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188-587: Mister Fantastic acts as the leader and father figure of the Fantastic Four, and although his cosmic ray powers are primarily stretching abilities, his presence on the team is defined by his scientific acumen, as he is officially acknowledged as the smartest man in the Marvel Universe. This is particularly a point of tragedy in regards to his best friend, Ben Grimm, who he has constantly tried to turn back into his human form but who typically remains in

376-561: A 1973 try-out in two issues of Marvel Feature , the Thing starred in the long-running series Marvel Two-in-One . In each issue, Ben Grimm would team up with another character from the Marvel Universe , often an obscure or colorful character. The series helped to introduce characters from Marvel's lineup, by way of teaming up with the more recognizable Thing. In 1992, Marvel reprinted four Two-in-One stories (#50, 51, 77 and 80) as

564-570: A baby, Franklin ; the team battled Annihilus right before Franklin's birth. Franklin was a mutant with incredible powers, but, due to the cosmic ray alteration to his parents' DNA, they manifested while he was still very young (in the Marvel world, most mutants like the X-Men get their powers while teenagers). Franklin appears to have power that can rival a member of the Celestials ; the power of

752-514: A bomb. The young man dies and the Thing verbally blasts both sides for not caring about the civilians caught in the conflict. He announces that, while he thinks the registration is wrong, he is also not going to fight the government and is thus leaving the country for France. While in France, he meets Les Héros de Paris (The Heroes of Paris). Ben returns to New York as both sides of the SHRA battle in

940-475: A boy, Reed loved spending time with Ted. Unfortunately, Ted was also "an eccentric" and "stubborn". Because he had a career in the arts and because he stood out, Ted was called before HUAC , imprisoned on contempt of Congress charges for six months, and was unable to find work after he'd served his sentence. He was even shunned by Reed's father. Ted lost everything, which Reed says finally "killed him" without going into greater detail. Richards opines that his uncle

1128-489: A classical albedo feature it contains. In April 2023, The New York Times reported an updated global map of Mars based on images from the Hope spacecraft . A related, but much more detailed, global Mars map was released by NASA on 16 April 2023. The vast upland region Tharsis contains several massive volcanoes, which include the shield volcano Olympus Mons . The edifice is over 600 km (370 mi) wide. Because

1316-490: A coward for taking control of what was left of existence rather than trying to reshape it. Inspired by Reed's words, Reece transfers Doom's power to him, with Reed recreating the former Earth-616 before he, Susan, their children, and the rest of the Future Foundation move to use Franklin and Reed's powers to rebuild the multiverse. Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, and the Future Foundation were later confronted by

1504-446: A diameter of 6,779 km (4,212 mi). In terms of orbital motion, a Martian solar day ( sol ) is equal to 24.6 hours, and a Martian solar year is equal to 1.88 Earth years (687 Earth days). Mars has two natural satellites that are small and irregular in shape: Phobos and Deimos . The relatively flat plains in northern parts of Mars strongly contrast with the cratered terrain in southern highlands – this terrain observation

1692-645: A falling teammate, or inflating himself into a life raft to aid in a water rescue. He can willfully reduce his body's cohesion until he reaches a fluid state, which can flow through minute openings or into tiny pipes. Reed is also able to shape his hands into hammer and mace style weapons, and concentrate his mass into his fists to increase their density and effectiveness as weapons. Having an elastic-like texture allows Reed protection from damage. He can be punched with incredible force, flattened, squished, and still re-form or survive without any form of sufficient injury. Reed's control over his shape has been developed to such

1880-456: A four-issue miniseries written by Evan Dorkin and illustrated by Dean Haspiel , The Thing: Night Falls on Yancy Street . The story was more character-driven than the stories that usually feature the Thing. Tom Spurgeon found its outlook on relationships "depressing". After the success of the 2005 Fantastic Four feature film and events in the comics series that resulted in Grimm becoming

2068-508: A four-issue miniseries written by Geoff Johns and illustrated by Scott Kolins , in which the Thing travels across the United States by train, inadvertently stumbling upon a deformed gypsy boy he once ridiculed as a teenager, who is now the super-strong main attraction of a troupe of traveling circus freaks . He later discovers a town full of alien Kree and Skrull warriors fighting over a Watcher infant. In 2003, Marvel released

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2256-422: A global magnetic field, the types and distribution of auroras there differ from those on Earth; rather than being mostly restricted to polar regions as is the case on Earth, a Martian aurora can encompass the planet. In September 2017, NASA reported radiation levels on the surface of the planet Mars were temporarily doubled , and were associated with an aurora 25 times brighter than any observed earlier, due to

2444-552: A god in the body of a small child. The couple briefly separated, and Reed further alienated Sue by shutting down Franklin's mind to prevent his power from causing global catastrophe; Sue Storm initiated divorce proceedings but the two were reconciled soon after. Reed also saved Galactus's life during the course of his adventures. He then bought the Baxter Building . Later, he was tried by the Shi'ar for saving Galactus's life, but

2632-488: A high ratio of deuterium in Gale Crater , though not significantly high enough to suggest the former presence of an ocean. Other scientists caution that these results have not been confirmed, and point out that Martian climate models have not yet shown that the planet was warm enough in the past to support bodies of liquid water. Near the northern polar cap is the 81.4 kilometres (50.6 mi) wide Korolev Crater , which

2820-452: A human trampoline, or inflating his hands into pool toys to entertain his children. The most extreme demonstration of Reed's powers is when at one point he was able to increase his size and mass to Thing-like proportions which also increased his physical strength. Assuming and maintaining these shapes used to require extreme effort. Due to years of mental and physical training, Reed can now perform these feats at will. His powers (and those of

3008-602: A large, rocky form and is called the Thing . Richards is the husband of Susan Storm , father of Franklin Richards and Valeria Richards , and mentor to his brother-in-law, Johnny Storm . The character was portrayed by actors Alex Hyde-White in the 1994 The Fantastic Four film, Ioan Gruffudd in the 2005 film Fantastic Four and its 2007 sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , and Miles Teller in

3196-523: A limited extent in Captain Savage and his Leatherneck Raiders #7. While in the military, Nick Fury sends him, Logan and Carol Danvers on a top secret surveillance mission into Vladivostok . Following this, he becomes an astronaut for NASA , taking part in attempts to reach the Moon, occurring at a time before any crewed spaceship had escaped Earth's orbit. In keeping with an early taboo in

3384-490: A low of 30  Pa (0.0044  psi ) on Olympus Mons to over 1,155 Pa (0.1675 psi) in Hellas Planitia , with a mean pressure at the surface level of 600 Pa (0.087 psi). The highest atmospheric density on Mars is equal to that found 35 kilometres (22 mi) above Earth's surface. The resulting mean surface pressure is only 0.6% of Earth's 101.3 kPa (14.69 psi). The scale height of

3572-442: A massive, and unexpected, solar storm in the middle of the month. Mars has seasons, alternating between its northern and southern hemispheres, similar to on Earth. Additionally the orbit of Mars has, compared to Earth's, a large eccentricity and approaches perihelion when it is summer in its southern hemisphere and winter in its northern, and aphelion when it is winter in its southern hemisphere and summer in its northern. As

3760-549: A military scientist, all this by the age of 22. He also worked in communications for the Army. Three years later, in his mid-20s, Reed used his inheritance, along with government funding, to finance his research. Determined to go to Mars and beyond, Richards based the fateful project in Central City. Susan Storm moved into the area, and within a short time, found herself engaged to Reed. Reed's old college roommate, Ben Grimm, now

3948-639: A millionaire, the Thing was once again given his own series in 2005, The Thing , written by Dan Slott and penciled by Andrea Di Vito and Kieron Dwyer . It was canceled with issue #8 in 2006. The Thing was a member of The New Avengers , when that team debuted in their self-titled second series in 2010. He appeared as a regular character throughout the 2010–2013 New Avengers series, from issue #1 (Aug. 2010) through its final issue #34 (Jan. 2013). The Thing had another solo series in 2021, written by Walter Mosely and illustrated by Tom Reilly, which lasted for six issues. A new limited series, Clobberin' Time ,

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4136-542: A minimum thickness of 6 kilometres (3.7 mi) in Isidis Planitia , and a maximum thickness of 117 kilometres (73 mi) in the southern Tharsis plateau. For comparison, Earth's crust averages 27.3 ± 4.8 km in thickness. The most abundant elements in the Martian crust are silicon , oxygen , iron , magnesium , aluminium , calcium , and potassium . Mars is confirmed to be seismically active; in 2019 it

4324-517: A miniseries under the title The Adventures of the Thing . The series was cancelled after 100 issues and seven Annual s to make way for a solo series. The cancellation of Marvel Two-in-One led to the Thing's first completely solo series, which ran for 36 issues. The Thing was originally written by John Byrne and later, Mike Carlin . The series also featured art by Ron Wilson and later by Paul Neary . It elaborated on Ben Grimm's poor childhood on Yancy Street in its early issues, and chronicled

