10 Marvel Villains The Fantastic Four Went Too Easy On

The Fantastic Four brought Marvel Comics into the Silver Age of Superhero Comics. They were the first official Marvel superteam, a family of explorers—Mister Fantastic, Invisible Woman, the Thing, and the Human Torch—traveling the universe, making amazing discoveries, and taking on the most dangerous villains in the universe. Their rogues gallery includes monstrous megalomaniacs, powerful cosmic predators, and aliens races out to conquer humanity.

The Fantastic Four dealt with these threats in some pretty interesting and notably non-lethal ways. They were more scientists than superheroes, so their methods can be very different from other super teams. For better and worse, there were times when the Fantastic Four went easier on their foes than others would or should. In fact, they often allowed their enemies to leave relatively unharmed and attack again later.

10 Kang the Conqueror & the Fantastic Four Couldn’t Kill Each Other Due to Their Family Ties

Kang the Conqueror has gone through multiple iterations. His first battle with the Fantastic Four was as Rama-Tut, one of his many prehistoric, time-displaced variants. Kang has an interesting relationship with the Fantastic Four. He was a possible descendant of the Richards family from the far future, yet clashed with the four on several occasions. Technically, both sides went easy on one another.

Kang didn’t want to kill the team or want to, since doing so could erase his existence. Invisible Woman could squash Kang like a bug if she put her mind to it. Reed may not have access to Kang’s technology, but it’s nothing that he hasn’t dealt with before. The Human Torch could destroy Kang with one Nova Blast, and the Thing just needed to land one solid punch. However, they always treated Kang with kid gloves because he could be their future kid.

Terrax The Tamer is a latter-day Herald of Galactus. He was gifted with the power of geokinesis, allowing him to control rocks and stone. These powers, enhanced with the Power Cosmic, made Terrax a difficult foe for the Fantastic Four. Even Invisible Woman, who could solo majority of the team’s villains, would have a hard time with Terrax. Anyone with the Power Cosmic is pretty formidable, but the four often went easy on Terrax.

Mr. Fantastic is extremely intelligent and could easily figure out a way to stop the Power Cosmic. Doctor Doom was able to create a way to drain the Power Cosmic from a user, so Reed would be able to one-up this. On top of that, the Fantastic Four could easily drop Terrax into another dimension or even a black hole. Terrax is powerful, but the Fantastic Four have more options than most heroes.

8 Mole Man Is Kind of Pathetic, & the Fantastic Four Sympathized With Him

Mole Man was the first villain to fight the Fantastic Four. Harvey Elder was short, overweight, and extremely near-sighted. Harvey was treated badly by the people around him, so he went underground and found the Moloids. He became their leader, and took on the name Mole Man. MHarvey wanted to get back at the world that had treated him so badly, and he commanded armies of Moloids and monsters during attacks on the surface world.

Mole Man has no powers or anything noteworthy. He’s just a normal, angry person who was treated badly. Mole Man just wanted to hurt the world like it hurt him. The Fantastic Four knew this, and this was why they never tried hard to actually hurt Mole Man. Mole Man isn’t a complete monster; he was just a very hurt man who lashed out on the world. The Fantastic Four took it easy on him because they genuinely pitied him and would rather help him.

7 The Hulk Could Easily Be Destroyed by the Fantastic Four

The Hulk is often considered a superhero, but that’s not really the case. The Hulk has battled many heroes, and often found himself battling the Thing. Hulk has been a member of the New Fantastic Four, but beyond that, most of his interactions with the team have been antagonistic. Hulk can easily defeat the Thing; the Thing is strong, but he doesn’t have the infinite strength of the Hulk. However, there’s really no way the Hulk can beat the entire team on his own, unless they let him.

Invisible Woman can easily beat the Hulk in a number of ways, most of them non-lethal. Human Torch could possibly beat Hulk if he hit him with a Nova Burst. Mr. Fantastic, if given enough time to study the Hulk, could easily figure out a way to draw off Hulk’s gamma energy, thus weakening him. Hulk might be able to beat the Thing, but the only reason he can beat the four was because they weren’t actually trying.

