open/close all folders
Central Rogues Gallery
Annihilus
Annihilus
Notable Aliases: Lord of the Negative Zone, the Living Death that Walks, Ahmyor
First Appearance: Fantastic Four Annual #6 (November 1968)
"I am Annihilus... Lord of the Negative Zone! Annihilus the Living Death That Walks!"
An aggressive, paranoid Insectoid Alien who is the ruler of an alternate dimension known as the Negative Zone. Annihilus is convinced that every other living thing is a potential threat to his life, and that the only way for him to be safe is by being the only creature left alive.
- The Ageless: Continuous exposure to the energies of his Cosmic Rod has slowed his aging, making him virtually immortal.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: As an insect-like being, one of his life stages is an attractive human form with no memory (and in fact a righteous disdain towards) his real identity. When he matures into his adult form he shortly forgets that personality too (but not completely, the love he developed for Blink).
- Ax-Crazy: Extremely unstable, paranoid and aggressive, values his survival above everything else, and is unfortunately convinced everything alive is a danger to him.
- Bad Boss: Most infamously in Annihilation, where he slaughtered an entire part of his fleet because it took them too much time to conquer a planet.
- Big Bad: He's usually this when the story is set in the Negative Zone.
- And, as Annihilation and the Thanos trilogy by Jim Starlin shows, even stories that aren't.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: He often leads an army of these— and is an insectoid himself.
- The Constant: The Negative Zone is a multiversal singularity, meaning all instances of it seen from alternate universes are the same one. Subsequently, this means all Annihilus seen in what-if stories are the same one.
- Depending on the Writer: His level of diction can fluctuate, sometimes being typical eloquent ranting, sometimes just hissing snake talk.
- Enemy Civil War: His feud with fellow Negative Zone conqueror Blastaar.
- Enemy Mine: With the Avengers and the Galactic Council during Infinity. He's later forced to work with his rival Blastaar and enemy Nova during Annihilation: Scourge.
- Energy Absorption: The Cosmic Control Rod allows Annihilus to drain the energy of others.
- Evil Is Bigger: His Annihihulk form he gained after stealing the power of Hulk is even taller than Thanos.
- Evil Overlord: Of the Negative Zone.
- Fantastic Racism: Towards mammals.
- Frickin' Laser Beams: Annihilus can shoot destructive energy beams from the Cosmic Control Rod.
- Galactic Conqueror: In Annihilation, he decides he is done ruling on the Negative Zone only, and starts an invasion of the Universe.
- Hero Killer: He killed Wendell Vaughn in the opening act of Annihilation. Wendell got better eventually, though.
- Humanoid Abomination: He looks vaguely humanoid, but is in fact an insectoid alien from the Negative Zone who has been made immortal by the powerful rod he is using as a weapon.
- Insectoid Aliens: What he really is.
- It's All About Me: The very reason he is dangerous; Annihilus values his own survival above everything else, and his paranoia causes him to believe pretty much everything is a potential danger to his life.
- Joker Immunity: Has died multiple times, it never sticks. Whenever he is killed his hive just births a new one.
- Large Ham: Extremely loud and bombastic as one would be from the days of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
- Laughably Evil: Post Annihilation he's wavered between creepy and hilarious, partly because of his Large Ham tendencies, and partly because post Annihilation he's often been depicted as a lesser evil. However, as the Took a Level in Badass entry demonstrates, this does not change the fact that he is a) evil, b) capable of being utterly terrifying.
- Logical Weakness: Annihilus has a tough outer shell. His organs, meanwhile, are as squishy and vulnerable as anyone else's. Of course, actually getting close enough to Annihilus in order to exploit this is... all but impossible.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Would you seriously like to stay in presence of a guy whose name is derived from the word annihilation?
- Noble Demon: To an extent. He tends to remember his debts and obligations, resurrecting Richard Rider after he saved the Negative Zone from the Cancerverse.
- Omnicidal Maniac: Out of paranoid fear that every other living thing is a danger to his life. In Annihilation, his goal is to wipe out the entire universe and rule on the void that will remain.
- Power Glows: With the Cosmic Control Rod.
- Retool: Jonathan Hickman's run changes him from an Omnicidal Maniac driven by the fear of his death to someone stuck with Complete Immortality.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: His body is mostly green with purple.
- Spikes of Villainy: His attire is full of them.
- Super-Strength: Usually depicted as strong enough to knock the Thing around and punch holes in Sue's force fields. In the Annihihulk form in Jim Starlin's OGN trilogy, he gave Thanos a tough fight.
- Took a Level in Badass: When he adapted the Hulk's transformations, he rises to the level of a cosmic being and his Annihilation Wave became unstoppable. Thanos had to petition the One Above All to make an alternate Adam Warlock a new Living Tribunal to rewrite history so he never achieved such power.