4512-656: A monstrous freak, attacking Reed's children and attempting to seduce Sue. After many adventures as the Fantastic Four, Reed married Sue. Not long after that, the team encountered the Inhumans for the first time. They next encountered Galactus and the Silver Surfer . Reed then opened a portal to the Negative Zone for the first time. Soon, the team first battled the Psycho-Man . Before long Reed and Sue had

4700-527: A new team, the Future Foundation , to help create a better future for mankind. However, the team's initial tasks are complicated when they are forced to deal with the ' Council of Reeds ', a group of alternate versions of Reed Richards who lack his morality or family that became trapped in the FF's reality after an accident with Reed's dimensional portal. After Johnny is returned and the team resume using

4888-477: A plan. Reed eventually starts working with his counterpart from the Ultimate Marvel universe who calls himself Maker . The two find themselves disagreeing on their methods, with Reed preferring to find a way to save the world while Maker is more focused on killing their enemy, Reed countering his other self's accusations that he is weak by musing that he simply has things to care for outside of himself. In

5076-412: A point that he has been able to radically alter his facial features and his entire physical form to pass among human and non-humans unnoticed and unrecognized. He has even molded himself into the shapes of inanimate objects, such as a mailbox. He rarely uses his powers in such an undignified fashion. However, he appears to have no qualms about stretching out his ears, taking the shape of a dinosaur, becoming

5264-473: A record of erosion caused by the catastrophic release of water from subsurface aquifers, though some of these structures have been hypothesized to result from the action of glaciers or lava. One of the larger examples, Ma'adim Vallis , is 700 kilometres (430 mi) long, much greater than the Grand Canyon, with a width of 20 kilometres (12 mi) and a depth of 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) in places. It

5452-547: A record of impacts from that era, whereas much of the remaining surface is probably underlain by immense impact basins caused by those events. However, more recent modeling has disputed the existence of the Late Heavy Bombardment. There is evidence of an enormous impact basin in the Northern Hemisphere of Mars, spanning 10,600 by 8,500 kilometres (6,600 by 5,300 mi), or roughly four times

5640-460: A result, the seasons in its southern hemisphere are more extreme and the seasons in its northern are milder than would otherwise be the case. The summer temperatures in the south can be warmer than the equivalent summer temperatures in the north by up to 30 °C (54 °F). Martian surface temperatures vary from lows of about −110 °C (−166 °F) to highs of up to 35 °C (95 °F) in equatorial summer. The wide range in temperatures

5828-698: A ruler known as the Unspoken , one more powerful than any other in the universe, to the point he had to be erased from history, and how his return will impact the planet and the cosmos beyond, in the War of Kings . After the Secret Invasion and some time into the Dark Reign , in the War of Kings , when Blastaar is about to open the portal to Earth, on the other side in Camp Hammond, Star-Lord and

Mister Fantastic - Misplaced Pages Continue

6016-464: A sense of humor, and the battle cry and catchphrase "It's clobberin' time!" Thing's speech patterns are loosely based on Jimmy Durante . A key feature throughout his character arc has him struggling to accept his newfound powers, which often culminates in his returning to his human form before going back to his mutated form. The Thing notably appeared in other media, including live-action films , with Michael Bailey Smith and Carl Ciarfalio playing

6204-471: A small crater (later called Airy-0 ), located in the Sinus Meridiani ("Middle Bay" or "Meridian Bay"), was chosen by Merton E. Davies , Harold Masursky , and Gérard de Vaucouleurs for the definition of 0.0° longitude to coincide with the original selection. Because Mars has no oceans, and hence no " sea level ", a zero-elevation surface had to be selected as a reference level; this is called

6392-558: A soft spot. During this unauthorized ride into the upper atmosphere of Earth and the Van Allen Belts , they are pelted by a cosmic ray storm and exposed to radiation against which the ship's shields are no protection. Upon crashing down to Earth, each of the four learn that they have developed fantastic superhuman abilities. Grimm's skin is transformed into a thick, lumpy orange hide, which gradually evolves into his now-familiar craggy covering of large rocky plates. Richards proposes

6580-495: A space rocket to explore the regions of space around Mars; Grimm jokingly agrees to fly that rocket when the day comes. The details of his life story have been modified over the decades. Prior to the stories published in the 1970s, Grimm, after earning multiple advanced degrees in engineering, serves in the United States Marine Corps as a test pilot during World War II . These exploits are chronicled to

6768-531: A starship capable of traveling in hyperspace. Sharing his plans with his new roommate, Grimm jokingly volunteered to pilot the craft. Also while at State U he met a brilliant fellow student, Victor Von Doom . In Richards, Doom met the first person who could match him intellectually; regarding Richards as his ultimate rival, Doom became increasingly jealous of Richards. Determined to prove he was better, Doom conducted reckless experiments which eventually scarred his face and would lead him to become Doctor Doom. During

6956-441: A steadfast member of the Fantastic Four. In a Fantastic Four comic published in 2005, Ben learns that he is entitled to a large sum of money, his share of the Fantastic Four fortune, which Reed Richards had never touched, as he had the shares of the other teammates (who were family members) to pay off various debts of the group. The Thing uses his newfound wealth to build a community center in his old neighborhood on Yancy Street,

7144-535: A storm over a small area, to gigantic storms that cover the entire planet. They tend to occur when Mars is closest to the Sun, and have been shown to increase global temperature. Seasons also produce dry ice covering polar ice caps . Large areas of the polar regions of Mars While Mars contains water in larger amounts , most of it is dust covered water ice at the Martian polar ice caps . The volume of water ice in

7332-409: A successful test pilot and astronaut, was indeed slated to pilot the craft. All seemed well; however, when the government threatened to cut funding and cancel the project, Reed, Ben, Sue, and Sue's younger brother Johnny , agreed to sneak aboard the starship and take it up immediately. They knew they had not completed all the testing that had been planned, but Reed was confident they would be safe. Ben

7520-406: A team, but as a family. Shortly after their return, the FF were confronted by a being called Onslaught . Onslaught took control of an army of Sentinels and invaded New York City , hunting down every mutant being he could find. Onslaught wished to add the abilities of the godlike Franklin Richards to his own. Only through the apparent sacrifice of the Fantastic Four's own lives and that of many of

7708-491: A very thick lithosphere compared to Earth. Below this the mantle gradually becomes more ductile, and the seismic wave velocity starts to grow again. The Martian mantle does not appear to have a thermally insulating layer analogous to Earth's lower mantle ; instead, below 1050 km in depth, it becomes mineralogically similar to Earth's transition zone . At the bottom of the mantle lies a basal liquid silicate layer approximately 150–180 km thick. Mars's iron and nickel core

Mister Fantastic - Misplaced Pages Continue

7896-452: Is Syrtis Major Planum . The permanent northern polar ice cap is named Planum Boreum . The southern cap is called Planum Australe . Mars's equator is defined by its rotation, but the location of its Prime Meridian was specified, as was Earth's (at Greenwich ), by choice of an arbitrary point; Mädler and Beer selected a line for their first maps of Mars in 1830. After the spacecraft Mariner 9 provided extensive imagery of Mars in 1972,

8084-406: Is a light albedo feature clearly visible from Earth. There are other notable impact features, such as Argyre , which is around 1,800 kilometres (1,100 mi) in diameter, and Isidis , which is around 1,500 kilometres (930 mi) in diameter. Due to the smaller mass and size of Mars, the probability of an object colliding with the planet is about half that of Earth. Mars is located closer to

8272-582: Is a reluctant member of the pro-registration side of the controversy over the 2006 Superhuman Registration Act (SHRA), until he witnesses a battle on Yancy Street in which Captain America 's forces try to rescue captured allies held by Iron Man 's forces. The Fantastic Four's foes the Mad Thinker and the Puppet Master try to escalate the battle, using a mind-controlled Yancy Streeter to deliver

8460-525: Is able to bankroll the Fantastic Four, Inc., without any undue financial stress. Mind control is rarely effective on him and when it does work, it wears off sooner than it would on a normal person, due to what he describes as an "elastic consciousness". However, this intelligence can be a handicap in his dealings with magic, as it required an intense lesson from Doctor Strange and facing the threat of his son being trapped in Hell for Reed to fully acknowledge that

8648-479: Is actually Lyja , a member of the shape-changing alien race known as the Skrulls . The real Alicia, who was kept in suspended animation , is rescued by the Fantastic Four and reunited with the Thing. Ben begins dating a teacher named Debbie Green. Ben soon asks Debbie to marry him, which she accepts. He later leaves her at the altar when he realizes the dangers of the wives of superheroes . Ben and Alicia, on

8836-432: Is approximately half the diameter of Earth, with a surface area only slightly less than the total area of Earth's dry land. Mars is less dense than Earth, having about 15% of Earth's volume and 11% of Earth's mass , resulting in about 38% of Earth's surface gravity . Mars is the only presently known example of a desert planet , a rocky planet with a surface akin to that of Earth's hot deserts . The red-orange appearance of

