The character sheet for the reinvention of Marvel's dysfunctional first family.
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The Fantastic Four
Mister Fantastic/The Maker
Reed Nathaniel Richards/Mister Fantastic/The Maker
As Mr. Fantastic
As The Maker
Alter Ego: Reed Nathaniel Richards
Notable Aliases: Mister Fantastic, The Maker
First Appearance: Ultimate Fantastic Four #1 (February, 2004)note ; Ultimate Fantastic Four #21 (September, 2005) note ; Ultimates (Vol. 2) #1 (August, 2011) note
At the age of 21, Reed, along with other scientists, attempted to teleport organic material through an alternate plane of existence called the N-Zone, with Sue assisting him and Johnny and Ben observing the demonstration. The experiment goes awry, resulting in the four being engulfed in a parallel dimension termed as the "N-Zone" and grants the four with super-powers, with Reed being able to stretch his body parts to incredible lengths and is endowed with enhanced durability.After a series of adventures and encounters with a number of super-human and extraterrestrial threats, during the four's attempts to solve the mystery behind the source of their new-found powers and turn Reed and Ben back to normal, the four are later exposed to the media and public, who name the group as: "The Fantastic Four", with Reed undertaking the alias of "Mr. Fantastic" and embarking on numerous adventures and conflicts against inter-dimensional adversaries and super-human enemies.
A well-meaning, altruistic and unassuming, but socially-awkward, quirky, eccentric and over-analytical polymath in his early-20s. Reed balanced his love and passion for science with his blossoming relationship with Sue, while also serving as the brains and leader of the Fantastic Four, devising the team's equipment and strategy against adversaries, while being notably younger and snarkier than his mainstream counterpart.
However, Sue's rejection of him, the dissolution of his team and being transported to a different universe took its toll on him. He returned scarred, more pragmatic and seemingly devoid of humanity, taking on the role of the Ultimate universe's Big Bad.
With the Ultimate universe's destruction imminent, he escaped aboard a life raft, and arrived on Battleworld. There, he met the Reed Richards of the main Marvel universe (Earth-616), who was wiser, kinder and more sentimental. Despising his alternate self, he tried to kill him, but would wind up literally sliced into pieces for his trouble.
When the multiverse was restored, these pieces of him were spread throughout the multiverse. However, they all shared the same consciousness, giving him a multiversal presence. He would work throughout the multiverse, but primarily out of the main Marvel universe, continuing his pursuit of absolute science.
For the trope, see The Maker.
- Abusive Parents: His father was, essentially, what happens when a stereotypical Jerk Jock grows up to have a son who's a nerd...
- Adaptational Angst Downgrade: Regarding the incident that gave the four their powers, which was My Greatest Failure for the 616 Reed, while here it was instead caused by Doom, perhaps one of the reasons this Reed eventually decided he could do no wrong.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: As a result of having an abusive dad, Ultimate!Reed had more of a troubled childhood. In addition to that, he was bullied at school (616 Reed had a better time at school, generally getting along with his classmates). On the plus side, his mom was still around (616 Mrs. Richards died when he was young).
- Adaptational Badass: 616-Reed is a Rubber Man who is capable of stretching and compressing his body in varying shapes with obvious limitations. Ultimate!Reed is far more fluid with his powers due to Adaptational Superpower Change and can go much, much further after his Face–Heel Turn.
- Adaptational Jerkass: He initially merely started off as a case of this, as while the classic Reed could be a dick from time to time Depending on the Writer, he was still a compassionate leader and a devoted husband and father. This Reed is far more brooding and standoffish, even before he becomes a full-blown case of...
- Adaptational Villainy: After Ultimatum, he turns against everyone, and essentially becomes the new Doctor Doom. He's even the page image for subpage on the subject for Ultimate Marvel.
- Alternate Company Equivalent: Being the World's Smartest Man and a Fallen Hero, he's this to Watchmen's Ozymandias and Invincible's Robot. However in terms of personality he's Marvels Lex Luthor, a role he shares with Doctor Doom.
- Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Reed works for a government think-tank, but eventually gets so frustrated at not being able to change the world for the better in this position that he decides to MAKE things change. By force. He's since conquered and destroyed most of Europe, destroyed Washington, D.C. along with the President and the House of Representatives, killed nearly all the Asgardians and devastated Asgard, and now rules a nation notably more powerful than the United States. Until he was stopped by Tony Stark's sentient tumor.
- Always Someone Better: If his rant to the new president is any indication, he considers Tony Stark this.
- Once he goes to the 616 universe, he finds that the other Reed Richards is smarter than him and that Roberto da Costa will completely own him in a battle of wits.
- Badass Bookworm: His stretch powers were regarded as the suckiest of the four right up to the point where he decided to pitch in anyway. Cue Doctor Doom getting thrown into scenery, Annihilus getting shot in the mouth (with his own gun!), and Diablo getting his Supervillain Lair blown up.
- Bad Boss: As the head of W.H.I.S.P.E.R., he takes his minions asking for help as volunteering to be subject to experimentation. And if they do well, he "rewards" them by removing their organs (without anaesthetic) and turning them into sycophantic insect-people.
- Became Their Own Antithesis: As the Maker, his grand plan in Ultimate Comics: The Ultimates was to publicly and ferociously force the world into an authoritarian scientific utopia, wresting power away from those that would hold mankind back. In the Ultimate Universe (2023), he has given up hope of creating a perfect society due to the apparent impossibility of it being sustainable in his simulations, and has installed himself as a shadow ruler of the titular alternate Earth, stoking artificial international conflict and restricting progress so that he and his cohorts can stay on top.
- Big Bad: Post-Ultimatum. After Ultimate Magneto’s death, Ultimate Reed Richard’s becomes the new Big Bad of the Ultimate Universe as a whole, surpassing And perhaps becoming even more dangerous and megalomaniacal than Ultimate Doom himself.
- Big Bad Ensemble: With Carnage and Knull for the 2018 Venom comic book run.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Post-transforming, Reed's cells have been replaced with "pliable bacterial stacks," which are described as single cells that duplicate most of the larger functions of the human body. Essentially, he no longer has most of his organs or even a skeleton; his human shape is just an affectation for convenience/memory's sake. In addition to allowing his Rubber Man powers to function at all, the change means that he no longer eats, excretes, breathes, ages, or bleeds. To give a concrete example of how much this has changed him: shortly after his Face–Heel Turn, Ultimate Susan Storm tries to kill him by expanding a forcefield bubble inside his brain. Aside from momentarily inflating his head like a balloon, it does nothing to him, because his biology doesn't work that way anymore. If anything, it just ticks him off once he gets over the shock and realizes that Sue tried to kill him.
- Body Horror: His transformation removed most, if not all, of his internal organs and his entire skeletal structure. He also enjoys enlarging his brain — grotesquely distorting his head in the process.
- Bullying a Dragon: In Venom Vol. 4 his offhand comment that he intends to exhume and desecrate Flash Thompson's corpse enrages the Venom symbiote, which goes berserk and overwhelms his shapeshifting powers with its own before stuffing him into a morgue locker.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Not out-and-out, but during New Avengers he introduces his organization, W.H.I.S.P.E.R. as "A.I.M. if they were still fun" (meaning, still committing mad science).
- The Chessmaster: He is the architect of the Earth 6160’s societal structure and is behind essentially everything that happens, including devising the endless cycle of conflict.
- Child Prodigy: He built a teleporter when he was a child. It's how the Baxter Building found him.
- Composite Character: As the Maker he shares many elements with Doctor Doom.
- Cool Helmet: His helmet looks like a cross between Samus' visor and the Xenomorph's distinctive cranium.