- The Worf Effect: After becoming Annihihulk, he proceeded to prove his new enhanced strenght by beating the crap out Gladiator (Kallark).
- Winged Humanoid: Notably they're more like a bat's than an insect's.
- Zerg Rush: Thanos stated that Annihilus is an unskilled tactician, as he is always thinking that the usage of an "overwhelming force" like his Annihilation Wave could solve all of his problems.
Attuma
Attuma
Alter Ego: Attuma
Notable Aliases: Nerkkod
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #33
" Death to Sub-Mariner!! Only Attuma will wear the crown of Atlantis!!"
Attuma is a barbarian chief and citizen of Skarka. He believes he is destined to conquer Atlantis.
See Sub-Mariner
Blastaar
Blastaar
Notable Aliases: Living Bomb-Burst, Blasstaar, King Blastaar
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #62 (May 1967)
" King Blastaar, if you please. Welcome to the Negative Zone."
A denizen of the Negative Zone who battles Annihilus frequently and became the king of most of the territories of the Negative Zone.
- Always Second Best: In terms of threats from the Negative Zone, he's always going to be behind Annihilus, something he's aware of and just a little tetchy about.
- Bad Boss: Blastaar is a ruthless tyrant who punishes dissenters and failure with execution.
- Dimension Lord: He claims to be the ruler of the Negative Zone, and often clashes with Annihilus for the title. He also frequently seeks to conquer Earth.
- Enemy Mine: Ends up having to work with Annihilus during Annihilation: Scourge against the Cancerverse.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Blastaar may be a ruthless tyrant, but he wants to conquer rather than destroy. When he makes the mistake of allying with Carnage in Webspinners: Tales of Spider-Man, he is disgusted that Cletus would use him to gleefully slaughter trillions.
- Hand Blast: His main power is the ability to fire beams of energy from his hands, hence his title: "The Living Bomb-Burst".
- Insistent Terminology: When made "king" of the Negative Zone, he's very fond of reminding everyone he runs into of that fact.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: In a confrontation with Nova, Rich quietly whispers to Blastaar that if he wants to stay king of the Negative Zone and the ceded territories in the main universe, he might want to remember what Rich did to the last person from the Negative Zone he fought (namely, ripped him inside out), then suggests a suitable way out that maintains his dignity and reputation. Blastaar quietly lets Rich go, playing it off as an act of kingly benevolence.
- The Rival: Of Annihilus, having clashed with him for the supremacy of the Negative Zone on several occasions.
- The Starscream: After War of Kings, he becomes the new ruler of the Negative Zone in Annihilus' and Ravenous' absence, working with the Inhumans. The minute Black Bolt goes missing, he betrays them and tries conquering Hala. He lasts five minutes before the Annihilators beat the stuffing out of him.
Diablo
Diablo
Alter Ego: Esteban Corazón de Ablo
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #30 (September 1964)
"While everyone thought me dead, I returned here — to prepare for my ultimate victory!"
A brilliant and ancient alchemist who was accidentally awoken by the Fantastic Four in their early days and has remained a nuisance ever since.
- 10-Minute Retirement: He'd decided he'd had enough of supervillainy when his old flame and fellow alchemist Gilded Lily recruited him to take revenge on Alpha Flight. He was only motivated to help her when she revealed she wanted to take over Aurora's body.
- Alchemy Is Magic: Sort of. His alchemy, which can transmute elements through means unknown to modern science, enables him to control his own physical body, the bodies of others, or inorganic matter.
- Bad Boss: Not a pleasant guy to work under.
- Biblical Bad Guy: Technically named after the devil, though his actual demonic connotations beyond that are very few.
- Cut Lex Luthor a Check: Actually addressed in his first appearance: part of his plan involves making a fortune by selling his chemicals to the world. It works, and he becomes very wealthy; however, all of his alchemical compounds break down over time, either reverting their effects or causing something more disastrous to happen. As such, this trope can be considered justified in Diablo's case.
- At one time he took over a Central American country by making vibranium for them, planning to cash in on its export. This actually drew the attention of the United Nations, who were willing to deal, but Canada dissented, and sent in Alpha Flight to stop Diablo and expose his scheme, which they did.
- Deal with the Devil: Made a deal with Mephisto for his elongated life.
- Manipulative Bastard: Underplayed compared to other FF villains, but he is quite the clever schemer, often working through manipulated proxies when he can.
- Really 700 Years Old: He was born in 9th century Spain, and has used his alchemical skills to prolong his life.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: Diablo wears green-and-purple. He animated and commanded a synthetic lifeform called Dragon Man who is sometimes depicted gray with purple pants, and sometimes purple with brown pants.
