character: Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic)
brief bio/bullets: The only son born to Nathaniel and Evelyn Richards. Reed was a child prodigy and exceled at mathematics, physics, and mechanics. Reed took after his father, Nathaniel, who was a gifted scientist. Nathaniel's inventions and discoveries served to make the family considerably wealthy. For the most part, life was as mundane as it could be in Reed's early years. He was ahead of the curve but still too young for it to make much of a difference. When Reed was only seven his mother, Evelyn, died of a mysterious illness. This turn of events left Nathaniel the sole caretaker of his young son. The scientist did his best to take care of his only son and nurtured the boy's interests in the scientific. Without Evelyn around to keep an eye on her husband Nathaniel may have pushed his son a little too hard and managed to alienate him from other children his own age. Instead of Reed developing an interest in sports and the normal socializing of children his own age the young boy began turning his attention towards his studies and helping out in his father's lab. His life was an academic whirlwind since then.
At fourteen, Reed was working on multiple scientific degrees from California State Institute of Technology. His father also mysteriously vanished by this time and was presumed dead, leaving Reed a considerable amount of money. Reed would use this money to put himself through a few more years of school before using it to later fund his own projects. At twenty-one, Reed temporarily moved out of the family home and moved into a small apartment in New York so he could attend Southern University of New York City. While there he befriended Ben Grimm, a football player and future pilot who he shared his dreams of space with, Victor VonDoom who would become his rival and future arch nemesis after an explosion resulted in the scarring of his face, Johnny Storm, and Susan Storm who would become his future wife. At the time Sue was only 12 and her obvious affections and infatuation with the young scientist made him feel just a little uneasy he found, however, that the 12 year old managed to understand him better than anyone else ever could.
After SUNY he went to went to Harvard and spent some time at MIT he met a woman named Alyssa who was his intelligence equal but she rejected him. At 27 he began work on his dream project (a space craft capable of reaching distant planets) with help from government funding and his own inheritance. Calculations were done hastily and Reed didn’t take a lot of variables into account due to the reappearance of an 18 year old Susan Storm (who Reed began dating), Ben Grimm (who Reed had requested as a pilot), and the government’s increased pressure. When the project was finally complete the government decided to pull their money and close it all done. Reed and Ben hijacked their own space craft and went into space not realizing Johnny and Susan Storm had tagged along. While in Space they were bombarded with cosmic rays which altered their DNA and transformed them into the Fantastic Four.
Over the years the four of them would battle many enemies (including and mostly Doom) and team up with many other heroes who would become their friends. Reed and Sue eventually married and started up a family of their own. Reed secretly became a member of the Illuminati along with his rival for his wife’s affections Namor. Over the years they faced hard times and separation. They’ve been broke and were enemies of the United States Government. Reed has had to sell patents on various inventions to help them out of jams or pay off something Johnny destroyed. They’ve even been homeless and Reed’s lost his sanity. Through it all they’ve always managed to work things out as a family. When M-day came and went it took with it both Sue and their young daughter (who had this incredibly difficult birth and damnit she was only a baby) Valeria leaving Reed as a single parent. Without Sue he became reclusive and would’ve spent the past three years locked in his labs or dealing with a growing insanity had it not been for his young son Franklin. Currently, Reed is looking for a way to continue the existence of the human species even if, so far, he hasn’t had any luck and it looks like mankind is doomed.
pb: Ioan Gruffudd
Email: bloodiedbloom@yahoo.com
AIM: slythfox