- Death Is Cheap: At the end of Secret Wars, he's apparently reduced to slices by Molecule Man, only to come back in the pages of New Avengers none the worse for wear. As it turns out, what Owen did allowed a "slice" of Reed to exist in every universe that 616 Reed created.
- Didn't See That Coming: A consistent problem he has, sometimes because of things he legitimately couldn't know about, other times because he's an arrogant jerk and cannot consider the possibility he's wrong. Roberto daCosta uses it to outwit him repeatedly.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: Ultimate Reed Richards needs to wear prescription glasses, unlike his 616 counterpart.
- Doppelganger Link: Issue #17 of New Avengers (2015) reveals that after Secret Wars (2015), the Maker was split into multiple copies of himself, with each one placed in the newly created multiverse. Each of these versions shares the same consciousness, allowing them to operate independently.
- Everyone Has Standards: Actually done for laughs. He'll murder entire planets, wipe out whole civilizations, and tear your brain out with pliers... but he's not going to peep on someone using the can. He's got minions for that.
- Evil Counterpart: To the mainstream Reed Richards. Whereas 616 Reed will always pick his family over science in the end, Ultimate Reed does not and has discarded his humanity and his family. When the two meet, 616 Reed is shocked that any version of him could turn out like Ultimate Reed has. While the Council of Reeds was at times incredibly pragmatic, they still served the greater good in the end and devoted their lives to helping people across the multiverse; this Reed doesn't and is every bit the malevolent Mad Scientist the mainstream Reed feared he could become.
- Evil Is Petty:
- Though he'll hide it behind posturing, some of his acts are just him being a jerk who needs to show off to the world. He was already planning on betraying his Universe 616 counterpart during Secret Wars anyway, but he mentions the tipping point was seeing him interact with a brainwashed / amnesiac Sue Storm and being disgusted by the emotional display.
- He not only negates 6160 Reed's superhero origin, but imprisons and tortures him for who knows how long, seemingly all because 616 Reed said that he'd negate the Maker's existence if given the chance. After the dude had committed a ton of atrocities, at that.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: This is his ultimate fate when it's revealed he has been behind everything in the ''Ultimate Doomsday Trilogy''.
- Evil Wears Black: On turning evil, he discards his Fantastic Four jumpsuit for a black shirt with red Tron Lines. After becoming The Maker, he goes for a black jumpsuit instead.
- Expy: Of Doctor Doom, after he turns evil. His Face–Heel Turn mimics the 616-incarnation of Doom, even resulting in a scarred face that he hides behind a metallic helmet. It's even lampshaded by Johnny Storm after his betrayal during Ultimate Doom."Reed Richards is Doctor Doom. He's more Doctor Doom than Doctor Doom was... and Doctor Doom was pretty good at being Doctor Doom."
- Eye Scream: His right eye is blinded when Johnny burns his face. Despite his incredible healing factor, it remains like this permanently.
- Face–Heel Turn: He became a villain as well after faking his own death. He became one of the Big Bads of the Ultimate Marvel universe, and tried to forcibly remake the world into a utopia. After Secret Wars, he served as a villain to the new Ultimates.
- Fallen Hero: He starts out heroic like his 616 counterpart, only to descend into evil.
- Fatal Flaw: Once he becomes The Maker, his ego and supreme arrogance. Reed is definitely super-intelligent, but assumes he knows the best way to solve any problem, which is usually needlessly destructive and violent. 616 Reed calls him out on it — or rather, more generally calls him out on his It's All About Me attitude. Once in the Marvel Universe, he still retains this know-it-all attitude, but frequently finds himself out-thought by his adversaries, or blindsided by some aspect of the regular Marvel universe he forgot to account for.
- Fighting a Shadow: After Secret Wars Molecule Man puts a copy of him in every restored reality, which all share the same mind. Even if one is destroyed, another from a parallel universe can just replace him and continue his work.
- Foil: Reed and Victor both share a similar backstory, suffering at the hands of abusive fathers and pouring all their energy into science at a young age. Unlike Victor, however, Reed had a loving mother and younger sister, as well as a best friend in the form of Ben Grimm, which kept his life from being a living hell. Unfortunately, Ultimate Mystery and Ultimate Doom show us that even a loving mother, sister, and best friend isn't enough to keep Reed from going over the deep end to the point where the heroes are wondering if he's just Doom II.
- Freudian Excuse: When Reed was a child, he was abused by his father, who had no interest or tolerance for Reed's love of science. He was not respected by his peers, bullied in high school, and wanted to change the world, but could not change it the way he wanted to because he felt no one would let him. He felt guilty over his role in the Ultimatum Event which killed millions in New York, Sue rejected his marriage proposal, his teammates all quit the Fantastic Four team, and finally he was prodded to be a worldwide savior by Kang the Conqueror.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: However, this does not justify his actions. He had a loving mother and two supporting sisters. He had a best friend in Ben, who protected him from bullies as a child and in high school. He was accepted into the Baxter Building, where his genius could be nurtured, a new father in Franklin Storm, and a new family in Sue, Johnny, and Ben. Yet when things fall apart he turns against his former love and friends and murders his whole family. This was best summed up by an alternate animal world version of Miles Morales.Miles Morhames: He committed genocide and tried to rewrite the rules of physics, economics, and society to make himself feel better and impress a girl.
- From a Single Cell: Ben manages to kill The Maker... or so he thinks. It turned out that the body Ben destroyed was merely an extra body spawned from a hair-thin tendril from his central mass which is quickly regenerated. When he is finally cornered by the Ultimates and his former teammates, he implies that so long as a microscopic bit of him remains, his bacterial stack can grow back.
- From Nobody to Nightmare: He started out as a bullied teenager mocked for his intelligence and became a superhero, but after growing out of favor with the way the world is run decided to take over the world, and now he's basically the Ultimate version of Doctor Doom and someone who even 616 Thanos treats with grudging respect.
- Genre Blind: Once in the main Marvel universe. He's convinced he's got a bead on its nature but fails to realize the entire universe is much more bizarre and fantastical than he's used to.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: Part of why Reed went off the deep end was he, like 616 Reed, found a way to peer into the multiverse and see alternate universes. Presumably, it was seeing the universes where he or at least versions of him were able to fix the world and seeing how wonderful it would be along with worlds that turned to hell because he or a version of him wasn't allowed to help was one of the major factors leading to his mental breakdown and Face–Heel Turn.
- Good Scars, Evil Scars: Received from Johnny Storm, after he attempted to kill Susan Storm. For unknown reasons, it shrank over time, going from massive disfigurement to just a mild scratch across one eye. Justified by The Reveal that he's basically a Humanoid Abomination.
- Handicapped Badass: He wears prescription glasses but he's still an effective superhero thanks to his Super-Intelligence and Bizarre Alien Biology. Getting blinded in his right eye courtesy of Johnny Storm after harming Susan in his Face–Heel Turn doesn't slow him down one bit as it all but cements him as a Humanoid Abomination capable of performing all sorts of Body Horror feats.
- Heel–Face Turn: Saw the error of his ways after Cataclysm after witnessing the alternate life he would have had if he stayed with Sue and remained a good person. Or not, as New Avengers revealed he was faking it, and just continued on with what he was doing anyway.
- Heel Realisation: Seems to have one in Hunger after meeting the mainstream Valeria Richards and realizing the life he could have had. It's fake.
- Helmets Are Hardly Heroic: Has a conical helmet covering his face, which handily conceals his identity.
- Hero Killer: He briefly resurrects the Captain America of his universe, then kills the man again when he stops doing what Reed says.
- Hidden Agenda Villain: During his time running W.H.I.S.P.E.R., he claims the organization has some nebulous goal he's pursuing, but since he refuses to elaborate on what that goal is, the general indication seems to be just doing whatever mad idea he can think of.