9024-576: Is believed by most to be the Earth's foremost intelligence. There is little he cannot create, fix, or understand given time. The patents and royalties on his inventions alone have funded the group over the years. However, there are drawbacks to his association with the team. Chief among them is the team's violent encounters with Doctor Doom, who believes that Reed was responsible for the accident that scarred him. Doom has never forgiven Reed and has sworn revenge. Doom has even gone as far as transforming Reed into

9212-766: Is completely molten, with no solid inner core. It is around half of Mars's radius, approximately 1650–1675 km, and is enriched in light elements such as sulfur , oxygen, carbon , and hydrogen . Mars is a terrestrial planet with a surface that consists of minerals containing silicon and oxygen, metals , and other elements that typically make up rock . The Martian surface is primarily composed of tholeiitic basalt , although parts are more silica -rich than typical basalt and may be similar to andesitic rocks on Earth, or silica glass. Regions of low albedo suggest concentrations of plagioclase feldspar , with northern low albedo regions displaying higher than normal concentrations of sheet silicates and high-silicon glass. Parts of

9400-429: Is divided into two kinds of areas, with differing albedo. The paler plains covered with dust and sand rich in reddish iron oxides were once thought of as Martian "continents" and given names like Arabia Terra ( land of Arabia ) or Amazonis Planitia ( Amazonian plain ). The dark features were thought to be seas, hence their names Mare Erythraeum , Mare Sirenum and Aurorae Sinus . The largest dark feature seen from Earth

9588-487: Is due to the thin atmosphere which cannot store much solar heat, the low atmospheric pressure (about 1% that of the atmosphere of Earth ), and the low thermal inertia of Martian soil. The planet is 1.52 times as far from the Sun as Earth, resulting in just 43% of the amount of sunlight. Mars has the largest dust storms in the Solar System, reaching speeds of over 160 km/h (100 mph). These can vary from

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9776-433: Is eight years old. This portion of his own life is modeled on that of Jack Kirby , who grew up on tough Delancey Street , whose brother died when he was young, whose father was named Benjamin, and who was named Jacob at birth. Following the death of his parents, Ben is raised by his Uncle Jake (who married a much younger wife, Petunia, who becomes a frequent reference used by the character until her death). He comes to lead

9964-749: Is eventually revealed that this Alicia was actually the Skrull impostor Lyja ). An angry Grimm wallows in self-pity for a time, later on accompanying the West Coast Avengers , and actually joining the team for a while. Eventually, he returns to his surrogate family as leader of the Fantastic Four when Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman leave the team to raise their son Franklin, at which point Ben invites Crystal and Ms. Marvel II (Sharon Ventura) to fill their slots. Soon after Sharon and Ben are irradiated with cosmic rays, Sharon becomes

10152-437: Is known as the Martian dichotomy . Mars hosts many enormous extinct volcanoes (the tallest is Olympus Mons , 21.9 km or 13.6 mi tall) and one of the largest canyons in the Solar System ( Valles Marineris , 4,000 km or 2,500 mi long). Geologically , the planet is fairly active with marsquakes trembling underneath the ground, dust devils sweeping across the landscape, and cirrus clouds . Carbon dioxide

10340-552: Is later seen among the various heroes that the Hulk defeated so far, within the depths of the Hulk's Gladiator arena located within Madison Square Garden . He and all of the heroes are implanted with "obedience disks" that are used to suppress their powers. These disks are the same that were used upon the Hulk during his time on Sakaar. The Hulk orders Iron Man and Mr. Fantastic to face off in battle. Richards, after having

10528-533: Is later seen captive in Madison Square Garden, which the Hulk has turned into a gladiatorial arena, with an obedience disk fitted on him. Released from his imprisonment, Ben, Spider-Man , and Luke Cage attack the Warbound , with Ben fighting Korg . Their battle is brought to an abrupt end when Hiroim repairs the damage to Manhattan Island, drawing the energy to do so from Ben and Korg. In

10716-526: Is never afraid to admit when others have greater expertise in certain fields than him, such as recognizing that Doctor Octopus possesses greater knowledge of radiation, that Hank Pym is a superior biochemist , or that Spider-Man can think of a problem from a biology perspective where he would be unable to do so, since his expertise is in physics. Richards has earned Ph.D.s in Mathematics , Physics , and Engineering . His patents are so valuable that he

10904-412: Is not the real Sentry and destroys the machine. In a last line of defense, Sue Storm tries to protect her husband by encapsulating the Hulk in an energy field while pleading with him to spare Reed. The Hulk does not listen and is able to easily exert enough strength against her force field to cause Susan to collapse and experience a nosebleed from the stress, before she dooms Reed to the Hulk's wrath. Reed

11092-435: Is shown that a Skrull assumed Reed's form to successfully ambush and capture Sue Richards, to facilitate an attack on the Fantastic Four's headquarters. A conscious but still mostly shapeless Reed Richards is seen being forcibly stretched in all directions to cover the floor of a medium-sized arena aboard a Skrull ship, with all of the seats filled by Skrull onlookers. He is freed by Abigail Brand , and then travels with her to

11280-448: Is striking: northern plains flattened by lava flows contrast with the southern highlands, pitted and cratered by ancient impacts. It is possible that, four billion years ago, the Northern Hemisphere of Mars was struck by an object one-tenth to two-thirds the size of Earth's Moon . If this is the case, the Northern Hemisphere of Mars would be the site of an impact crater 10,600 by 8,500 kilometres (6,600 by 5,300 mi) in size, or roughly

11468-541: Is substantially present in Mars's polar ice caps and thin atmosphere . During a year, there are large surface temperature swings on the surface between −78.5 °C (−109.3 °F) to 5.7 °C (42.3 °F) similar to Earth's seasons , as both planets have significant axial tilt . Mars was formed approximately 4.5 billion years ago. During the Noachian period (4.5 to 3.5 billion years ago), Mars's surface

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11656-482: Is the blind Alicia Masters, and he is intensely protective of her. When Johnny starts a relationship of his own with Alicia and they become engaged, Grimm is upset. However, he has to concede that, unlike himself and his stone-covered body, Johnny can "be a man". He agrees to act as best man at their wedding. The relationship between Alicia and Johnny ends with the revelation that the Alicia that Johnny fell in love with

11844-591: Is the fourth planet from the Sun . The surface of Mars is orange-red because it is covered in iron(III) oxide dust, giving it the nickname " the Red Planet ". Mars is among the brightest objects in Earth's sky , and its high-contrast albedo features have made it a common subject for telescope viewing. It is classified as a terrestrial planet and is the second smallest of the Solar System 's planets with

12032-606: Is thought to have been carved by flowing water early in Mars's history. The youngest of these channels is thought to have formed only a few million years ago. Elsewhere, particularly on the oldest areas of the Martian surface, finer-scale, dendritic networks of valleys are spread across significant proportions of the landscape. Features of these valleys and their distribution strongly imply that they were carved by runoff resulting from precipitation in early Mars history. Subsurface water flow and groundwater sapping may play important subsidiary roles in some networks, but precipitation

12220-710: The Secret Invasion : Fantastic Four miniseries, the Skrull Lyja, posing as Sue, sends the Baxter Building , with Ben, Johnny, Franklin, and Valeria inside, into the Negative Zone . Not long after their arrival, Ben has to protect Franklin and Valeria from an impending onslaught of giant insects. With the aid of the Tinkerer , who Ben broke out of the Negative Zone Prison, they, with the exception of Lyja who stayed behind, were able to return to

12408-494: The Secret Wars storyline, Reed is one of the few survivors of Earth-616 to come through with his memories intact, hiding in a 'life raft' with various other heroes and eventually released by Doctor Strange. Learning that the new 'Battleworld' is now ruled by Doctor Doom, who has absorbed the power of various Beyonders and Molecule Men to become a virtual god, Reed and the other heroes disperse across Battleworld to come up with

12596-550: The areoid of Mars, analogous to the terrestrial geoid . Zero altitude was defined by the height at which there is 610.5  Pa (6.105  mbar ) of atmospheric pressure. This pressure corresponds to the triple point of water, and it is about 0.6% of the sea level surface pressure on Earth (0.006 atm). For mapping purposes, the United States Geological Survey divides the surface of Mars into thirty cartographic quadrangles , each named for

12784-499: The Marvel Universe . In the 2004 Fantastic Four story "Hereafter Part 1: A Glimpse of God", the Thing is killed by an energy weapon wielded by Reed Richards, but is brought back to life in one story by the hand of God. Out of universe, Jack Kirby featured the Thing on his family's 1976 Hanukkah card. Some years later, Reed Richards, now a successful scientist, once again makes contact with Grimm. Richards has built his spaceship, and reminds Grimm of his promise to fly it. After

12972-567: The Masters of Evil , posing as heroes, The Thunderbolts . One year later, Franklin returned with his family along with the other heroes from the parallel reality. Reed was overjoyed to see his son again, but he and the rest of the FF found themselves without a home, moving into Reed's storage warehouse on Pier 4, overlooking the East River. Making this their home, the Fantastic Four continued with their lives, eventually managing to move back into

