Mister Fantastic

Revision as of 10:53, 6 August 2024

Mr. Fantastic in Fantastic Four v1 #6.

Mister Fantastic is a male comic superhero that features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

Reed Richards was a male human who was born in the modern age as the child of Nathaniel and Evelyn Richards. (Fantastic Four: Unplugged v1 #2)

Around 20 years ago, he was studying abroad at the University of Vienna in Austria which was where he met Alyssa Moy. (Fantastic Four v1 #555)

At some point, one of his mentors was Noah Baxter who considered Reed his star pupil. (Fantastic Four v3 #40) Another one of his mentors was his old physics professor named Professor Roderick Van Nuys. (Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards v1 #1) At State University, a malignant Micro-Universe formed that Richards crushed in his hands thus saving the Earth from being destroyed though he apologised to Stacy Valentine for the act. (Fantastic Four: 1234 v1 #4)

After leaving the army, he came to wander the world as an adventurer alongside Alyssa Moy. While in China, Reed and Alyssa earned the ire of General Lao-Tse when they came to the rescue of Prince Bayan, in order to prevent Lao-Tse from gaining access to the mystical Lopnor Gateway. In thanks, Bayan gave Reed the Staff of Bast, one component of the powerful Claw of Bast which could grant great power to one who held it. Incidentally enough, while visiting his colleague Professor Van Nuys he learned that Van Nuys was suffering from Sebert Syndrome and sought to use the Claw to cure himself. He enlisted the aid of Professor Francesca Fisher to locate the remaining portions of the Claw. Also seeking the claw was Reed's old foe Victor Von Doom who sought to claim the Claw of Bast in order to heal his scarred face and rule the world. To this end he enlisted the aid of Romani who were loyal to him to seek out the missing parts of the Claw. (Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards v1 #1) Detained in New York after a clash with one of Doom's minions, Reed and Francesca were liberated thanks to Alyssa Moy, who included herself into the mission. The pair continued on to Romania where they went seeking the Eye of Bast the second portion of the Claw a that they required. However in the process of lifting the eye from the museum, Francesca was captured by Doom's minions along with the map to that gave the location of the Paw of Bast. Reed and Alyssa went after her, but found themselves captured. Reed was then forced to recreate the very experiment that scarred Victor, using both Alyssa and Francesca as test subjects to prove that Victor's calculations were wrong. (Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards v1 #2)

Around 10 years ago, he was responsible for founding a conference called Singularity that gathered the scientific community for the purpose of envisioning the future. (Fantastic Four v1 #579)

Fantastic Four

As part of the launch, he recruited his old friend Ben Grimm who was a successful test pilot and astronaut who could handle the starship. They were joined by Susan Storm in California when she and Reed were dating at the time. (Fantastic Four v1 #1)

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, and the Human Torch, respectively. (Fantastic Four v1 #1)

Reed next purchased the top floors of the Baxter Building in New York City as their new headquarters. Later, Reed also developed the stylized costumes for the group and revealed themselves to the public during a press release. This almost led to the end of the Fantastic Four early on in their career when they clashed with the illusionist known as Miracle Man and foiled his crime spree. However, between the hot-headed Johnny and the depressed Ben, the group was fraught with conflict. This conflict ended with Johnny quitting the team and running away from home. (Fantastic Four v1 #3)

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. (New Avengers v1 #7)

From his PDA, the collective notes that Reed had written that were stored in an alternate dimension developed sentience creating the being Modulus who believed that only it was worthy of his love and sought to eliminate his comrades. (Fantastic Four v3 #63)

Future Foundation

He later attended the 2010 Singularity conference in Golden, Colorado where he grew dissatisfied with the works of its members in helping shape the future. This led to Reed resigning from the body where he looked to cultivate the minds of the next generation who he recruited into a think tank he called the Future Foundation. (Fantastic Four v1 #579)

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. (Fantastic Four v1 #600)

Return

Overview

Personality and attributes

At one point, he adopted a masked identity and made use of various advanced gadgets. (Strange Tales v1 #127)

Initially, it was held that both him and Alyssa Moy were perfect for one another. (Fantastic Four v1 #555)

As a demonstration of his love for Sue, he crafted a ring that contained a micro-galaxy with seventy-four inhabited worlds and over forty trillion couples in total all of whom loved each other the way Reed loved his wife. (Fantastic Four v1 #557)

A close friend of his was Noah Baxter who was a scientist. (Fantastic Four v3 #37)

He would later say that he fell in love with Susan the moment he first saw her. (Fantastic Four v4 #4)

Reed had said that he believed in God as he saw science and religion going hand-in-hand with one another. He believed that science was part of everyday life but did not disprove religion where it instead strengthened it. (Marvel Double Shot v1 #3)

Powers and abilities

Stretching ability in 4 v1 #4.