- This Cannot Be!: Almost every time he's defeated, he reacts with sheer disbelief.
Doctor Doom
Doctor Doom
Alter Ego: Victor Von Doom
Notable Aliases: King Boss, Doombot, Rabum Alal, Infamous Iron Man
First Appearance: The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962)
"Before this day is ended, mankind shall grovel helplessly at my feet — and, as fate has obviously ordained — Doctor Doom shall be Master of Earth!"
Reed Richards' Rival Turned Evil, and the Fantastic Four's best-known Arch-Enemy. Doom was introduced by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby in The Fantastic Four #5 (July, 1962) as the Arch-Enemy of the Fantastic Four. Doom was born in the Fictional Country of Latveria, the son of Romani witch Cynthia Von Doom. When Cynthia was killed by the demons she had summoned to fight Latverian soldiers, Doom swore revenge. The death of his father, medicine man Werner, caused by the dictator of Latveria only known as the Baron, only added fuel to Doom's desire for revenge.
After discovering his mother's occult instruments, Doom began to master both magic and technology to seek that revenge, amusing himself by leading the Latverian government on a merry chase while thwarting their attempts to stop him. When word of his exploits inevitably reached the United States, Doom gained the opportunity to study in America. There, Doom had a fateful meeting with Reed Richards, one of the few men on the planet whose intelligence could even approach Doom's, to whom he grew an immediate dislike. Wishing to resurrect his dead mother, Doom constructed a portal to Hell intended to communicate with the dead; however, Richards saw his calculations were slightly off and tried to warn him about the flaw in the machine, but Doom continued on with disastrous results: The device exploded and damaged his face.
Expelled from the university after the accident, Doom traveled the world until he collapsed on a Tibetan mountainside. Rescued by monks from a mysterious order, Victor quickly mastered the monks' secret disciplines, as well as metallurgy. Doom then forged himself a suit of Powered Armor, complete with a scowling mask, which he has used (with some modifications) since that day, and took the name Doctor Doom. He succeeded in taking over Latveria, and has since ruled it with an iron fist. Doom's path was soon to once again cross that of Richards, this time along with Richards' family, who became his sworn enemies, but he has also come into conflict with The Avengers, the X-Men, Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Luke Cage, and more.
See his own page for the tropes associated with him. There are plenty.
Doombots
Doombots
First Appearance: The Fantastic Four #5 (July 1962)
"The master will return to us. This we all know to be true. Until then, we carry on in his name. Open the armory! Arm every Doom! And rouse our man-beast army from their scientific slumber! We have blood to spill! Hulk Blood! In the the name our holy master. The one true Doom! DOOM Though maybe we should check the phone line one more time... just to make sure that he hasn't called..."
The Doombots are robots created by Doctor Doom (above). Usually show up singly to impersonate Doom but are sometimes used in multiple numbers as armies for Doom.
Dragon Man
Dragon Man
Alter Ego: Draconus
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #35 (February 1965)
"RRAAARRGGHH ooh?"
The creation of Professor Gilbert. Dragon Man is a massive, towering android that looks like a dragon.
- The Big Guy: He's 15'3" and can lift 100+ tons. He's easily the most physically strong member, and does the heavy lifting.
- Gentle Giant: After his turn to pacifism, he's become friendly but still big.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: Dragon Man was formerly a villain, until Valeria upgraded his intelligence and had him become a pacifist.
- Monster Modesty: He's a dragon with no mind of his own, but wears pants anyway.
- Purple Is Powerful: His body is mostly purple.
Galactus
Galactus
Alter Ego: Galan
Notable Aliases: Ashta, The Devourer of Worlds, The Lifebringer, The Seeder of Worlds
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #48 (March 1966)
"I am inevitable. I am... destiny. I am Galactus, and I hunger."
Galactus is the famed "Devourer of Worlds" in the Marvel Universe. His powers are nearly omnipotent. He has appointed a number of entities as his Heralds, imbuing them with the Power Cosmic. He uses energy from the core of planets and universal sources to sustain himself.
See Galactus
Kang the Conqueror
Kang the Conqueror
Alter Ego: Nathaniel Richards
Notable Aliases: Iron Lad, Rama-Tut, Victor Timely, Scarlet Centurion, Immortus
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #19 (October 1963) note ; The Avengers #8 (September 1964) note
"Story is not written, scholar— and neither is destiny! History is made! Made by the deeds of the strong! The brave! And destiny is forged! The historians, the students, the gray-beards— they come in the wake of the strong and write down what the brave have done! But it is the conquerors who change the world!"
