FFPlaza.com - New to the FF?

The Fantastic Four Primer

So, you've recently heard something about the Fantastic Four and thought you'd see what you can find online? Maybe a friend told you about the FF. Maybe you heard something about the Fantastic Four movie. Maybe you just followed a link to this site. Whatever the reason, this page should give you a decent overview of who and what the Fantastic Four are in any incarnation of the team. This page is filled with links to more detailed information, too. If a word or phrase stands out from the rest of the text, it'll be a link to more information about that topic.

Let's get one thing straight from the start: the Fantastic Four are NOT super heroes. Yes, they have super powers. Yes, they've saved the world numerous times. Yes, they have costumes. But they are not super heroes. They don't get up every morning thinking they're going to right wrongs and fight for truth, justice and the American way. Guys like Spider-Man and Captain America do that kind of stuff.

The Fantastic Four are, first and foremost, a family. Reed Richards (alias Mr. Fantastic) is married to the Sue Storm Richards (the Invisible Woman) who is the older sister of Johnny Storm (the Human Torch). And Ben Grimm (the Thing)... well, he's like a brother to Reed. They all love each other as a family, but they still get on each others' nerves. And why wouldn't they? They live together all the time!

Secondly, the Fantastic Four are explorers. Reed's arguably the smartest person on the planet, and his scientific curiosity often leads the team to explore new worlds and dimensions -- sometimes physical, sometimes metaphoric. Most of the known alien species that Earth has learned about are the direct result of Reed's research and many of the team's adventures are in the pursuit of research.

Now, how did they get their powers? Well, that depends a little on which version of the characters you're talking about. In just about every case, though, the four got bathed in radiation from a minor flaw in one of Reed's experiements (usually a spacecraft). Reed sometimes feels guilty about this, especially when it comes to his best friend, Ben.

You'll generally see the Fantastic Four without masks, sometimes not even uniforms! (This goes back to them being a family of explorers, not a group of super heroes.) Because they don't hide behind secret identities, they're usually welcome as celebrities in their own right. But, as celebrities, they also deal with the same issues that all celebrities deal with: privacy, paparazzi, agents... Also, their headquarters isn't so much as base of operations as it is their home, and Reed has developed many advanced security measures to protect them from both super-villains as well as the press.

Is that everything there is to know about the Fantastic Four? Of course not. But I think that's enough to catch you up to speed. You should be able to pick up any Fantastic Four story now, and know at least where it's coming from. But if you're looking for more detailed information, just click around this very site. We've got nearly 200 megabytes of information at FFPlaza.com -- from character descriptions and histories to issue reviews to creator interviews to games to news to... Well, you get the idea.

We're thrilled you decided to look up the Fantastic Four and see what they're about. All of us here hope you come to enjoy their company as much as we do!