13160-521: The Red Ghost ) were also increased when they were exposed to a second dose of cosmic rays. Maintaining his body's normal human shape requires a certain degree of ongoing concentration. When Reed is relaxed and distracted, his body appears to "melt in slow motion" according to Susan Storm. Being forcefully stretched to extremes during a short span of time (by a taffy-puller-type machine or a strong character, for example) causes Reed to suffer intense pain and

13348-627: The Sandman and manages to escape the prison with the aid of a plan coordinated by the She-Hulk and Ant-Man , allowing him to rejoin Sue and Johnny to investigate Reed's recent abduction, revealing that the dead Puppet Master came from the alternate Earth Franklin had created. As the Fantastic Four disbanded in the aftermath of the " Secret Wars " storyline, the Thing is working with the Guardians of

13536-706: The Savage Land and uses a device to reveal all the Skrull invaders present. After helping the Avengers to defeat the imposters and return to New York, Reed aids the heroes and villains of Earth in their battle against the Skrulls. Mister Fantastic aids the New Avengers in the search for the daughter of Luke Cage and Jessica Jones. He and the rest of the Fantastic Four are magically reduced to television signals by

13724-560: The She-Hulk to fill in for him. Mister Fantastic did leave him with the device needed to return to Earth when it comes time. The Thing's time on Battleworld lasted until Ben eventually decides to return home after defeating Ultron and slaying his manifested dark side Grimm the Sorcerer. Once he left, the planet had no more reason to exist and so it broke apart. On returning to Earth, he learns that Alicia had become romantically involved with his teammate Johnny Storm during his absence (it

13912-500: The Shema , an important and oft-recited Jewish prayer (which, translated to English, begins "Hear, O Israel") over the dying Sheckerberg, who eventually recovers. In a later story, Grimm agrees to celebrate his Bar Mitzvah , since it has been 13 years, the age a Jewish boy celebrates his Bar Mitzvah, since he began his "second life" as the Thing. To celebrate the ceremony, Grimm organizes a poker tournament for every available superhero in

14100-601: The Skrulls . Soon after that, the team encountered the Sub-Mariner . They then had the first of many battles with Doctor Doom. They later journeyed to a subatomic world. Soon after that, they encountered Rama-Tut . They then battled the Molecule Man . As the team leader, Mr. Fantastic created numerous exotic devices and vehicles for the team to use such as clothing made of ' unstable molecules ' so that it can be used with their powers safely. Furthermore, he often leads

14288-483: The X-Men and the Avengers. During the 2011 " Fear Itself " storyline, Ben lifts one of the seven fallen hammers of the Serpent and becomes Angrir: Breaker of Souls. In this form, he then destroys Yancy Street and Avengers Tower, and battles Spider-Man, Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman, before confronting Thor, who seriously wounds him. Franklin then uses his powers to restore Ben to his normal self, free from

14476-656: The Yellowknife Bay area in the Glenelg terrain. In September 2015, NASA announced that they had found strong evidence of hydrated brine flows in recurring slope lineae , based on spectrometer readings of the darkened areas of slopes. These streaks flow downhill in Martian summer, when the temperature is above −23 °C, and freeze at lower temperatures. These observations supported earlier hypotheses, based on timing of formation and their rate of growth, that these dark streaks resulted from water flowing just below

14664-415: The asteroid belt , so it has an increased chance of being struck by materials from that source. Mars is more likely to be struck by short-period comets , i.e. , those that lie within the orbit of Jupiter . Martian craters can have a morphology that suggests the ground became wet after the meteor impact. The large canyon, Valles Marineris (Latin for " Mariner Valleys", also known as Agathodaemon in

14852-402: The orbital inclination of Deimos (a small moon of Mars), that Mars may once have had a ring system 3.5 billion years to 4 billion years ago. This ring system may have been formed from a moon, 20 times more massive than Phobos , orbiting Mars billions of years ago; and Phobos would be a remnant of that ring. The geological history of Mars can be split into many periods, but

15040-572: The "Grimm Youth Center". Thinking the center is named after the Thing himself, the Yancy Street Gang plans to graffiti the building exterior, but discovers the building was actually named after Daniel Grimm, Ben's deceased older brother and former leader of the gang. The relationship between the Yancy Streeters and the Thing is then effectively reconciled, or at least changed to a more good-natured, playful rivalry (as exemplified by

15228-452: The 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book Avengers: The Initiative #1. Ben once again tries to take on the Hulk within the events of the 2007 storyline " World War Hulk " to buy Reed Richards the time he needs to complete his plans for the Hulk. Ben gives his best shots, but the Hulk takes his punches without slowing down. The Hulk proceeds to knock out Ben by punching both sides of his head simultaneously. He

15416-548: The 2015 film Fantastic Four . In the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise, John Krasinski portrayed Richards in the 2022 film Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , and Pedro Pascal will portray him in the 2025 film The Fantastic Four: First Steps , the 2026 film Avengers: Doomsday , and the 2027 film Avengers: Secret Wars . During an interview, Lee stated the inspiration behind

15604-595: The Baxter Building (due to Loki's manipulations, likely) sows further displeasure and leads to a direct conflict between the Fantastic Four and Loki's Mighty Avengers, stretching across to The Mighty Avengers #26 . This conflict eventually ends in a new base for the Mighty Avengers and a shockingly disturbing alliance of the Dark Reign ; the next issue of the Mighty Avengers will show a new character,

15792-596: The Baxter Building is now owned by a new superhero team, Fantastix, the Thing allows his teammates to use his hometown in Yancy Street as their current operation base. The Thing is generally well liked by other heroes within the Marvel Universe . Grimm's relationship with his teammates has been a close but occasionally edgy one given his temper. He and Johnny Storm (the Human Torch) often argue and clash but they do respect each other. Grimm's first love interest

15980-618: The Baxter Building. It has emerged that Reed is one of the members of the " Illuminati ", unknown to his wife. He is also in possession of the "Power" gem of the Infinity Gauntlet . In Marvel's Civil War miniseries and crossover event, Reed Richards is one of the leading figures, along with Iron Man, on the side which is in favor of the Superhuman Registration Act . He speculates that this will lead to conflict with his wife, which came true in issue #4 of

16168-577: The Dark Raider who was traveling from reality to reality, destroying all the various versions of himself after his own failure to save his world from Galactus in their original confrontation. A while later, the remaining members of the FF along with the Sub-Mariner, Lyja and Kristoff Vernard found themselves trapped in the same era as their Reed and Doom. They found Reed but faced a new problem: during his time alone, Reed had resigned himself to

16356-601: The Fantastic Four (including X-Men member Iceman ) fight the Griever at the End of All Things after Mister Fantastic persuaded the Griever to let him summon the Thing and the Human Torch. As the Thing and his teammates finally return to 616, while the Future Foundation stays behind to keep learning about the Multiverse, the Thing reveals to them that he and Alicia proposed their wedding and are about to get married soon. Although

16544-402: The Fantastic Four name, they are systematically attacked by the mysterious Quiet Man, a figure who reveals that he has been behind many of the villain attacks the FF have faced over the years, now stepping forward to take a more active role as he shuts down Johnny's powers, frames the Thing for murder, has Reed and Sue Richards declared unfit guardians for their children, and then abducts Reed with

16732-469: The Fantastic Four, and then joined the Avengers , although Reed's past experience as leader of the Fantastic Four meant that he had trouble adjusting to following Captain America 's lead regardless of his respect for the other man. Eventually, Reed and Sue did rejoin the Fantastic Four. In the course of fighting an alien called Hunger, Doctor Doom was seriously injured. The Fantastic Four were also part of

16920-542: The Fantastic Four, but ask Storm and the Black Panther to take their places in the meantime. Within the midst of Civil War, Reed Richards learned from a brief conversation with Mastermind Excello that the Hulk is not on the planet where the Illuminati attempted to exile him. After a conversation over the good the Hulk has done for humanity, Reed tells Iron Man of what happened to the Hulk and also states that

17108-439: The Fantastic Four. Reed was chosen to lead the group, under the name "Mr. Fantastic". He later told his daughter , by way of a bedtime story , that the reason he suggested they become adventurers and gave them such outlandish costumes and names as "Mister Fantastic" and " The Thing " was that he knew they would likely be hated and feared for their powers without such an over-the-top public image. This history has been changed over

17296-656: The Galaxy, and the Human Torch is acting as an ambassador with the Inhumans and becoming part of the Uncanny Avengers. During the 2017 " Secret Empire " storyline, the Thing appears as a member of the Underground, which is a resistance movement against HYDRA ever since they took over the United States, until the real Captain America returns, ending HYDRA's empires and defeating his HYDRA counterpart. To help

17484-460: The Griever at the End of All Things after Reed had expended most of his Beyonder-based energies while Franklin was left with only limited reality-warping abilities. Due to the Griever causing the collapse of 100 worlds, the Future Foundation had to make a stand even after Molecule Man was killed. When Mister Fantastic tricked the Griever into bringing their Fantastic Four teammates to them, Thing and Human Torch were reunited as every other superhero that