- Human Outside, Alien Inside: He looks like a normal human being but no longer has internal organs, merely possessing a "bacterial stack" in its place. Oh, and he no longer craps.
- Humanoid Abomination: The logical extent of his powers. After Reed becomes The Maker, he drops all pretense of being human anymore and becomes an amorphous tentacle beast able to create false bodies from a hair-thin tendril and even stretching his brain to become smarter.
- Immortal Immaturity: One of the advantages of his power is he doesn't age... unfortunately for everyone else, this means he's still the stone-cold psycho he was when he first became the Maker.
- Immortality Immorality: His powers prevent him from aging, so he's at least several hundred years old. It doesn't stop him from committing numerous acts of mass murder.
- Insufferable Genius: While 616!Reed has moments of this trope, this incarnation of Reed is far more blatant about it. It becomes even worse after his turn to evil.
- It Gets Easier: Laments during Jonathan Hickman's Avengers as he prepares to destroy another Earth that he's "gotten too good" at it.
- It's All About Me: He views himself as the sole savior of the universe and feels everyone who is against him is wrong.
- It's All My Fault: Way back when, he did blame himself for the events of Ultimatum being kicked off by Doom. That was back when he had empathy for other people. And, all things considered, it's an unfair assessment, given the convoluted nature of that whole mess meant even Reed's best predictive models couldn't have seen it coming.
- It Gets Easier: During Time Runs Out, he actually laments that he's gotten too good at destroying alternate Earths.
- Jerkass: Especially after he lost it. Reed become a petulant, arrogant child with a God complex.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He meant well... sort of, but there are moments where he's incredibly arrogant and bad-tempered. Becomes a full on Jerk with a Heart of Jerk when he turns evil because he felt being good was holding him back.
- Karma Houdini: One of the most egregious examples in Marvel Comics. Even after everything he did to the Europe and Asgard of his universe, he's given no real punishment, and is even allowed to go back to working for S.H.I.E.L.D. by Nick Fury. When the Ultimate Universe is destroyed by an Incursion, Reed manages to survive on-board a life raft, escaping to Battleworld. After what goes down there, he survives and passes through into the new Marvel Universe afterward, where he restarts his mad science anew. Even after all his apocalyptic shenanigans with the New Avengers, the collapsing Multiverse, and the Symbiotes, he ends up back in his own restored universe free to cause trouble again and with no heroes to get in his way.
- Knight Templar: He wishes to solve all the problems of the Earth, no matter the cost.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": He has the time of his life teaming up with Iron Man to study alien tech during the Ultimate Galactus trilogy.
- Madden Into Misanthropy: Initially, all this Reed wanted was to make the world a better place. Then all of his efforts to bring wonders and miracles of science to the world are stymied and hindered by the people trying to maintain the status quo or use his genius for their own ends. Now, he'll change the world/universe any way he can and to hell with morality or consequences.
- Mad Scientist: A relatively restrained one during his time in the Ultimate Universe, if only because of its physical laws. Once he gets to the regular reality, all bets are off. His first evil scheme in New Avengers is causing a plague in Paris that turns people into diamond-headed undead, that functions as a "necrophone" to summon a sorcerer from two omniverses ago. Why? Why not?
- Magic Genetics: Attempted to be justified. Reed is able to stretch and not crush his organs because all he has in the way of organs is a colony of symbiotic bacteria who take in food and air and give his body nutrition. His origin is now justified as well too, as his powers are not from cosmic radiation anymore, but rather from swapping bodies with a double from another universe.
- The Maker: He created a pocket universe, one that's positively utopian... then tries to use it to replace the real world.
- Mythology Gag: His development into The Maker - with his elongated helmet and setting himself up as the head of an isolated society evolving thousands of years past the rest of humanity - is exactly like an old Fantastic Four villain Harvey Jessup, who did the same thing in Reed's hometown.
- Never Recycle Your Schemes: Usually, he plays this straight, but he's got a fondness for City that makes him try to recreate it after he winds up in the regular Marvel universe. Unfortunately for him, the nature of that universe means City doesn't quite turn out the way he'd hoped.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
- He actually was trying to save the Multiverse in The Ultimates, but unfortunately he screwed up and only made it that much easier for the First Firmament to consume Eternity. His inability to admit his mistake ("... No. I'd know. I have a mind that stretches across infinity...") is what leads to him butting heads with the eponymous team.
- Part of his schemes against Avengers Idea Mechanics helps cure Angela Del Toro of her Hand-induced brainwashing. Which was what A.I.M. had been counting on.
- Nightmare Fetishist: Sue accuses him of being one during Ultimate Secret, finding the idea of something going around wiping out civilisations in their crib interesting.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist:
- In the Ultimate Enemy trilogy, he's willing to kill his own family to fake his death, attacks organizations that he feels are repressing science's potential for their own corrupt reasons, and tries to Take Over the World so that he can finally "fix things" the way he always knew he could. His claims of good intentions are proven false though as he later creates a utopian civilization in another dimension, then brings it back and tries to wipe out humanity to replace it with this "better" version. Showing ultimately he's just motivated by a God complex.
- To Earth 6160 at large, at least those who know him, he's a genius who has tried to solve most of the world's problems. They're unaware he's killed off most of those who would be their heroes.
- Omnicidal Maniac: During Time Runs Out, he's aware of the collapsing multiverse, but makes no effort to investigate or warn anyone, and actively speeds the whole process up. At the very end, he decides to wipe out both the Ultimate and Regular Marvel Universe because... well, because, apparently.
- Omnidisciplinary Scientist: One issue states that his status as this is at least partly due to the nature of his powers. Just as his body has become infinitely flexible and stretchable, his brain has as well, allowing him to adapt his mind to tackle any number of subjects. The mainstream comics also strongly imply this is the case.
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: A comical version is Reed being a Giver of Lame Names which gets a lot of riffing the first time, and the second time he's made something he gets asked "So what's this one called, the Wonderbus?"
- Overshadowed by Awesome: He was subject to this on his first run-ins with Earth-616 heroes. While he was an incredible threat on his home Ultimate universe, Earth-1610 was always far more grounded and "realistic", which made him far more harder to deal with. In the Prime Marvel Universe, there's dime a dozen universal conquerors with highly-evolved mooks at their disposal, which made him easier to thwart by their more experienced, powerful heroes. This also contributes to him trying to rebuild his home universe, which he can use as his own playground with no one else interfering.
- Other Me Annoys Me: His meeting with regular Reed Richards during Secret Wars has both of them annoyed by the other, Ultimate Reed finding his counterpart is far too focused on things that don't matter (read: his family and friends), and 616 Reed coldly retorting that unlike Ultimate Reed, he learned about how to care about things beyond himself. By his reappearance in New Avengers, he's gotten over it, admiring 616 Reed's idealism, although in Venom Vol. 4 he's still annoyed by Spider-Man comparing him to the Earth-616 Reed.
- Personality Powers: It was definitely a case of powers causing personality for Reed as he was revealed to be stretching his brain to make himself smarter. This perhaps helps explain why building a teleporter took him so long while his Time Machine was built in a relatively trivial fashion off-screen.
- Psychopathic Manchild: Type C: Despite his high intelligence, he's very emotionally stunted as a result of being abused by his father. His only real motive for his crimes besides scientific amusement is to force the entirety of creation to become obsequious to him and his exploits. While he may present himself as a visionary genius trying to make a better world, at heart he's just trying to gain the admiration that his father never gave him.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: Deconstructed; the governmental think-tank he belongs to keeps him focused predominantly on military technology and restrains release of his successful creations. The frustration at not being able to change the world despite knowing his technology could provide incredible advances to humanity eventually drives Reed insane. So insane that he takes up the mantle of the now-deceased Ultimate Doctor Doom and becomes a supervillain whose actions lead to the annihilation of Germany and Asgard. Furthermore, Reed then tried to turn Earth into a utopia whose plans included distributing free energy, spreading the crop-growing sentient seed to nations stricken with famine and hunger, and blowing up the Iranian Parliament along with any government official who refused to play nice.
