Marvel Rivals players are comparing Mister Fantastic to Monkey D. Luffy, and so am I

Marvel Rivals Season 1 is here, and it introduces Reed and Susan Richards of the Fantastic Four as playable characters. Marvel Rivals players worldwide, myself included, are already falling in love with Marvel’s First Family’s founding couple. However, Mister Fantastic is attracting a cult following amongst One Piece fans.

Across social media, Marvel Rivals players can’t stop comparing Mister Fantastic to One Piece‘s eternally optimistic protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy. As a Marvel Comics and One Piece fan, I can’t help but agree with them.

Marvel Rivals players can’t get enough of Reed D. Richards

If you’re even distantly familiar with the Fantastic Four or One Piece, you may have already seen these two elastic boys placed side-by-side for comparison on forums and blogs. Both characters are famous for having bodies made of rubber, and some circles of comics and anime fans have compared and contrasted the two years before Marvel Rivals or it’s runaway success were even glimmers in NetEase Games’ eyes.

However, within hours of Mister Fantastic’s initial reveal trailer going live, people began noticing an uncanny parallel between Reed and Luffy that cut deeper than their surface-level similarities. Most of Reed’s signature abilities see him inflate into an oversized version of himself, complete with puffed-up arms and fists that would make his rocky-skinned best friend, Ben “The Thing” Grimm, jealous.

With his beefed-up compressed body and mammoth limbs, Marvel Rivals‘ Mister Fantastic spends quite a lot of time looking like Luffy’s Gear 4 form. If you aren’t familiar with One Piece, this is the fourth version of the enhanced form Luffy takes when✅ he uses his Devil Fruit powers to strengthen ജhis body.

Mister Fantastic’s pseudo-Gear 4 form is quickly becoming a meme among Marvel Rivals‘ player base. Many fans are flexing their artistic talent by sharing some outstanding fan art of “Reed D. Richards” on social media. Some are simple drawings that play up the joke, but others are full-on comics presenting Reed as the protagonist of a Shonen anime I want to read more about.

I’ve been reading Marvel comics and One Piece for years, and I’m honestly jealous I missed the similarities between Marvel’s stretchiest genius and the Straw Hat Pirates’ indomitable captain. Now that I’ve seen it, playing Mister Fantastic in Marvel Rivals has gotten even more fun.