While not a household name, Doctor Reed Richards is still one of the premier scientists of the modern age. Along with Katherine Faulkner, Emil Hamilton, and Silas Stone he founded the Scientific and Technological Advanced Research Laboratories also known as S.T.A.R. Labs. The intention of S.T.A.R. Labs was to combine the skills of the worlds greatest minds in order to explore the reaches of science and create technologies that would change the world.
Reed had disagreed with the Labs funding itself through private and government contracts, believing licensing patents to be the ideal economic model. As the years went on, contracting services became more and more important to S.T.A.R. and they initiated less of their own projects. After the government started storing its banned and dangerous technology in the Red Room in the Washington D.C. branch, Reed tendered his resignation and left S.T.A.R. for good.
Buying the old Baxter Building on the corner on the corner of 42nd and Madison in New York City, Reed refurbished the top-five floors to serve as the home of the Future Foundation. The Foundation would continue the aims of the original S.T.A.R. Labs - the unfettered pursuit of knowledge for the betterment of humanity. In this endevour his gathered genius geneticist Dr. Susan Storm and her engineer brother Johnny Storm.
The most infamous project of the Foundation was the Artemis Spaceplane. With an agreement with the United States Air Force to use their new XS-2 Spaceplane, Reed was planning on testing a new "hyperdrive" which would access a dimension known as the Negative Zone. Reed calculated that the Negative Zone was smaller in dimensions than regular space so that a ship could use it to travel vast distances. In order to pilot the plane, he called on his childhood friend, former astronaut, and renowned test pilot Commander Benjamin Grimm.
From the view of the government and the public, the test of the Artemis was an unmitigated disaster. The plane disappeared for less than five seconds and reemerged heavily damaged and venting atmosphere. Only due to the piloting skills of Ben Grimm was the plane able to ditch into the ocean.
With the loss of the Artemis, the XS-1 program was significantly delayed. Reed, however, had gotten valuable scientific knowledge, confirming that dimension travel was possible and the Negative Zone was real. Stranger still, the trip to the Negative Zone forever changed the occupants.
Susan Storm, also known as the Invisible Woman, gained the powers to become unseen and create forcefields. Johnny Storm, the second Human Torch, could surround himself in a cocoon of flame that allowed him to fly and fire blasts of fire. Called Mr. Fantastic, Reed Richards's molecular structure was changed so he could stretch and change his physical dimensions. Unfortunately, Ben Grimm was permanently turned into an organic rock substance, becoming The Thing.
Never intending to become super-heroes, defending New York against a sub-terranean threat revealed their presence to the media, who gave them their code-names and dubbed them The Fantastic Four. Today, while known the public, the Fantastic Four and the Future Foundation are not household names. Their heroism is contained to the cosmic realm of space and multiple dimensions and their research is only known to a select few.
Advising the Justice League and the Avengers during their historic summit, they were among the dead in the Watchtower Incident.
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