History Main / TheFantasticFaux

* The ''ComicBook/MarshalLaw'' one-shot ''Crime and Punishment: Marshal Law Takes Manhattan'' involves an insane aslyum with inmates who are expies of Marvel superheroes. They include a pastiche of the Human Torch (who is the only superhero in the comic to survive the story, [[DeathSeeker not that he's happy to stay alive]]) and a stand-in for Mr. Fantastic who talks to an invisible wife who isn't actually there.

* Factor Four (from 3rd edition's "Rogues Gallery") are a quartet of super-crooks who have all been [[ModeLock permanently transformed]] into [[ElementalShapeshifter element-based forms]], which they exploit whilst simultaneously wishing to undo. Their leader, Professor Fathom (Richard Calumus), is a super-genius turned being of living water. Granite (William Cole) is a dim-witted and brooding bruiser made of living stone. Pyre (Jack Connors) is a hotshot who became a being of living fire. Finally, the team's only female is Sylph (Sylvia [=McAllister=]), a being of living inert vapors. Their lore mentions that they have a rivalry with the Atom Family from ''TabletopGame/FreedomCity''.

** 2nd edition sourcebook ''Freedom's Most Wanted'' introduces the Nightwatch; a bunch of vampires who ''pretend'' to be a Fantastic Four-esque team of night-operating vigilantes to cover up their predations. Each member is expected to focus on a single one of their ComboPlatterSuperpowers, to further obfuscate their true nature and better fit the image they present of being a team of differently powered individuals. Their leader is Viktor von Nacht, aka "Doctor Twilight", presents himself as a BadassNormal, downplaying his superhuman physical abilities and acting as the team's leader. Daniel "Nocturne" Travers focuses exclusively on the [[CastingAShadow umbrakinetic]] abilities granted by his magical Amulet of Shadows. The monstrous [[BeastMan bestial-looking]] Kurt Jaeger uses his BeastMaster abilities as "Talon". Damiana Ruskeya presents herself as the female power-house "Virago", focusing on her SuperStrength, SuperToughness and SuperSpeed. Lastly, Genevieve Dumont uses her SuperSmoke powers as the intangible beauty "Mistral".

* ''WesternAnimation/SpongeBobSquarePants'': While the International Justice League of Super Acquaintances (first seen in "Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy V" when [=SpongeBob=]'s friends borrow their outfits to get superpowers, then seen in their original incarnations in "The Bad Guy Club for Villains") has an aesthetic and name more reminiscent of the Justice League, the powers fit the Fantastic Four archetypes much better. The Elastic Waistband has stretchy powers a la Mister Fantastic, Miss Appear is an ActionGirl with invisibility powers a la the Invisible Woman, and Captain Magma shoots hot lava similar to the Human Torch's fire ability (and activates his powers with a CatchPhrase like the Torch does). The Quickster and Mermaid Man don't fit a particular mold, however, as they're parodies of ComicBook/TheFlash and ComicBook/{{Aquaman}} respectively.

* ''ComicBook/TheMultiversity'' establishes that Earth-8, a world in the Creator/DCComics multiverse that is the home of {{Alternate Company Equivalent}}s to the superheroes and supervillains of Creator/MarvelComics, has a team based on the Fantastic Four called the Future Family, with the Reed Richards stand-in named Frank Future and Ben Grimm's ersatz being known as Golem.

* ''ComicBook/TheMultiversity'' establishes that Earth-8, home of {{Alternate Company Equivalent}}s to the superheroes and supervillains of Creator/MarvelComics, has a team based on the Fantastic Four called the Future Family, with the Reed Richards stand-in named Frank Future and Ben Grimm's ersatz being known as Golem.

* ''Franchise/{{Superman}}'' introduced the character Hank Henshaw and his family as a brutal, vicious {{Deconstruction}} of the Fantastic Four formula: they are an astronaut and his wife, along with two others who travel into space and are bombarded by radiation. The radiation, however, immediately kills two of them and forces them to create bodies of out of rock and energy respectively (thus becoming parallels to The Thing and the Human Torch). Terri Henshaw likewise becomes more and more intangible to reality until her husband is forced to build her a robotic body to live in. These circumstances leave them all mentally unhinged, and all three are eventually DrivenToSuicide. Henshaw's own body also decays and he eventually becomes a consciousness that can live in machinery and computer circuitry, later returning as a major archenemy: the Cyborg Superman.

* The Ultra-Conservative sends the ''The Fanatic Four'' after ''ComicBook/{{Normalman}}'', consisting of Mr Fanatical, Helpless Woman, The Humane Touch and The Lunk.
* ''ComicBook/TheSimpsons'' comics give Radioactive Man an analogue in the form of the Fossil Fuel Four. They're a team of supervillains based around fossil fuels as a commentary on energy generation believed to be inferior and polluting compared to nuclear power. The most direct counterpart is Old King Coal, who looks like The Thing made out of coals dressed in RequisiteRoyalRegalia.
* ComicBook/BigBangComics, as part of its CastOfExpies, eventually introduced Faust’s Four, a villainous team of would-be astronauts who sold their souls to a demon to beat the US and Soviet Union to the moon. They were nearly killed when their rocket crashed and their master Baal-Zabul twisted them into his hellish servants (turns out you can’t trust the devil). This is a little recursive as between their origin and powers they’re also inspired by other villainous FF expies like the Terrific Trio, U-Foes, and Hank Henshaw.