Klaw
Klaw
Alter Ego: Ulysses Klaue
Notable Aliases: Ulysses Klaw, Master of Sound
First Apperance: Fantastic Four #53 (Aug 1966) note ; Fantastic Four #56 (Nov 1966) note
"Morality is the first step toward cowardice. Your cowardice has doomed your whole world. I will hunt down and kill everyone and everything you have ever loved. Listen for it... soon you will hear everyone you love scream."
A physicist working in the field of applied sonics, Professor Ulysses Klaue (Anglicized as Klaw) sought to create a sound transducer that could convert sound waves into physical mass. Needing vibranium to power this invention, Klaw ventured into Wakanda in an attempt to steal the mineral, killing King T'Chaka, but losing his right hand in the process. Replacing his lost limb with a weaponized version of his transducer, Klaw also converted himself into pure sonic energy, making him indestructible.
The Mad Thinker
The Mad Thinker
Alter Ego: Julius (Last name unknown)
Notable Aliases: Dr. José Santini, The Thinker
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #15 (Jun 1963)
"I plan for every eventuality!"
An enigmatic genius inventor who is obsessed with statistical probabilities, who originally supplied his inventions to criminal gangs before coming to the conclusion that he was more suited to Take Over the World.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: While no intuitive master manipulator, he can predict most people's actions quite well with sufficient observation and pattern recognition, and act accordingly. His one constant foil is Reed Richards, who is not only as smart as himself, but, paradoxically, not quite as "rational", which is why he keeps winning over him. Why, yes, an excitable woman like Sue Richards or an immature hothead like Johnny Storm will of course act irrationally, that is easy to predict—but a genius like Mr. Fantastic must make the logical and rational choice in any situation, right?
- Berserk Button: Don't call him "The Mad Thinker" to his face; its just "The Thinker", thank you very much. Though, in some continuities, he embraces the name.
- Clock King: His whole shtick. And he is quite good at it.
- Crazy-Prepared: It's quite difficult to surprise him, since he plans for every eventuality. Including contingency plans to compensate for incomplete information.Thinker: I always have a reserve plan, in case I should miscalculate.
- Creative Sterility: His Achilles' heel. He is one of the few geniuses in the Marvel universe brilliant enough to understand Reed Richards's works, and so he can reverse-engineer them with sufficient time and effort... but he cannot create anything of his own, only reproduce and recombine variants of other people's ideas.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Amongst other things, he was the one who created the Awesome Android.
- Mad Mathematician: His other hat. He once managed to calculate how long it would take the Fantastic Four to invade an enemy fortress, take out the enemies, and escape, and had planted a bomb to go off exactly as they had left the building blowing up their mutual enemy but not the Four. How on Earth did he do that? 10 minutes to go in, factoring in the Human Torch's average temperature of 2000 celcius... carry the 2... divide by 5... leave 2 minutes for electric signals...
- Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All: He spent several years of real time in an ordinary prison cell, but his brain implant enabled him to project his mind into android duplicates, enabling him to enjoy life and go on the occasional crime spree.
- Prescience by Analysis: He is the trope image and this trope is one of the things that makes him so dangerous. You would swear that he could see the future with how well he can predict things.
- Robot Master: What he is, the twist is while he’s a master he is not a maker of robots rather than using other designs and improving on them.
- Spanner in the Works: Most of his plans are short-circuited by these. Once, his whole scheme was foiled because he failed to take in account the Fantastic Four's mailman.
- The Spook: To this day, no-one is clear who exactly he was before he became a super-villain, or what his origins are. We have only his word on it, but apparently he used to work in a high-functioning job in the private sector.
- Talkative Loon: When written by Jonathan Hickman, he gibbers to himself out loud all the time.
- Warrior Therapist: At times. Depending on the Writer.
- Would Not Hurt A Child: The Thinker first teamed up with the Wizard and the Puppet Master to kill Johnny Storm during his wedding to Alicia Masters (or so it seemed at the time). That plan failed because the Puppet Master turned on them. The remaining two villains went back to the drawing board, and the Wizard observed Franklin using his powers while watching security footage. Learning of Franklin's abilities led to the following exchange:Wizard: I'm certain we can exploit this knowledge, and use Richards' own son against him in our next attempt to destroy the Fantastic Four!Thinker: NO! According to my calculations, any such plan would have a 97% chance of resulting in the death of the child!Wizard: Why should that concern you?Thinker: I may have reason to hate the Fantastic Four, but that doesn't mean that I would willingly participate in the murder of an innocent child!Wizard: You're getting soft in your old age, Thinker! I don't care who has to die, as long as I get my revenge!Thinker: If that's your position, there is no longer any need to continue this conversation! Our partnership is concluded! Good day, sir![The Thinker self-destructs the android body he was speaking to the Wizard through, leaving him to do his own dirty work.]