- Required Secondary Powers: His body is transformed into an undifferentiated "bacterial stack" with no internal organs or tissues, so he has no need to worry about, for example, his stretched arms going numb because his heart had to try to pump blood the length of a football field. He is capable of eating (his bacterial stack will break down the food for nutrients), but he no longer needs to - somehow his body has become so drastically efficient that the very air he breathes provides him with everything he needs to metabolize.
- Resurrected for a Job: Molecule Man brought him back to life to try and fight the evils of the First Firmament. Reed went more than a little off-script.
- Rogues' Gallery Transplant: Originally a villain to Ultimate Fantastic Four and the general Ultimate Marvel Universe. Since immigrating the mainstream Marvel Universe, he would become a major antagonist to the ''A.I.M. Avengers, and then Venom in Donny Cates' run on the character.
- Sadist: His usual response to causing people emotional and physical pain is to grin and remark that their reactions are "interesting", such as when his codex-removal machine causes the people subjected to it agonizing pain.
- Scars Are Forever: Despite his incredible regenerative abilities, the facial burn from Johnny still sticks around.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: At the end of Ultimate Invasion, he and The City are locked away.
- Self-Made Orphan: The first people he killed when he went evil were his entire family. Not just his abusive father, but his genuinely loving and supportive mother and all his siblings, too.
- Smart People Wear Glasses: Even after gaining his powers. He can stretch his eyes to correct his vision, but not indefinitely. Notably his helmet still has a glass visor.
- Smug Snake: He's extremely dangerous, he's more than once successfully pulled a case of The Bad Guy Wins, and even the Thanos from universe 616 treats him with grudging respect. However, his arrogance frequently gets the better of him - he misjudges the very nature of the 616 universe on several occasions, and even after he gets around that, he completely messes up in Ultimates Squared - he thinks he's solved the omniversal crisis, but has just made it that much worse. And in every case, he's very proud of his intelligence and won't let anyone forget it.
- The Sociopath: He has an extreme lack of regard for the lives of others, views himself as superior to everyone else, and is willing to kill, steal, and cause untold devastation in pursuit of his goals.
- Took a Level in Jerkass: Reed goes from hero to pure evil monster due to a growing, sociopathic God complex.
- Transhuman Treachery: He betrayed his friends and country first For Science!, but after that he crosses the line to trying to replace humanity itself with his "superior" genetically engineered race (he is transhuman himself, of course, but not the same way as his Children of Tomorrow).
- Trauma Conga Line: The events of Ultimate Power through Ultimatum. In the former, his idea of exploring other universes is rejected by Nick Fury, and when Reed does it anyway, Fury collaborates with Doctor Doom and the Supreme Power-verse's Emil Burbank to turn one of Reed's probes into a weapon of mass destruction, with Reed getting the blame. Then, Ultimatum happens because of Doom's schemes, causing the deaths of millions, and nearly killing Sue, all of which Reed blames himself for. Then Sue breaks up with him, and he's forced to go back to living with his abusive father, at which point Reed goes mad.
- Turned Against Their Masters: Eventually, the computer of the City comes to the conclusion, that Richards's megalomaniac and warmongering attitude is obsolete, and only hinders the further development of the City. Or not, as it remains allied with him in secret.
- The Un-Favorite: A bespectacled young genius, he was never the ideal son his father wanted. It's shown in the first issue that his father showed more affection to Ben Grimm, the tough football star of the school, than to his own son. Fortunately, the situation isn't visited often in later issues; what with Reed finding a new father figure in Sue and Johnny's scientist father and being faced with matters more important than getting paternal approval, such as cosmic mutations and alien invasions every other week. Except for when things finally get to such a boil for Reed Richards that he fakes his death by blowing up his family home, vaporizing his entire family in the process.
- Unwitting Pawn: After his encounter with Thanos, he started work on building a Cosmic Cube... which, as it turns out, was something Thanos put in his head, giving the mad titan a shiny new cube to take over the universe with. Whoops.
- In Ultimates Squared, his attempts to save the multiverse just play right into the First Firmament's hands. When he's told he's screwed up, Reed is shocked and tries to deny it.
- Villain with Good Publicity: On Earth-6160, he is revered as the leader of the free world trying to fix the problems that plague it. The people are oblivious to the fact he is the one creating those problems to perpetuate his own power and erased anyone who could stop him.
- Would Hurt a Child: His first victims included his own little siblings. In Venom #17 he tells Dylan Brock and Normie Osborn that he would loathe having the death of a child on his (non-existent) conscience; but when Sadie — a girl possibly even younger than Dylan and Normie — is separated from the Lasher symbiote, he happily tries to kill her while quipping that he couldn't care less about her age.
- Younger and Hipper: He's much younger than his mainstream counterpart, being in his early twenties / late teens when he gets his powers.
The Invisible Woman
Susan "Sue" Storm/The Invisible Woman
- Action Girl: Right off the bat, she is much more assertive, is a biologist at the Baxter Building and almost immediately realizes her full potential as the most powerful member of the team.
- Adaptational Intelligence: In the original comics, Sue was first introduced as little more than Reed's girlfriend, and was only present at the accident that created the Fantastic Four because she refused to be left behind. By contrast, the Ultimate version of Sue is a gifted former Child Prodigy who attended the same government think tank as Reed and was involved in the accident because she was actually one of the scientists working on the Negative Zone experiment in the first place.
- All Women Are Lustful: Warren Ellis depicted Susan as being more sexually aggressive than her mainstream counterpart.
- Belligerent Sexual Tension: Her relationship with Reed Richards is way less calm than their mainstream counterparts'.
- Body Horror: In the beginning, Sue had trouble staying completely visible or invisible, so while her skin disappeared her nervous system, her skeleton or her muscles were still visible.
- Broken Bird: Despite trying to stay emotionally stable, it's clear her experiences in her family and with Reed weigh heavily on her mind.
- Deadpan Snarker: Frequently, especially when dealing with Johnny.
- Dude Magnet: She got attention from Tony Stark, Namor, Mole Man, Strange Josie, and ended up with Ben Grimm.
- Enlightenment Superpowers: This is theorized in universe by the Mole Man to be the source of her invisibility powers, on the premise that the accident somehow enlightened her mind to replicate meditation techniques to avoid detection.
- Future Me Scares Me: She doesn't take it well when she learns that Kang was a future version of her.
- Good Smells Good: She's the Big Good of the Science Hero superhero community and it has been noted by Namor that she smells of cherry blossoms, possibly as a side effect of her powers.
- Hysterical Woman / Women Are Wiser: According to Reed, Sue may be slightly smarter than himself and has been shown to be more level-headed than Reed when it comes to social situations and emotional connection. However, she also tends to hold powerful obstinate grudges even in situations where they would be counterproductive and has a bad tendency to lash out with her powers when insulted.
- Promotion to Parent: Even before Ultimatum, she was more Johnny's mother than sister, but after that, she more or less becomes his guardian, consulting with Aunt May about her little brother, and arguing with him when he decides that he wants to move out. She does approve of Peter as Johnny's new friend and handler, noting that he's someone who could have a good influence on Johnny.
- Properly Paranoid: Treats Reed with contempt even after his Heel–Face Turn. Perfectly justified contempt since it turns out he was faking the entire time.
- Required Secondary Powers: She lampshaded the impossibility of her powers, pointing out that there's no conceivable reason why she should be able to see things while invisible. Luckily, she's a bio-geneticist and thinks the mystery is fascinating.
