Origins of the Fantastic Four
The Fantastic Four, AKA the ones who gave Marvel their modern-day beginnings and spawned modern-day myths. Consisting of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the (second) Human Torch, and the Thing, they are more than a team of superheroes. They are a family and act like one. They’re as likely to explore parallel universes as they are to argue about Johnny’s showboating. They are flawed, imperfect, and…underrepresented in mainstream media. And even when they do get their movie, the quality can range from “all right” to “what was the studio thinking?” However, all that is about to change this summer, with the Fantastic Four finally coming home.
But before that happens, now is the perfect time to review how they came to be who they are. I’m RJ Writing Ink, and this is the origins of the Fantastic Four.
How they First Met
Unlike the Avengers, the history of the Fantastic Four doesn’t begin with their first team-up. Instead, it starts when a young super-genius named Reed Richards heads off to college to get his fifth degree. He was assigned a roommate named Victor Von Doom, AKA the future Dr. Doom. Not liking him from the start, Doom moved out, so Reed got a new roommate named Ben Grimm.
Despite Reed being a super-genius and Ben a former high school football player, the two became best friends. When Reed said he wanted to build a ship to take him to space, Ben jokingly offered to be its pilot. In addition to his dorm, Reed also rented a place from a woman in Manhattan. He met her niece, Susan Storm, through her landlady, and immediately fell in love. However, it wouldn’t be until she started attending college herself and wound up under his tutelage that the two began dating.
Time would pass, and Reed would continue using his genius to develop incredible ideas. Eventuallt, though, he convinced the United States government to provide him funding for his olanned spaceship. At long last, he was going to make his dream a reality!
Or, he would have, until the government threatened to pull the funding.
Reed’s Reckless Reach for the Stars
Reed was not happy to have his dream potentially swept out from under him, so he decided to do something rash. He would break onto the launch site housing the ship, Marvel-1, and launch it without authorization. Susan insisted that she and her teenage brother, Johnny, would accompany him. Having become an Air Force pilot, Ben was picked to fly the ship. However, Ben objected to Reed’s impulsive decision, saying the boat might not be adequately protected from the dangers of space travel. Against his better judgement, though, Ben agreed to keep his promise. They broke onto the launchpad, got the ship ready, and made a successful lift-off. But Ben’s fears proved to be well-founded.
The group of four didn’t know it, but the area of space they were flying into was about to be hit by a massive storm of cosmic radiation. As Ben had worried, the ship’s shielding wasn’t strong enough to handle the cosmic rays, putting their lives in danger. They had no choice but to abort the flight and make an emergency landing back on Earth. When they stepped out of what was left of the ship, though, they weren’t the same.
The cosmic radiation had altered the group on a genetic level. Each of them had gained different abilities based on certain core aspects of their personality. Reed, the super-flexible polymath, gained a body that could stretch and mold like it was made of rubber. Ben, the rock that held everyone together, gained a rocky exterior that granted him superhuman strength. Reflecting her shy nature as a kid and her protectiveness, Susan could turn invisible and create force fields. Being a hot-headed teenager, Johnny could now ignite his body on fire, fly, and shoot blasts of heat from himself!
The Fantastic Four Have Arrived
The four of them were initially stunned by their transformations (so was the government), but after they had time to adjust, Reed got to thinking. Perhaps they could put their strange and fantastic new abilities to good use, helping the world. Thus, the Fantastic Four were born.
The Fantastic Four have remained a steady pillar in the superhero community since their inception. While other high-profile teams like the Avengers and X-Men would see teammates come and go, the Fantastic Four largely remained consistent. Because they’re not just a team; they’re a family. And that family has only grown since then.
Reed and Susan would tie the knot, and have since had two children, Franklin and Valeria. Both of whom have inherited their cosmic superpowers, with Franklin having the potential to rewrite all reality (and he has.) Ben would fall in love with a blind sculptor named Alicia, and they would tie the knot. As for Johnny, he got to have the coolest adolescence ever, and got a best friend in the form of Spider-Man.
The Fantastic Four were the family that helped make Marvel what it is today, and a family have remained. They’ve had plenty of ups and downs over the years, but no matter what, they’ve always found a way to stick together. They’ve pushed the boundaries of science, explored the unknown, and even saved the entire multiverse from annihilation. All in a day’s work for the Fantastic Four, though.
