The Fantastic Four came into being thanks to a rocket designed by ace scientist Reed Richards. Pilot Ben Grimm (Reed’s best friend) took the experimental rocket up for a test flight, bringing along Reed, Susan Richards (Reed’s wife), and Johnny Storm (Susan’s younger brother). When the ship passed through cosmic radiation too strong for its shields to withstand, the passengers were all bombarded with cosmic rays. Crash landing on earth, the four discovered that the radiation had left each of them with a strange, new power. Reed became Mr. Fantastic. Sue, the Invisible Woman, Ben, The Thing, and Johnny became The Human Torch.