17672-588: The Guardians tell Reed Richards and others to never open the portal, or they will face the wrath of Blastaar. Mister Fantastic agrees and says they will not open the portal and then asks who they are. Star-Lord replies, "We're the Guardians of the Galaxy" before leaving. Tragedy strikes the team when Johnny is apparently killed in the Negative Zone. As the Fantastic Four recover from Johnny's apparent death, Mister Fantastic grows disillusioned at how scientists see science and its applications. Therefore, he creates

17860-450: The Hulk has friends, and "may God help us if they find him before we do". Within the aftermath of Civil War, Reed Richards had been keeping tabs on Mastermind Excello and when the She-Hulk learned about the Hulk's exile, Reed Richards sends out Doc Samson to confront her when he sees her meeting with Mastermind Excello. In World War Hulk #1, Reed is shown with Tony Stark as Iron Man. Both men were trying to convince Sentry to fight

18048-524: The Hulk, thinking that the calm aura that the Sentry produces may be able to stop the Hulk's rampage. In World War Hulk #2, with the aid of the rest of the Fantastic Four, Storm, and the Black Panther, Reed is able to create a machine that projects an image of the Sentry and recreates the hero's aura of calm. He uses the machine on the Hulk just as he is about to defeat the Thing, but the Hulk knows it

18236-609: The Human Torch in Strange Tales #124 (1964), which previously featured solo adventures of the Human Torch and backup Doctor Strange stories. The change was intended to liven the comic through the always humorous chemistry between the Torch and the Thing. They were replaced in #135 (1965) with the "modern-day" version of Nick Fury , Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. , who had already been appearing in Sgt. Fury and his Howling Commandos . After

18424-478: The Martian ionosphere , lowering the atmospheric density by stripping away atoms from the outer layer. Both Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Express have detected ionized atmospheric particles trailing off into space behind Mars, and this atmospheric loss is being studied by the MAVEN orbiter. Compared to Earth, the atmosphere of Mars is quite rarefied. Atmospheric pressure on the surface today ranges from

18612-538: The Martian sky a tawny color when seen from the surface. It may take on a pink hue due to iron oxide particles suspended in it. The concentration of methane in the Martian atmosphere fluctuates from about 0.24 ppb during the northern winter to about 0.65 ppb during the summer. Estimates of its lifetime range from 0.6 to 4 years, so its presence indicates that an active source of the gas must be present. Methane could be produced by non-biological process such as serpentinization involving water, carbon dioxide, and

18800-415: The Martian surface is caused by ferric oxide , or rust . It can look like butterscotch ; other common surface colors include golden, brown, tan, and greenish, depending on the minerals present. Like Earth, Mars is differentiated into a dense metallic core overlaid by less dense rocky layers. The outermost layer is the crust, which is on average about 42–56 kilometres (26–35 mi) thick, with

18988-420: The Martian surface. Mars is an attractive target for future human exploration missions , though in the 2020s no such mission is planned. Scientists have theorized that during the Solar System's formation , Mars was created as the result of a random process of run-away accretion of material from the protoplanetary disk that orbited the Sun. Mars has many distinctive chemical features caused by its position in

19176-542: The Moon, Johann Heinrich von Mädler and Wilhelm Beer were the first areographers. They began by establishing that most of Mars's surface features were permanent and by more precisely determining the planet's rotation period. In 1840, Mädler combined ten years of observations and drew the first map of Mars. Features on Mars are named from a variety of sources. Albedo features are named for classical mythology. Craters larger than roughly 50 km are named for deceased scientists and writers and others who have contributed to

19364-586: The Red King forces breach the ship's warp core. Miek kept quiet to initiate what he felt was Hulk's destiny as the "Worldbreaker". Mister Fantastic is at the Illuminati 's meeting discussing the threat of the Skrulls when the Black Bolt with them is revealed to be a Skrull in disguise. Mister Fantastic and Hank Pym autopsy the body of the Skrull who impersonated Elektra (with Reed pretending to be seeing

19552-459: The Serpent's possession. In the 2014 " Original Sin " storyline, after learning from the eye of the murdered Uatu that Johnny Storm unintentionally sabotaged an experiment that could have allowed Grimm to become human again, Ben is found having apparently murdered the Puppet Master ; the crime was committed in a sealed room that even Reed Richards could barely penetrate, with Alicia Masters as

19740-464: The She-Thing, lumpy much like Ben was in his first few appearances, while Ben mutates into a new rockier, more powerful form. After being further mutated into the more monstrous rocky form, Ben is briefly changed back to his human form, and returned leadership of the Fantastic Four to Reed Richards. Grimm once more returned to his traditional orange rocky form out of love for Ms. Marvel. He remains

19928-412: The Solar System. Elements with comparatively low boiling points, such as chlorine , phosphorus , and sulfur , are much more common on Mars than on Earth; these elements were probably pushed outward by the young Sun's energetic solar wind . After the formation of the planets, the inner Solar System may have been subjected to the so-called Late Heavy Bombardment . About 60% of the surface of Mars shows

20116-492: The Thing cope with Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman's disappearance, the Human Torch takes him on a journey through the Multiverse, using the Multisect to find them. They have not been able to find Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, as they return to Earth-616 empty-handed. The Thing and the Human Torch were reunited with Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman to help alongside other superheroes who were part of

20304-464: The Thing's later foray into the world of professional wrestling . It also featured a major storyline offshoot from Marvel's Secret Wars event, in which the Thing elects to remain on the Beyonder 's Battleworld after discovering that the planet enables him to return to human form at will. A full third of the series' stories take place on Battleworld. In 2002, Marvel released The Thing: Freakshow ,

20492-408: The Yancy Street gang at one point. Excelling in football as a high school student, Ben receives a full scholarship to Empire State University, where he first meets his eventual lifelong friend in a teenaged genius named Reed Richards , as well as future enemy Victor von Doom . Despite their being from radically different backgrounds, science student Richards describes to Grimm his dream of building

20680-407: The ability to convert his entire body into a highly malleable state at will, allowing him to stretch, deform, and reform himself into virtually any shape. Richards has been observed as being able to utilize his stretching form in a variety of offensive and defensive manners, such as compressing himself into a ball and ricocheting into enemies, flattening himself into a trampoline or a parachute to catch

20868-415: The abnormal radiation levels in the belt's atmosphere. The cosmic rays wreaked havoc on the starship's insufficient shielding and they were forced to return to Earth immediately. When they crash-landed they found that their bodies were changed dramatically. Reed's body was elastic and he could reshape any portion of his body at will. At his suggestion, they decided to use their new abilities to serve mankind as

21056-462: The area of Europe, Asia, and Australia combined, surpassing Utopia Planitia and the Moon's South Pole–Aitken basin as the largest impact crater in the Solar System. Mars is scarred by a number of impact craters: a total of 43,000 observed craters with a diameter of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) or greater have been found. The largest exposed crater is Hellas , which is 2,300 kilometres (1,400 mi) wide and 7,000 metres (23,000 ft) deep, and

21244-419: The atmosphere is about 10.8 kilometres (6.7 mi), which is higher than Earth's 6 kilometres (3.7 mi), because the surface gravity of Mars is only about 38% of Earth's. The atmosphere of Mars consists of about 96% carbon dioxide , 1.93% argon and 1.89% nitrogen along with traces of oxygen and water. The atmosphere is quite dusty, containing particulates about 1.5 μm in diameter which give

21432-406: The atmosphere is small, but enough to produce larger clouds of water ice and different cases of snow and frost , often mixed with snow of carbon dioxide dry ice . Landforms visible on Mars strongly suggest that liquid water has existed on the planet's surface. Huge linear swathes of scoured ground, known as outflow channels , cut across the surface in about 25 places. These are thought to be

21620-456: The battle against Hunger and Doom asked for his old enemy to take his hand. At that point they both disappeared in a flash, leaving nothing but ashes. It would appear as if the two sworn enemies had fittingly died in each other's hands. However, unknown to anyone else at the time, Reed and Doom had actually been thrown back into the time of barbarians and onto an alien world by a being called Hyperstorm , Reed's grandchild from an alternate future,

21808-467: The broken fragments of "Tintina" rock and "Sutton Inlier" rock as well as in veins and nodules in other rocks like "Knorr" rock and "Wernicke" rock . Analysis using the rover's DAN instrument provided evidence of subsurface water, amounting to as much as 4% water content, down to a depth of 60 centimetres (24 in), during the rover's traverse from the Bradbury Landing site to

21996-560: The chaotic activities of the Elder God Chthon, to prevent them from intervening, though after Chthon is defeated, he and the other three are turned back. Norman Osborn has sent H.A.M.M.E.R. agents to shut down the Fantastic Four and capture them, expelling them from the Initiative and stripping them all their rights. Taking place a week from the Secret Invasion, which has caused Richards to seriously reevaluate his own life and

