For a team created in the early Silver Age of Comics, the Fantastic Four have had a very stable lineup and powerset. But a lesser-known comic from the 1990s recreated the team, swapping out their powers for advanced armor.
The Fantastic Four are some of Marvel’s brightest and most hopeful heroes, but there are still downsides to their powers. Being trapped as a rocky giant irreparably changed Ben Grimm’s life, while Susan Richards’ unique biology almost led to her death in childbirth, with only Doctor Doom able to help. Despite this, the Fantastic Four as essential to the world’s continued survival, having faced down major threats such as Galactus, Annihilus, and Kang the Conqueror. Tragically, however, it turns out they didn’t need powers to fulfill this purpose.
Mutant X #2 by Howard Mackie and Tom Raney is set in an alternate reality where Cyclops died as a child and now Havok leads the X-Men. Here, readers have a chance to see a Fantastic Four who are very different in one huge respect. This quartet is completely Cosmic Ray-free and wear special cybernetic armors that grant them skills and abilities similar to their 616 versions (stealth, flame control and flight, strength and invulnerability, and multiple arms). This allows this timeline’s Fantastic Four to still operate as a heroic unit and help save the day despite their lack of inherent abilities and the drawbacks that came with them.
Reed Richards Improves His Family’s Powers with Armor
In this storyline, the armors serve a needed function – the four are just normal humans here and need technological upgrades to be able to act as superheroes. But the armors don’t just mimic the abilities readers have come to expect, they enhance them. This is most prominent with Ben Grimm, who, rather than being cursed with a harsh rocky exterior, is able to just walk out of his suit and resume life as a normal man after a mission. This Fantastic Four never have to worry about their powers going haywire or growing out of their control (something 616 Johnny and Ben have gone through several times), and the powers being derived from Reed’s technology means he is constantly upgrading them, ridding them of any weaknesses and constantly making them stronger.
Reed, Johnny, Sue, and Ben are destined to be a family of heroes in any reality, but it turns out that being mutated by Cosmic Rays doesn’t need to be part of their story. Reed Richards’ advanced armor didn’t just empower his family in the world of Mutant X, but freed them from the drawbacks of their powers, all while giving fans fresh insight into the Fantastic Four by transforming their iconic abilities and costumes.