- Single Woman Seeks Good Man: She genuinely loves Reed, but his moodiness and sour temper turns her off from him. And then he genuinely turned evil, which destroyed any chance of a relationship between them, allowing her to start a relationship with the much nicer Ben.
- Team Mom: Ends up in this role as the most mature of the team.
- Younger and Hipper: Like Richards, she is younger than her mainstream counterpart; eighteen, to be specific.
The Human Torch
Johnathan "Johnny" Storm/The Human Torch
Voiced by: David Kaufman (Ultimate Spider-Man (2005))
- Battle Cry: He had to say "Flame on!" whenever he wanted to use his powers, before he became more competent with his powers. Conversely, he also originally had to say "Flame off!" when he wanted to return to normal.
- Big Brother Mentor: Despite being older than Peter, Susan confirms that Johnny Storm sees Peter as this, noting that the latter looks up to Peter, and enjoys hanging out with him.
- Body Horror: He has to hibernate occasionally so that the layers of his skin that have been over-exposed to flames can flake off.
- Brainless Beauty: Johnny's good-looking, but he never even managed to graduate from high school. It shows, repeatedly. He even seemed convinced he could get pregnant, somehow.
- Depending on the Artist: An unusual male variant - he's explicitly Peter Parker's age, but the artists for Ultimate Fantastic Four couldn't seem to pin down just how old Johnny actually is. This lead to him being drawn (rightly) as an teenager, though a bit older-looking than Peter, to being drawn as even older than his big sister Sue! Greg Land was notorious for this, drawing Johnny somewhere in his mid-20's.note
- Elemental Baggage: He’s become a walking fusion reactor; his entire body has reconfigured itself to be as perfect an energy store as possible (which results in some bad effects on his health, as you might expect for someone who turns his stores of body fat into plasma). Warren Ellis tried very hard to justify Johnny. He also has a protective layer of microscopic scales to protect him from this flame.
- Flying Firepower: The Human Torch's plasma has a high hydrogen content, and is surrounded by an exuded cloud of mono-atmoic hydrogen atoms. The hot cloud provides sufficient positive buoyancy for him to float. With mental stimulation of his flame, he can provide enough lift to carry around 180 pounds. By forming a jet from his feet, directed behind him, he can achieve a normal flight speed of 140 miles per hour.
- Hot-Blooded: Like his powers, he's a very fiery person and it doesn't take much for him to go berserk on things with his powers.
- Magic Genetics: Attempted to be justified. Johnny's powers come from his nuclear fusion, using his body as an energy source. His origin is justified as well now too, as his powers are not from cosmic radiation anymore, but rather from swapping bodies with a double from another universe.
- Playing with Fire: He's the Human Torch. Bursting into flames and throwing fire around is part of the package.
- Replacement Goldfish: Peter and his circle of friends becomes this for him after his break-up with the Fantastic Four.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Throughout his appearances in Ultimate Spider-Man, he claims the Fantastic Four were "The Beatles of Superheroics". This only gets confused stares from everyone else since while that was true in the 616, in the Ultimate Universe, the X-Men and especially the Ultimates are more prominent, what with having come onto the scene before them.
- True Companions: Becomes this with Peter, Iceman, Kitty Pryde during the Amazing Friends arc. After Ultimatum and the break-up of the Four, they become his only family and he chooses to stay with them.
- Wreathed in Flames: When he uses his powers, as per the main universe.
The Thing
Benjamin "Ben" Grimm/The Thing
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Which given how miserable Ben regularly is with his mutation, is saying something. On more than one occasion, Ben has wondered about finding ways to kill himself.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: He eventually gains the ability to change between forms, unlike his 616 counterpart, who is stuck in the Rock form.
- The Big Guy: The strongest and largest member of the team. He's also pretty big even when he's human.
- Blessed with Suck: Sure, he's super-strong and durable, but he weighs a ton, meaning any furniture he sits on has to be reinforced. Not to mention he looks like he's made of rock, which makes going outside difficult.
- Body Horror: He has stone skin, and it's apparently a miracle that he can even breathe.
- Bungled Suicide: This pops up as part of deconstructing the Thing's Blessed with Suck powers. He's a huge, freakish rock monster, stands out anywhere, has to be careful about crushing anything he touches and has almost no sense of touch. In the 616 Marvel Universe, this is played for drama now and then but here, he tried to kill himself several times but has not found anything that can break his skin.
- Dumb Is Good: This trope comes into play when Reed becomes the Maker, a hyperintellect genocidal murderer, while Ben stays his simplistic but good-hearted self that eventually wins Susan Storm's heart.
- Earn Your Happy Ending: Gets his human body back, marries the love of his life, has a daughter. Yep, things turn out pretty good for ol' Ben.
- Eyes Are Mental: Johnny Storm cheers up Ben Grimm by commenting that his eyes never changed. The dialogue went something like this:Johnny: Your eyes never changed, you know.
Ben: Huh?
Johnny: Your eyes never changed. I mean, yeah, the rest of you is a freak, but your eyes are still the same.
Ben: You noticed my eyes?
Johnny: I notice stuff. I'm not smart like Reed or Sue, but I notice stuff. - Gentle Giant: Except for when it's clobberin' time.
- Good Is Not Soft: Ben's probably the nicest guy on the team despite all his issues, but he was the one who decided to travel to Latveria and murder Doctor Doom (later revealed to be Sue and Johnny's mother) with his bare hands for his role in causing the Ultimatum Event.
- The Juggernaut: Ben is much, much more imposing in the Ultimate Universe than his 616-incarnation. So much so that when Reed designed outfits for the team tailored to their powers he invented a new kind of shock absorber to layer in Ben's suit to act as a Power Limiter - otherwise the mere act of walking around would shake the Baxter Building apart. It's rather telling that he managed to survive a possession attempt by Thanos - anyone else Thanos managed to possess burned out their bodies after a short time, while Ben managed to fight the Mad Titan and drive him out, leaving him just a bit winded.
- After Warren Ellis left the title, Ben's strength was considerably toned down by the following creative teams. Officially, only Thor and Namor are stronger than Ben. The Hulk, normally stronger than him, is weaker in the Ultimate Universe, so Ben is able to fight him and win during Ultimate Power.
- Ben is not only capable of surviving on the ocean floor, but he's strong enough to move around normally (so long as he has an air supply). It's also implied that he can survive nearly any atmosphere as his lungs can convert unsuitable "air" into something he can breathe, which Nihil discovered to his great shock.Ben: *after Nihil breached the visor on his helmet* Reed, this air tastes like crap.
Reed: The atmosphere in here is highly corrosive... you're basically breathing acid.
Ben: Huh. Good to know.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Ben, par for the course, hates his super-powered self and wants nothing more than to be normal again. It's driven him to attempt suicide at least once..
- Immune to Bullets: Ben finds out in a trial by fire. Literally; he tried to blow his own brains out off-screen, and it didn't work.
- Nigh-Invulnerability: Pretty much nothing is capable of seriously hurting him. Even more so after he evolves.
- Re-Power: In Ultimate Mystery his rocky form was revealed to be a cocoon, and he eventually "hatched" into a new form, with his normal human appearance, Thing-level strength and durability, and a nifty purple glow.
- Pet the Dog: In his appearance in Ultimate Spider-Man after the Clone Saga, when MJ was voicing discomfort about her PTSD-induced flashback nightmares, the Thing comforts her by telling her that he has them too, and she should not in any way feel ashamed of having it.
- Sad Clown: Ben loves to make jokes during combat, but beneath the humor he's shown to be deeply depressed and suicidal over his rocky transformation, having already tried and failed to commit suicide and spending many of his personal moments weeping.
- Status Quo Is God: Averted. Ben does in fact manage to shake his rock-like form, and gain all-new powers which include the ability to switch between his regular human form and his rock form.