22184-586: The character first appeared in The Fantastic Four #1 (Nov. 1961). Kirby modeled the character after himself. In addition to appearing in the Fantastic Four, the Thing has been the star of Marvel Two-in-One , Strange Tales (with his fellow Fantastic Four member the Human Torch ), and two incarnations of his own eponymous series, as well as numerous miniseries and one-shots . The Thing joined his Fantastic Four partner and frequent rival

22372-561: The character in his human and mutated forms respectively in the unreleased film The Fantastic Four . Michael Chiklis played the character in the 2005 Fantastic Four film and its 2007 sequel Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer , and Jamie Bell in the 2015 reboot . Ebon Moss-Bachrach will portray the character in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe films The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025), Avengers: Doomsday (2026), and Avengers: Secret Wars (2027). Created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby ,

22560-437: The character's powers: "I liked Plastic Man . That's a great power, and nobody is using it so I gave Reed Richards Plastic Man's power" Born in Central City, California , Reed Richards is the son of Evelyn and Nathaniel Richards . Nathaniel was a scientific genius, and Reed inherited a similar level of intellect and interests. A child prodigy with special aptitude in mathematics , physics , and mechanics , Reed Richards

22748-414: The charges were dropped when Eternity briefly granted all those attending the trial a moment of 'cosmic awareness' that allowed them to understand that Galactus was necessary for the continued well-being of the universe. Reed's battle with Gormuu prior to getting his powers was recounted. Just after that, Reed was reunited with his father in an alternate timeline. Some time later, Reed and Sue retired from

22936-453: The child of Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers , daughter of Scott Summers and Jean Grey . They were so far into the past, and with no technology, that even their brilliant minds couldn't find a way back home. Doom was captured and held prisoner by Hyperstorm. Reed wandered aimlessly for about a year. Meanwhile, the rest of the FF recruited Scott Lang as scientific advisor. They even confronted an insane alternative version of Reed called

23124-493: The city. Indifferent to choosing sides, Ben focuses on protecting civilians from harm. In Fantastic Four #543 (March 2007), Ben celebrates the Fantastic Four's 11th anniversary along with the Human Torch, and latecomers Reed and Sue. The aftermath of the Civil War is still being felt in this issue, as Ben and Johnny (and even Franklin ) consider the future of the team and Reed and Sue's marriage. When Reed and Sue arrive near

23312-481: The comic ending, with the Yancy Streeters spray-painting the sleeping Thing). Some personality traits of the cantankerously lovable, occasionally cigar-smoking, Jewish native of the Lower East Side are popularly recognized as having been inspired by those of co-creator Jack Kirby, who in interviews has said he intended Grimm to be an alter ego of himself. Initially in the 2006 storyline " Civil War ", Ben

23500-503: The comic superhero world against revealing a character's religion, the fact that Grimm is Jewish was not explicitly revealed until four decades after his creation, in the story "Remembrance of Things Past" in Fantastic Four vol. 3, #56 (Aug. 2002). In this story, Grimm returns to his old neighborhood to find Mr. Sheckerberg, a pawn shop owner he knew as a child. Flashbacks during this story reveal Grimm's Jewish heritage. He recites

23688-515: The corpse for the first time, thus keeping the secret of the Illuminati). After completing the dissection, Reed claims to have discovered the secret of how the Skrulls have been able to conceal their identities. Before he can elaborate, " Hank Pym " reveals himself to be a Skrull and shoots Richards with a weapon that violently leaves his elastic body in a state of chaotic disarray similar to Silly String . In Secret Invasion: Fantastic Four #1, it

23876-458: The edges of boulders and other obstacles in their path. The commonly accepted hypotheses include that they are dark underlying layers of soil revealed after avalanches of bright dust or dust devils . Several other explanations have been put forward, including those that involve water or even the growth of organisms. Environmental radiation levels on the surface are on average 0.64 millisieverts of radiation per day, and significantly less than

24064-607: The events of Civil War #5, Peter Parker demands to see the conditions inside the detention facility designed by Reed to hold unregistered superhumans. After being escorted to and from the prison by Iron Man , Parker returns with more doubts than ever about whether he is on the right side and asks Reed why he supports the Superhuman Registration Act, a question Reed answers by telling the story of his paternal uncle , Ted. A professional writer, Reed remembers his uncle as "funny", "colorful", and "accepting". As

24252-498: The final confrontation, Reed and the Maker discover that the source of Doom's power is the Molecule Man (Owen Reece), but although the Maker attempts to betray Reed by forcibly devolving him into an ape, Reece reverses the Maker's attack and turns him into pepperoni pizza. When Doom comes down to confront Reed, Reed challenges Doom as Reece temporarily deprives Doom of his new god-level powers, Reed proclaiming Doom to be nothing more than

24440-429: The flanks of the volcano Arsia Mons . The caves, named after loved ones of their discoverers, are collectively known as the "seven sisters". Cave entrances measure from 100 to 252 metres (328 to 827 ft) wide and they are estimated to be at least 73 to 96 metres (240 to 315 ft) deep. Because light does not reach the floor of most of the caves, they may extend much deeper than these lower estimates and widen below

24628-493: The following are the three primary periods: Geological activity is still taking place on Mars. The Athabasca Valles is home to sheet-like lava flows created about 200 million years ago. Water flows in the grabens called the Cerberus Fossae occurred less than 20 million years ago, indicating equally recent volcanic intrusions. The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured images of avalanches. Mars

24816-399: The government denies him permission to fly the spaceship himself, Richards plots a clandestine flight piloted by Grimm and accompanied by his future wife Susan Storm , who had helped provide funding for the rocket, and her younger brother Johnny Storm , who helped the group gain access to the launch system. Although reluctant to fly the rocket, Ben is persuaded to do so by Sue, for whom he has

25004-409: The heroes in the Marvel universe was Onslaught finally vanquished. The heroes would have died then and there if not for Franklin, who created an alternate reality for them to reside in. Completely oblivious to what had taken place, Reed and his compatriots relived most of their lives. In their absence the Fantastic Four's headquarters, Four Freedoms Plaza , was annihilated by a super villain group called

25192-607: The intention of framing him for a series of attacks committed by the heroes created in Franklin's pocket universe. However, Reed is able to defeat the Quiet Man's plan to proclaim himself the hero who defeated Reed's 'attack' on the world when he realizes that the Psycho-Man - one of the Quiet Man's allies - intended to betray him, forcing Reed and the Quiet Man to work together to deactivate the Psycho-Man's equipment. During

25380-468: The issue's end, they announce that they are taking a break from the team and have found two replacement members: the Black Panther , and Storm of the X-Men . The title of the story in this issue is a quote from Ben, "Come on, Suzie, don't leave us hangin'." Ben Grimm served as one of the pallbearers at the memorial service for Captain America, along with Tony Stark, Ms. Marvel, Rick Jones, T'Challa and Sam Wilson. Ben has been identified as Number 53 of

25568-609: The key to using magic was to accept that he would never understand it. Thing (comics) The Thing ( Benjamin Jacob " Ben " Grimm ) is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . He is a founding member of the Fantastic Four . The Thing was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby , and he first appeared in The Fantastic Four #1 ( cover-dated Nov. 1961). Known for his trademark rocky appearance, he has superhuman strength,

25756-436: The lander showed that the Martian soil has a basic pH of 7.7, and contains 0.6% perchlorate by weight, concentrations that are toxic to humans . Streaks are common across Mars and new ones appear frequently on steep slopes of craters, troughs, and valleys. The streaks are dark at first and get lighter with age. The streaks can start in a tiny area, then spread out for hundreds of metres. They have been seen to follow

25944-455: The life he has built for his family, resulting in turbulent internal conflicts. Richards, as he takes a long, hard look at the life, is prompted to construct a machine that is capable of bending reality itself, to do so. Agents from H.A.M.M.E.R. (sent by Norman Osborn, a man well aware Reed is one of the few that have intellect exceeding even his own and thus pose a great threat to his carefully constructed shadow world) arrive just as Reed activates

26132-477: The machine, interfacing with the Baxter Building's power supply, resulting in an energy fluctuation that sends Sue, Ben and Johnny back to the prehistoric era, fraught with dangers, which manifest in the form of the First Celestial Host. Reed searches for answers which can only be found in alternate timelines as the three find themselves in a super hero Hyborian-age civil war; Franklin and Valeria are

26320-474: The mineral jarosite . This forms only in the presence of acidic water, showing that water once existed on Mars. The Spirit rover found concentrated deposits of silica in 2007 that indicated wet conditions in the past, and in December 2011, the mineral gypsum , which also forms in the presence of water, was found on the surface by NASA's Mars rover Opportunity. It is estimated that the amount of water in

26508-613: The mineral olivine , which is known to be common on Mars, or by Martian life. Compared to Earth, its higher concentration of atmospheric CO 2 and lower surface pressure may be why sound is attenuated more on Mars, where natural sources are rare apart from the wind. Using acoustic recordings collected by the Perseverance rover, researchers concluded that the speed of sound there is approximately 240 m/s for frequencies below 240 Hz, and 250 m/s for those above. Auroras have been detected on Mars. Because Mars lacks

