Fantastic Four

Illustration of the Thing on a greenish-blue background.  Yellow text in the foreground.

The image depicts the character the Thing from the superhero team the Fantastic Four.

The Fantastic Four is a comic book series created for Marvel Comics by writer/editor Stan Lee and artist/co-plotter Jack Kirby.  Its first issue was published in November, 1961, and the series was canceled in 2015 after issue #645.  The series has been adapted into animated television series as well as movies.

The plot follows the adventures of the four team members, Mister Fantastic, the Invisible Woman, the Human Torch and the Thing, who receive superpowers from cosmic rays when conducting a research mission in outer space.  The series was one of the first comic series where the heroes did not adopt secret identities.  It was also influential for its depth of characterization and portrayal of inter-personal conflict between the team members.  The breaking of these comic book tropes, as well as the series' focus on science-fiction and metaphysical "cosmic" story elements helped establish it as a popular series during the Silver Age of Comics in the 1960s.