10 Incredible Fantastic Four Members the Whole World Has Forgotten

The Fantastic Four have seemed to have a revolving door of members at times with some temporary members being as well known as the core four individuals. Whether it be due to family matters, injury, or even disappearances and rumored death, temporary replacements are more or less a dime a dozen in The Fantastic Four team. As often as there have been temps to the team, it should come as no shock that some members have fallen through the cracks and gotten a little forgotten.
Whether it be people just not remembering that a certain Marvel character was part of The Fantastic Four at some point or due to the character themselves being not super well known, these temporary Fantastic Four team members are not as front of mind to the world as they maybe should be.

Sharon Ventura/She-Thing

Joined In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #309

Meeting Fantastic Four member Ben Grimm while she was a part of the Thunderiders motorcycle stunt team started the beginning of a long history between the pair. They were both part of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation, which The Thing needed to rescue Sharon Ventura from when things took a turn for the worst. They would go on to work together, this time in Ben Grimm’s own team, The Fantastic Four. After Reed Richards and Sue Storm take a break from the team to raise their son Franklin, Sharon Ventura joins the fold. While on a mission as part of the team, she was exposed to cosmic rays in a shuttle crash. The cosmic ray exposure resulted in her being mutated into She-Thing, taking on a form that was very similar to Ben Grimm’s. After her transformation, she would align herself with one of The Fantastic Four’s most well known foes, Doctor Doom, even spying on the team on behalf of Doom.

Dennis Sykes/Flux

Joined In Heroic Age: One Month To Live #3

Dennis Sykes is a character that has been connected to The Fantastic Four from the beginning, back to Syke’s origin, with his story encapsulated in the Heroic Age: One Month To Live story. When Dennis Sykes tries to thwart the theft of a medical waste truck, the thieves attack Sykes and pour medical waste down his throat before attempting to kill him. The one who rescues him from death is none other than The Thing, who takes him to the Baxter building where Mr. Fantastic discovers that Sykes has multiple forms of cancer and has about a month left to live. Upon returning home, Sykes discovers that he has the superpower of matter manipulation, which is used to its fullest potential thanks to a mission with the iconic foursome. When Ego is consuming planets to the point of nearly exploding and destroying the galaxy, The Fantastic Four make Flux a member of the team, so his matter manipulation can save the day.

Iceman

Unknown Joining Date But Was Referenced In Fantastic Four Vol 6 #3

A mystery to even the most ardent Fantastic Four fans, Iceman’s joining of the team is not the most clear. Iceman may have joined the team in alternate realities, but it is a little more murky as to the times he joined in the 616 universe, save for some X-Men and Fantastic Four team ups. Regardless, there is an occurrence that infers that Iceman was an official team member of The Fantastic Four at one point. In Fantastic Four Vol 6 #3, Mr. Fantastic calls upon every single member of The Fantastic Four to present themselves. Surprisingly, Iceman shows up, which prompts Johnny Storm, who tends to say what readers are thinking, to question Iceman’s presence to his face. Iceman explains that he is there because he was a member in a mission that was never published, something that annoys Johnny Storm to no end who refuses to count the occurrence.

Sleepwalker

Joined In Spider-Man Vol 1 #22

When the Skrull De’Lila captures The Fantastic Four, she uses her shapeshifting abilities to transform herself into Sue Storm and convinces Wolverine, Spider-Man, Hulk, and Ghost Rider to be the new Fantastic Four to avenge the originals who she said died. The team goes on a mission to satisfy the nefarious Skrull’s purposes and the team disbanded shortly after. Some time later, the New Fantastic Four regroup again, however, this time around, Sleepwalker is in Wolverine’s place on the team. With Sleepwalker as the new kid on the block of The New Fantastic Four, they are tasked with taking down the Sinister Six. Sleepwalker does major damage to the SInister Six as part of the New Fantastic Four, using his powerful eye beams to demolish the Sinister Six’s robots. Unfortunately, Sleepwalker is not helpful for long as he eventually fades away out of nowhere due to an issue with his human host being needed.

Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur

Joined In Moon Girl And Devil Dinosaur #29

Gaining attention from The Fantastic Four for her claim that she was smarter than Reed Richards, which was proven to be true, Moon Girl as well as her sidekick Devil Dinosaur later officially join The Fantastic Four. After the Secret Wars, two out of the four Fantastic Four members are gone, necessitating that Human Torch and The Thing to get some new members or remain a duo. Already knowing how smart Moon Girl is thanks to the testing that showed her to have a greater intelligence than their disappeared former leader Reed Richards, Johnny Storm and Ben Grimm figure Lunella would be a perfect choice for the new team leader. She fights alongside the remaining Fantastic Four members as well as Devil Dinosaur joining the fold a little later on, fighting the Super Skrull together.