26696-482: The miniseries when a clone of Thor , created by him and Tony Stark, went out of control and killed Goliath and nearly killed all the rest of the Secret Avengers until Sue Storm stepped in and saved them. Soon after, Sue left Reed, along with Johnny, to join the Secret Avengers in hopes that it would drive Reed to end the conflict quickly. In The Amazing Spider-Man #535, which takes place shortly before

26884-527: The monstrous form of the Thing, Grimm's body rejects various attempts by Richards to restore his human form, lest he lose Masters' love. Grimm has remained a stalwart member of the Fantastic Four for years. The Thing first fought the Hulk early in his career, with many such further clashes over the years. Not long after that, he is first reverted to his human form, but is then restored to his Thing form to battle Doctor Doom . Grimm has been temporarily replaced on

27072-427: The mountain is so large, with complex structure at its edges, giving a definite height to it is difficult. Its local relief, from the foot of the cliffs which form its northwest margin to its peak, is over 21 km (13 mi), a little over twice the height of Mauna Kea as measured from its base on the ocean floor. The total elevation change from the plains of Amazonis Planitia , over 1,000 km (620 mi) to

27260-431: The movement of dry dust. No partially degraded gullies have formed by weathering and no superimposed impact craters have been observed, indicating that these are young features, possibly still active. Other geological features, such as deltas and alluvial fans preserved in craters, are further evidence for warmer, wetter conditions at an interval or intervals in earlier Mars history. Such conditions necessarily require

27448-514: The northwest, to the summit approaches 26 km (16 mi), roughly three times the height of Mount Everest , which in comparison stands at just over 8.8 kilometres (5.5 mi). Consequently, Olympus Mons is either the tallest or second-tallest mountain in the Solar System ; the only known mountain which might be taller is the Rheasilvia peak on the asteroid Vesta , at 20–25 km (12–16 mi). The dichotomy of Martian topography

27636-468: The old canal maps ), has a length of 4,000 kilometres (2,500 mi) and a depth of up to 7 kilometres (4.3 mi). The length of Valles Marineris is equivalent to the length of Europe and extends across one-fifth the circumference of Mars. By comparison, the Grand Canyon on Earth is only 446 kilometres (277 mi) long and nearly 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) deep. Valles Marineris was formed due to

27824-427: The only ones available to confront the agents Osborn sent. Richards studies other parallel Earths to see if any found a peaceful solution to the Civil War, which resulted from the Superhuman Registration Act. Reed peers into different worlds, some more bizarre than our own, to see what they did differently. This is an insightful look into where the Marvel Universe has gone in the past "year" (in Marvel time) and to see who

28012-550: The only witness. Although Ben claims innocence, his depression over recent events prompts him to accept incarceration in the Raft. Although power-dampeners in the Raft restrict his strength to a more manageable level, he is attacked by various other thick-skinned superhumans — including the Armadillo and Ironclad — on orders of the current 'boss' of the prison, Sharon Ventura , the She-Thing. Eventually, Ben forms an alliance with

28200-581: The other hand, do get married, despite an attack by Galactus. Later, in the aftermath of conflict between the Kree , the Skrulls and the Cotati, Ben and Alicia adopt two orphans, Kree boy Jo-Venn and Skrull girl N'Kala. Grimm is best friends with Reed Richards , whom he addresses with the nickname "Stretch", due to Richards' natural height and his ability to stretch his body. However, Grimm also holds Reed responsible for his condition, since Richards had dismissed

28388-842: The past. This paleomagnetism of magnetically susceptible minerals is similar to the alternating bands found on Earth's ocean floors . One hypothesis, published in 1999 and re-examined in October ;2005 (with the help of the Mars Global Surveyor ), is that these bands suggest plate tectonic activity on Mars four billion years ago, before the planetary dynamo ceased to function and the planet's magnetic field faded. The Phoenix lander returned data showing Martian soil to be slightly alkaline and containing elements such as magnesium , sodium , potassium and chlorine . These nutrients are found in soils on Earth. They are necessary for growth of plants. Experiments performed by

28576-562: The possibility of past or present life on Mars remains of great scientific interest. Since the late 20th century, Mars has been explored by uncrewed spacecraft and rovers , with the first flyby by the Mariner 4 probe in 1965, the first orbit by the Mars 2 probe in 1971, and the first landing by the Viking 1 probe in 1976. As of 2023, there are at least 11 active probes orbiting Mars or on

28764-559: The potential danger of the cosmic rays that gave them their powers, although Grimm had taken them very seriously. At times of real frustration towards Reed, Grimm refers to him simply as "Richards". Grimm is the godfather of Reed and Sue 's son Franklin , who affectionately calls him "Unca Ben". The Thing's primary superhuman power is his great physical strength. Over the years, as a result of further mutation and rigorous training on machines designed by Reed Richards, his strength has increased dramatically. Mars Mars

28952-577: The power output of Tony's Repulsor-battery heart implant. For virtually his entire publication history, Mister Fantastic has been depicted as one of the most intelligent characters in the Marvel Universe . A visionary theoretician and an inspired machine smith , he has made breakthroughs in such varied fields as space travel , time travel , extra-dimensional travel , biochemistry , robotics , computers , synthetic polymers , communications , mutations , transportation , holography , energy generation , and spectral analysis , among others. However, he

29140-417: The presence of the act. In the final battle of the war, he is shot by Taskmaster , saving Sue Storm's life. With Reed on the brink of death, a furious Sue crushes Taskmaster with a telekinetic field. Reed survives, however, and Sue returns to him in the aftermath of the battle, having been granted amnesty. Seeking to repair the damage done to their marriage as a result of the war, Sue and Reed take time off from

29328-667: The quartet band together to use their new abilities for the betterment of humanity, and Grimm, in a moment of self-pity, adopts the super-heroic sobriquet, the Thing . The team clashes with the Mole Man in their first appearance. Trapped in his monstrous form, Grimm is an unhappy yet reliable member of the team. He trusts in his friend Reed Richards to one day develop a cure for his condition. However, when he encounters blind sculptor Alicia Masters , Grimm develops an unconscious resistance to being transformed back to his human form. Subconsciously fearing that Masters prefers him to remain in

29516-566: The radiation of 1.84 millisieverts per day or 22 millirads per day during the flight to and from Mars. For comparison the radiation levels in low Earth orbit , where Earth's space stations orbit, are around 0.5 millisieverts of radiation per day. Hellas Planitia has the lowest surface radiation at about 0.342 millisieverts per day, featuring lava tubes southwest of Hadriacus Mons with potentially levels as low as 0.064 millisieverts per day, comparable to radiation levels during flights on Earth. Although better remembered for mapping

29704-463: The reality that it was impossible for his old friends to stage a rescue and attacked them but soon realized that these truly were his friends. After returning to their own time period, he sought Galactus, as he was the only being in the Universe who could defeat Hyperstorm. Upon Hyperstorm's defeat at the hands of Galactus, the FF returned to the present day where they continued their lives, not only as

29892-458: The regular Marvel Universe just after the invasion was over. Following the Siege of Asgard , Luke Cage asks Ben to serve on his Avengers team. Although Ben states that his loyalty will always be to the Fantastic Four, Cage confirms that he is not asking Ben to resign from his original team, merely suggesting that Ben split his time between the two teams, as Wolverine divides his time between

30080-550: The same machines he is using; the machine locates them and the people he finds tell him that they can help him. Reed Richards reappeared in The Mighty Avengers #24 refusing to give Hank Pym an invention previously left in the care of the Fantastic Four, following Bill Foster 's untimely death, causing the Wasp to lead the team of Mighty Avengers to retrieve the device. In the next issue, Pym's attempting to knock down

30268-467: The size of Earth's Arctic Ocean . This finding was derived from the ratio of protium to deuterium in the modern Martian atmosphere compared to that ratio on Earth. The amount of Martian deuterium (D/H = 9.3 ± 1.7 10 ) is five to seven times the amount on Earth (D/H = 1.56 10 ), suggesting that ancient Mars had significantly higher levels of water. Results from the Curiosity rover had previously found

30456-429: The size of the Moon's South Pole–Aitken basin , which would be the largest impact basin yet discovered if confirmed. It has been hypothesized that the basin was formed when Mars was struck by a Pluto -sized body about four billion years ago. The event, thought to be the cause of the Martian hemispheric dichotomy , created the smooth Borealis basin that covers 40% of the planet. A 2023 study shows evidence, based on

30644-422: The south polar ice cap, if melted, would be enough to cover most of the surface of the planet with a depth of 11 metres (36 ft). Water in its liquid form cannot prevail on the surface of Mars due to the low atmospheric pressure on Mars, which is less than 1% that of Earth, only at the lowest of elevations pressure and temperature is high enough for water being able to be liquid for short periods. Water in

30832-461: The southern highlands include detectable amounts of high-calcium pyroxenes . Localized concentrations of hematite and olivine have been found. Much of the surface is deeply covered by finely grained iron(III) oxide dust. Although Mars has no evidence of a structured global magnetic field , observations show that parts of the planet's crust have been magnetized, suggesting that alternating polarity reversals of its dipole field have occurred in