He was known to possess a photographic memory and did not forget anything he saw. (Spectacular Spider-Man v1 #161)

Professor Richards was said to had won the Nobel Prize following his discovery of the Negative Zone. (Secret Invasion v1 #1)

Originally, Reed Richards was a human with no special powers until the test launch exposed himself and his crewmates to cosmic ray radiation that imparted him abilities. (Fantastic Four v1 #1) It was said that his body and brain had become completely malleable to the point that his thoughts, ideas along with sensations being so different that humans could barely dream of it. (Fantastic Four: 1234 v1 #2) He was able to expand his consciousness and grow new space for his brain for processing power thus creating an elasti-consciousness. (Fantastic Four: 1234 v1 #4) Richards was said to be more creative when his elastic brain was stimulated by sensory overload. (Fantastic Four v3 #62)

He created a number of inventions that included:

• Memorium Device : a band shaped device that fit over the head and allowed others to experience the memories of the wearer. (Annihilation - Scourge: Fantastic Four v1 #1)
• Pseudo-Reality Synthesizer : a creation of Reed that was his senior thesis project at college. It was able to simulate environments where sights, sounds and scents generated being 99.9% accurate though nothing was real. (Marvel Double Shot v1 #3)
• Datavore : a bio-engineered, self-sustaining dimensional probe which converted ingested matter into fuel that was used to explore other dimensions. (Fantastic Four v3 #60)
• Fold Space Transceptor : an experimental device that folded space allowing near-instantaneous transport over planetary distances such as from worlds to moons. (Fantastic Four v3 #16)
• Omni-Communicator : a device worn at the back of the head that allowed the user to communicate with any appliance through voice commands. (Fantastic Four: 1234 v1 #1)
• Hyperwave Communicator : a means of interstellar communication allowing two individuals to speak in real-time over great interstellar distances. (Marvel Comics Presents v1 #97)
• Zeno Room : a room built on the paradox put forth by Zeno of Elea namely the dichotomy that a traveller must always cover half the distance to reach their goal and then half again until infinity. Thus, the room used a spatial distortion field that prevented a person from reaching the other side. (Mighty Avengers v1 #26)
• Anti-Galactus Suit : a giant bipedal armoured suit whose power requirements led to it costing a billion dollars a second in order to run it. (Fantastic Four v1 #557)
• Multiselect : this was a tool that was able to access an area known as the Multiplane that was a nexus of seemingly infinite universes. (Marvel Two-In-One v2 #1)
• Radical Cube : a huge machine was designed to create an entrance into sub-space leading to the discovery of the Negative Zone. (Fantastic Four v1 #51)
• Radical Dodecahedron : based on the concept of the Radical Cube but taken further with the Rad-D breaking through space-time allowing travellers to go anywhere and anywhen. (Fantastic Four v1 #337)
• Bridge : a large ring shaped machine that allowed people to view events in alternate realities allowing them to witness events and their impacts in the future on worlds that experienced them or actually travel to those universes. (Dark Reign: Fantastic Four v1 #1)

Reed developed a special type of PDA that downloads via subspace transmission to a neighbouring dimension of pure electrochemical energy creating infinite storage space. (Fantastic Four v3 #62)

The uniform he wore was in effect a wearable computer with its sensors able to tract the suits of the other Fantastic Four members along with scanning the immediate vicinity. (Fantastic Four v3 #15)

From his study of Skrull technology, he was able to harness the science an reverse-engineer a craft based on their designs. (X-Men: The Hidden Years v1 #8)

Richards had created a micro-universe that was hidden in a pocket dimension he invented that could only be accessed through a door which had no lock or combination with it only opening through his unique brain-waves. This was used as a place for Reed to store highly important and sensitive items for safety. (Avengers v4 #8)

Among his discoveries included finding the Quintasphere that was a reality entirely made of superconducting living material. (Fantastic Four: 1234 v1 #4) Another was a different dimension known as the Leviaverse that was populated with its own forms of life. (Fantastic Four v3 #60) Some years ago, he invented a Mobius dimension that was infinite and finite at the same time with anyone inside being trapped. (Fantastic Four v1 #507)

At one point, he was connected to the combined knowledge of the Watchers thus increasing his intellect even further. However, the human brain could not handle such vast knowledge where it began to slowly kill him as a result where he would die in 3 days time. (Fantastic Four v6 #40)

He had been the founder of Singularity that was a scientific conference that gathered many leading scientific figures in the world. The purpose of it was to gather the greatest minds of a generation that were to com together to examine the problems of the present and to aggressively look to the future to envision a world that could be created by humanity. (Fantastic Four v1 #579)

Notes

• Mister Fantastic was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby where he made his first appearance in Fantastic Four v1 #1 (November, 1961).
• On Comicbook.com, writer Dan Jurgens stated in an interview commented that the story arc with Hank Henshaw and the Excalibur crew was meant as a take on the Fantastic Four.