Maker
Maker
Alter Ego: Reed Nathaniel Richards
Notable Aliases: Mister Fantastic
First Appearance: Ultimate Fantastic Four #1 (February 2004) note ; Ultimate Fallout #4 (August 2011) note
"I'm Reed Richards. The ultimate Reed Richards. The one who's finally going to solve everything."
See Ultimate Fantastic Four. Essentially, he's the answer to the question 'what if Reed Richards was evil?'
Maximus the Mad
Maximus the Mad
Alter Ego: Maximus Boltagon
Notable Aliases: Maximus the Magnificent
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #47 (Feb. 1966)
"You're used to dealing with heroes... But what you don't have much experience with is kings. And that's your problem here. You can't think of them as normal men. You can't even think of them as behaving human—that's thinking too small... They are larger than that, bigger than that... They exist above other men because they were born that way. Authority began at the cradle, you see. Their very idea of morality is different than what you are used to. The people—their people—expect them to do violence to ensure a certain amount of peace and prosperity. And like gods, they are also expected to commit murder... So the people can sleep at night knowing they are protected."
See The Inhumans
Mole Man
Mole Man
Alter Ego: Harvey Rupert Elder
Notable Aliases: Dr. Wrong
First Appearance: The Fantastic Four #1 (November 1961)
"Soon... all of mankind shall be sightless... unable to stop the Mole Man from conquering the entire planet!"
The very first supervillain that the Fantastic Four fought upon gaining their powers. Born a surface-dweller, Harvey Elder became obsessed with discovering a subterranean society. He found one in the Moloids, a slave race genetically engineered by the Deviants, the offshoot race of Eternals, and found the means to control many of the monstrous Deviant Mutates that also lived underground. But finding acceptance as the Moloids' leader was not enough for him, and he soon sought revenge against the surface world that shunned him.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Became bitter because people used to tease him about his ugly appearance. So bitter, in fact, he left civilisation itself to get away from the taunting.
- Badass Bookworm: He is a former nuclear engineer, with genius-level intellect and knowledge of technology centuries beyond conventional science. Also happens to be a skilled hand-to-hand fighter when using a staff.
- Disability Superpower: Toned down; he isn't technically blind, but his sight is still damaged, forcing him to wear a pair of special glasses to stand even normal illumination. As a compensation, all his other senses have heightened to nearly superhuman levels.
- The Emperor: Evokes this during Rings of The Mandarin, when he begins wearing a crown and wielding a scepter.
- Gravity Master: Had this power when he wielded the Mandarin's Daimonic ring.
- Forced Transformation: Discovers an extract from the diamonds in the Valley of Diamonds that he believes transforms appearances to ones antithesis after an old women is turned beautiful and young. Turns out it changes your appearance to your character and when he falls into a vat of it he turns into an actual mole. It's temporary as he's back to normal by next appearance.
- Heel–Face Turn: Sort of; at some point, he reformed, tried assembling a sanctuary to help those rejected from the Surface World, and later allowed a super-hero team, the Infinity Watch, to use a castle located on his territory as a base. In later years, he started taking a villainous role again, but then his motives made him more of a Well-Intentioned Extremist.
- A Hero to His Hometown: His constituents at least respect him, and willingly follow him in his attacks against the outside world, which they believe he leads for their own benefit.
- Mole Men: Ironically, he isn't one himself (just a disfigured old man), but his Moloids fit the trope like a glove.
- Parental Neglect: Sired an actual mole man deemed Mole Monster with a Deviant woman he met in his early days underground. He also apparently immediately left them, which his son concedes isn't uncommon among Deviants anyway.
- Pragmatic Villainy: Well, he technically was more or less reformed at that point, but his motives to provide a base for the Infinity Watch weren't entirely selfless; he was hoping their presence would protect him from any meddlers. Considering they indeed ended up doing so several times, including driving away an invasion from the United Nations, and this led to the Avengers recognizing his rulership over Monster Island, it can be said he was right.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During his time as leader of the Ten Rings (supervillains who wielded the Mandarin's newly sentient Makulan Power Rings), after watching his fellow Ringbearers fall in battle, he is told that he is now the primary heir to the Mandarin's legacy. He immediately ditches the ring and flees while Iron Man recovers it.
- Servant Race: His moloids.
- Super-Senses: At the very least has developed a radar sense similar to the Daredevil to compensate living underground.
- You Are Number 6: His Ten Rings designation is Mandarin Six.
Molecule Man
Molecule Man
Alter Ego: Owen Reece
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #20 (November 1963)
"All the pieces are coming together. All the things we've built will son be crumbling down. Because they're out there... Waiting. The Ivory Kings. The Beyonders... And how can we defeat them? We cogs in their well-oiled apocalypse machine? For it takes a God to kill a God."
