If you want to see theWorld’s Mightiest Heroes, you have the Avengers. If you want to see a team bound by genetic makeup, you have the X-Men. But if you want to see a superhero team that’s closest to being a real family, you have The Fantastic Four. With a genius, an invisible girl, a hot head, and a literal brick powerhouse, The Fantastic Four is one of the best superhero teams around, with just the four of them being powerful and beloved enough to compete with the far more vast Marvel hero teams as aforementioned. Here are the most powerful versions of this quartet of a team.
5The Standard Team
The Earth 616 Originals
Reed Richards is elastic, Sue Storm can hide from sight, Johnny Storm is a human torch, and Ben Grimm aka The Thing is great in a fight. These were the classic heroes that made up the original standard issue version of The Fantastic Four.
They were bound together by family ties, with Sue being in a loving relationship with Reed, Johnny being Sue’s younger brother and Ben being Reed’s great friend. These four would have their lives permanently altered during an experimental space flight gone wrong. Like in many other science-fiction stories, strange substances and outside forces gave them powers, with cosmic rays being the culprit this time.
The Fantastic Four, as their namesake suggests, only have four members to boast of typically. But with the abilities gained in their origin story, they might as well be a team of many dozen, with each of them being a high-level powerhouse in their own right. A man who can stretch into any shape, a woman who can become invisible and create force fields, a walking, talking, and flying fire-rocket, and, last but not least, a rocky brute. These four would prove to be capable of taking on threats that, if not for them, would have spelled doom for humanity.
4The 2005 Live Action Team
The Fantastic Team Of The 2000s
The live-action Fantastic Four movies starring Ioan Gruffudd as Mr. Fantastic, Jessica Alba as the Invisible Woman, Chris Evans as the Human Torch, and Michael Chiklis as The Thing, are a nostalgicset of moviesthat are somewhat split in terms of audience appeal. Some find them incredibly entertaining blasts from the very recent past, while others find them to be poor-quality movies that don’t hold up to more recent superhero tales. But what cannot be argued about, is the fact that this version of The Fantastic Four was decently strong.
In this version of The Fantastic Four’s story,Dr. Victor Von Doom, the CEO of Von Doom Industries, is persuaded to provide Dr. Reed Richards and his buddy Ben Grimm access to his space station so they can carry out a special study on the effects of cosmic radiation, leading to the team’s classic origin of them gaining their amazing yet troublesome abilities.
This version of The Fantastic Four has a Reed Richards capable of stretching beyond a thousand feet, a Sue Storm capable of force fields that can contain explosions, a Johnny Storm that can reach temperatures close to that of the sun, and a Ben Grimm that might as well be indestructible. It’s no surprise they hold a place in the culture’s heart after almost two decades.
3The 2006 Animated Team
The World’s Greatest Heroes
Perhaps their name is derivative of the Avengers ‘World Mightiest Heroes’ moniker, but the team of this animated series could be said to deserve such a title, boasting the flashiest displays of the quartet’s powers that The Fantastic Four have ever shown.
In just the first few episodes of the animated series, this version of The Fantastic Four proves to be among some of the most powerful, facing off against incredibly powerful adversaries very early on in the show’s run. These early episodes feature villains such as Moleman, leader of the Moloids, Skrulls, Ronan the Accuser, the Kree Empire, the Supreme Intelligence, the Puppet Master, Giganto, Impossible Man, Annihilus, Namor the Submariner,and of course, Doctor Doom.
Visually speaking, this version of The Fantastic Four is one of the most powerful too. In this series, The Thing is shown to be one of the largest variants of the rock-based strong man ever put on the screen, with their version of the Human Torch burning far brighter than most.
2The Ultimate Fantastic Four
Earth 1610s Powerful Team
The Ultimate Universe and the characters that exist within it are among the most infamous set of variants within Marvel lore. This is a version of Marvel’s Earth where most of the United States, United States, Canada, Greenland, Mexico, and parts of Central America are controlled by Howard Stark, which gives an idea of how strange this version of the world is.
This Earth’s Sue Storm is astonishingly intelligent, having an IQ of 170 and an intelligence power rating two points higher than thestandard Sue Storm. This Earth’s version of Ben Grimm can transform with glowing purple energy. But Mr. Fantastic is the team member who received the biggest upgrade in this universe.
Earth 1610 Reed Richards is not just known as Mr. Fantastic, but later takes up the mantle as the villainous “The Maker”. This Reed Richards has achieved immortality, not requiring food, water, or even oxygen, to live for thousands of years without oxygen and being able to survive in a vacuum.
1The Fantastic Thors
The Mightiest Team
As the name suggests, this is a version of The Fantastic Four that has connections to the powerful Asgardian known asthe Mighty Thorin all of his glory. That alone gives a fair idea as to why this Fantastic Four can be considered one of the best versions of the team by a landslide - and not just because the name has a nice rhyme and ring to it.
As established, the standard versions of The Fantastic Four are as capable as can be. Reed’s elasticity, Sue’s powerful force fields, Johnny’s burning energy, and Ben’s Hulk-rivaling strength, make a spectacle, to say the least. So what happens when you give all of these individuals their own version of Mjölnir? You get one of the strongest superhero groups around, that’s what.
This version of The Fantastic Four held the honor of being members of the Thor Corps, taking part in the last siege of Battleworld, and helping to protect the Shield. With each of the four holding an Asgardian hammer andpower akin to Thor’s, it helped them to conjure up the power of thunder and lightning in tandem with their already great powers to defend the planet.
