars #1
  80. Secret Wars #2
  81. Secret Wars #3
  82. Secret Wars #6
  83. Secret Wars #8
  84. 84.0 84.1 84.2 Secret Wars #9
  85. 85.0 85.1 Marvel 2-In-One Annual #1
  86. Uncanny Avengers (Vol. 3) #4
  87. Marvel 2-In-One #1
  88. Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #2
  89. Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #3
  90. Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #14
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  97. Fantastic Four: 1 2 3 4 #2
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  99. Onslaught: Marvel #1
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  101. Fantastic Four #133
  102. Fantastic Four: Antithesis #3
  103. Fantastic Four: Antithesis #4
  104. New Avengers #44
  105. Spectacular Spider-Man #161
  106. Fantastic Four #2
  107. Fantastic Four #17
  108. Silver Surfer (Vol. 3) #16
  109. Marvel 2-In-One #3
  110. Fantastic Four #237
  111. Annihilation - Scourge: Fantastic Four #1
  112. Empyre #45
  113. Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #27
  114. Deadpool (Vol. 3) #11
  115. Fantastic Four (Vol. 3) #68
  116. FF (Vol. 2) #14
  117. Daredevil (Vol. 6) #9
  118. Marvel Double Shot #3
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  120. Daredevil (Vol. 7) #14
  121. Fantastic Four Annual #11
  122. Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #11
  123. Fantastic Four (Vol. 6) #10
  124. Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur #25
  125. Iron Man (Vol. 6) #16
  126. History of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #2
  127. Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 7
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