Mister Fantastic

Background

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Powers & Abilities

Reed is possibly the greatest human scientific mind on Earth. His intellect is nearly unrivaled (only Dr. Doom really rivals him) and he employs a great number of scientific skills to near superhuman levels. His scientific accomplishments are numerous, as are his patents.

Reed’s superpower is really his great mind, but he uses a powerful stretching ability, which he has fully refined to its full potential, in combat.

His skills include near superhuman mastery of physics, spacecraft engineering, electronics, research, mechanics, chemistry, human and superhuman biology, logic, perception, mathematics and much more.

Additionally, Reed has several physical skills; he can pilot common and uncommon vehicles, use any type of weaponry and sneak out of most bindings or locks. He’s also an excellent field leader, orator, tactician and possesses good social skills. Reed’s courage, skills and powers makes him one of the greatest heroes on the Earth.

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History

Reed is the son of Nathaniel Richards and his first wife, Evelyn, who died when Reed was only 7. Reed seems to take more after his father, devoting a great deal of his time towards intellectual pursuits, often forgetting (or ignoring) basic human functions like sleeping and eating.

He has always been a quick study and earned several degrees before attending Empire State University, where he met both Victor Von Doom and Ben Grimm, his roommate.

After graduation, Reed went on to attend the California State Institute of Technology, Harvard and Columbia University. It was there where met Susan Storm, his landlady’s niece, who fell in love with him.

Nathaniel Richards vanished shortly after Reed’s graduation, leaving him with a 2 billion dollar inheritance. Although he had substantial backing from the government, Reed spent most of his fortune building the rocket which eventually would grant him his super powers.

As his project was being shut down, Reed, Ben, Sue and her younger brother, Johnny, decided to test the rocket on their own. Once in space, they were exposed to a freak radiation storm, which overwhelmed the shielding and then the crew.

Reed’s body became very malleable and elastic, allowing him to assume almost any form he can think of (maintaining, of course, a similar degree of mass). Reed has also theorized that the cosmic rays also heightened his intellect, making him one of the most brilliant men on Earth.

Upon realizing what had happened during their space flight, Reed adopted the name Mr. Fantastic and founded, with his crew, the Fantastic Four.

Into the Fantastic

A few years after the Fantastic Four’s creation, Reed married his long-time sweetheart, Susan Storm, then known as the Invisible Girl. Like all marriages, it has had rough patches – largely due to Reed’s devotion to his work. However, Reed and Sue have always returned to each other.

The two have had one child, Franklin, and their second was stillborn.

In one future, the son of Rachel Summers (daughter of Scott Summers a.k.a. Cyclops and Jean Grey a.k.a. Marvel Girl) and Franklin becomes the nearly all-powerful Hyperstorm. In an effort to preserve his own life, Hyperstorm banished Reed into Earth’s distant past.

Reed was eventually rescued, but the experience left him doubtful and unsure of his actions until Onslaught threatened the life of his son. His self-worth restored, Reed helped lead the defeat of the menace.

After returning from the Franklinverse, Reed quickly went to work restoring his team’s financial status. He recently took up a graduate professorship at ESU and has been working constantly to create and patent new devices.

Description

Slightly above average height and weight. Often seen in the FF costume, but equally often seen in a suit or white lab coat.

In the lab or in combat situations he uses his stretching abilities a lot (which is no problem since his clothing, like the rest of the FFs, are made using one of his invention, unstable molecules). Stretcho moves fast and dexterously and is often seen Grappling an opponent in order to subdue them.

Personality

I really like the list of adjectives in the Marvel SAGA Roster book, describing Reed in a nutshell : Investigative, intellectual, distracted by scientific puzzles, flexible, humanitarian, troubled by problems he cannot solve, loves his family.

In more elaborate terms, Reed is traditionally the definition of Upholding the Good in the Marvel Universe, along Captain America. He’s a very outgoing and nice guy, when not stuck up in performing experiments (which is usually the case).

He very easily makes new friends and is always regarded as a nice and proper guy and proper by the press (even J. Jonah Jameson likes him !). Reed is basically rich and famous (although financial problems have been a recurring subplot due to the enormous costs of operating the FF).

Reed has a great respect for life, and would never consider killing. He will do absolutely anything to save the lives of even great universal threats such as Galactus himself. This convictions allows him, when he put his mind to it, to address the best in all individuals and move them to take positive, responsible actions.

Reed is fanatically interesteded in anything scientific or even pseudo-scientific. This obsession leads him to forget about everything to investigate an intriguing concept, phenomena or piece of technology.

He always looks for a rational explanation to everything (which he always explains at lengths, to his teammates’s chagrin). But he has, in fine, no real trouble accepting magic forces as possibilities.

This obsessiveness has been the cause of most of the problems in his life, as he shuts out anything having to do with real life to focus on the enigma du jour – even to the expense of his loved ones. It is his clearest tragic flaw.

The time spend thinking and analyzing could arguably be better spent acting. Especially when he stops fighting to try to built a model to explain an adversary’s “physically impossible” feat.

But the facts remains that he *always* discovers any possible flaw or weakness there might be in the opponent or their plans. That’s almost a rule in comic books. Reed can theorize almost incredible weaknesses in even the most crushingly powerful opponents, such as Gladiator (Kallark).

Reed’s extended family is very important to him. A classic FF subplot is Reed becoming overstressed and becoming irrational in order to save Sue or Franklin as they have fallen victim to some dastardly plot. Reed has a somewhat irrational relationship with his father Nathaniel after the strange conflicts and adventures they crossed.

Johnny Storm is considered family and Ben Grimm is his oldest friend ; his rivalry with Doom borders in hatred.

Reed is clearly the leader – but he will occasionally have a talk with the members in order to make that clearer still.

Quotes

“You don’t understand, that’s physically impossible !”

DC Universe History

The entire FF are Marvel’s “First Family”. Use the entire team when deciding to use any member and remember that they often face and defeat cosmic threats.

Heck, no one is big enough to best them all… not Galactus, Blastaar, the Molecule Man, etc. so they could be put against any one opponent or team of opponents. Darkseid as an opponent would be nice.

Either set the adventure in the Marvel Universe or have the FF travel to the adventure setting via Doc Doom’s Time Travel platform or Richards’ Dimension Traveling Warp tunnel (the FF are either exploring or following a threat)… that is: don’t remake the FF into DC Characters, but keep them as original Marvel Characters.

By Peter Piispanen and Sébastien Andrivet.

Helper(s): Lots of folks on the list, http://www.ffplaza.com/ (defunct), Gareth Lewis, Jackson, Jay Myers, Ethan Roe, Michael Davis. DCA stats by Pawsplay.

Source of Character: Fantastic Four comics (Marvel Universe).