Fantastic Four 232/Characters

Main characters

 * Mister Fantastic: Reed Richards is attacked inside his laboratory at the Baxter Building by the fire elemental. He manages to escape and lures the creature towards the Human Torch, whereupon he then tangles with the air elemental. He again heads off, prompting the elemental to find him until he finds Susan, who can contain it within a force field bubble. Reed then attacks the water elemental with cables attached to a power generator and causes it to disperse.


 * Invisible Girl: Susan Richards is attacked by the Earth elemental at the hair salon. The creature covers her in a layer of dirt, but she dispels that with a force field. She then creates a force field sled to lead it away until she finds Ben Grimm, saving him from being covered by the water elemental. Sue then attacks the air elemental, encasing it in a force field bubble and constricting it until the continuing pressure destroys it.


 * Human Torch: Johnny Storm and Frankie Raye are attacked by the air elemental, who whisks them high into the sky with it's tornado winds. Johnny is unable to ignite his flame. The elemental slams him down upon the ground, where he strikes a rock that renders him unconscious. He awakens shortly thereafter as Reed arrives with the fire elemental following behind him. Johnny is able to Flame On and fights the creature, but is only able to destroy him by going super-nova.


 * The Thing: Ben Grimm is leaving a broadway play with Alicia Masters when he is attacked by the water elemental. The being encases Ben inside a sphere of water and Ben begins to drown. His strength cannot punch through the fluid material, so he races into a sporting goods store, where a clerk saves him by feeding an air hose from a scuba tank into the water sphere. Free of the creature's hold, Ben then has to return the favor by repeating the same gestures to the clerk as the water elemental attacks her. He then ends up fighting the earth elemental outside and disperses it by soaking it down with water from an underground pipe.

Villains

 * Diablo: Diablo steals several mystic artifacts representing the four elements of creation from various museums across the globe. Taking up residence inside an apartment in New York City, he conducts a ritual that creates elemental avatars based on these figurines and sends them to combat and hopefully defeat the Fantastic Four. He sends his Earth golem to fight the Invisible Girl, his fire elemental to defeat the Human Torch, his air elemental to fight Mister Fantastic and his water elemental to vanquish The Thing. Once Reed Richards discovers that these beings are not truly alive, it is easy to devise methods to counteract and destroy each one in turn. He deduces that Diablo was behind it all and employs the assistance of Doctor Strange in tracking him down. Reed apprehends Diablo and hands him over to the police.

Other

 * Alicia Masters: Alicia Masters was with Ben Grimm as they attended a Broadway play of The Elephant Man. After exiting the theater, Alicia commented on the quality of the play and noticed Ben tearing up. Moments later, Ben was attacked by the water elemental.


 * Doctor Strange: After defeating the four elementals, Reed Richards contacted Doctor Strange and employed his assistance in tracking down Diablo. Strange was present when Reed apprehended the villain.


 * Don: Don is an employee of a sporting goods store and works alongside a woman named Jan. He is in the middle of prepping an air tank for some SCUBA gear when Ben Grimm barges inside trapped inside of a bubble created by the air elemental. After Jan saves Ben's life, Ben asks Don for another tank, but he tells him that the rest of them are empty.


 * Frankie Raye: Frankie Raye is Johnny Storm's girlfriend. Frankie and Johnny were walking through Central Park discussing the future of their relationship when the air elemental attacked them. By forming a tornado, it whisked them both high into the air. Johnny was slammed to the ground and knocked unconscious. Presumably, Frankie landed safely elsewhere.


 * Jan: Jan is an employee of a sporting goods store and works alongside a man named Don. When the Thing came running into the store encased inside of a living water sphere, Jan snapped into action, taking a SCUBA tank air hose and popping it through the water sphere so Ben could get some air. The water elemental then left him to attack Jan, so Ben had to return the favor by popping the air hose through the water bubble into her mouth.


 * Milo Tindolini: Milo Tindolini is the owner and operator of Casa Tindolini, which is a hair salon in Manhattan. Susan Richards is one of his repeat customers. While finishing up Susan's new hairstyle, Tindolini's salon was attacked by an earth elemental.


 * Mrs. Mulligan: Mrs. Mulligan was the landlady and/or the cleaning woman of an apartment boarding house where Diablo had been staying at under the assumed name of Mister Olbaid. Mrs. Mulligan knocked on Diablo's door, forcing him to project the illusion of a middle-aged man whereupon she complained about the smells coming from his room.