Stretching Across The Marvel Universe - Mister Fantastic Appreciation

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

I know we have a FF appreciation thread, but there's also a thread dedicated to Sue, so I figured Reed deserved his own as well. A founding member of the Fantastic Four, Reed is considered the greatest scientific mind in the Marvel Universe and has the ability to stretch his body into any shape he wants. Not only that, but he's the husband of the greatest female superhero in the Marvel Universe: The Invisible Woman! He's also the father to two children, Franklin and Valeria.

To start this thread right, I'm going to be posting pics of Reed through the years by different artists and costumes, and my favorite panels.

Mister Fantastic, founding member and leader of the world's greatest superhero team!

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

The Powers of Reed Richards, Mister Fantastic (Fantastic Four vol.1 #358)
Reed Richards was gifted superhuman powers by cosmic rays bombarding his body.
Hyper-Intelligence: Mister Fantastic’s natural mental abilities were greatly augmented by the Cosmic Rays that gave him his powers.
Plasticity: Mister Fantastic possesses the ability to convert the mass of his entire body into a highly malleable state at will. 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. 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.
Dense Flesh: 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.
Contain Explosions: Mister Fantastic may use his elastic form to contain explosions by enveloping them and allowing their force to expand him. 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.
Redirect Projectiles: After his body absorbs the kinetic energy of a ballistic projectile’s impact, Mister Fantastic can expel the object back along its trajectory by flexing his body like a trampoline if he is adequately braced.
Elongation: Mister Fantastic 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.)
Grappling: Mister Fantastic may restrain opponents very efficiently by using his elastic form to entangle them.
Movement: Mister Fantastic can move at great speeds by stretching to his destination.
Shape Changing: Mister Fantastic can stretch, deform, expand, or compress his entire body or parts thereof into any contiguous shape he can imagine for a variety of uses:
Imitation: Mister Fantastic may alter his basic physical features, allowing him to take on the appearance of any other man with similar hair and skin tone. One time, Mister Fantastic actually increased his size and mass density, in effect bulking his body to “Thing”-like proportions while increasing his strength to the same levels as well. The force of his strikes was enough to stagger even Onslaught.
Canopy, Parachute or Sheath: Mister Fantastic can extend his body in two directions, creating a canopy, parachute, or sheath, its thickness determined by the extent of its distention.
Gliding: Mister Fantastic can transform himself into aerodynamic shapes such as parachutes or hang-gliders. In this form he can support an additional 1000 pounds (enough to hold the rest of Fantastic Four, even the Thing).
Cushion: Mister Fantastic may form his elastic form into a trampoline and other cushion-like objects, allowing him to safely catch falling people and objects.
Sling Shot: Mister Fantastic may use his elastic form as a slingshot to hurl objects with great force.
Geometric Shapes: Mister Fantastic 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.
Fist Weapons: Mister Fantastic may form his fists into large hammers, maces, etc., which improve his physical effectiveness in hand-to-hand combat.
Bouncing Ball: Mister Fantastic can transform himself into any of a number of resilient shapes, such as balls or springs that allow him to leap or bounce great distances.
Two-Dimensionality: 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).
Infiltration: Mister Fantastic can lower his body’s cohesion to such an extent that he can actually flow through minute openings.
Open Locks: Mister Fantastic may form his fingers into various types of keys, allowing him to open most forms of mechanical locks.
Wind Generation: Mister Fantastic may form his hands into fans, allowing him to generate wind by twirling them at great speeds.
Semi-Solid Liquid State: Mister Fantastic can willfully reduce his body into an almost liquid state in order to flow out of small cracks or passages, even through needle-sized holes.

By Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan
https://cultfaction.com/2016/03/07/p...-away-aged-66/

[Marvel Forever]

I have been away from this board for a while. With the FF'c cancellation, I kind of lost interest in posting much about comics. Anyway, it saddens me to no end that Reed Richards has taken such a popularity hit with the fans. If you check out various comic forums, he is not nearly as popular as he was back in the 1960's and 1970's. I hope that Marvel can find a way to make Reed popular once again.

[The Whovian]

Great post 616! Love the pics and bio on Reed.

[616MarvelYear is LeapYear]

Mister Fantastic Reed Richards

by Marco Nizzoli

[Michael Watkins]

when Reed returns, should he run for president? they could title the story "First Family."

[Marvel Forever]

when Reed returns, should he run for president? they could title the story "First Family."

Good idea, Michael Watkins. I actually suggested something like that to the FF editor a few years back. I forget exactly what I called for, but it was probably either U.S. President or Secretary General of the U.N.

[Michael Watkins]

Good idea, Michael Watkins. I actually suggested something like that to the FF editor a few years back. I forget exactly what I called for, but it was probably either U.S. President or Secretary General of the U.N.

neat. I think Stark got close to being Secretary of Defense (or actually held the seat), at one point. I went with President to contrast with Doom's usual bid to rule the world. it'd be fun to see Reed try to work within the democratic system to initiate change in the world. he's a goal-oriented guy; afterall. Advanced Idea Mechanics has often attempted to exploit the system. I think someone like Reed could be even more effective. Sue even has some experience in politics (being ambassador to a couple fish kingdoms). Reed could clone himself a cabinet.

[Crimz]

President Reed? That could be fun.

[The Whovian]

I don't think Reed would ever want to be President. Reed thinks "big" all the time. Heck, he's thinking about stuff in other universes. Being President would be boring to him.

[the illustrious mr. kenway]

I was reading Spider Gwen and they had a fun take on Reed as a boy genuis type (pretty meta). Anyone else liked it?

[The Whovian]

I was reading Spider Gwen and they had a fun take on Reed as a boy genuis type (pretty meta). Anyone else liked it?

Not yet, but I'm going to. That book looks like a lot of fun.

[Crimz]

I wonder when Reed comes back whether he is still the smartest. They are saying Moon Girl is currently the smartest on Earth.

[Frontier]

I wonder when Reed comes back whether he is still the smartest. They are saying Moon Girl is currently the smartest on Earth.

Well, when Reed gets back I imagine he'll probably get more involved in the general bigger events in the Marvel Universe and when people need the "smartest person on Earth" then Lunella will.

[Michael Watkins]

I wonder when Reed comes back whether he is still the smartest. They are saying Moon Girl is currently the smartest on Earth.

he's definitely got the widest knowledge base. he's basically creating the universe's knowledge.