The Fantastic Four dont begin as fantastic. They begin as normal human beings. Reed Richards (Ioan Gruffudd) is an inventor, astronaut and scientist with plenty of ideas and very little funding. His best friend and frequent collaborator is Ben Grimm (Michael Chiklis). Then there is his ex-love and fellow scientist Sue Storm (Jessica Alba) and her daredevil brother Johnny (Chris Evans). In order to finance his latest project, he goes to Victor Von Doom (Julian McMahon) a former college rival whos now a billionaire industrialist and angling to marry the attractive Sue. Von Doom funds the mission, a trip into space to explore a cosmic storm, but things go wrong and the space station is engulfed by clouds of radiation which genetically transform the crew. Reed develops the ability to stretch; Sue can turn invisible; Johnny can ignite and fly; and Ben becomes the stony Thing. Their transformations take the four by surprise and they do not fully understand what has happened or exactly what these changes mean. Von Doom has also been altered but while the other four end up using their powers to help others, Von Doom has only selfish, evil plans in mind.
