The Fantastic Four consists of Reed Richards, who is a brilliant but bankrupt physicist and mathematician, Ben Grimm, who is Richards’ partner, Susan Storm, and her younger brother and pilot Johnny Storm. The four unite because of Richards’ goal of discovering the roots of evolution in cosmic storm clouds. Millionaire CEO and old classmate Victor von Doom agrees to fund Richards’ project and use his space station. The five people go into space, but they encounter an unpleasant surprise. The storm clouds go out of control, and the crew is hit with cosmic rays that mutates their genes. When they return to Earth, each person discovers their unique super-human abilities because of their altered genes.

This group of superheroes is unique because unlike most popular superheroes, including Spider-Man and Superman, the Fantastic Four have let their mutations and identities become public knowledge. Their powers are revealed to the media and the world when the four heroes impulsively decide to save a car pile-up full of people from a fire and a fire truck from falling off of the Brooklyn Bridge. Von Doom, on the other hand, still hides his new found powers, which is the ability to manipulate energy, because he intends on using his powers for destruction. To feed his undeniable egotism, Doom sees his genetic mutation as a way to become superior and transcend above all other humans.

The Fantastic Four are not feared or isolated from mainstream society because they are mutants. Instead, the media exploits the Four's powers so they become celebrities. Action figures, magazines, T-shirts, and other souvenirs are created to replicate the four heroes, and they can no longer walk in public without being harassed and followed by the swarms of fans. This aspect of the film has implications about the role of superheroes for people. The non-mutant society in Fantastic Four admires the heroes because they envy their superpowers, and they rely on them to save them from harm as well as entertain them like common TV/Movie personalities. Nonetheless, the group is regarded as “freakish” or different because they are mutants, so they regarded as a spectacle or commercial fad rather than humans.

Reed Richards
Superhero name: Mr. Fantastic
Superpower: flexible, elastic body; leader of the group

Susan Storm
Superhero name: The Invisible Woman
Superpower: Can create invisible force fields, becomes invisible when highly emotional

Reed Richards and Susan Storm are superheroes who would like more than anything to return back to normal. They have a scien tific outlook about their genetic mutations: they are a problem that must be solved. Their collaborative efforts are relied on by the team, except Johnny Storm, to create a healing chamber to reverse their mutations. Richards, who is impassioned with science and work more so than human interaction, is motivated to work for hours calculating how to reverse the Four’s genes. Although he finds his super-stretching powers useful, he does not want the responsibility of being a superhero nor the public attention. Richards embodies the meaning of “hard science” because he does not see his accidental mutation as more than just a mistake that has scientific reasoning behind it, and he detaches himself from the possibility of using his powers permanently to fight evil.

Sue Storm has similar hesitations accepting her mutations because she does not want to sacrifice her privacy and freedoms. In contrast to Richards, her powers derive from her emotional state (primarily embarrassment, anger, fear, and excitement) and she uses passion to fight evil rather than science. At the beginning of the film, she struggles with controlling her emotions that ignite her invisibility. Once she can control it, shebecomes a very powerful tool in defeating Von Doom by

Johnny Storm

Johnny Storm: What if we got these powers for a reason? What if it's like some higher calling?
Reed Richards: A higher calling? Like getting girls and making money?
Johnny Storm: Is there any higher?

Superhero name: The Human Torch
Superpowers: ability to fly and surround himself, manipulate, and shoot out flames

Johnny Storm strongly contrasts the other three members of the Four because he regards his mutation as a blessing. His role is more of the out-of-control, rebellious son in comparison to his restrained, strict parental figures (Storm and Richards). For most of the film, Storm does not embrace his powers because he can fight crime. Storm’s reckless, egotistical, immature, and womanizing personality motivates him to enjoy the new fame he has received due to his genetic mutation. He participates in extreme sports to show off his ability to light on fire, uses his popularity to get women, and thrives from all of the media attention he is getting. He criticizes the other team members and tells them to “lighten up” and enjoy their powers, especially Grimm, who despises his mutation most of all. Although Storm feeds his ego with his mutation, he is the first of the group to suggest that their superpowers are a product of fate and that they have to learn to adjust their lives to their mutations instead of trying to get rid of them. Although he remains self-centered in regards to his popularity, he does develop a deeper sense of purpose to his powers as he battles Von Doom and helps out his teammates. He learns to use his mutation for others instead of solely himself, he becomes a significant contribution to the group.

Ben Grimm

Superhero Name: The Thing

Superpower: Super-Human Strength, unbreakable exterior

Ben Grimm's character suffers the most from his superpowers because of how the mutation has affected him externally. Although all of his other teammates are mutants, he feels the weight of the media's attention the most because society fears him because he looks the most alien or abnormal. His own fiancee, unable to accept his horrific appearance, leaves him. People are blinded from his real self. Grimm is especially urgent to return back to normal he judged and regarded as a "freak"

photo courtesy of www.fantasic 411.com

by the rest of the world. He is the only character in the film who shows feelings of isolation from his own friends and his old life because he is given very apparent genetic alterations. He is unwilling to embrace his new identity because the rest of the world does not welcome him, and the only person besides his teammates who see him as anything more than a monster is a blind woman named Alicia Masters (imdb.com). He is also disheartened most of the film because he doubts that Richards will be able to create a way to reverse his mutation. There is a point in the film where Von Doom convinces Grimm to go ahead and use the machine that Richards' creates to get rid of the mutation. In his desperation, Grimm agrees and becomes "normal" again, only to be attacked and wounded by Doom so isn't in the way of Doom capturing Richards. Despite his identity crisis, Grimm evolves throughout the film to realize that fighting against Von Doom and saving his friends from mortal danger is more important than his self-consciousness. He is the team's pillar of strength and Richards' protector. He learns to use his mutation as a way of benefiting society, and he shows his allegiance to his team by voluntarily turning himself back into a monster so he can save them from destruction. At the end of the film, when all of the Four are given the option to return to their original states, he along with the team decides to remain mutants and accept his new role so he can continue fighting for justice.