- Superpower Lottery: Ben might be a giant rock-man, but his strength literally cannot be measured (Reed devised a reinforced Hydraulic Press to try and gauge how strong Ben is... which Ben promptly trashed without trying) and his outfit acts as a Power Limiter so his steps (which measure on the Richter Scale) don't shake apart the Baxter Building or surrounding skyline... effectively limitless Super-Strength, but with the required mass to properly utilize it. His body also allows him to breathe underwater or in corrosive atmospheres by extracting oxygen and nitrogen from unsuitable materials, and he survives various explosions and possessions that kill other, lesser beings.
- Ultimate Life Form: Implied pre-Ultimate Mystery. Ben got a raw deal with his initial transformation, being stuck within a grotesque, stone-like shell. However, the trade-off is that Ben is nigh-invulnerable (with only Physical God Thor and the genetically augmented Namor able to make a dent in him or even making him feel pain), stronger than nearly any other hero or villain alive, and can survive in any environment. Reed spends his spare time trying to revert the changes but ultimately decides to swing in the other direction and complete his transformation instead, resulting in Ben becoming an Energy Being that retains all the benefits of his "Thing" body, but returns him to his human form and grants him energy manipulation powers on top of that.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Reed following Reed's Face–Heel Turn. At first, Ben thought he could be redeemed and offered to help him but
a few acts of extreme evil later and Ben no longer wants anything to do with him.Ben: I thought I was the only one who understood you. But it turns out, all those kids who called you a jerk and a freak, they were right! - What Have I Become?: He actually attempted suicide after his transformation, but his rock hard skin made it impossible.
- Younger and Hipper: He's much younger than his mainstream counterpart, being in his early twenties / late teens when he gets his powers.
The Baxter Building
General Ross
General Thaddeus Ross
- Adaptational Heroism: Much less of a General Ripper than his mainstream counterpart.
- General Ripper: Implied, since he sponsors the Baxter Building Program for its military applications more than anything. Lampshaded in passing in one issue:Sue: Ross is so crazy he got shot or blown up or something and then came back to life. On the slab. And do you remember what he said to the mortuary attendant?
Reed: "Hands off my precious bodily fluids, soldier." - Reasonable Authority Figure: As the head of S.H.I.E.L.D., he was just too much of one for Wraith, who tried to murder him.
- Retired Badass: He's the former head of S.H.I.E.L.D., who was nearly killed by Weapon X in Ultimate X Men. After coming back from the dead, he was put in charge of the Baxter Building project instead.
- Unexplained Recovery: As mentioned up above, he was blown up during the "Weapon X" arc of Ultimate X-Men, and he just got better on the slab. Why? Who knows?
Willie Lumpkin
Willie Lumpkin
- Adaptational Badass: Went from senior citizen mailman in the main Marvel Universe to a Colonel Badass here.
Doctor Storm
Doctor Franklin Storm
- Big Good: He's the main individual who attempts to convince the Fantastic Four to productively use their powers for altruistic goals and never portrays any intentional malice. He's also the one individual that tries to persuade Johnny to make something helpful out of his powers and his choices in life.
- Killed Off for Real: In Ultimatum, he's killed in the first issue when the wave hits New York.
Strange Josie
Josie Hart/Strange Josie:
- Chekhov's Gunman: She was mentioned as one of many Baxter Building students with weird hobbies before appearing as an actual character.
- Incompatible Orientation: She's very openly gay, and attracted to Sue, who is straight.
Phineas Mason
Phineas Mason
- Decomposite Character: He is based on Phineas Mason/The Tinkerer of the classic Marvel Universe and appeared in Ultimate Fantastic Four Annual #2. However another character, Elijah Stern, had already taken the Tinkerer identity in Ultimate Spider-Man.
Villains
Agatha Harkness
Agatha Harkness
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Mainstream Agatha Harkness is a witch. Her Ultimate incarnation is vastly different, being a creature capable of splitting itself into seven distinct lifeforms and back.
- Adaptational Villainy: She's an ancient hydra monster who plans on destroying the world, rather than any kind of friendly mentor figure like in the main universe.
- Ancient Evil: Is thousands of years old and her species can be traced to the destruction of ancient civilizations like Atlantis and Lemuria.
- Composite Character: This Agatha has the ability to split into the Salem Seven, which in the 616 continuity are her children.
- Explosive Breeder: Literally; her species uses heat and fire to explosively catalyze reproduction into thousands of newborns.
- Younger and Hipper: Subverted. She appears to be a voluptuous woman in her mid-thirties at most, compared to the regular continuity's much, much older grandmother type, but she's still thousands of years old.
Diablo
Mendendez Flores/Diablo
- Adaptation Name Change: The original Diablo was named Esteban Corazón de Ablo. Here, it's Mendendez Flores.
- Affably Evil: Unfailingly polite to his enemies and captives. He was even nice to Enid while he was trying to sacrifice her to create the elixir for eternal life.
- Alchemy Is Magic: Being an alchemist allows him to use physical elements and magic in a way that makes him seem more like a sorcerer.
- Gratuitous Italian: He peppers his speech with it.
- Immortality Seeker
- "Not So Different" Remark: He makes this about himself and Reed after observing how far they both went to discover the secrets of the universe and amoral drive for science. Considering Reed's eventual lapse into villainy, this point becomes even more poignant.
Doctor Doom
Victor Van Damme/Doctor Doom
- Abusive Dad: His father would question him on the family history and beat him whenever he would get the answers wrong.
- Actually a Doombot: Doesn't make nearly as much use of the trope as his original version, for a variety of reasons (being gone for several years, for example), but in Ultimate Power, it makes a debut when Doom attacks the Ultimates and the Supreme Power heroes, only to turn out to be a robot. Additionally, Ultimate FF revealed that the "Doom" responsible for the events of the aforementioned Ultimate Power, The Ultimates 3, and Ultimatum and by extension of that last one, the one killed by Ben for causing Magneto to snap even further than he already was was really Sue and Johnny's mother Mary, not Victor himself.
- Adaptation Name Change: His last name was changed from "Von Doom" to "Van Damme".
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Not that Victor Von Doom had a great childhood by any means, with his mother being stolen away by Mephisto and his father freezing to death trying to protect Victor, but the man did love and care for Victor. Victor Van Damme, meanwhile, was forced to learn about his family history and beaten when he didn't get the answers correct.
- Adaptational Superpower Change: Victor Von Doom gains ghastly scars on his face in the original continuity from an experiment backfiring on him, to hide these scars he wears a heavy armor. Here, Victor Van Damme's skin turns to metal and he gains cloved feet like a demon, corrosive acid breathe and the ability to fire off metallic skin-shards in the same accident that gave the Four their powers. This was retconned later in the series. When Doom shows up in the "Frightful" story, he's basically a transplant of 616-Doom, ruling Latveria, wearing the classic armor, and answering to "Doctor Doom" rather than "Victor Van Damme".
- Adaptational Badass: At first. While still in possession of magical abilities, this Doom is depicted with actual super powers rather than using Powered Armor. However, as the story goes on, his powers are increasingly ignored while he never manages to reach the magical or scientific heights of his 616 counterpart, making this a subversion.
- Adaptational Wimp: While this version of the character does have "natural" super-powers, he lacks the magic skills of his mainstream counterpart, and is seriously less important to his Universe. He also isn't quite as talented in schemes.
- Aristocrats Are Evil: Acts like an aristocrat, certainly, and has ancestry going back to Vlad the Impaler, which he can recite from memory, which makes him technically one by breeding. He's also an incredibly self-centered bastard who is determined to conquer the world out of his own egotism.
- Barbie Doll Anatomy: Ultimate FF has shown him into his cloak—and lacking nipples, a belly button, and a penis.