31020-505: The study of Mars. Smaller craters are named for towns and villages of the world with populations of less than 100,000. Large valleys are named for the word "Mars" or "star" in various languages; smaller valleys are named for rivers. Large albedo features retain many of the older names but are often updated to reflect new knowledge of the nature of the features. For example, Nix Olympica (the snows of Olympus) has become Olympus Mons (Mount Olympus). The surface of Mars as seen from Earth

31208-564: The summer months, Reed rented a room in a boarding house owned by the aunt of a young woman named Susan Storm , who was an undergraduate student at the time. Reed fell in love with Sue instantly and began courting her. Ultimately, Reed was too distracted from his work on his dissertation due to his romance with Sue and decided that the best thing for the both of them was to move out of Marygay's home. Moving on to Harvard, Reed earned Ph.D.s in Physics and Electrical Engineering while working as

31396-513: The surface. However, later work suggested that the lineae may be dry, granular flows instead, with at most a limited role for water in initiating the process. A definitive conclusion about the presence, extent, and role of liquid water on the Martian surface remains elusive. Researchers suspect much of the low northern plains of the planet were covered with an ocean hundreds of meters deep, though this theory remains controversial. In March 2015, scientists stated that such an ocean might have been

31584-430: The surface. "Dena" is the only exception; its floor is visible and was measured to be 130 metres (430 ft) deep. The interiors of these caverns may be protected from micrometeoroids, UV radiation, solar flares and high energy particles that bombard the planet's surface. Mars lost its magnetosphere 4 billion years ago, possibly because of numerous asteroid strikes, so the solar wind interacts directly with

31772-625: The swelling of the Tharsis area, which caused the crust in the area of Valles Marineris to collapse. In 2012, it was proposed that Valles Marineris is not just a graben , but a plate boundary where 150 kilometres (93 mi) of transverse motion has occurred, making Mars a planet with possibly a two- tectonic plate arrangement. Images from the Thermal Emission Imaging System (THEMIS) aboard NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter have revealed seven possible cave entrances on

31960-410: The team into daring expeditions such as into the Negative Zone in addition to opposing evil. Also, he has felt personally responsible for Ben Grimm's grotesque change and has labored off and on to reverse it permanently. Under his guidance, the team went on to become Earth's most celebrated band of heroes. Together, they would save the world countless times. Ever driven by his quest for knowledge, Reed

32148-505: The team twice. First, after Grimm temporarily lost his powers and reverted to human form, Reed Richards hired Luke Cage (then using the code name "Power Man") to take his place until Richards had completed a Thing-suit for Ben (however, Ben unexpectedly reverted into the actual Thing again later on). Years later, after Grimm chose to remain on Battleworld in the aftermath of the " Secret Wars " due to his apparent control over his transformation between his human and mutated states, he asked

32336-718: The temporary loss of his natural elastic resiliency. He possesses other weaknesses too; a great shock to his body - for example, from the likes of Doctor Doom when he constructs around him - can make his body so rubbery he loses motor control. Enough energy can reduce him to a liquid state in which he is immobile. Mister Fantastic's strength comes more from the powers of his mind than the powers of his body; indeed, he once told Spider-Man that he considers his stretching powers to be expendable compared to his intellect. Some stories have implied that his intellect may have been boosted by his powers, as he once visited an alternate universe where his other self-had never been exposed to cosmic rays and

32524-419: The upper hand on Stark, is then given the thumbs down by Hulk, instructing Richards to kill Stark. However the Hulk spares their lives, showing them that he proved his point to the world. They survived the encounter by Hulk's mercy and the timely intervention of the Sentry. The Illuminati are partially cleared from the responsibility of Sakaar's destruction when Miek , one of the Hulk's alien allies, admits he saw

32712-507: The upper mantle of Mars, represented by hydroxyl ions contained within Martian minerals, is equal to or greater than that of Earth at 50–300 parts per million of water, which is enough to cover the entire planet to a depth of 200–1,000 metres (660–3,280 ft). On 18 March 2013, NASA reported evidence from instruments on the Curiosity rover of mineral hydration , likely hydrated calcium sulfate , in several rock samples including

32900-420: The widespread presence of crater lakes across a large proportion of the surface, for which there is independent mineralogical, sedimentological and geomorphological evidence. Further evidence that liquid water once existed on the surface of Mars comes from the detection of specific minerals such as hematite and goethite , both of which sometimes form in the presence of water. In 2004, Opportunity detected

33088-602: The years to keep it current. In the original comics, Richards was a veteran of World War II who had served behind enemy lines in occupied France, and the goal of his space mission was a crewed space flight to the Moon before the Communists were able to . This was later changed to getting there before the Chinese Communists and to explore the interstellar areas of the red planet and beyond. Also, Reed originally states that he and Sue "were kids together" and that Sue

33276-410: Was an editorial decision made in 2013 as Reed developing, several years later, a romantic interest in a girl he first met when she was thirteen years old was deemed inappropriate. The early career of the Fantastic Four led Mister Fantastic to a number of discoveries, and had their first encounters with many unusual characters. In the team's first appearance, they battled the Mole Man . They then battled

33464-404: Was at fault, if anyone. Reed meets with the other five Illuminati to handle the problem. Ultimately, after seeing about a million alternate Earths, he had concluded that there was no way for the Civil War to be resolved but that he, as the cleverest man in the Marvel Universe, had a responsibility to put things right. But before turning the machine off, he searches for other realities where they have

33652-517: Was initially skeptical about the unknown effects of radiation, while Reed theorized that their ship's shielding would be adequate to protect them. It was on Reed's initiative that the fateful mission which had Susan Storm, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm accompanying him into space took place. When their ship passed through the Van Allen belt they found their cockpit bombarded with nearly lethal doses of cosmic radiation . Reed had neglected to account for

33840-475: Was launched in 2023, written and illustrated by Steve Skroce . The series sees Thing teaming up with various heroes. Born on Yancy Street in New York City 's Lower East Side , to a Jewish family, Benjamin Jacob "Ben" Grimm has an early life of poverty and hardship, shaping him into a tough, streetwise scrapper. His older brother Daniel , whom Ben idolizes, is killed in a street gang fight when Ben

34028-436: Was marked by meteor impacts , valley formation, erosion, and the possible presence of water oceans . The Hesperian period (3.5 to 3.3–2.9 billion years ago) was dominated by widespread volcanic activity and flooding that carved immense outflow channels . The Amazonian period, which continues to the present, has been marked by the wind as a dominant influence on geological processes . Due to Mars's geological history,

34216-503: Was notably less intelligent than him, though purely human versions of Reed that are as or even more intelligent than himself have been shown, particularly among the Council of Reeds. Tony Stark has commented that Reed's ability to make his brain physically larger (via his elastic powers) gives him an advantage, though this seems to be meant more as a joke. That said, scenes from the same issue show Reed "inflating" his skull as he calculates

34404-417: Was part of the Fantastic Four showed up as well. Faced with these numbers, the Griever was eventually driven back when most of her equipment was destroyed, forcing her to return to her universe or be trapped in this one, while the heroes were able to repair the damaged equipment to create a new teleporter to send them all home. Reed Richards gained the power of elasticity from irradiation by cosmic rays. He has

34592-629: Was probably the root cause of the incision in almost all cases. Along craters and canyon walls, there are thousands of features that appear similar to terrestrial gullies . The gullies tend to be in the highlands of the Southern Hemisphere and face the Equator; all are poleward of 30° latitude. A number of authors have suggested that their formation process involves liquid water, probably from melting ice, although others have argued for formation mechanisms involving carbon dioxide frost or

34780-437: Was reported that InSight had detected and recorded over 450 marsquakes and related events. Beneath the crust is a silicate mantle responsible for many of the tectonic and volcanic features on the planet's surface. The upper Martian mantle is a low-velocity zone , where the velocity of seismic waves is lower than surrounding depth intervals. The mantle appears to be rigid down to the depth of about 250 km, giving Mars

34968-514: Was taking college-level courses when he was 14. He attended such prestigious universities as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , California Institute of Technology , Harvard University , Columbia University , and the fictional Empire State University. By the age of 20, he had several degrees in the sciences under his belt. It was at Empire State University that he met Benjamin J. Grimm . Reed had already begun designing

35156-494: Was the "girl next door" who Reed left behind to go fight in the war. This origin story was, many years later, altered so that Sue was thirteen years old when she first met Reed, who was in his early twenties, at her Aunt Marygay's boardinghouse. Current official Marvel canon has since altered this origin story by combining elements of both—it eliminated the large age gap but maintained that Reed and Sue did not meet until their late teens at Aunt Marygay's boardinghouse. The change in age

35344-399: Was wrong to take such a stand, to pick a fight he couldn't win, and to fail to respect the law. However Fantastic Four #542 reveals that the real reason for supporting the registration act is due to his development of a working version of Isaac Asimov 's fictional psychohistory concept. His application of this science indicates to him that billions will die in escalating conflicts without

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