Heroes, Villains & Mavericks by Jai Dandekar

Character guide

Fantastic Four

The Fantastic Four are Marvel’s family of explorers. A flight through cosmic radiation gives Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm extraordinary abilities and sends them toward even stranger frontiers.

Find your first read
The four founding Fantastic Four members together

Marvel Rivals artwork via Space.com ↗

About Fantastic Four

The four come home from their flight changed in different ways. Reed can stretch his body, Sue can become invisible and project force fields, Johnny can ignite and fly, and Ben gains immense strength along with a rocky body he can’t simply switch off.

Their adventures revolve around a family learning to live with those changes while exploring places that ordinary science cannot reach. Doctor Doom’s rivalry with Reed gives those discoveries a recurring personal cost. Later, the Future Foundation brings the Richards children and a new generation of problem-solvers into the story.

Members
Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm
First appearance
Fantastic Four #1 (1961)
Created by
Stan Lee & Jack Kirby
Home
The Baxter Building
Opposite
Doctor Doom
On screen
The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025)

Fantastic Four Across the Multiverse

Ultimate Marvel

Ultimate Fantastic Four

The original Ultimate line reintroduces Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben as a younger team. It gives their experiments and family dynamic a new starting point, separate from the original Lee and Kirby run.

First appearance Ultimate Fantastic Four #1

Version reference

Main Marvel continuity · Team era

Future Foundation

The family reorganizes after losing Johnny and invites Spider-Man into the group. The Foundation gives the Richards children and other young scientists a place to tackle problems of their own.

Version reference

Earth-311 · Marvel 1602

The Fantastick Four

The 1602 world reimagines Reed, Sue, Johnny, and Ben as the Fantastick Four in an age of sailing ships and royal intrigue. Their period setting and adventures distinguish them from the modern Marvel family.

Version reference

Marvel 2099 · 2019 reimagining

Fantastic Four 2099

In Karla Pacheco and Steven Cummings’s dystopian future, a new quartet takes up the Fantastic Four legacy. This is the 2019 team, distinct from both the original family and the 1996 Fantastic Four 2099 series.

First appearance Fantastic Four 2099 #1 (2019)

Version reference

1 of 5

Required reading

3 stories from the guide

Cover for Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection Vol. 2

02 / 2009–12

Fantastic Four by Jonathan Hickman: The Complete Collection Vol. 2

Jonathan Hickman & various

View Trade Paperback on Amazon ↗

The Future Foundation changes the scale of the family story by bringing young scientists into Reed’s orbit. Since this is a second volume, readers new to Hickman’s run can use Marvel’s chronology to find an earlier starting point.

Collects A later stretch of Jonathan Hickman's Fantastic Four

Before you read The start of Hickman's Fantastic Four

Publisher reference ↗

Collectibles & apparel

Film & TV

Poster artwork courtesy of TMDB.