When Stan Lee co-created Marvel’s Fantastic Four with Jack Kirby in 1961, he was determined to make his characters different than those in a typical superhero comic book. Chief among these differences: the Fantastic Four had no secret identities, and the public knew they had acquired their powers in an outer space mission that exposed them to cosmic rays. But that transparency isn’t exactly what fans might think.
In hindsight, it seems strange that in their first comic book issue, Reed Richards, Susan Storm, Johnny Storm, and Ben Grimm choose to go by the names ‘Mr. Fantastic,’ ‘Invisible Girl,’ ‘Human Torch,’ and ‘Thing.’ After all, these superhero codenames proved popular with their fans, but with their identities known, why did the Fantastic Four even bother taking aliases? As it turns out, the comic book explanation for their code names is surprisingly dark – and only one of their members knows the sad truth behind this seemingly random decision.
Why Stan Lee Gave the Fantastic Four Their Superhero Names
In 1961, Marvel Comics had just changed from Timely Comics and was ready to get back into publishing superhero books, after seeing the success rival publisher DC Comics was having with its Justice League team. Publisher Martin Goodman contacted his editor and writer Stan Lee and asked him to create a superhero comic book for Marvel to publish. Goodman’s original idea was to resurrect Timely Comics’ old superheroes from the World War II era, suggesting Lee reuse Captain America, Namor the Sub-Mariner, and the original android Human Torch and create new adventures around them. Lee, however, had different ideas.
Wanting to quit comics after writing simplistic stories for almost twenty years, he was convinced by his wife to write the complex, character-driven stories he always wanted to create. Inspired, Lee created a new Human Torch – Johnny Storm, a human teenager with no connection to the original android. He also created Johnny’s sister Sue Storm, the Invisible Girl (later renamed the Invisible Woman), reasoning few comics had siblings as superheroes. Lee then decided Sue’s fiancé Reed Richards’ massive ego name him Mr. Fantastic, while Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm would become the rock-like monster the Thing.
Thus, when the Fantastic Four were first created, it appeared that Stan Lee only gave the quartet their colorful code names to appease his boss, who wanted a superhero comic book. Lee also crafted a dramatic origin for the quartet: writing that Reed convinced the others to fly through a cosmic ray belt in an untested rocket, which exposed them to the radiation that gave them their powers. From this point on, however, the Fantastic Four’s adventures revealed they were anything but traditional superheroes.
Are the Fantastic Four Even Superheroes?
From the start, the Fantastic Four behaved in ways superheroes like DC’s Superman or Batman did not. Stan Lee had them squabble amongst each other like a family – something that rarely happened initially in the Justice League. The Fantastic Four also had mundane problems like paying the rent on their skyscraper headquarters, the beloved Baxter Building. Moreover, at least one of their members (the grotesquely disfigured Ben Grimm a.k.a. the Thing) was constantly in despair about his ugly appearance and wanted to quit the team.
Despite this, Lee made sure the Fantastic Four – including Ben Grimm – were regarded as celebrities by the general public. Early stories showed Reed Richards and his family encountering children “playing Fantastic Four” on street corners. One issue showed the Fantastic Four making a movie about their lives (produced by Namor the Sub-Mariner!). And in a weirdly metafictional move, the Fantastic Four allowed the Marvel Comics company of their universe to produce (edited) comic book versions of their adventures!
The Fantastic Four’s adventures also had more in common with DC Comics’ Challengers of the Unknown (which was created by Fantastic Four co-creator Jack Kirby in 1957) than traditional superheroes. While Batman might patrol the streets of Gotham every night, the Fantastic Four were always off exploring different dimensions like the Negative Zone, traveling to hidden countries like the Black Panther’s hidden nation of Wakanda, or blasting off into space to investigate happenings on other planets. And while many of their adventures would have them save the world against threats like the world conqueror Doctor Doom or the world devourer Galactus, the Fantastic Four was always more concerned with finding new civilizations than lowering the local crime rate.
The Real Reason They Use Superhero Names
Given all this, it seems strange that the Fantastic Four would take on (or continue) using superhero names once the public had gotten used to them. Being the first superhumans in the modern Marvel Universe, there was no precedent for any of them to take on codenames. And while the cover of their first issue shows them all referring to each other as “Mr. Fantastic” and “The Thing,” they – along with virtually the entire superhero community – typically refer to each other by their real names. It wasn’t until Fantastic Four Vol. 3 #60 (2002), published over forty years after the Fantastic Four made their debut, that writer Mark Waid and artist Mike Wieringo crafted a heartbreaking explanation for the quartet’s colorful names.
In the story, Sue, Johnny, and Ben are puzzled when Reed has a publicist shadow the team for a few days to “improve their image.” While the publicist suspects Reed’s ego might have something to do with this, Reed later confesses a sadder truth to his infant daughter Valeria. Reed reveals he blames himself for the accident that mutated his friends into the Fantastic Four. He realizes his arrogance and impatience ruined any chance of them having normal lives, and that in today’s world, they could potentially be locked up as freaks and monsters. To prevent this, he manipulated the quartet’s public image from the start.
He convinced his friends to use outlandish names like “Human Torch” and “Mr. Fantastic” (which he admits is a name he never wanted); dress in flashy costumes; live in a glamorous skyscraper; and ride in a flying car to give the Fantastic Four a “superhero” image. According to Reed:
In confessing all this to Valeria, Reed exposes both guilt and hubris as he continues manipulating both the media and his family into continuing their charade as superheroes in order to maintain public acceptance. It’s a strategy used with less success by Charles Xavier’s X-Men who try to make the public view mutants as superheroes, and one Reed needs to constantly refine lest public perception turn against the Fantastic Four.
You see, glamour and fame weren’t options. They were necessities. Because maybe by turning [my] friends into celebrities… [I] could be forgiven for taking their normal lives away… Someday.
With the Fantastic Four set to make their debut in the Marvel Cinematic Universe within the next few years, it will be interesting if the MCU version of Reed Richards adopts a similar strategy for his team. Audiences have already seen a dark version of the Fantastic Four that was perceived as freaks and monsters in the universally panned Fant4stic (2015), so a lighter tone (counterbalanced by the darker reason behind the FF’s celebrity) might be a welcome change. And with so many established MCU heroes retiring or dying in Avengers: Endgame, a bright new team of heroes like the Fantastic Four might be just what the MCU needs.
Next: Fantastic Four: 5 Things The MCU Can Finally Get Right
