Richards, Reed

Dr. Reed Richards is a scientist and inventor, better known as Mister Fantastic, who has been considered the smartest man on Earth. He is a polymath with mastery of all the sciences including, electrical, mechanical, aerospace engineering, electronics, chemistry, physics, biology and beyond. Richards was exposed to high levels of cosmic radiation along with his best friend Ben Grimm, then girlfriend Sue Storm and her younger brother Johnny Storm, during a trip to space in the stolen rocket, the *Marvel-1*. The radiation mutated him and his friends, allowing him to stretch and mold his body at will. Together they became the Fantastic Four, a team of adventurers who explored space, time and alternate dimensions and saved the world along the way from science-based threats.

## Reed Richards

### Aliases

Mister Fantastic (code name), Mr. Richards, Professor Richards, Brain-Box, Brains, The Explorer, Mr. F, Mr. Look-At-Me-I'm-So-Fantastic, Stretch, Doctor Fantastic, Doctor Richards, Mr Elastic, Mr. Fantastical, Professor Richards, Reed Benjamin, The Rubber Man

### Relatives

Franklin Richards (son), Valeria Richards (daughter), Sue (wife), Nathanial Richards (father), Evelyn Richards (mother, dead), Cassandra Richards (stepmother, dead), John Richards (paternal grandfather, dead), Laura Richards (paternal grandmother, dead), Arthur Richards (paternal half-brother),Tara Richards (paternal half-sister),Joanna Jeffers (paternal half-sister),Kristoff Vernard (alleged paternal half-brother), Ted Richards (paternal uncle, deceased),Franklin Storm (father-in-law, deceased),Mary Storm (mother-in-law, deceased),Johnny Storm (brother-in-law),Hamish Richards (first cousin),Angus Richards (first cousin once removed)

### Occupation

College student (California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, Columbia University, and State University) (formerly), Scientist, Adventurer

## Biographical information

### Place of birth

Central City, California, United States of America

## History

### Early Year

Reed Richards was born in Central City, California the only son of wealthy physicist Nathaniel Richards and his wife Evelyn, was a child prodigy with special aptitude in mathematics, physics, and mechanics. Evelyn died when Reed was seven.

### Education

Nathaniel encouraged and guided young Reed in his scientific studies, and Reed was taking college-level courses. Reed entered college at fourteen at CalTech (California Institute of Technology). He also attended Harvard University and M.I.T.. He studied abroad at the University of Vienna in Austria. It is their he met fellow "super-genius" Alyssa Moy. By the time he was eighteen, he had obtained four degrees in fields such as engineering, math, and physics.

It was when he was working on his fifth at State University in Hegeman, New York, 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. Instead, Richards 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 his ambitions to Grimm, Grimm jokingly said that he would pilot the starship for Richards someday.

While attending State University, Richards rented living quarters at the Manhattan boarding house owned by the aunt of a young woman named Susan Storm. Reed instantly fell in love with Sue, although he soon deemed it prudent to move out, because he was too distracted from his work due to his romance with Sue.

Richards and Doom were intellectual peers. The two debated esoteric theories day and night that amazed faculty members, who compared their brilliance to that of Albert Einstein and Leonardo da Vinci. While Richards designed his starship, Doom became obsessed with developing a machine that could project the astral form of a being into other dimensions. Reed pointed out a flaw in Doom's calculations, but Doom arrogantly ignored his warning, feeling that Reed was trying to upstage him. The machine exploded, scarring Doom's face. He was soon expelled for conducting unethical experiments. As Doctor Doom, von Doom would later become Richards’ greatest rival and enemy. Doom blamed Richards for his deformities and he continually tried to prove himself superior, especially intellectually. They battled many times, but Richards almost always emerged triumphantly. Reed and Ben later served in the military together. Their time in war increased their trust in each other.

Three years before Richards tested his starship, his father mysteriously disappeared. 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 their own. Reed Richards would be reunited with him while visiting this alternate Earth years later. Before Nathaniel Richards left his own time, he made arrangements that left two billion dollars to his son. Reed Richards spent most of the money on his project to build and launch his starship. This project, based in Central City, California, received further funding from the federal government.

### Birth of the Fantastic 4

Richards recruited his old friend Ben Grimm, who had become a successful test pilot and astronaut, to pilot the starship, which was named the *Marvel-1*. Richards was joined in California by Susan Storm. Richards and Storm were dating at the time. Shortly before the starship was to be launched, Richards used his scientific knowledge to defeat the extraterrestrial 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.

#### Fantastic 4

When the federal government then threatened to withdraw its funding from the starship project, Richards decided to take the *Marvel-1* on a test flight before the funding was withdrawn. Grimm was opposed to the idea, warning that the starship's shielding might prove inadequate protection from the intense radiation storms. Nevertheless, Grimm was persuaded to serve as pilot, and Susan Storm and her adolescent brother Johnny insisted on accompanying Richards as passengers. The four friends stole onto the launch facility, entered the starship, and blasted off. They intended to travel through hyperspace in the ship to another solar system and back in order to convince the government to reconsider. However, when the ship passed through a cosmic ray storm, it was met with an unexpected level of intensity. Since the ship was designed to shield against ordinary levels of radiation, the cabin volume was subjected to intense cosmic ray bombardment which irradiated the four passengers and wrought havoc on the ship's controls. Pilot 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 his body had become malleable and that he now had the ability to 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. The profits from Richard's patents and royalties funded the team's activities.