** The final (optional) archetype can be [[SixthRanger practically anyone]], as there are a lot of possible dynamics to work on. Sometimes, they will be the child of two of the members (ala Franklin Richards), or merely a friend of the team (ala Franchise/SpiderMan or ComicBook/SheHulk), or even a [[DefeatMeansFriendship former villain]] that pulled a HeelFaceTurn (mirroring the occasional times Doctor Doom has joined the team). It's also not uncommon for a character to possess a blend of several recognizable traits.

** A SuperTeam of four[[note]]Sometimes slightly lower or higher.[[/note]] characters who are a combination of both superheroes and explorers. Some variations may instead be villainous. But in general, they are [[BadassCrew smaller than most super teams]].

* The original iteration of the ComicBook/DoomPatrol was a rather obvious homage to the Fantastic Four, with Robotman having super-strength and a freakish orange-skinned appearance, Elasti-Girl having stretching abilities, the Negative Man having energy powers, and the Chief having super-intelligence, and with the exception of the Chief, all their powers came from freak accidents (later retconned as having been caused by the Chief himself.) They also wear shared uniforms, and the Negative Man's origin (he went into space in an experimental machine and was bombarded by radiation) is highly reminiscent of the Fantastic Four. This was taken further in an issue of Creator/GrantMorrison's run, which depicted an out-of-continuity story drawn in a style reminiscent of Jack Kirby where the team was renamed the Legion of the Strange, Robotman (under his original codename Automaton) was depicted with a clunkier appearance reminiscent of The Thing and the team wore matching uniforms similar to the ones worn by the Fantastic Four except for being colored green rather than blue and the insignia being a question mark instead of the number four.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/{{Rugrats}}'' episode "Mega Diaper Babies", the babies watch a cartoon called ''Mega Hyper Heroes'' about a team of four heroes who include Ms Invisible and Flamo (the other two are less direct, being an {{Animorph|ism}} called Changeling and a guy with [[SuperStrength the strength of two men]] called the Bolt). This inspires them to become the Mega Daiper Babies: Tommy as Changing Baby, Phil as Spitball Boy (firing spitballs instead of Flamo's fireballs), Lil as Dotted Line Girl (having misunderstood Ms Invisible's VisibleInvisibility), and Chuckie as Stinky (who ''smells'' as strong as two babies).

** There are numerous villainous teams which have been formed either to fight or to mimic the FF, most famously the Frightful Four and the U-Foes. The latter even tried to replicate the circumstances that provided the FF their powers, down to hiring the same engineers to build an exact replica of their original spaceship, and even has a team make-up of an energy guy, an incorporeal/vapor girl, and a giant strongman made of steel. (Although the last member is a [[MindOverMatter telekinetic]] rather than a RubberMan.)

* Alan Moore's Silver Age homage ''ComicBook/NineteenSixtyThree'' features "Mystery Incorporated," a super team that has other powers but otherwise matches the Fantastic Four perfectly.

* On ''WesternAnimation/AtomicBetty'', the main character's enemies included a trio of {{Evil Knockoff}}s of her who had powers similar to Mr. Fantastic, the Human Torch, and the Thing.
* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond'' featured a CorruptedCharacterCopy of the Fantastic Four known as the Terrific Trio, who are similarly given superpowers by a scientific catastrophe and represent clear analogues to Mr. Fantastic, the Thing (with some aspects of the Human Torch as well), and Susan Storm. However, in this case the "accident" was deliberately manufactured by a "[[FalseFriend friend]]" in a bungled attempt to MurderTheHypotenuse. They start off as heroes, but after learning about their true origin and that the aftereffects of the event are slowly killing them, they quickly descend into villainy, forcing Batman to stop them.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles|2012}}'': The episode "[[Recap/TeenageMutantNinjaTurtles2012S4E19BatInTheBelfry Bat in the Belfry]]" shows the Turtles reading comics parodying various famous superheroes. Raphael's favorite superhero comic is "The Fantastic Four Food Groups".