A meek technician caught in a Freak Lab Accident, giving him the power to manipulate the molecules of all non-living matter (later revealed to be all matter, yet placed mental blocks on himself). In his first appearance, he sought to take over the world, and easily defeated the Fantastic Four, yet was captured by Uatu and sent to another dimension so that he could never menace the world again. Later came back as a wand (his body had long expired in this dimension), possessing all those who held onto it, including at some point, Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic. Later regained a body, and took part in the Secret Wars, as Doctor Doom's right-hand man. When Doom absorbed the Beyonder's powers, he revealed the limitations he placed on himself, and removed them, giving the Molecule Man a new-found confidence, and he returned with all the supervillains back to Earth under his own power, later forgoing the life of a supervillain altogether to live with Marsha Rosenberg (aka Volcana) who he met during this time. When the Beyonder came to Earth in Secret Wars II, he fought him off, but later merged with him before returning to Earth as himself. An on-and-off again supervillain, the Molecule Man is among the most powerful opponents the Four have ever faced.
- Added Alliterative Appeal: At one point admits the alliterative codename "Molecule Man" is just for fun and doesn't actually do his sheer power justice. "Atom Man" is a little more accurate, but it's boring and even then, it doesn't fully indicate his power. He then lists "Proton Man", Superstring Man", and even "Narrative Man" as names closest to describing his abilities.
- Affably Evil: When he's on his good days, he's not such a bad guy. When Miles Morales handed him a (week-old) cheeseburger in Secret Wars (2015), he restored the multiverse...and revived his deceased mother in gratitude. Since then, he's more or less pulled a Heel–Face Turn - he's been largely retired, takes the time to warn Galactus of those out to get him, and is genuinely pleased to see the FF again when he returns from the Not Quite Dead.
- Character Death: Killed by Griever at the End of All Things in the second issue of the 2018 series. It didn't stick, and he turned up near the end of the same series, having shrunk down into the Microverse to survive.
- Cloudcuckoolander: Particularly in recent times.
- The Constant: The Beyonders placed an Owen Reece into every reality as a cascading detonation mechanism in their experiment to collapse the multiverse into a singularity. After the reconstruction, he duplicates himself into each newly created reality.
- Continuity Snarl: When it came out that he and the Beyonder were actually living halves of a cosmic cube who then fused together into one that became its own being. Then they just... stopped being that and apparently the Beyonder is a mutant inhuman. Now he's a living failsafe installed in every universe by the Beyonders.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Wasn't very competent at first, but this turned out to be because his deep-rooted self-esteem issues limited his power. Once he gains more confidence, his badass side comes out. How badass? He's one of the most powerful beings in the multiverse.
- The Dreaded: Freaking Uatu the Watcher personally stepped in when the Molecule Man made his presence known for the first time, and locked him in a dimension that had time out of sync with ours because he was that much of a threat to the universe. None other than Galactus, ascended to his Lifebringer self, said that if he ever felt like it, Reece could end him with a stray thought. Even Doom, who treats his fellow supervillains like crap and beneath, treats Owen with the appropriate amount of respect... sort of.
- Face–Heel Revolving Door: Currently on the Face side... sort of.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: One day, he wants to take over the world, yet feels insecure in front of guys like Norman Osborn and Doctor Doom. Men who, mind you, he could easily vaporize if he wanted to.
- Love Redeems: His crush on Tigra, and relationship with Volcana made him a lot nicer as a person, to the point that he did away with supervillainy altogether for a time.
- No Name Given: In his first appearance, to emphasise the point of being a nobody who's become all-powerful.
- Pet the Dog: Miles Morales gave him some food and as a reward Reece brought Miles' mom back from the dead.
- Physical God: Fortunately, all those who realize it are safe in the knowledge that he doesn't. Until he does.
- Powerful, but Incompetent: He has the power to transmutate anything into anything else and telepathically control his creations, and yet for much of his history he was only a minor Fantastic Four villain because he lacked imagination, intelligence, and a killing instinct. If he was actually competent he'd be one of the biggest threats in the world. As it turns out, he's actually a universal, even multiversal, scale threat once he realises what he's truly capable of, one that a post-ascension Galactus treads very lightly around.
- Power Limiter: His confidence issues are what holds back the Molecule Man's full potential, to the point that he at first, felt he needed a wand to focus his powers. Even though he grew out of it, it remained restricted to non-living matter. Even so, he could still erect barriers across all of New York City (Even the Invisible Woman strained when she erected one across Manhattan), and lift a 150 billion ton mountain. Without this block, he's easily among the most powerful beings among the Marvel Universe, with Galactus' internal monologue in The Ultimates (2015) noting that Reece could end him with a stray thought.
