Reed Richards's powers and abilities
Reed Richards was gifted superhuman powers by cosmic rays bombarding his body.
Plasticity: Reed Richards possesses the ability to convert the mass of his entire body into a highly malleable state at will. How his body's respiration and circulatory systems function at these distorted extremes is as yet unknown. Richards can alter his form in a matter of seconds, often much less (depending on the complexity of the shape), and revert to his normal humanoid shape within a similar time. The greater the distance he stretches or the more extended the size of the object he becomes, the weaker his overall strength becomes. Reed's transformation to a malleable state is reflexive and nearly instantaneous: if he was at his normal form and taken unaware by machine gun fire, his body would still absorb the bullets' impact through radical deformation. Reed's skin is virtually impervious to laceration or punctures unless he willfully relaxes his reflexive control over small areas of his body. In that case, scalpels and ordinary needles can penetrate his skin.
Dense Flesh: Due to the great malleability and elasticity of his molecular structure, Reed Richards is able to absorb the impact of any type of man-made ballistic projectile by deforming his body along the path of the projectile's trajectory at the point of initial impact.
Contain Explosions: Reed may use his elastic form to contain explosions by enveloping them and allowing their force to expand him. He can enclose and absorb the energy of a large explosive, on the order of 8 to 12 pounds of TNT (excluding exotic, high density explosives). Such shocks to his system are physically exhausting.
Redirect Projectiles: After his body absorbs the kinetic energy of a ballistic projectile's impact, Reed can expel the object back along its trajectory by flexing his body like a trampoline if he is adequately braced.
Elongation: Richards can extend his limbs, torso, or neck to great distances: the maximum length he can distend before his body segments become painful is about 1,500 feet. (Although he can extend discrete body parts, such as a single finger, an ear, or an eye, he seldom if ever isolates such parts in his elongations.)
Grappling: Reed may restrain opponents very efficiently by using his elastic form to entangle them.
Movement: Reed can move at great speeds by stretching to his destination.
Shape Changing: Richards can stretch, deform, expand, or compress his entire body or parts into any contiguous shape he can imagine for a variety of uses.
Imitation: Reed Richards may alter his basic physical features, allowing him to take on the appearance of any other man with similar hair and skin tone. One time, he actually increased his size and mass density, in effect bulking his body while increasing his strength as well.
Canopy, Parachute or Sheath: Reed can extend his body in two directions, creating a canopy, parachute, or sheath, its thickness determined by the extent of its distention.
Gliding: Reed can transform himself into aerodynamic shapes such as parachutes or hang-gliders. In this form he can support an additional 1000 pounds.
Cushion: Richards may form his elastic form into a trampoline and other cushion-like objects, allowing him to safely catch falling people and objects.
Sling Shot: Reed Richards may use his elastic form as a slingshot to hurl objects with great force.
Geometric Shapes: Reed has compressed his body into the shape of a solid sphere, a cylinder, a cube, a toroid, and a rectangular prism: he can assume the shape of any solid that he can envision clearly, of a volume no greater than 1.7 cubic feet (a sphere about 18 inches in diameter). He can generate thin-walled shapes that enclose great volumes of space.
Fist Weapons: Reed may form his fists into large hammers, maces, etc., which improve his physical effectiveness in hand-to-hand combat.
Bouncing Ball: Richards can transform himself into any of a number of resilient shapes, such as balls or springs that allow him to leap or bounce great distances.
Two-Dimensionality: Reed Richards can flatten himself to the thickness of an average sheet of typing paper (.0035 inch) or narrow himself to a diameter small enough to pass through the eye of a #10 beading needle (about .045 x .06 inches).
Infiltration: Reed can lower his body’s cohesion to such an extent that he can actually flow through minute openings.
Open Locks: Richards may form his fingers into various types of keys, allowing him to open most forms of mechanical locks.
Wind Generation: Reed may form his hands into fans, allowing him to generate wind by twirling them at great speeds.
Semi-Solid Liquid State: Reed can willfully reduce his body into an almost liquid state in order to flow out of small cracks or passages, even through needle-sized holes.
Abilities:
Super-Genius Intelligence: Dr. Richards is one of the most intelligent beings on the planet. Reed possesses a mastery of electrical, mechanical, and aerospace engineering, as well as electronics, chemistry, all levels of physics, and human and alien biology. A visionary theoretician and inspired machine smith, he has made breakthroughs in such varied fields as space travel, time travel, extra-dimensional travel, biochemistry, robotics, computers, synthetic polymers, communications, mutations, transportation, holography, energy generation, spectral analysis and more. He is one of the few people on Earth to be an expert on other dimensions and the methods by which to travel to and through them. Not only has Reed proven himself to be a genius in virtually every science native to Earth, he has shown himself to be more knowledgeable than even some of the most highly advanced alien civilizations in the known universe as well. He has often been stated to be the smartest man on Earth, and possesses a photographic memory.
Hypnotism: Richards is trained in hypnosis.
Martial Arts: Reed is one of Earth's best Judo experts. He is the master of Atemi-Waza (body-striking techniques).