6 The Super-Skrull Can’t Take on the Fantastic Four on His Own

The Skrulls are a powerful intergalactic force, and their first enemies on Earth were the Fantastic Four. The Skrulls and the Fantastic Four battled over the years, with the team foiling the Skrulls’ efforts to conquer the Earth. The Skrulls’ shape-shifting power was great for infiltration, but they couldn’t copy anyone’s powers. But after battling the team, the Skrulls found a way to copy the four’s powers and give them to their greatest soldier, the Super-Skrull.

The problem was that there was only one Super-Skrull, and he wasn’t as resourceful as the Fantastic Four. The Super-Skrull is a powerful soldier, but he wasn’t as intelligent as his rivals. The Fantastic Four was such a powerful force not because of their powers, but because of their intelligence and teamwork. The Super-Skrull is tough, but there’s no way he could stand against the Fantastic Four unless they were taking it very easy on him.

5 Annihilus Was Basically Allowed To Reach the Heights of Power He Did

The universe-spanning Annihilation Wave was revealed to be under the control of Annihilus, a long-time foe of the Fantastic Four. Annihilus came from the Negative Zone, a dimension the Fantastic Four created a way to visit. Without the Fantastic Four, there would be no way for Annihilus to attack the 616 universe. This made the fact that the Fantastic Four took it pretty easy on Annihilus much worse.

Annihilus was powerful and armed with the Cosmic Control Rod. While Annihilus was formidable, Mr. Fantastic could easily figure out a way to stop him without killing him. The team could have taken the Cosmic Control Rod from Annihilus, as well. The Fantastic Four could have ended Annihilus’s rampages ages ago if they tried hard enough, but they never have, for some reason.

Galactus broke the mold when he debuted, and has since become the responsibility of the Fantastic Four. Galactus is impossible to defeat through conventional arms or force. Even at his hungriest and weakest, he was still a literal god. The Fantastic Four were able to beat Galactus not because they were more powerful than him, but because they specialized in thinking outside the box. That said, they could and did do more.

In other universes and timelines, the Fantastic Four stopped Galactus permanently. It stands to reason that the Fantastic Four could end Galactus’s threat to the 616 universe if they tried hard enough. Granted, their variants had notably more cruel and evil methods, but they stopped Galactus all the same. The fact that they didn’t do so in the 616 timeline means that countless planets and their peoples will continue die.

Namor went back and forth between heroism and villainy. The Fantastic Four found themselves fighting him all the time, especially after Namor fell in love with Invisible Woman and tried to steal her from the team. So began Namor’s rivalry with the Fantastic Four. Namor and the team clashed multiple times, but the team should have been able to trounce Namor easily.

Namor is strong and durable, but he’s still just one Mutant. Inhibiting Mutant powers is a child’s play in the Marvel Universe, and a genius like Mr. Fantastic could easily take away Namor’s powers any time he wanted. It felt like the Fantastic Four took it easy on Namor because Invisible Woman had a bit of a crush on him. This was pretty much the only explanation because, otherwise, the Fantastic Four should’ve wiped the floor with Namor.

Maximus the Mad wasn’t the worst villain, but he tried to take over the Inhumans multiple times. That said, Maximus’ villainy was actually tragic. His mind was broken when Black Bolt’s Terrigenesis kicked in. Black Bolt’s powerful voice drove Maximus to madness. Since then, Maximus tried to take revenge on his brother, and the Fantastic Four interfered several times.

Maximus’ actions weren’t really his fault. Black Bolt affecting him the way he did wasn’t something anyone could have predicted. Most of the time, the Fantastic Four and others in the know did their best to stop Maximus without hurting him too much. Maximus is dangerous, but he doesn’t deserve to be beaten down every time he showed up, and the Fantastic Four knew this.

1 Doctor Doom’s Relationship With the Fantastic Four Is Beyond Complicated

Doctor Doom is Marvel’s greatest villain, and has battled the Fantastic Four for ages. Victor was a classmate of Reed Richards and Ben Grimm, and they were the only people he was close with in university. Doom blamed Reed for his own mistakes with the machines he built to take his mother’s soul from Mephisto. Since then, Doom hated Reed, which led to their decades-long rivalry.

Doom hated Reed and Ben, and did everything to ruin them and their families. However, he never went as far as trying to kill them. Doom helped Sue birth Valeria, and even got to name the little girl. He’s since taken it easy on the team, and the Fantastic Four returned the favor by not going as hard against Doom as they did before. Their dynamic has always been strange, and it’s only gotten stranger.