Stan Lee and Jack Kirby struck gold when they created theFantastic Four, crafting the core members of Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing and the Human Torch. But over the decades, many other heroes have served on the team, many of them also created by Stan Lee.
Here are the10 most powerful Stan Lee heroes to ever join the Fantastic Four, showing just how impressive and unexpected the team’s roster has become over the years. For this list, we’re looking at physical strength and offensive superhuman abilities, ranking from weakest to strong, and starting with…
10Reed Richards, aka Mister Fantastic
Debuted Fantastic Four #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Reed Richards may be the Fantastic Four’s genius leader, but his superhuman abilities are the least impressive thing about him.Reed can stretch and warp his body, allowing him to extend his limbs as well as upgrading his natural abilities by enhancing things like his mucles and optic nerves.
Reed’s true gift is his genius mind, which he’s used to create an endless parade of advanced tech including teleportation, time travel, multiversal gateways and anultra-powerful suit of anti-Galactus armor. Perhaps the only person who can match Reed’s expansive genius is his daughter Valeria Richards, aka Brainwave, and kid genius Moon Girl, who have both also served on the FF.
9Jonathan ‘Johnny’ Storm, aka Human Torch
The kid brother of the team, Human Torch can burst into flames, allowing him to hurl fireballs, exude heat and light, and even fly thanks to his mastery of his abilities. While Johnny is a hotheaded individual, heiscommitted to doing good, and has recently been experimenting with his powers to see what else they can do. One new ability Johnny unlocked is to make a flame replica of his body, andhe’s also been able to combine his light-emitting abilities with his sister’s force fields to create powerful lasers.
8Peter Parker, aka Spider-Man
Debuted Amazing Fantasy #15 by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko
Despite originally being rejected by the team in 1962’sAmazing Spider-Man #1,Spider-Man has since become their closest ally. Indeed,he’s the only hero who has served on all three main versions of the team, having been recruited onto the Fantastic Four, the New Fantastic Four, and the Future Foundation (following Human Torch’s death) - a feat that not even the four founders have accomplished.
Possessing the proportionate strength of a spider, precognitive spider-sense and artificial webbing with the tensile strength of silk, Pete is also one of few heroes who can keep up with Reed Richards' scientific genius, acting as a mentor to Reed’s son Franklin.
7Jennifer Walters, aka She-Hulk
Debuted Savage She-Hulk #1 by Stan Lee and John Buscema
One of the first heroes to join the Fantastic Four who didn’t first debut in their series, Jennifer Walters has served on multiple iterations of the team,often standing in for the superstrong Thing. As well as her gamma-powered strength, She-Hulk is the Fantastic Four’s lawyer, helping to keep the family safe and safeguarding Reed’s inventions and patents.
6Crystalia Amaquelin, aka Crystal
Debuted Fantastic Four #45 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
The first non-founder to join the Fantastic Four(in 1968’sFantastic Four #81, by Lee and Kirby),Crystal is a member of the Inhumans- an offshoot of humanity experimented on by the alien Kree. A member of the Inhuman royal family, Crystal originally replaced the Invisible Woman in the days after she gave birth to Franklin.
Crystal’s Inhuman powers allow her to control the four classic elements, able to manipulate earth, fire, water and air in a variety of ways, including forming forcefields of compressed air and unleashing bursts of flame. She briefly married FF villain Ronan the Accuser for political reasons, and has also dated the Human Torch, the Sentry and Avengers' Quicksilver, with who she has a daughter, Luna Maximoff.
5Benjamin Grimm, aka the Thing
The third founding member of the Fantastic Four, theThing is known for his incredible strength, and isessentially treated as Marvel’s strongest hero next to the Hulk(even though that isn’ttechnicallytrue at all times.) The Thing has exchanged earth-shaking punches with Marvel’s strongest heroes and villains, and is famous for never giving up, able to withstand incredible levels of punishment beyond even what his rocky hide can absorb.
4Susan Storm, aka the Invisible Woman
The final founding member of the Fantastic Four,Invisible Woman is easily Marvel’s most underrated powerhouse. Originally codenamed Invisible Girl, Sue started out with the sole ability to turn herself invisible. In the years since, she’s learned to turn anything invisible, as well as manifesting invisible forcefields so precise, she can use them to create functioning mechanisms, up to and including a jet.
Sue’s force fields are beyond powerful, and have even proved capable ofshattering the armor of the godlike Celestials. She also boasts mind-blowing fine control, able to alter the color of her hair and skin by subtly influencing their reflected light. Her force fields also allow her to manipulate sound, and have incredible deadly potential -while Sue has yet to kill someone by expanding her force field inside their brain, she’s threatened to do it before, with alt-universe stories confirming it’s both possible and deadly.
3Bruce Banner, aka the Hulk
Debuted The Incredible Hulk #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
The Fantastic Four have spent a lot of time fighting the Hulk, but he’s also served on the team’s ‘New Fantastic Four’ iteration. InFantastic Four #347(from Walt Simonson and Arthur Adams), the original FF were believed to be dead. To replace them, Spider-Man, Wolverine, Ghost Rider and Hulk became the New Fantastic Four, battling for a short time in their name.
The New FF have gotten back together on a few select occasions, while Hulk has deigned to help out the main team in the most extreme emergencies, such as when Reed Richards summoned every past member to take on the godlike Griever.
2Robert ‘Bobby’ Drake, aka Iceman
Debuted X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
A surprise member of the Fantastic Four, Iceman first appeared as a member in the story mentioned above, where Reed summoned all past FFers to battle the Griever, creating a mystery as to when Bobby officially joined. A flashback story inFantastic Four Volume 6 #24(from Dan Slott and Paco Medina) later revealed that he’d briefly replaced Human Torch in an ‘untold story’ from the team’s past, officially making him a member (though likely the shortest serving ever.)
Far more famous as a founding member of the X-Men, Iceman has the ability to slow down molecular motion, generating ice and cold, however that’s just the beginning of his abilities.As an Omega mutant,Iceman is also capable of slowing time itself to a halt, as well as generating an army of bodies which he can control with his subconscious mind. He is also able to generate and inhabit any kind of body out of ice, from a tiny stealth form to a skyscraper-sized behemoth.
1Powerhouse, aka Franklin Richards
Debuted Fantastic Four Annual #6 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby
Fantastic Four’s most powerful member of all time is the son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, Franklin Richards.Franklin possesses total power over reality, able to alter the world around him in whatever way he wants, as well as being able to create pocket dimensions of his own design. This ability proved essential in the aftermath of 2015’sSecret Wars, when Franklin and Reed joined forces to literally recreate the entire multiverse.
Destined to replace Galactusin the next cycle of creation, Franklin also possesses authority over the cosmic being, and has showcased the ability to resurrect the dead in the past. In current comics, Franklin has deliberately suppressed his powers in order to enjoy a normal childhood, however he allows his powers to re-manifest one day each year in order to look ahead in time for any threats to Earth only he can solve.
Those are the ten most powerful Fantastic Four members created by Stan Lee.In many cases, Lee could never have foreseen how powerful his creations would become- he certainly never intended for Iceman to join the team, or suspected that Invisible Woman (originally a perpetual damsel in distress) would become the powerhouse of the core four. Of course, that kind of unexpected development is exactly what superhero fans love about series likeFantastic Four, which are always growing and exploring creative new ideas.
