The Fantastic Four are one of the most important groups in comic book history.
Their debut in 1961 is largely considered the beginning of a new age of superhero comics,
an age of realism, kicked off by Stan Lee who decided to create the members of this
team as heroes he could personally relate to.
I quote, “they'd be flesh and blood, they'd have their faults and foibles, they'd be fallible
and feisty, and — most important of all — inside their colorful, costumed booties
they'd still have feet of clay”.
The Fantastic Four have been an important staple in Marvel’s comics for years because
of this.
And naturally, like many of Marvel’s other popular superheroes and villains, they’ve
gotten their fair share of alternative treatments, with the quartet of heroes seeing many different
realities and different scenarios outside of the 616 universe.
And today, we’re taking a closer look at the some of the most powerful versions of
those alternates, with our list of the top 10 strongest alternate versions of the Fantastic
Four.
But before we begin, just wanna shout out a brand new channel – our new sister channel,
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You’ll definitely see some familiar faces!
Now onto our list!
10 Zombie Fantastic Four - Earth 2149 Zombie versions of Reed, Sue, Johnny and Ben
- if that wasn’t already obvious!
They came to be after the Fantastic Four, out trying to help the zombie infested city,
returned to the Baxter Building, only to discover that She-Hulk, who had been infected, killed
Sue and Reed’s children, Franklin and Valeria.
Sue blows up She-Hulk’s head with a force field.
Joining up with the rest of the resistance, Reed begins to investigate the zombie virus,
fascinated by them, marveling at their efficiency, which doesn’t go over well with Sue.
And later, Reed loses his mind altogether, and tricks the rest of the Fantastic Four,
pricking their skin with the zombie virus, transforming them.
They all attack him, biting him, infecting him as well.
9 Fin Fang Four The Fin Fang Four are an alternate earth group
of superheroes who are led by none other than Fin Fang Foom.
Googam, Gorgilla, and Elektro make up the other members of the team, and they go around
on adventures that parody the adventures of the Fantastic Four.
Here’s the gimmick though - all four of these monsters have been shrunk down to human
size, who reform and end up working jobs for the Fantastic Four, and shenanigans ensue.
As you may of guessed, their series was a comedic one.
8 Marvel Bullpen Fantastic Four Here we have a parody version of the Fantastic
Four in which the original Marvel bullpen became the famous quartet thanks to cosmic
rays that shoot out of a box that was delivered to the Marvel office in the early 60s.
The group consists of Stan Lee and Mr Fantastic, Jack Kirby as the Thing, Sol Brodsky as the
Human Torch and Flo Steinberg as Invisible Girl.
They’re granted super powers and go around over the next two decades on secret missions,
all while publishing comics during the day.
And really, it’s their self-reflexivity that makes them so powerful in the long run.
7 Challengers of the Fantastic The Challengers of the Fantastic are from
the Amalgam universe, the universe that combines the characters of the DC and Marvel universes.
This means that they’re a combination of the Fantastic Four and DC’s Challengers
of the Unknown, who were a group who debuted in 1957 created by Jack Kirby, who explored
science fiction and paranormal occurrences.
The concept of the Challengers would later be reworked into the Fantastic Four with Stan
Lee.
Known as the world’s greatest death cheaters, there are some obvious differences between
them and their 616 counterparts - The Thing has 4 arms, Reed is a scientific genius who
uses robotic arms instead of stretching, and Johnny Storm uses a flamethrower.
6 Mangaverse Fantastic Four The Marvel Mangaverse is the Marvel universe
re-imagined in the style of Japanese manga.
In it, the Fantastic four are still Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny - except their personalities
differ quite a bit.
Reed is more sarcastic, a womanizer, and doesn’t like combat.
Instead, he uses his stretching abilities to increase his brain size and power.
Sue is very emotionally distant and quiet.
Johnny is now Jonatha, a woman, who still acts like a bit of a loose canon.
And finally, Ben is crude and swears like a sailor.
When the team gets into a fight, Reed stays in the Baxter Building and monitors the group,
and the rest of them wear suits that augment their powers to new heights.
5 Future Foundation Here we have one of the Fantastic Four alternate
teams from Earth 1610, also known as the Ultimates universe.
First appearing in 2014’s Ultimate FF, this team was inspired by the defunct Fantastic
Four, who had broken up thanks to a series of tragic events.
This version was founded by Tony Stark and led by Sue Storm along with Phil Coulson.
They’re told by Spider-Hamm, who had fled from another universe on the brink of destruction,
that in order to save their own universe, Sue and Reed Richards needed
to have a child.
4 Four Fantastics The Four Fantastics from Earth 187319 first
appeared in Exiles vol 1 issue 95 back in 2007.
They’re a version of the team in which Victor Von Doom is Mr Fantastic and leads them, and
instead of the Thing, the Hulk is now a part of the group.
Their Earth is an earth with no crime, hate or fear thanks to Victor’s rule.
Meanwhile, Reed lives underground as a fugitive, and he and Victor’s feud is one that the
Exiles team finds themselves caught between.
3 New Fantastic Four The New Fantastic Four are actually an iteration
of the group rather than alternates of Reed, Sue, Ben and Johnny, and they exist on Earth
616.
Initially, they were tricked into starting this new group by a Skrull named De’Lila
was was an empath.
She shape shifted into Sue Storm, pretending to be the hero, and convinced Spider-Man,
the Hulk, Wolverine and Ghost Rider to form the new Fantastic Four to avenge the original
Fantastic Fours deaths (they weren’t dead, she had just captured them).
The team has disbanded and regrouped on several occasions since.
They would later operate as the Secret Defenders when Doctor Strange requested that they work
together to bring the Human Torch in for arson.
Regardless, they’re a pretty solid bunch - with the Hulk’s OP-ed abilities, combined
with Wolverine, Spider-Man and Ghost Rider, the team packs a whole lot of punch, and even
managed to take on the Sinister Six, too.
2 Fantastic Five - MC2 The Fantastic Five are the Earth 982 version
of the Fantastic Four, that earth also known as the MC2.
The MC2 is an Earth in which the Age of Heroes happened 15 years earlier than when it happened
on 616 - the Age of Heroes is marked by the first appearance of the Fantastic Four, kind
of like how Iron Man’s reveal in the MCU was the public debut to superhero activity
in that universe.
Anywho, the MC2 Fantastic Five are what the original Fantastic Four became after the team
fought with Hyperstorm in the Negative Zone. Reed and Sue had to stay behind in the Negative
Zone, so Johnny Storm stepped up and led the team, with is wife Lyja, Franklin Richards,
the son of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman, and a robot called Big Brain that Reed
had built joining the team.
Franklin would operate under the mantle of Psi-Lord, and later, when his powers increased
vastly thanks to Cosmic Ray exposure, he became radioactive, having to wear a special helmet
that contained his head - his skull shined through his face.
While it seems that Franklin of this earth doesn’t have the same powers as his 616
self, he’s still a powerful telepath and telekinetic, making this version of the team
quite strong.
1 The Fantastic Thors These alternates are from Earth 15143, and
took part in the Siege storyline, volume 2 issue 4, in which they helped defend Battleworld’s
Shield during its final siege.
They’re part of the Thor Corps, and have the same names as they do in 616 - Susan Storm,
Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm and Reed Richards.
Not much about their history is known outside of the fact that on their earth, they joined
the Thor corps in order to enforce God Emperor Doom’s laws, and to keep the peace on Battleworld.
Their powers are seemingly those of their 616 counterparts, combined with the powers
of Thor, meaning they wield all of the same abilities as the Asgardian god of thunder.
Not too shabby of an upgrade, that’s for sure.