The Fantastic Four was the first superhero comic book Marvel Comics produced in 1961. With over six decades of stories involving the First Family of Marvel Comics, the team has faced numerous villains and bad guys over the years. This all started with a slightly comical villain in the Mole Man, but soon they began fighting everyone from Doctor Doom to Namor, a character Marvel acquired when they purchased Timely Comics. From there, the Fantastic Four built up a solid list of villains and archenemies that are more powerful than villains most other Marvel Comics heroes ever had to combat.
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From villains who devour entire planets like Galactus to one of the most famous villains in Marvel Comics history, Doctor Doom, here is a look at the Fantastic Four’s best villains, ranked by their threat level to the Marvel Universe.
10) Puppet Master
While he might not look like much, the Puppet Master is one of the Fantastic Four’s most persistent and dangerous villains, and his power can cause major damage to the world around him. His power comes from magic, where he can mentally control the minds of others by carving a figure of who he wants to control out of radioactive clay he got from Wundagore Mountain. He is also someone with close ties to the Fantastic Four, as he is the father of Alicia Masters. After a few years as a generic (yet dangerous) villain, he began to use his clay to try to improve his daughter’s life, including controlling The Thing more than once. To understand his true power, in the acclaimed FF storyline “Terror in a Tiny Town,” Puppet Master used his powers while working with Doctor Doom to create a world where the Fantastic Four never gained their powers.
9) Namor
Namor was originally a Timely Comics character who was later incorporated into Marvel Comics, along with other characters like Captain America. Initially a hero who fought in The Invaders during World War II, Namor made his Marvel debut in the pages of Fantastic Four as an amnesiac who the Human Torch helped regain his memory. However, Namor’s arrogance made him a quick enemy of the Fantastic Four, even though he wasn’t technically a villain. Part of this was his desire to be with The Invisible Woman, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. As the King of Atlantis and a mutant who gained almost unlimited power from water, Namor remains practically unbeatable in his habitat and is a genuine threat to the world when he sets his sights on a goal.
8) Super-Skrull
The Super Skrull is a perfect villain for the Fantastic Four because he has all of their powers. The Skrulls made their first appearance in Fantastic Four comics, and when the team defeated them, Reed Richards forced them to take the form of cows and left them on a farm to live out their lives (until they ended up butchered and turned into meat, which infected the entire town). However, the Skrulls kept wanting to invade Earth, and they used the DNA from the Fantastic Four to create their own super-soldier with Super-Skrull. The FF have rarely been able to defeat Kl’rt, and while he has most recently become a hero as he works with Hulkling, he is a massive threat to enemies of the Skrull Empire.
7) Blastaar
The Fantastic Four have gone to many different dimensions over their career as explorers, and one of the most notable was when they discovered the Negative Zone. There were two dangerous villains they had fought who resided in the Negative Zone, and one of these was an alien known as Blastaar. This villain was born in the Negative Zone and grew up desiring the power to rule over the dimension. His first appearance was early on, in Fantastic Four #62 in 1967, and when he learned of Earth, he decided that was the planet he wanted to conquer the most. He has superhuman strength, durability, and endurance, and he can shoot concussive blasts through his fingers. While he is not the most powerful Negative Zone villain, he has proven to be a significant threat.
6) Kang The Conqueror
Kang the Conqueror has often been seen as an Avengers villain, but he is primarily a villain of the Fantastic Four. This is because he is Nathaniel Richards, who is said to be a descendant of Reed Richards and may also have familial ties to Doctor Doom. Much like Reed, he is a brilliant scientist who has created many things that have both advanced his timeline in the future and caused significant destruction to other timelines as he attempted to ensure his own continued power. He has taken on several different roles, including Immortus and Rama-Tut, the latter of which brought Kang into direct conflict with a time-traveling Fantastic Four in Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #19. With weapons and tech from the future, he is a universal threat to even the most powerful of heroes.
5) Annihilus
The most powerful Fantastic Four villain from the Negative Zone is easily Annihilus. He first appeared in Fantastic Four Annual #6 in 1968 as an insectoid creature that had a mutation that heightened his intelligence. He then gained access to a Cosmic Control Rod, which extended his lifespan, and became the one thing he defended with an extreme degree of intensity. He became an enemy of the Fantastic Four when they took his Rod to help save Susan Richards’ life, and he has hated them ever since. To understand his true power, the Marvel cosmic crossover series Annihilation surrounded his attempt to conquer the entire universe, and he destroyed countless worlds before a combined effort of the Guardians of the Galaxy, Kree, Nova Corps, Skrulls, and Silver Surfer had to team up to stop him.
4) Doctor Doom
The most popular Fantastic Four villain is, above all others, Doctor Doom. He has been attached to the First Family of Marvel since the start, debuting in the fifth issue of the series. He has an intense hatred of Reed Richards and has often put his own best interests at risk to take the battle to the Fantastic Four. He is also unique because he enjoys diplomatic immunity thanks to ruling over the country of Latveria. There is no human villain more powerful than Doom, who has conquered the entire multiverse in Secret Wars and then took over the entire world in One World Under Doom.
3) Griever at the End of All Things
One of the Fantastic Four’s lesser-known antagonists is known as the Griever at the End of All Things. She is not only a Fantastic Four villain, but she also harbors an intense hatred for Franklin Richards due to the young man’s abilities to create entire worlds and races with just his mind. She is a multiversal being and is the embodiment of the end of all things. Griever first appeared in Fantastic Four Vol. 6 #2 in 2018, and it took Reed Richards to call on every member of the Fantastic Four from the past to help them stop her and escape with their lives. Her main anger comes from the FF and Franklin Richards creating new multiverses after Secret Wars, which she said they had no right to do. The only way they ended up stopping her was when Reed Richards offered to let her use the Forever Gate to travel to the end of the universe, allowing her to achieve her ultimate goal of witnessing the end of everything.
2) Molecule Man
There is one person on Earth who has the power to destroy everything at a whim, but luckily, that is something he isn’t interested in doing. One of the Fantastic Four’s earliest villains was Owen Reese, the Molecule Man. At that time, he possessed immense powers, but he didn’t fully understand what he could do, so the FF was able to stop him on a regular basis. However, in the first Secret Wars, Owen revealed his actual threat level when the Beyonder recognized the immense power within him. Owen can manipulate matter in any way he chooses, and he showed his power levels when he later absorbed all the powers of The Beyonder to allow Doctor Doom to create Battleworld in the second Secret Wars. The only thing that keeps Molecule Man from the top spot as a threat is that he just wants to live in peace and be left alone, and doesn’t want to be a villain.
1) Galactus
The most powerful Fantastic Four villain when it comes to threat levels is easily Galactus. That is because Galactus is a being from the start of the universe whose existence is necessary to keep the entire universe in balance. Reed Richards understood this when he saved Galactus’s life once, and almost lost his own when he went on trial after that event. Galactus is the devourer of worlds, and he eats entire planets, killing all forms of life on them in the process. He has been defeated (most notably by Thor), but he always returns because he is a force of nature, and without him, the universe would slowly die.
