How did the Fantastic Four get their powers?

If you’re wondering how the Fantastic Four got their powers, you’ll be surprised to learn there’s no one single answer. Years of retcons mean the MCU has two big options to pick from. 

The MCU is preparing for the relaunch of the Fantastic Four, bringing Marvel’s first family back to the big screen. 

The Fantastic Four are more than just iconic superheroes, though. They’re genuinely a legendary property, with their 1961 debut ushering in the Marvel Age of Superheroes and the Marvel Way of storytelling. 

Before the casting gets announced and the film gets started, here’s a quick guide to get you up to speed on how the Fantastic Four became so fantastic in the first place. 

How the Fantastic Four got their powers in Marvel Comics

As seen in Fantastic Four #1, Reed Richards is a scientist and engineer who is developing an experimental rocket, the Marvel-1. With his funding threatened, Reed takes the rocket for an unauthorized test flight. His best friend, Ben Grimm, pilots the ship. Reed’s girlfriend, Sue Storm and her younger brother, Johnny, go along for the ride. 

It ends in disaster. The Marvel-1 was designed to withstand radiation, but the cosmic radiation in the atmosphere was higher than Reed could have predicted. All four are bombarded in a cosmic radiation storm and sent crashing to Earth. 

Upon landing, the four realize they’ve been changed by the radiation. Reed has an elastic body he can stretch, while Sue can turn invisible. Johnny discovers he can light himself aflame, and Ben mutates into a rock monster. 

While it’s not technically correct to call them superheroes, the four pledge to use their powers for the betterment of humanity, becoming the Fantastic Four. 

How the Ultimate Fantastic Four got their powers

The Earth-1610 version debuted in Ultimate Fantastic Four #1 got their powers in a cosmic accident, though the Ultimate take on the characters is much more akin to body horror than adventure. 

In Ultimate Fantastic Four, young Reed Richards accidentally accesses an otherworldly dimension. Known as the N-Zone, this brings him to the attention of a military project exploring the world led by renowned scientist Franklin Storm and General Thaddeus Ross. 

Reed, along with fellow students Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, and Victor Van Damme, developed a machine to enter the N-Zone. However, Van Damme changes the device’s settings without telling anyone because he believes only he can get the math right. 

The machine backfires, and the five return to Earth forever altered, their bodies changed by exposure to the N-Zone. Reed arrives with his body made of an entirely elastic composition, Sue gains the ability to turn invisible, Johnny’s body can emit flames, and Ben’s body is covered in a rock creature. 

This iteration of the characters would become much creepier and more unsettling over time. Reed would discover he had no organs, with an indeterminate black hole where his stomach once was, while Johnny’s skin would periodically molt and Ben would be revealed to actually be in a cocoon of sorts. None of these stacked up to Van Damme, though, who eventually returned with a mechanized appearance, including goat-like feet and the ability to spew acid. 

The Four reluctantly become adventurers and heroes as the Fantastic Four, but they’re never as beloved or respected as their 616 counterparts. This takes a turn for the worse when Reed becomes the evil Maker, splintering the quartet forever. Ultimately, all but The Maker would be lost when the universe implodes in Secret Wars. 

How the Fantastic Four got their powers in the movies

The original Fox film, 2005’s Fantastic Four, takes many of its cues from the comics. The four get their powers from cosmic radiation, though, in this instance, Victor Von Doom is on the rocket as well and changes with them. The Four in the film are based around the four elements and battle Doctor Doom, who develops a metal skin and electricity powers. 

On the flip side, 2015’s Fantastic Four reboot borrows more from the Ultimate Comics version. Here, the four heroes, along with Von Doom, enter Planet Zero, a new riff on the Negative Zone, via a Quantum Gate. An explosion at the gate alters Reed, Ben, Sue, and Johnny, giving them superpowers. Meanwhile, Von Doom is left behind and returns with new powers. 

This brings us to the current era and the approaching MCU launch of a new Fantastic Four. We don’t know yet what version of the FF origin the MCU will take, assuming we even get an origin. It’s always possible they could go the Spider-Man route and just not reveal the origin. We’ll certainly find out one way or another when the film finally hits theaters in 2025. 

That’s all for now on how the Fantastic Four got their powers, but for more FF and comic book news, be sure to keep an eye on Dexerto.