About Me
I am the only son of wealthy physicist Nathaniel Richards and his wife Evelyn and I was a child prodigy with special aptitude in mathematics, physics, and mechanics. Evelyn Richards died when I was seven. Nathaniel Richards encouraged and guided me in my scientific studies, and I was taking college-level courses by the time I was fourteen. I attended several universities, among them California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, Harvard University, and State University in Hegeman, New York State.It was at State University that I first met two of the most important individuals in my life. I was assigned to room with a foreign student, a scientific genius named Victor Von Doom. The imperious Von Doom took an immediate dislike to me and decided to take other quarters. As Doctor Doom, Von Doom would later become my greatest rival and enemy. I instead gained as my roommate former high school football star Benjamin J. Grimm, who became my closest friend. I was already intending to build a starship for interstellar travel. When I told this ambition to Grimm, Grimm jokingly said that he would pilot the starship for me.While attending Columbia University I rented living quarters at the Manhattan boarding house owned by the aunt of a young girl named Susan Storm. Though she was still only a child, no more than twelve years old, Susan fell in love with me much to my embarrassment.Three years before I tested my starship, my father mysteriously disappeared. In fact, Nathaniel Richards had devised a time machine which he had used to attempt to journey into the future of his own world. However, the machine actually transported him to an alternate Earth with a history considerably different from our own; I was later reunited with him while visiting this alternate Earth years later. But before Nathaniel Richards left his own time line, he made arrangements that left two billion dollars to me. I spent most of this money on his project to build and launch his starship. This project, based in Central City, California, received further funding from the federal government.I recruited his old friend Ben Grimm, who had become a successful test pilot and astronaut, to pilot the starship. Susan Storm, who was now an adult, joined me in California. We were engaged to be married.Shortly before the starship was to be launched, I used my scientific knowledge to defeat the extraterrestrial being Gormuu, who had intended to conquer Earth. My encounter with Gormuu strengthened my resolve to finish the starship, which I saw as a first step in making it possible for mankind to defend itself from extraterrestrial threats.However, the federal government then threatened to withdraw its funding from the project. I decided to take the starship on a test flight himself before the funding was withdrawn. Grimm was opposed to the idea, warning that the starship's shielding might prove inadequate protection from intense radiation storms. Nevertheless, Grimm was persuaded to serve as pilot, and Susan Storm and her adolescent brother Johnny insisted on accompanying me as passengers. We stole onto the launch facility, entered the starship, and blasted off. We intended to travel through hyperspace in the ship to another solar system and back. However, unknown to me, a solar flare caused Earth's Van Allen radiation belts to be filled temporarily with unprecedented, ultra-high levels of cosmic radiation. Since the ship was designed to shield against ordinary levels of radiation, the cabin volume was subjected to intense cosmic ray bombardment, which irradiated the four us and wrought havoc on the ship's controls. Pilot Grimm was forced to abort the flight and return to Earth.Once back on Earth, we discovered that the cosmic radiation had triggered mutagenic changes in their bodies. I discovered that I could become malleable and elongate my body at will. I convinced the three others that the four of them should use their newfound powers for the good of humanity as members of a team I named the Fantastic Four. I became the team's leader, named myself Mister Fantastic, while Ben Grimm, Susan Storm, and Johnny Storm named themselves the Thing, the Invisible Girl (later Invisible Woman), and the Human Torch, respectively. The profits from my patents and royalties funded our activities.Under my leadership the Fantastic Four has become Earth's most honored team of superhuman adventurers, and has saved the world from conquest or destruction many times. I eventually married Susan Storm, and we now have a son, Franklin.After many years, I joined my wife in semi-retirement from their superhero career. We tried to raise their son Franklin in a relatively normal environment, but soon, Franklin was kidnapped by the villains Nanny and the Orphan-Maker at the same time that New York was undergoing a demonic invasion. We teamed up with Captain America (then, the Captain) and other heroes to reform the team Avengers, which had then recently gone on hiatus. We soon left the team and rejoined the Fantastic Four at our base.
