Fantastic Four Members: The Full Roster!

There’s a lot more than four Fantastic Four members!

On August 7, the Fantastic Four will be back in theaters with a new movie directed by Josh Trank. This will be the fourth Fantastic Four adventure on the big screen, following the never officially released Roger Corman film and the two Fantastic Four movies directed by Tim Story.

Marvel’s comic book universe owes everything to the Fantastic Four and their importance can not be overstated. Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby created the Fantastic Four in 1961, and this dysfunctional team of superheroes set the tone for almost every Marvel hero that followed.

The Fantastic Four are considered to be the first family of superheroes in the Marvel U, because they really are a family. Reed Richards married Susan Storm, which made Johnny Storm Reed’s brother-in-law, and Ben Grimm a.k.a The Thing is essentially considered to be an “uncle” in that family unit.

What casual comics fans may not realize is that there have been at least 23 Fantastic Four members since the comic’s inception five decades ago. And that membership count goes way up if you include the Future Foundation as well. The Fantastic Four isn’t just a family, it’s an extended family that has welcomed friends, allies, and even former enemies into their ranks. But it almost always comes back to the original four members.

Ahead of the new Fantastic Four movie, ComingSoon.net has taken a look back at all of the official members of the team. Pick your favorites in the comment section below!

Fantastic Four Members: The Fantastic Four

Reed Richards (Mr. Fantastic), Sue Storm (Invisible Woman), Johnny Storm (The Human Torch), and Ben Grimm (The Thing) started the Fantastic Four together, and thus they are listed together here.

In Fantastic Four #1, Reed recruited Ben, Johnny and Sue for a dangerous mission to space in which they were all exposed to cosmic rays which gave them superpowers. After surviving the return journey to Earth, the four of them banded together as an official team. As the Fantastic Four, they’ve been both explorers and adventurers while delving into corners of the Marvel Universe that had never been charted by humans before.

Fantastic Four Members: Crystal

It wasn’t until Fantastic Four #81 that the team added its first replacement member: Crystal of the Inhumans. She was Johnny Storm’s girlfriend and a capable heroine in her own right. Crystal’s first run with the Fantastic Four came when Susan Richards was pregnant, but she later rejoined the team when the Thing was the leader during Reed and Sue’s absence.

Fantastic Four Members: Medusa

Crystal’s older sister, Medusa, was also among the Fantastic Four’s first enemies. Medusa was a member of the Inhuman royal family, but her memory had been lost and she was recruited into the Frightful Four, the supervillain equivalent of the Fantastic Four.

When Medusa reclaimed her memory, she became an ally of the team and she even officially joined in Fantastic Four #132, during the legal separation of Reed and Susan Richards. You see? Even superheroes have marriage problems!

Fantastic Four Members: Luke Cage

Long before Luke Cage was revitalized as a member of the New Avengers, he was hired by the Fantastic Four in issue #168 to be a member of the team because Ben Grimm had lost his powers. But this was back when Cage was written as a character with barely a single dimension, which led to some unintentionally hilarious moments.

Fantastic Four Members: Nova

It was a long time before another member joined the team. But when Frankie Raye a.k.a Human Torch appeared in Fantastic Four #239, the team seriously considered changing their name to the Fantastic Five!

However, Frankie Raye’s destiny was in the stars as the new Herald of Galactus. After receiving the Power Cosmic, she became Nova and left the Earth behind. This crushed Johnny Storm, since he had been dating Frankie at the time.

Fantastic Four Members: She-Hulk

Of all of the Fantastic Four replacement members, She-Hulk is perhaps the most popular addition. During the original Secret Wars miniseries in 1985, Ben Grimm decided to stay behind on Battleworld where he could return to human form at will. So, Jennifer Walters a.k.a. She-Hulk volunteered to take his spot on the team.

Officially, She-Hulk made her Fantastic Four debut in issue 265, and she stayed with them up to issue 300, which easily made her the longest-serving replacement member.

Fantastic Four Members: Ms. Marvel

The second Ms. Marvel, Sharon Ventura was still human when she joined the team in Fantastic Four #306. This was a period in which she had romantic feelings for the Thing, who was elevated to leader of the Fantastic Four when Reed and Sue took a leave of absence.

However, another round of cosmic rays further mutated the Thing and turned Ms. Marvel into She-Thing. She was never quite the same after that. Years later, She-Thing turned to Doctor Doom for a cure…but he eventually mutated her into an even more monstrous form when she refused to betray the team.

More recently, Sharon Ventura was seen as She-Thing once again in the last Fantastic Four comic book series. Except this time, she seemed to be all too eager to aid the plan to destroy them.

Fantastic Four Members: The New Fantastic Four

This was totally a stunt, but with a story by Walter Simonson and artist Arthur Adams, nobody was complaining!

Basically, a female Skrull assumed the shape of Susan Richards and captured the entire team. She then recruited Spider-Man, Wolverine, Hulk, and Ghost Rider to serve as the New Fantastic Four and to avenge the supposed deaths of the original team.