- Reality Warper: Notes in The Ultimates (2015) that his name isn't exactly accurate - he's gone from molecules, to atoms, to protons, quarks, quantum-strings, and now, perhaps, he's 'Narrative Man'.
- Retired Badass: Post Secret Wars (2015), he's claimed that he's now retired.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Became an enemy of Iron Man, and the Avengers in general. Honestly, with a bad guy this powerful, it's not surprising.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: When his consciousness was trapped in a wand.
- Secondary Color Nemesis: His default outfit is purple and green.
- Story-Breaker Power: If he ever got serious, and got over the issues he has, he could own even Galactus with a stray thought, and even take on the Celestials. This man, supervillain or hero, could pretty much end all conflict in the Marvel Universe, and no-one (except maybe White Crown Phoenix) could stop him. It's quite fortunate that most of the time, he just wants to be left alone to kick back and relax.
- Super Loser: Once fought with the Beyonder, in a clash that could've destroyed the universe, because he blamed him for his relationship issues with his girlfriend.
- Touched by Vorlons: His initial backstory was a Freak Lab Accident opening a pinhole into the Beyonder's dimension and infusing him with the same omnipotent energy that goes into cosmic cubes.
- With Great Power Comes Great Insanity: Downplayed. His issues were already there when he got his powers - they only magnified them. If anything, when he's more stable, he pulls off better feats. In New Avengers, it's revealed that this was deliberate on the part of the Beyonders - as Molecule Men across the multiverse would go insane eventually, and when detonate - annihilating their respective universes.
Psycho-Man
Psycho-Man
Alter Ego:
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Fantastic Four Annual #5 (Nov. 1967)
" I have battled the accursed foursome before. I shall not count our victory assured until I see their heads on spears!"
Former chief scientist on Traan, a planet in the Microverse. He traveled to Earth to conquer the planet with his psycho ray. He remains a constant foe for the Fantastic Four.
- Aliens Are Bastards: He sees little wrong in using his emotion controlling powers on other beings and thinks little of others.
- Alien Invasion: His debut story has him wanting to conquer the Earth.He often uses his emotion controlling powers to get humans to work as his minions. So far he's never shown bringing an army with him, only providing weapons to humans who have sworn allegiance to him.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: He's the one who turned the then Invisible Girl into Malice and had her attack the rest of the Fantastic Four. She WAS NOT happy about this and the FF later went to confront him in the Microverse. See Hoist by His Own Petard for the end results.
- Crippling Overspecialization: Invoked; while the Psycho-Man is very skilled at manipulating emotion, his knowledge of other sciences is relatively basic. This was most keenly shown when he tried to claim that he had manipulated the dimensional transference that allowed the FF to enter his universe so that they arrived smaller than usual; Reed compared his description of how he interfered with the transfer to the idea of claiming that it was possible to divert a plane flying overhead by building a brick wall underneath its flight path.
- Emotion Control: What he is mainly known for. He carries a control box that allows him to generate one of 3 emotions in other beings: Fear, Hate, or Doubt. He can control how much he creates in a lifeform, though usually enough to give them a hard time. He's powerful enough that the She-Hulk acted like a frightened little girl when under his power.
- Emperor Scientist: He controls a portion of the Microverse as its ruler. He has access to wide variety of technology, from teleporters and robotics to giving ordinary humans small ray guns that can give even the Thing pause when caught off guard.
- Hoistby His Own Petard: Susan Storm WAS NOT happy he brainwashed her into becoming Malice. After she corners him, she turns his Control Box on him and turns on ALL THREE emotions at the same time. Depending on the Writer, he's never fully recovered from this moment. Susan then renames herself the Invisible Woman, no longer being the Invisible Girl any more.
- Mobile-Suit Human: Rather than fully enlarge himself to full human size, he usually makes himself the same size as an insect on Earth and then builds a large exact replica of his body for him to pilot and interact with Earthlings. Should he be captured, he simply leaves the robot behind.
- In the Malice story, he does this even in the Microverse, complete with a giant stage so he could trick the Fantastic Four into thinking they shrank themselves too much. Reed eventually figures it out and yanks him out of the robot. It only got worse for him from there.
- Sizeshifter: He's actually from the Microverse, so he enlarges himself to interact with humans. And even then, he is still an insect-sized man in a human-sized robot that he pilots on Earth.
Puppet Master
Puppet Master
Alter Ego: Phillip Masters
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #8 (Nov. 1962)
"You must obey me!"
Born in Transia and once childhood friends with Jessica Drew, Phillip Masters became obsessed with making dolls of the clay he found near the base of Wundagore Mountain. Emigrating to America at a young age and subsequently placed in an orphanage, his obsession with his special (and radioactive) clay grew. An attempt to develop it for market backfired due to Phillip's jealousy toward his business partner, who would die in a lab explosion. Masters would then marry his partner's widow and adopt their daughter Alicia, who had been blinded by the same explosion. But the death of his wife proved to be the final straw for his sanity, and after securing more clay from his homeland he began his life of crime as the Puppet Master.
