The Origin of the Fantastic Four:
Scientist Dr. Reed Richards, his girlfriend Susan Storm, Susan's step-brother and engineer Johnny Storm, and pilot Ben Grimm were hired to build and test an experimental new space shuttle. The ship went haywire soon after the crew’s arrival into orbit and it bathed it in cosmic rays, mutating the members on board. The crew made it back to Earth in an escape pod, but it was too late to avoid their genetic transformations; Reed’s flesh became super-stretchy, Susan discovered that she can bend and control light, Johnny became a living bonfire of radiation, and Ben's flesh became magnetized rock. The crew soon discovered that they were actually sent them to discover the exact coordinates of the anomaly, so that the energies could be harnessed as a weapon. The four used their new powers to expose the information, defeated Doctor Doom and his army of robots, and sent him back to Latveria with his tail between his legs.
The team decided then and there to use their new powers to fight crime and thwart villains like Doom., alongside Johnny’s friend Max Parrish.
They tried to join the Avengers, but were rebuffed, since the Avengers were not accepting new members at the time. Reed decided to make the four an auxiliary team and bought a home base at the top of the Baxter Building in New York for them to use as their headquarters.
And thus begins the Fantastic Four.
