Recap / Fantastic Four Worlds Greatest Heroes Frightful

There's a new superhero team in town, and they're stealing the Four's spotlight—not to mention insulting them at every turn. Reed tries to keep his teammates' tempers in check, but soon he grows suspicious. Are the new foursome really heroes—or villains in disguise?

This episode contains examples of the following tropes:

• The Cameo: Peter Parker appears as a photographer Johnny hires to improve the Four's image.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: The Wizard's Four are doing quite well for themselves as a superhero team (even if they have to set things up) and the Trapster suggests they just keep doing it.
• Engineered Public Confession: Reed tricks the Wizard into confessing that he was only after the codes that the city gave him and has H.E.R.B.I.E. record it for the public.
• Evil Counterpart: the Wizard's Four to the Fantastic Four. Both are groups of four with superpowers. However, the Fantastic Four legitimately help people and want to make things better. When the Wizard's Four do anything, it's only to gain the acclaim of the city and/or humiliate their rivals.
• For the Evulz: The Wizard confesses smugly to Reed that this was his reason for showing up the Four.
  Making fools of you, suckering this city into loving us. It wasn't necessary, but it sure was fun.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: In-Universe. Johnny declares that he's moving to Japan after the Wizard's Four upstage the Fantastic Four for a while. According to him, he has a lot of fans there.
• Insufferable Genius: The Wizard is a real egomaniac about his intelligence.
• Not So Above It All: Reed spends most of the episode maturely keeping the others in line as the new foursome attempt to provoke them. However, his reaction as he watches the Wizard taken into custody reveal that their insulting and upstaging the group got to him more than he implied.
  Reed: "Smartest man in the world"? Please!
• Ship Tease
  Reed: Did I ever tell you you're amazing?
  Sue: No, but...go on.
• Villains With Good Publicity: The public loves the Wizard's Four and considers them heroes in their own right, until Reed blows their cover with the Wizard's own words.