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[[caption-width-right:350:All of these families seem pretty "fantastic".[[note]]Clockwise from top-left: The original ComicBook/FantasticFour, [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond The Terrific Trio]], [[ComicBook/AstroCity the Furst Family]], and WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons.[[/note]]]]

[[caption-width-right:350:All of these families seem pretty "fantastic".[[note]]Clockwise from top-left: The original ComicBook/FantasticFour, [[WesternAnimation/BatmanBeyond The Terrific Trio]], [[ComicBook/AstroCity the First Family]], and WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons.[[/note]]]]

* The original iteration of the ComicBook/DoomPatrol was a rather obvious homage to the Fantastic Four, with Robotman having super-strength and a freakish orange-skinned appearance, Elasti-Girl having stretching abilities, the Negative Man having energy powers, and the Chief having super-intelligence, and with the exception of the Chief, all their powers came from freak accidents (later retconned as having been caused by the Chief himself.) They also wear shared uniforms, and the Negative Man's origin (he went into space in an experimental machine and was bombarded by radiation) is highly reminiscent of the Fantastic Four. This was taken further in an issue of Creator/GrantMorrison's run, which depicted an out-of-continuity story drawn in a style reminiscent of Jack Kirby where the team was renamed the Legion of the Strange, Robotman (under his original codename Automaton) was depicted in a clunkier appearance reminiscent of The Thing and the team wore matching uniforms similar to the ones worn by the Fantastic Four except for being colored green rather than blue and the insignia being a question mark instead of the number four.

* The original iteration of the ComicBook/DoomPatrol was a rather obvious homage to the Fantastic Four, with Robotman having super-strength and a freakish orange-skinned appearance, Elasti-Girl having stretching abilities, the Negative Man having energy powers, and the Chief having super-intelligence, and with the exception of the Chief, all their powers came from freak accidents (later retconned as having been caused by the Chief himself.) They also wear shared uniforms, and the Negative Man's origin (he went into space in an experimental machine and was bombarded by radiation) is highly reminiscent of the Fantastic Four. This was taken further in an issue of Creator/GrantMorrison's run, which depicted an out-of-continuity story drawn in a style reminiscent of Jack Kirby where the team was renamed the Legion of the Strange, depicted Robotman (under his original codename Automaton) in a clunkier appearance reminiscent of The Thing and had the team wear matching uniforms similar to the ones worn by the Fantastic Four except for being colored green rather than blue and the insignia being a question mark instead of the number four.

* The original iteration of the ComicBook/DoomPatrol was a rather obvious homage to the Fantastic Four, with Robot Man having super-strength and a freakish orange-skinned appearance, Elasti-Girl having stretching abilities, the Negative Man having energy powers, and the Chief having super-intelligence, and with the exception of the Chief, all their powers came from freak accidents (later retconned as having been caused by the Chief himself.) They also wear shared uniforms, and the Negative Man's origin (he went into space in an experimental machine and was bombarded by radiation) is highly reminiscent of the Fantastic Four.

->''"And don't tell me there's no way to make a good ''Fantastic Four'' movie! It's called ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'', and it's perfect."''
-->-- '''WebVideo/HonestTrailers''' on Tim Story's ''Film/{{Fantastic Four|2005}}'' duology

* ''WesternAnimation/TheIncredibles'' is probably the most well-known case of a family of heroes that uses the formula of the ''Fantastic Four'', although its creator denies using the comics franchise as a source. Still, the title characters are a family of two parents and their three children, with the powers of SuperStrength, {{Invisibility}} and [[BarrierWarrior Force Fields]], [[RubberMan Elasticity]], and even a GooGooGodlike RealityWarper. Dash is the one that stands out, not having a true FF analogue, although like Johnny Storm, he is the fastest and most [[HotBlooded hot-headed]] of the team.

* ComicBook/BigBangComics, as part of its CastOfExpies, eventually introduced Faust’s Four, a villainous team of would-be astronauts who sold their souls to a demon to beat the US and Soviet Union to the moon. They were nearly killed when their rocket crashed and their master Baal-Zabul twisted them into his hellish servants (turns out you can’t trust the devil).

* We get an [[AllianceOfAlternates Alliance of Alternate]] [[WesternAnimation/BeavisAmdButthead Beavises and Buttheads]] in ''WesternAnimation/BeavisAndButtheadDoTheUniverse''. Given that their base is called the "Citadel Of Beavis and Butthead", they seem to be a parody of the Council Of Rick's from ''WesternAnimation/RickAndMorty'' who are based on the Council of Reeds from the ''Fantastic Four'' comics.

* ''The Simpsons'' comics give Radioactive Man an analogue in the form of the Fossil Fuel Four. They're a team of supervillains based around fossil fuels as a commentary on energy generation believed to be inferior and polluting compared to nuclear power. The most direct counterpart is Old King Coal, who looks like The Thing made out of coals dressed in RequisiteRoyalRegalia.

** Opposite of the leader will be TheChick that substitutes for the Invisible Woman, the TeamMom. Depending on the era that the copy wishes to homage/parody, she will either be a near-useless DamselInDistress with powers based on {{Invisibility}}, {{Intangibility}} or some other form of incorporeality, or she will be an extremely strong-willed ActionGirl with arguably the strongest powerset of the entire group, although they tend to be [[GuysSmashGirlsShoot based on non-physical]] traits like [[BarrierWarrior forcefields]], [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]] and/or PsychicPowers.