Dr. Reed Richards - also known as Mr. Fantastic - was the leader of the Fantastic Four on Earth-2149. He was among the most intelligent individuals on the planet and one of its most revered superheroes. However, when the Hunger Gospel arrived and infected most of the world's metahuman population, Richards was driven insane by the horrors he witnessed and allowed himself to be infected as well.
History[]
As the zombie plague spread, the Fantastic Four found themselves trying to fend off their former friends and allies who had succumbed to the infection. An infected She-Hulk had entered the Baxter Building and killed Reed and Susan's two children, Franklin and Valeria, before being killed herself. Mentally broken by the loss of his children, Reed threw himself into his work as he struggled to find a cure for the plague. However, as he studied the slain infected, he became fascinated by how the virus operated and began to consider zombification to be the next step in humanity's evolution.
As the global situation deteriorated, Reed fell into insanity. He called Susan, Johnny and Ben back to his lab and explained his revelation and how he believed that they would be better off as zombies. Susan dismissed Reed, but then Reed revealed that he had infected his teammates as they entered the lab, noting that they may had felt a sharp scratch on the way in. Surely enough, Ben, Sue and Johnny succumbed to the infection and turned right before Reed's eyes. Reed happily submitted as his family attacked and bit into him, infecting him as well.
After the majority of Earth's population had been devoured, Richards turned his attention to devising a means of travelling across dimensions so that the zombies could find new sources of food. Richards soon completed a teleporter device and discovered a new parallel Earth suitable to invade: Earth-1610 (the Ultimate Marvel universe). Reed established a line of communication with his counterpart from Earth-1610, creating a holographic projection of himself as he was before his infection. He convinced the other Reed to visit his world and gave him the technical information to build a teleporter device of his own. Of course, when Reed-1610 arrived in Earth-2149, it became obvious that he had been tricked.
The zombified Fantastic Four greeted Reed-1610 and told him what had happened to their world and the reasons behind their deception. At that point, they pursued the younger Reed through the sewers, intent on devouring him and then invading his Earth after. Reed-1610 was able to escape and the Frightful Four broke off their pursuit, heading back to the Baxter Building to use the teleporter and invade Earth-1610.
The Frightful Four encountered their Fantastic Four counterparts who manage to seal them inside a nuclear containment area. With the zombies contained, the Ultimate FF tried to find a way to save their Reed, but he was fortunately saved by Earth-2149's version of Magneto. With the teleporter on Earth-2149 destroyed and the Frightful Four trapped on Earth-1610, no other zombies from the ruined Earth could follow and had no way of building another teleporter.
The zombified FF were kept in confinement which they saw as merely temporary accommodations since Reed-1610 refused to kill them. Zombie Reed informed his healthy counterpart that they fully intended to escape when the time was right and spread the zombie virus across the planet. A week after their confinement, the Frightful Four enacted their escape plan, fooling the guards into believing that the zombies had a working teleporter device made from a pen and hair. Of course that was impossible, but Reed Richards was well-known for his uncanny intellect and outlandish inventions. In reality, the zombie Sue had turned them all invisible with her powers, but the guards nonetheless opened the doors to investigate. The zombies then killed the guards and broke out, killing and eating dozens of people on their way to the Baxter Building's lab where they intended to build a new teleporter.
In order to stop their undead counterparts, the Ultimate FF sought help from their arch-enemy, Victor van Damme (Doctor Doom). Doom assisted the FF and singlehandedly defeated each of the zombies. Using his magic, he extinguished Zombie Torch's flames, snapped off Thing's arm, necrotized Sue completely and conjured a swarm of maggots to eat Reed. Doom then used the completed teleporter to dump the Frightful Four's remains back on to the street of their native New York.
Personality[]
Before being transformed by the Hunger Gospel, Reed Richards was an eccentric but brilliant scientist as well as a loving husband and father. He wanted to use his intellect to explore the unknown and use his powers and mind to protect humanity and make the world a better place.
However, after his children were killed by the zombified She-Hulk, Reed's mind became twisted as he sought to find meaning in their deaths and ultimately came to the conclusion that becoming undead was the next phase in human evolution. He purposefully infected his teammates using viral samples recovered from a slain zombie and allowed them to infect him in turn.
After becoming a zombie, Reed retained his vast intellect, but his only concern from then on was satisfying his endless hunger for flesh. This led to Reed developing a deceptive and sadistic demeanour as he would later make contact with his counterpart from Earth-1610 and manipulate him into helping him open a doorway between their worlds. He also took great pleasure in terrifying others before he fed upon them.
Powers and Abilities[]
- Genius-Level Intellect - Reed Richards was one of the most intelligent individuals on his world, having made many seemingly impossible scientific discoveries and innovations.
- Super-Elasticity - Richards gained an extremely malleable body structure after being exposed to cosmic radiation. He could stretch and contort his entire body in any number of ways, though he was limited by physical stress and pain. After turning into a zombie, Reed could no longer feel pain and so he could stretch and disperse his mass out even further.
- Superhuman Resilience - With his elastic body, Reed could easily withstand most physical attacks.
- Impervious to Pain - Following his infection, Reed's sense of pain was completely nullified.
- Immortality - Thanks to his elastic powers, Reed could most likely hold his form together and resist the physical deterioration brought on by the infection over a long period. In this sense, it may have been possible for Reed to "live" forever.