Scott Lang/Ant-Man

Joined In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #384

First coming into contact with The Fantastic Four courtesy of battling on microworld alongside The Thing, Scott Lang would officially be part of the team when Reed Richards was believed to be dead. With Reed Richard’s believed demise, Scott Lang acted as The Fantastic Four’s technical advisor/resident scientist as well as being an active member of the team as well, where Sue Storm was leader. It was eventually revealed that Reed Richards was actually alive, just trapped in the past for a time, and Scott Lang would leave the team as he no longer filled an important need of The Fantastic Four. Although, his leaving of The Fantastic Four would not last forever. He would rejoin as part of the Future Foundation in the FF Johnathan Hickman comics. He is the leader as requested by Reed Richards of the temporary team along with She-Hulk, Medusa, and Ms. Thing.

Darla Deering

Joined In Fantastic Four Vol 4 #2

A pop star, Darla Deering aka Miss Thing, is an unlikely Fantastic Four member. However, she became one when she dated Johnny Storm. She had a strange origin in joining the team, which occurred when Reed Richards saw that The Fantastic Four were dealing with an unknown ailment and tasked each member of the team to choose their replacement while traveling through the universe to look for a cure. Johnny Storm forgot to pick his replacement, so as a last minute decision, he just chose his girlfriend and asked her to be his replacement, which she agreed. When the replacement crew ends up being needed to watch over the Future Foundation, Darla Deering, Ant-Man, Medusa, and She Hulk take over. As part of her Fantastic Four role, she was given a Thing Exoskeleton that came with a bubble helmet made of Invisible Woman’s force field.

Namorita

Joined In Fantastic Four Vol 3 #43

Namor’s connection to The Fantastic Four is widely known among the Marvel fandom, but his pseudo cousin, Namorita Prentiss has ties to the team all her own, albeit less well known than her family member. She began her own connection to the team through dating Johnny Storm where the duo were actually a hot topic in the tabloids. Beyond her romantic relationship with the Human Torch, Namorita became a member of the team when Johnny Strom formed a replacement team to rescue the remaining Fantastic Four members when they are trapped in the Negative Zone. The replacement team consisted of Namorita, Johnny Storm, Ant-Man, and She Hulk. The team are successful in rescuing the Invisible Woman, The Thing, and Mr. Fantastic, where Namorita would continue to help out the team on their missions until her and Johnny Storm broke up.

Crystal

Joined In Fantastic Four Vol 1 #81

An Inhuman and royalty thanks to her lineage in the Royal Family of Attilan, Crystal first comes into contact with The Fantastic Four when she is in New York to search for her sister Medusa and finds her with the foursome team. After meeting the team, Crystal forms a romantic relationship with Johnny Storm, setting up the ties she would have to the team before eventually joining The Fantastic Four. Already in a relationship with Johnny Storm, Crystal joins The Fantastic Four during Invisible Woman’s maternity leave for her first pregnancy. While Crystal is part of the team, she is a major asset, as seen when she defeated one of The Fantastic Four’s oldest enemies, The Wizard, by herself. While she more than held her own in The Fantastic Four, the Earth’s atmosphere caused health problems for Crystal, necessitating her to go back to Attilan.

HERBIE

Joined In 1978’s The New Fantastic Four Animated Series

The Humanoid Experimental Robot, B-Type, Integrated Electronics, aka HERBIE was made for quite unique reasons; Johnny Storm was not allowed to be used in the ’70s cartoon The New Fantastic Four due to a rights issue so HERBIE was made to replace the Human Torch character in the animated series. The Human Torch was optioned separately from the rest of the team because it was believed that he would receive his own separate, stand alone movie, which as history proved, never happened. Regardless, audiences still got HERBIE, who was pitched by Stan Lee himself as the fourth member of this Fantastic Four’s iteration. After the characters’ introduction in the TV series, HERBIE was introduced to the comics as well to ensure some continuity. HERBIE may be forgotten but he definitely is not gone from The Fantastic Four forever, with it being said that HERBIE will make an appearance with the old team in 2025’s MCU entry The Fantastic Four: First Steps.