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The Marvel superhero team known as the Fantastic Four is made up of (get this) four members, three of whom have power appropriate names.

  • Invisible Woman turns invisible
  • Human Torch sets himself aflame
  • The Thing is a weird rock man/thing (not to be confused with Man-Thing)

Meanwhile, Mister Fantastic has the power of elasticity, to simplify it. Why is his name not related to that? Perhaps Elasti-Guy, or the Rubberband Man (he'd even have a theme song for that one). I am aware of the famous comic book panel where Reed Richards says something akin to "And I'll call myself Mister Fantastic," but why is name not related to his power set?

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    His real power isn't his stretching, but that he is a fantastic inventor. "Mister Fantastic" might well have been his nickname before he gained superpowers. Besides, the names "Plastic Man" and "Elongated Man" were already taken.
    – Klaus Æ. Mogensen
    Commented Feb 8, 2021 at 8:31
  • I always just assumed it was because he was the leader of the team, so he would be Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four.
    – Lady_A
    Commented Feb 8, 2021 at 19:52
  • @Lady_A I thought about that, but there's no one on the Avengers called "Mister Avenger."
    – Donatello Swansino
    Commented Feb 9, 2021 at 0:47
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    I thought it was just a psuedorhyme of "plastic", which perfectly describes his power however there already was a "plastic man" at DC.
    – John Meacham
    Commented Feb 9, 2021 at 11:01
  • Not only were Plastic Man and Elongated Man taken but so was "Elastic Lad", "Mister Elastic" still would have been too close.
    – Emsley Wyatt
    Commented Feb 11, 2021 at 19:54

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A couple of answers have been given as to why Reed chose the name Mister Fantastic over the years. While none, to my knowledge, specifically address "why choose a generic name as opposed to something related to his powers?" they might have offered him a reason to choose that specific name as opposed to anything else.

The first, in Fantastic Four (Vol. 3) #60, written by Mark Waid, addresses why he chose such outlandish names and costumes in the first place.

enter image description here enter image description here

Again, it doesn't specifically address THAT name, but it does suggest that he had branding already on his mind in this plan. Since there were Four of them they might want a name that would go with Four, and Fantastic is a positive word that has nice alliteration. Following that, it's not that huge a leap to cement that name by making his own related to it, putting him, the most non-threatening, in the role as the leader and also the one most visible if there's blowback.

Reed Richards having a bit of an ego is already pretty well-established, so it's not that big of a stretch that this played a role as well.

Another comic, Fantastic Four: Attaque del MODOK! #1 written by Tom Beland, does give an explanation for that specific name, suggesting that it is personal and sentimental, by giving a flashback to when he and Sue were first dating:

enter image description here

(Images and some context provided by this article at ComicBookResources)

While in comics other explanations may well have been provided over the years, or be completely contradicted in a newer story at any time, taken together these provide at least some explanation for why he chose that name as opposed to Stretchy-Man.

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