GALACTUS' FANTASTIC FOUR DUPLICATES

Membership: Duplicates of the Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic and the Thing

Purpose: To serve Galactus and defeat the Fantastic Four

Affiliations: Galactus

Enemies: Fantastic Four (Human Torch/Johnny Storm, Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards, Thing/Ben Grimm)

Base of Operations: A small island in the Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of New York City

First Appearance: Fantastic Four I#75 (June, 1968)

History:
(Fantastic Four I#75) - When the Fantastic Four refused to turn the Silver Surfer over to Galactus, the three members of the FF (see comments) relocated to a small island off the coast of New York City, to avoid possible injury to bystanders while they confronted the cosmic entity.

   But Galactus used his Power Cosmic to create soulless replicas of the Human Torch, Mr. Fantastic and the Thing to destroy them. As the members of the FF battled their counterparts, they found themselves outmatched-- the duplicate of the Torch was immune to Johnny Storm's flame, but could harm him with its cosmic flame; the duplicate of the Thing was stronger than Ben Grimm; the duplicate of Mr. Fantastic could become as hard as metal, and used its flexible limbs to create spikes to stab at Reed Richards.

   Johnny assisted Reed by blasting the Mr. Fantastic duplicate with a flame-bolt, which stunned it. Suddenly realizing that the duplicates were each created for one purpose--to fight their living counterparts--Reed advised his teammates to switch opponents, to confuse the replicas; Reed was able to smother the duplicate Torch's flames with his body. In turn, the Thing hurled the duplicate Mr. Fantastic into the ocean, and the Torch drove off the duplicate Thing with a blast of fire.

   Following the defeat of his Fantastic Four duplicates, Galactus presumably reclaimed their energies into himself.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe Sinnott.

The Invisible Girl/Susan Richards was pregnant with the eventual Franklin Richards at the time, and did not take part in this battle, thus there was no duplicate of her.

These "Bizarroes" were not exact replicas of the three FF members, and bore only a superficial resemblance to them -- the Thing duplicate didn't have the black "rocky" pattern on its orange body; the Mr. Fantastic and Human Torch duplicates lacked the "4" symbol on their chests, and the Torch duplicate never burst into flame or flew, but only projected heat-energy from its hands.

My guess is that these things were crude androids, and far less sophisticated than Galactus' later android of Gabriel the Air-Walker (@ Fantastic Four I#120).-- Ron Fredricks

Expanded history and additional image by Ron Fredricks.

Profile by Prime Eternal.

CLARIFICATIONS:
Galactus' Fantastic Four duplicates should not be confused with:

• Fantastic Four androids - imposters created by the Mad Thinker--Fantastic Four I#96
• Fantastic Four clones - imposters created by Aron the Rogue Watcher--Fantastic Four I#328
• Fantastic Four demons - imposters created by Death of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse--Giant-Size Fantastic Four#3
• Fantastic Four duplicates - created by Willie Evans Jr.--Fantastic Four I#203
• Fantastic Four doppelgangers - imposters created by the Magus--Infinity Watch#1
• "Fantastic Kids" - children who pretended to be the Fantastic Four, @ Fantastic Four I#11
• Thing imposter (Ricardo Jones) - transformed himself into duplicate of Thing--Fantastic Four I#50
• Thing robot - used to replace Thing when he lost his powers--Fantastic Four I#39
• Thing robot - built by Machinesmith--Captain America I#247
• any other characters who resemble the Fantastic Four

images: (without ads)
Fantastic Four I#75, p9, pan5 (FF duplicates emerge from ocean)
Fantastic Four I#75, p12, pan1 (Thing, Mr. Fantastic, and Human Torch battle their duplicates)

Appearances:
Fantastic Four I#75 (June, 1968) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby (pencils), Joe Sinnott (inks), Artie Simek (letters)

First Posted: 01/23/2006
Last updated: 07/02/2023

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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