It was at State University in Hegeman, NY, that Reed Richards first met two of the most important individuals in his life. He was assigned to room with a foreign student, a scientific genius named Victor von Doom. The imperious von Doom, taking an immediate dislike to Richards, decided to take other quarters. As Doctor Doom, von Doom would later become Richards’ greatest rival and enemy. Richards instead gained as his roommate former high school football star Benjamin J. Grimm, who became Richards’ closest
friend. Richards was already intending to build a starship for interstellar travel. When he told this ambition to Grimm, Grimm jokingly said that he would pilot the starship for Richards.

While attending Columbia, Richards rented living quarters at the Manhattan boarding house owned by the aunt of a young girl named Susan Storm. Though she was still only a child, no more than twelve years old, Susan fell in love with the older Richards, much to his embarrassment.

Three years before Reed Richards tested his starship, his father mysteriously disappeared. In fact, Nathaniel Richards had devised a time machine which he had used to attempt to journey into the future of his own world. However, the machine actually transported him to an alternate Earth with a history considerably different from our own; Reed Richards would be reunited with him while visiting this alternate Earth years later.

Richards recruited his old friend Ben Grimm, who had become a successful test pilot and astronaut, to pilot the starship. Richards was joined in California by Susan Storm, who was now an adult. Richards and Storm were engaged to be married.

Shortly before the starship was to be launched, Richards used his scientific knowledge to defeat the extra-terrestrial being Gormuu, who had intended to conquer Earth. Richards’ encounter with Gormuu strengthened his resolve to finish the starship, which he saw as a first step for mankind to defend itself from extraterrestrial threats.

However, when the federal government threatened to withdraw its funding, Richards decided to test fly it himself. Though Grimm warned that the ship’s shielding might be inadequate, Grimm, Susan, and her adolescent brother Johnny all chose to go. They intended to travel through hyperspace to another solar system and back. However, unknown to Richards, a solar flare caused Earth’s Van Allen radiation belts to be filled temporarily with unprecedented, ultra-high levels of cosmic radiation. The intense cosmic rays irradiated the four passengers and wrought havoc on the ship’s controls. Grimm was forced to abort the flight and return to Earth.

Once back on Earth, the four passengers discovered that the cosmic radiation had triggered mutagenic changes in their bodies. Reed Richards discovered that he could become malleable and elongate his body at will. Richards convinced the others that the four of them should use their new-found powers for the good of humanity as members of a team he named the Fantastic Four. Richards, who became the team’s leader, named himself Mister Fantastic, while Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, and Johnny Storm named themselves the Thing, the Invisible Girl (later the Invisible Woman), and the Human Torch, respectively.

Under Richards’ leadership the Fantastic Four has become Earth’s most honored team of superhuman adventurers, and has saved the world from conquest or destruction many times. Richards eventually married Susan Storm, and they now have a son, Franklin.

Reed recently joined his wife in semi-retirement from superheroics. They are trying to raise their son Franklin in a relatively normal environment, unaware that Franklin has adopted a superheroic identity of his own in conjunction with the Power Pack kids.