Alternate Versions

• In Fantastic Four v1 #118 (1972), an alternate reality designated Earth-A showed Reed Richards and Ben Grimm embarking on the astronaut mission together with the two affected by the cosmic rays. This incident led to Richards developing a rock-like form whilst Grimm gaining stretching powers in a reversal of roles compared to the main reality. Susan Storms later left Reed for Ben leading to Richards falling into depression where he exiled himself onto an island where he built robots to replay events in history. During this time, he encountered the Earth-616 Ben Grimm who later returned to his own world. After this event, the Earth-A Reed Richards recovered from the depression to create his own company named Reed Richards Robotics that designed the robotic Andrones.
• In What If? v2 #30 (1991), an alternate version of events saw Susan Richards die in the birth of her second child Suzy Richards. Unknown to Reed, Suzy drained life energy from others and could turn into a monstrous entity. Eventually, she attempted to feed on Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Doom until Franklin Richards sent her through a portal into the Negative Zone.
• In Fantastic Four #387-#399 (1994-1995), an alternate version of Reed Richards was driven mad for failing to save Earth from Galactus after being distracted by the advanced technology at the World Devourers home. As a result, he began wearing a masked armed uniform and took on the identity of the Dark Raider who started eliminating Reed Richards in every reality. He was later killed by the Invisible Woman in the Negative Zone.
• In Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #1 (2004), an alternate version of Reed Richards appeared in the Ultimate Marvel universe of Earth-1610.
• In Bullet Points v1 #3 (2007), an alternate version of events saw Reed Richards being a scientist on Project: Iron Man and being a friend of Colonel Steve Rogers who wore the projects armor. His latest project was creating a ship that ran on cosmic rays and took his wife, brother-in-law and best friend on the mission. However, the craft crashes killing Sue, Johnny and Ben along with costing Reed his left eye. At their funeral, he was approached by an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to continue his work and disappear from the world. He eventually became director of the agency and turned it into the best anti-terrorist organization in the world and recruited several operatives.
• In Annihilation - Scourge: Fantastic Four v1 #1 (2019), an alternate version of Reed Richards was shown as an inhabitant of the Cancerverse. Similar to others of his reality, he fell into service of the Many-Angled Ones alongside his family with them being transformed into demonic undying beings and were called the Ftaghn Four. It was said that he sacrificed his son Franklin to serve as the host to several elder gods who possessed his body. In addition, he merged with his comrades bodies where they physically became a single entity. When the Sentry opened a doorway into the Negative Zone, the Ftaghn Four participated in the Many-Angled Ones invasion of that dimension. This led to a confrontation with the Fantastic Four of Earth-616 who received a distress call from the peaceful worlds within the Negative Zone.

In other media

Television

• In Fantastic Four, Mister Fantastic appeared in the 1967 animated television series where he was voiced by actor Gerald Mohr.
• In Fantastic Four: World's Greatest Heroes, Mister Fantastic appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Hiro Kanagawa.
• In The Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, Mister Fantastic appeared in the animated television series where he was voiced by actor Dee Bradley Baker.
• In Hulk and the Agents of S.M.A.S.H., Mister Fantastic appeared in the animated television series in the episode "Monsters No More" where he was voiced by actor Robin Atkin Downes.

Films

• In Fantastic Four, Reed Richards appeared in the 2005 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Ioan Gruffudd.
• In Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Reed Richards appeared in the 2007 live-action film sequel where he was portrayed once again by actor Ioan Gruffudd.
• In Fantastic Four, Reed Richards appeared in the 2015 live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Josh Trank.

Video games

• In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, Mister Fantastic appeared as a playable character in the video game where he was voiced by actor David Naughton.
• In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, Mister Fantastic appeared in the setting of the video game where he was voiced by actor Robert Clotworthy.
• In Marvel: Avengers Alliance, Mister Fantastic appeared as a playable character in the Facebook video game.
• In Marvel: Future Fight, Mister Fantastic appeared as a playable character in the mobile video game.
• In Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order, Mister Fantastic was introduced in the 'Shadow of Doom' DLC where he was voiced once again by actor Wally Wingert.

Appearances

• Fantastic Four v1: (1961)
• Fantastic Four: Unplugged v1:
• Fantastic Four v2:
• Fantastic Four v3:
• Before the Fantastic Four: Reed Richards v1:
• World War Hulk v1:
• Incredible Hulk v1:
• Hulk v3:
• Mighty Avengers v1:
• FF v1:
• New Avengers v2:
• Fantastic Four v6:
• Contagion v1:
• Fantastic Four: Negative Zone v1:
• Annihilation - Scourge: Fantastic Four v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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