MR. FANTASTIC

 

MISTER FANTASTIC

Real Name: Reed Richards

First Appearance: Fantastic Four (Vol. 1) #1, November 1961

Powers: Dr. Reed Richards was accidentally bombarded with mutagenic, specific-frequency cosmic rays that caused his physical structure to become highly elastic and malleable.

As Mister Fantastic, he has the ability to convert the mass of his entire body into a highly malleable state at will. In such a state, he can stretch, deform, expand, or compress his entire body or parts thereof into any contiguous shape he can imagine. He 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. He can also extend his body in two directions, creating a canopy, parachute, or sheath, its thickness determined by the extent of its distention. He 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. 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). 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. He can alter his own facial features in a number of ways, not enough to actually "shape-change" into a specific person, but enough to make himself unrecognizable. He can also temporarily increase his strength by bulking up to Hulk-like proportions.

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. After his body absorbs the kinetic energy of a ballistic projectile's impact, he can expel the object back along its trajectory by flexing like a trampoline if he is adequately braced. 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.

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. 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. At one point, he had lost his powers and was using a set of telescoping gloves to artificially duplicate his powers to a small degree. He later re-exposed himself to a cosmic storm and regained his powers at an increased level. They were increased again after an incident with a Skrull aging ray and later rejuvenation.

Reed Richards holds 21 doctorates, including Ph.D.’s in mathematics, physics, and engineering and was a child prodigy in all three fields, as well as mechanics. Among the most intelligent people on Earth, Reed Richards is a visionary theoretician, an inspired machinesmith, and is an above-extraordinary genius who has made breakthroughs in and has vast knowledge of virtually every area of science and technology (mechanical and electrical engineering, quantum mechanics, computer programming, holography, electronics, cosmology, space travel, time travel, extradimensional travel, biochemistry, robotics, synthetic polymers, communications, mutations, transportation, energy generation, spectral analysis, etc.). He is a natural leader, as well as a gifted tactician and strategist. A capable unarmed combatant with a unique fighting style tailored to his malleable form, Reed is fluent in multiple languages, including English and Latverian. He has very limited knowledge of sorcery and prefers not to use it.