- Body Horror: He’s become a being of living metal with a frankly demon-like appearance (including goat legs and a reptilian tail). Also, his organs are rotting into a noxious slime inside his body because he doesn't need them anymore; he can blast opponents with this slime or the fumes from it if he pleases.
- Breath Weapon: He has the ability to exhale toxic/corrosive fumes as part of his transformation. Apparently, its based on the fact his now-useless organs were rotting into mush inside his body.
- Chrome Champion: He is transformed into a being of living metal by the teleportation experiment that he sabotaged.
- Death Is Cheap: Ultimatum has him apparently killed by Ben crushing his head. In Ultimate FF, he returns, claiming that Ben had just killed a body double.
- Elemental Powers: He has been likened to the elemental of Metal.
- Evil Is Petty: This is standard for Doom in all universes, and Van Damme is no exception.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Happened to him early on, transforming from surly pretty boy into a metallic Satyr.
- Famous Ancestor: He can trace his lineage directly back to Vlad Tepes Dracula.
- Flechette Storm: He has the ability to shoot razor sharp spines of his own living metal body at people.
- Freudian Excuse: In Ultimate Fantastic Four #7, it is explained that on his tenth birthday he was presented with his family history dating back to Vlad Tepes Dracula and the blueprint for his villainous mindset, and from that day on at dinner he was required to recite said family history from memory, receiving beatings when he got it wrong and being forced to start over until he got it right. The last page of the flashback shows 10-year-old Victor sitting in the chair where he received the original lecture and instruction in five panels depicting it slowly getting darker. In the last one, he says "It's my birthday."
- Fur and Loathing: Once he takes up the mantle of Doctor Doom upgrades from a raggedy cloak, to a majestic fur collared Badass Cape.
- Jerkass: He's basically Doctor Doom without any of the latter's strangely charismatic bearing and ability to try and be charming despite his arrogance, leaving the self-centered egotist that is Doom's core personality exposed for all the world to see.
- Knight Templar: He is always working on creating his "utopia", even if it means destroying the world as we know it.
- Lean and Mean: Compared to his mainstream counterpart, he's quite skinny. The fact he's a man of living metal rather than stomping around in a huge armored suit justifies it.
- Made of Iron: Ignoring the Incredibly Lame Pun, Super-Toughness was clearly part of the package when he transformed.
- The Man Behind the Man: At the end of Ultimates 3, Doom turns out to be responsible for Ultron... somehow. Ultimatum has him claim it was all part of his plan to cause Magneto to try and wipe out humanity.
- Never My Fault: He interfered with Reed Richards' prototype teleporter. The resultant energies resulted in the creation of the Fantastic Four, and his own transformation into a demonic-looking being of living metal. Doctor Doom insists that the transformation is not his fault, but rather that Reed's calculations were "so bad even [he] couldn't fix them".
- Once Done, Never Forgotten: He considers the experiment this, especially being blamed for it.
- Put on a Bus: He is stranded in the Marvel Zombies universe at the end of the "Frightful" arc. He eventually returned in Ultimates 3, after a fake-out in Ultimate Power.
- Red Right Hand: He was transformed in the same experiment as the Fantastic Four, and ended up with a body made entirely of metal looking just like his classic look, with the exception of goat legs. Because,
according to Warren Ellis, he's the devil. - Related in the Adaptation: Here, Van Damme is a descendant of Vlad the Impaler. Ultimate Spider-Man later added to this by making Morbius Vlad's brother, meaning in this universe, Morbius is a distant relative of Doom's.
- Steven Ulysses Perhero: His name is more subtle about this: it's Victor Van Damme rather than Von Doom.
- Too Clever by Half: He arranged for the death of the Scarlet Witch, knowing Magneto would go Papa Wolf and declare war on mankind, leaving it up to him to "pick up the pieces" in the aftermath. Sadly, he failed to anticipate that Magneto would be both willing and able to wipe out humanity completely and bring about The End of the World as We Know It.Doom: I had Magneto's daughter - the Scarlet Witch - murdered. I knew Magneto would then declare war on mankind and when it was over... I would be there to pick up the pieces. I... never imagined that Magneto either had the power or the will — to destroy the human race... What good is a king if there is no kingdom...?
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: By killing the Scarlet Witch and setting off Magneto, he's entirely responsible for all of the devastation and mass deaths in Ultimatum. The "unwitting" part comes from the fact that Doom only expected Magneto to overthrow humanity, not wipe it out entirely.
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: His driving obsession has always been to win the respect and love of his coolly aloof father.
The Frightful Four
The Frightful Four
- Bait-and-Switch: At first, it seemed like Reed had contacted his 616 counterpart... right up until Reed steps through the interdimensional transporter and finds himself face-to-face with zombies.Zombie Reed: Ever get the feeling you've been had?
- Faux Affably Evil: The zombie Reed Richards may be a flesh-eating monster, but he can be surprisingly charming and erudite while he plots to make you into a snack.
- In Name Only: They have nothing to do with the 616 Frightful Four beyond being an Evil Counterpart of the Fantastic Four, and they don't actually call themselves this in-universe. The 616 Frightful Four are a team of c-list supervillains with a rotating membership, while these are just an evil, undead, alternate universe version of the regular Fantastic Four.
- The Psycho Rangers: They are the counterparts of the regular Fantastic Four from another universe, meaning they are like the Ultimate FF but with about 15 years more experience. Oh yeah, and they're flesh-eating zombies.
- Sanity Slippage: Reed went mad with grief when an infected She-Hulk killed Franklin and Valeria, and decided zombies were the ultimate lifeform, proceeding to infect his teammates.
Kang the Conqueror
Susan "Sue" Storm/Kang the Conqueror
- Composite Character: She is based on the classic Avengers villain of the same name, but is a Future Badass version of Sue Storm instead of Iron Lad of the Young Avengers.
The Mad Thinker
Rhona Burchill/The Mad Thinker
- Body Horror: She augmented her intelligence by literally placing some of her brother's brain matter in her own brain, causing her head to become hideously disfigured in the process.
- Brain Food: She devised a way to increase her brain's "processing power" by grafting someone else's brain tissue onto her brain, so she killed her little brother because he "wasn't using it anyway" — the implications are roughly equal that he was genuinely mentally deficient or that he simply had a lower IQ then his already-a-genius-but-psychotic sister.
- Department of Redundancy Department: She talks lightning fast and repeats herself expressed in a different way, a bit like Blurr would.
- Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Post-transformation, she's a creepy-acting, black-haired woman with a sick-looking pallor to her skin.
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul: Before her transformation at least, she wore glasses. As for the "zero soul" thing? She cut up her brother's brain for spare parts — what more do you need?
- Gender Flip: The Mad Thinker was male in the main Marvel Universe, here she's female.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Motivated by her jealousy toward Reed Richards, because he got into the Baxter Building Program for Gifted Children instead of her.
- Mad Scientist: She was rejected from the Program despite having the natural talents as a scientist, implicitly due to failing the psychiatric evaluation — since she went on to cut her brother's brain out and graft it to her own, justifiably so. As for what makes her mad... did you just read the previous sentence?
- Motor Mouth: When she talks, she spits a constant stream of dialogue, and her speech bubbles replace spaces with hyphens to emphasize how quickly she talks.
- Nightmare Face: Courtesy of self-inflicted brain surgery to boost her own intellect, which left her with a large bald spot that exposes a very ugly, ragged scar and unnaturally bulging skull.
- Progressively Prettier: She was no longer disfigured and looked conventionally attractive when she reappeared in Ultimate X4.
- Super-Intelligence: Which she got in one of the gruesomest ways: cutting open her skull and suturing extra brain-matter to her own brain, to increase her brain mass.