- Bald of Evil: Just look at the pic.
- Doing in the Scientist: His puppets' powers were originally explained as being due to their radioactivity. Apparently realizing how implausible that sounded, even by comic book logic, later stories attributed it to being infused with magic from proximity to the base of Wundagore Mountain.
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: At least, Deadpool thinks so.
- Evil Parents Want Good Kids: In Dan Slott's run, where Alicia picked up a bad habit of using his mind controlling puppets to smooth over conflict, he mind controls someone to warn her away from this path.
- Knight Templar Parent: Let's just say he really doesn't approve of his stepdaughter dating the Thing, though he seems to have become reconciled to it.
- Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Alicia Masters is his daughter and has drawn many suitors.
- People Puppets: His powers allow him to make puppets out of radioactive clay, which he can then use to control people.
- Pet the Dog: In "Spider-Man Family #4", when he abandons one of his evil plans to comfort a distraught boy, and gives him the Spider-Man doll he was going to use in said plan.
- Power Perversion Potential: An exceptionally dark variant in his Darker and Edgier stints. He once attempted to use his dolls to brainwash various superheroines into becoming sex slaves for the highest bidder.
Red Ghost
Red Ghost
Alter Ego: Ivan Kragoff
Notable Aliases:
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #13 (April 1963)
"Only a genius such as I, Ivan Kragoff, could have trained a gorilla to operate a space-ship!"
A Russian scientist who sought to duplicate the conditions that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, Ivan Kragoff deliberately exposed himself and three apes to high levels of cosmic rays and succeeded. His first fight with the FF, which took place on the Moon, led to the introduction of Uatu the Watcher.
- Dirty Communists: Red Ghost was one of the original communist villains from the Silver Age.
- Evil Counterpart: Red Ghost deliberately exposed himself and his Super Apes to cosmic rays to give them powers to rival the Fantastic Four.
- Intangibility: Red Ghost's super power. Through concentration, he can achieve different degrees of intangibility and can even become like a diffuse mist. He can become transparent or invisible when in intangible form, to the extent that sensitive equipment of Reed Richards was unable to detect him hiding over several days. The Red Ghost can alter the tangibility of parts of his body independently of each other. Thus he can hold a weapon in his hand while the rest of his body is intangible. While he is intangible, his body metabolism enables him to go without eating or without breathing for extended periods of time.
- Killed Off for Real: Kragoff and the Apes are killed by a Hydra-turned Captain America in order to use their hideout to hide Erik Selvig from the Red Skull.
- Killer Gorilla: And other simians, all very capable of making your life short and miserable even without the superpowers. Did we mention one of them's trained in using guns?
- Mad Scientist: Ivan Kragoff is considered to be one of the smartest people on the planet. He is a brilliant scientist skilled in the fields of rocketry, engineering and physics. He is also skilled in training simians.
- Maniac Monkeys: The Super Apes.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: First time around, Red Ghost's super-apes turned on him because he'd treated them pretty appallingly to get them to do what he wanted, never mind bombarding them with cosmic rays.
- Soviet Super Science: Red Ghost's stock and trade, at least while the USSR was still around.
Super-Skrull
Super-Skrull
Alter Ego: Kl'rt
Notable Aliases: Invincible Man, Captain Hero, Bobby Wright, Warlord Kl'rt, Lon Zelig, Joshua Plague, Pointy-Ears
First Appearance: Fantastic Four #18 (September, 19630
"What better way to die than on your feet... With blood on your hands and fallen enemies underfoot?"
A Skrull warrior who was artificially augmented to get the combined powers of the Fantastic Four.
Thanos
Thanos
Alter Ego: Thanos
Notable Aliases: The Mad Titan
First Appearance: The Invincible Iron Man #55 (February 1973)
"I hold the galaxy in my palm — ready to crush it like an eggshell! All who oppose me must die — and the first of these are the Earthian superheroes! Destroy them — with all dispatch!"
See Thanos
Trapster
Trapster
Alter Ego: Peter Petruski
Notable Aliases: Paste-Pot Pete, Willie
First Appearance: Strange Tales #104 (January 1963) note ; Fantastic Four #38 (May 1965) note
"You ain't gonna think life's so funny pal... once I've covered you in paste!"
See Frightful Four
Wizard
Wizard
Alter Ego: Bentley Wittman
Notable Aliases: The Wingless Wizard
First Appearance: Strange Tales #102 (November 1962)
"Fire is a powerful weapon! But I possess the greatest weapon of all — the world's greatest brain!!"
See Frightful Four