The storyline only ran from Fantastic Four #347 to #349, but it’s still fondly remembered. Spider-Man later rejoined the team as a full time member when Johnny Storm was presumed to be dead.

Fantastic Four Members: Ant-Man

The latest Marvel Studios movie star, Scott Lang was briefly a member of the Fantastic Four as of issue 384. At the time, Reed Richards and Doctor Doom were missing and presumed dead. Susan Richards assumed control of the team and she hired Ant-Man to serve as the team’s new technical advisor.

Ant-Man later rejoined the team as a replacement leader, when the Fantastic Four and their children went on a time travel adventure and failed to return as scheduled.

Fantastic Four Members: Namorita

Namor hung around the Fantastic Four during the period when Reed was assumed to be dead. But he never officially joined the team, and he seemed more interested in romantically pursuing Susan Richards than helping her find her missing husband.

But Namor’s cousin, Namorita is considered to be a former member of the Fantastic Four. In Fantastic Four Vol. 3 #43, Namorita was part of the Human Torch’s FF replacement team when Reed, Susan, and Ben were lost in the Negative Zone.

It was a very short stint on the team for Namorita, but it still counts!

Fantastic Four Members: Black Panther & Storm

Shortly after their amazingly over-hyped wedding during the Civil War event, Black Panther and Storm were invited to join the Fantastic Four in issue #543 to stand-in for Reed and Sue while they took time off to repair their marriage.

Technically, Black Panther was the leader, but with Storm by his side, it was more like they were the co-leaders of the team. One of their more memorable storylines on the team involved the Fantastic Four coming across the Marvel Zombies from another world.

Fantastic Four Members: Franklin & Valeria Richards

It would take far too long to explain the complicated history of Reed and Susan’s children, Franklin and Valeria Richards. Suffice to say, it involves a lot of alternate timelines.

The short version is that Franklin is one of the most powerful mutants alive, and Valeria has an intellect that rivals even her father’s despite her young age. During the Dark Reign: Fantastic Four miniseries, Franklin and Valeria were the only ones left to stop Norman Osborn and his H.A.M.M.E.R. agents from seizing their home and all of Reed’s inventions.

Ever since, they’ve been more or less considered members of the team.

Fantastic Four Members: Flux

Dennis Sykes was a man who gained both superpowers and terminal cancer at the same time, in the miniseries One Month to Live. With only a limited amount of time before the end of his life, Sykes joined the Fantastic Four on a cosmic mission and he was formally inducted onto the team as Flux.

There was no magical cure for Sykes’ cancer, but he was able to make the most out of his brief career as a superhero.

Fantastic Four Members: Doctor Doom

Surprise!

Sure, Doctor Doom is one of the Fantastic Four’s greatest enemies. But he has also been known to occasionally ally with the team when it suits his purposes. There is some debate as to whether Doom’s membership “counts,” because he joined the Future Foundation as opposed to the Fantastic Four. This was a period early in Jonathan Hickman’s Fantastic Four run in which Johnny Storm “died” and the team retired the Fantastic Four name and uniforms in his honor.

This was also the time when Spider-Man rejoined the team as Johnny Storm’s replacement. Doom was only there because of a bargain he struck with Valeria. In exchange for help restoring his memories and intellect, Doom pledged to help the team defeat a threat beyond anything they had faced before.

Fantastic Four Members: Miss Thing

Despite her superhero codename, pop star Darla Deering had no romantic connection with the Thing. Instead, she was Johnny Storm’s girlfriend and his last minute choice to serve as a member of the replacement team in Fantastic Four  Vol. 4 #2. While Johnny, Reed, Ben, Sue, Valeria, and Franklin went on an adventure through time, Darla, She-Hulk, Ant-Man, and Medusa were the new Fantastic Four.

Darla has no superpowers of her own, but she was given one of Ben Grimm’s Thing suits which he had previously used when depowered. And as Miss Thing, Darla rose to the occasion and became a real heroine in her own right.

Fantastic Four Members: The Future Foundation

No roundup of the Fantastic Four members would be complete without the Future Foundation. While these brilliant and gifted children aren’t a part of the main team, they were personally chosen by Reed Richards to come together and help him create a better future for humanity.

The Future Foundation includes former Power Pack member, Alex Power; Dragon Man; Bentley 23 (a clone of the Wizard); Adolf (the son of the Impossible Man); mutant best friends, Artie and Leech; Vii and Wuu from Uhari; the evolved Moloids Tong, Turg, Mik, and Korr; Onome from Wakanda’ and Luna and Ahura of the Inhumans.

Marvel recently ended its FantastIc Four series with a storyline called “The End is FOURever.” Of course it is… until it isn’t. There may not be a Fantastic Four comic book in Marvel’s immediate future, but it will be back someday. In the meantime, the Thing is joining the Guardians of the Galaxy and the Human Torch is apparently dating Medusa in the new Uncanny Inhumans comic.

The Fantastic Four movie will be out on Friday, August 7.