Mole Man
Arthur Molekovic/Mole Man
- Abhorrent Admirer: Is deeply in love with Sue Storm, though he doesn't press the issue after his confession to her (and she takes it in stride, as she still needs his help to get a grasp on her emerging powers). Unlike other, more creepy examples of this situation, Molekovic ends up making a Heel–Face Turn due to his unrequited love.
- Adaptation Name Change: His name is changed from "Harvey Elder" to "Arthur Molekovic".
- Did Not Think This Through: As General Ross notes, if you work for a government agency, and you encrypt your files so your superiors can't read it, that's the sort of activity that tends to draw attention very fast. Especially when those files relate to a project said superiors told you not to work on.
- Formerly Fit: Well, "fit" is a strong word — his figure was more on the skinny side prior to getting fired from the Baxter Building. When he reemerges, he's nearly triple his original weight, likely due to having his mole creatures do everything for him.
- Geek Physiques: An unusual example, as he goes from the skinny side of the spectrum to the obese side after a Time Skip.
- Mad Scientist: He was kicked out of the Baxter Building for experimenting on fungus creatures, which was noted to not only be disgusting and immoral (even for the cynical Ultimate Universe), but had no real scientific merit.
- Meaningful Rename: He was given the name "Mole Man" by his students because of his short stature, his second name and the fact that he is covered in moles.
- Wholesome Crossdresser: Becomes this when he makes his Heel–Face Turn to save Sue's life, as he still occasionally wears his old "washerwoman" disguise (he's since added sequins to the outfit).
Namor
Namor
- Adaptational Villainy: He was initially believed to be Atlantean royalty like the regular 616-Namor, but it transpired that he was actually an Atlantean criminal the heroes unwittingly set free.
- Age Lift: Regular Namor is one of Marvel's older heroes, having been a young man in the 1930s. Ultimate Namor is several centuries older.
- Anti-Villain: Namor's rude, violent, brash and arrogant, but he does have some small streak of good in him, such as saving Sue from the Salem Seven, before assisting with fighting it.
- The Bad Guy Wins: He wasn't really defeated in his arc. After a lengthy battle, he summons a massive tidal wave to drown New York and only left everybody alone after Sue begrudgingly agreed to make out with him.
- The Bus Came Back: Namor was last seen at the end of Ultimatum stuck in a tube in Doom's castle. He returned in "Ultimate FF".
- Elemental Powers: Seems to have a dash of Making a Splash powers alongside his Flying Brick set.
- Making a Splash: He displayed water controlling abilities.
- Not Me This Time: Despite having previously threatened to flood New York with a Poseidon-shaped tidal wave, Namor disclaims all responsibility for the Ultimatum Wave when Reed confronts him, claiming he'd never risk hurting Sue.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Jeph Loeb wrote him more in line with 616-Namor, disregarding his lecherous attraction to Sue and replacing it with genuine affection.
- Would Hit a Girl: When Sue continued to reject his advances, Namor resorted to forcing himself onto her, resulting in a brawl in the middle of Times Square.
Nihil
Nihil
- Ambiguous Situation: It is never made clear but it is somewhat implied that this is not the Ultimate version of classic Fantastic Four villain Annihilus but rather that the Ultimate Four has stumbled into the regular 616 Negative Zone and that Nihil is just another member of the same species, what with references to belong to a certain caste and already knowing who Reed Richards is despite never meeting them before.
- Killed Off for Real: During a fight with the Fantastic Four, he gets a gun stuck in his mouth and tries removing it... only to blow his own head off. Lacking the Joker Immunity of his regular universe counterpart, he never got better from it.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The Thing lampshades this when the crew meets him for the first time.Thing: Dude, we meet our first alien, and his name is like "E-Vill" or something.
- Obviously Evil: At least in Ben's eyes. Reed was too busy marvelling at the entire situation.
Psycho Man
Revka Temerlune Edifex Scyros III/Psycho Man
- Getting Smilies Painted on Your Soul: Uses his powers to make people feel blissfully happy while worshiping him as their master.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Constantly put others under his blissful mind control, but could not feel the sense of bliss himself. Thanks to Reed causing a psychic backlash, Psycho-Man was placed in an eternal state of ignorant bliss while being unable to put anyone else in the same state ever again.
- Knight Templar: He mind controls a world to feel happy and content, while the Silver Searcher argues that they are merely happy slaves.
- Meaningful Name: His name literally means "The King with no Enemies" due in part to his ability to make anyone his happy slave.
Others
Gary Richards
Gary Richards
The father of Reed Richards.- Abusive Dad: It's no wonder Reed turned out so mentally unstable with a dad as loving and supportive as this guy. Gary is from the first issue shown to be verbally and emotionally (if not physically) abusive toward Reed, having no interest or tolerance for Reed's tinkering, yelling at him for turning the phone into a device, then throwing it at Reed's dinner. A later issue suggests Gary was physically abusive as well. Thanos manages to torture Reed by conjuring an image of Gary preparing to beat him.
- Adaptation Name Change: Went from Nathaniel in the main Marvel Universe to Gary here.
- Adaptation Personality Change: Gary Richards stands out as a completely different person compared to Nathaniel Richards, especially on a fundamental level and how they treated their son. If anything, he's closer to Brian Banner, except as an athletic idiot instead of a drunkard of a scientist. Most notable is that Ultimate Reed Richards is, so far, the only Alternate Self of Mainstream Reed Richards to be a villain compared to the pragmatic, but well-intentional Council of Reeds.
- Adaptational Dumbass: Gary is a Jerk Jock and frowned upon intelligence, a far cry from Nathaniel being a scientist.
- Adaptational Jerkass: From the Parents as People Nathaniel Richards to Abusive Dad Gary Richards. He’s an absolute prick with none of the former’s complexities.
- Adaptational Villainy: Nathaniel might not have been the absolute best father, but he was aware of and acknowledged his shortcomings, encouraged and supported his son's love of science, and his absence from Reed's life was due to circumstances entirely beyond his control. Gary abuses Reed and is just generally lacking in any positive traits.
- Alternate Self: To Nathaniel Richards of Earth-616.
- Brutal Honesty: He has no problems with speaking his mind about how much he disdains his son's intellectual pursuits, especially if it causes annoyances around his home (such as Reed dismantling the blender for spare parts).
- Character Death: He, his wife, and his children are killed off in the opening issue of Ultimate Enemy, in an apparent attempt on Reed's life. Except Reed is the one responsible for the attack in the first place.
- Hate Sink: He's an abusive father, that's literally all that is needed to know about him.
- I Have No Son!: He pretty much spells this out to Reed in a form of a The Reason You Suck speech in Issue #42. After the end of Ultimatum: Fantastic Four Requiem, he asks "What are you doing here?" (in the context of meeting an unwanted stranger) to Reed when the latter is looking for a place to stay for a bit.
- Jerkass: Gary is nothing more than an abusive bully to his son.
- Jerk Jock: Gary Richards is what happens when your stereotypical "brains don't matter, nerds are for kicking around" mindset of a jock grows up to be an adult and keeps the attitude. And then has a son who's a nerd.
- Jock Dad, Nerd Son: He's a huge sports nut and obsessed with "manly" behavior, openly disdaining his son's intellectual pursuits.
- Only in It for the Money: When the Baxter Building sends a representative around to recruit Reed, Gary is utterly uninterested... until Lumpkin mentions they'd be willing to pay for him. Later on, when Reed came back home because he needed a place to stay at the end of Ultimatum: Fantastic Four Requiem, he only relents if his son is paying him.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His abuse of his son was the first step in Reed's descent to villainy. Considering that villainy has gone on to plague the prime Marvel Universe even currently in more unique and devastating ways than it's millions of native supervillains, good fucking going, Gary.
- You Don't Look Like You: He has a radically different appearance in Ultimate Enemy.
