The Fantastic Four has its origins at Empire State University in New York
state. There, two young geniuses and a rough-hewn athlete came together.
Reed Richards, son of the billionaire inventor Nathaniel Richards, was
roommates with football player Ben Grimm. Although they came from opposite
backgrounds, Reed and Ben became close friends. They confessed their dreams
to each other. Reed wanted to build a starship. Jokingly, Ben agreed to pilot
the ship when it was built.
Reed also met the strange genius, Victor von Doom, from the eastern European
country of Latveria. Reed recognized a genius equal to his own. He did not
realize that Von Doom's ego far surpassed his intellect. Reed discovered von
Doom was carrying on dangerous experiments and using flawed calculations to
guide his efforts. When Reed attempted to correct von Doom's calculations,
the latter saw it as interference and sabotage. Von Doom's experiments
literally blew up in his face. He left the U.S. to pursue other studies that
would eventually transform him into the dreaded Dr. Doom.
As Reed progressed in college, he met a young girt, Sue Storm, who would
someday become his wife, and her precocious brother, Johnny.
Eventually Reed began to apply his skills to increase mankind's knowledge.
His father had disappeared and left him two billion dollars. Reed decided to
use the money to build his starship. He gathered additional funding from the
U.S. government, which supplied him with a base of operations near
Central City, California. Sue joined Reed there. While Reed's ship was still
in the planning stage, the four met and defeated their first alien invader,
Gormuu. This spurred Reed to double his efforts because he saw his inventions
as a way of defending humanity from alien threats. Reed was soon to know how
correct he was.
The government began to have second thoughts about their financial role in
Reed's project. Reed feared they would soon withdraw their support. Since Reed
had exhausted much of his own fortune, the project would come to a halt unless
he took a drastic step. He reminded his old friend Ben, now an Air Force test
pilot, of an old promise. Ben was to fly the starship on a secret,
unauthorized test flight. Reed would ride as co-pilot. Sue and Johnny Storm
forced Reed to let them come along as observers.
The flight began smoothly; the four snuck into the launch site and blasted
off before anyone noticed. The trouble came when the ship was in orbit. Reed
had been forced to cut back on the radiation shielding of his prototype. It
was safe enough for the normal hazards of space, but it was unprepared for
the freak combination of sunspot activity and cosmic radiation that affected
the ship and the foursome. The ship dove back to Earth.
The ship crashed near Ithaca, New York. Miraculously, the four had survived,
but they had been changed. The weird energy had mutated their genes and given
them super powers. In the middle of the crash site, they realized they now
had a responsibility to use their powers to help humanity. Henceforth they
would be known as the Fantastic Four.
Fortunately, Reed still had enough of his fortune left to bankroll what was
to be the first new super-hero team since World War II. They left California
to set up operations in New York City. In the years that followed, the
Fantastic Four fulfilled Reed's dream of benefiting and protecting humanity.
Reed's inventions made giant strides in technology. More importantly, the
group fought the emerging string of self-proclaimed supervillains and the
early wave of alien invasions.
