The Four are a group of fictional supervillains from the comic book, Planetary by Warren Ellis and John Cassaday. As with most charcters in Planetary they are analogues of previously created characters, in this case Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's Fantastic Four from Marvel Comics. The are the primary antagonists of the Planetary Series

Much like Planetary, they explore the strangeness of the world, but they exploit it and keep it to themselves. Their headquarters in New York is reminiscent of the Baxter Building, full of their treasures, weapons and technology. Their influence and power is so great, they covertly control the world and have managed to kill nearly every emerging super-being on the planet. Planetary has been spared, presumably because Randall Dowling finds their actions amusing.

The Four were part of a secretive Government attempt to land on the moon in the late 1950's. Their rocket however intersected The Bleed and when they returned they had been transformed into superhumans. Using their involvement in covert Gorvernment agencies they began to create their own conspiracy of world domination. Along with the mystery of the Fourth Man's identity, the unrevealed nature of the Four and their true motives is a major sub-plot running through the series.

In Planetary #25 it was revealed By John Stone how the Four gained their powers and what their true goal is.

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Dowling had succeeded in contacting an parallel Earth with his earlier launches into space. He described this Earth as being ancient and populated entirely by unique superhumans (a pastiche of various Jack Kirby creations including Apokalips and The Inhumans.) This world while being immensly powerful and technologically advanced was also deeply paranoid. Seeing the potential for the Wildstorm Earth to become a threat, with the existence of various superhumans and their tentative encounters with The Bleed, a deal was formed.

Dowling and his three crewmates were granted access to the technology that would rebuild them into superhumans and in exchange they would return to their home reality where they would suppress any advances that could allow Humanity to defend themselves (This also had the effect of suppressing anything that would improve peoples lives). They had 50 years in which to bring their world to heel after which The Inhabitants of this parallel world would invade and destroy the Wildstorm Earth. The Four would then travel the multiverse vastly empowered not only as superhumans but through the technologies they have stolen over the years.

• Dr. Randall Dowling An anologue of the Fantastic Four's Reed Richards but possesses none of the morality or humanity of his counterpart. Dowling has been involved in much of the secretive science conducted behind the scenes in the last 50 years, including an American concentration camp called Science City Zero where political dissidents were used as guniea pigs. He also has connections to the Hark Corporation. He is distantly related to the Dowling Gang, enemies of the Dead Ranger, (a Lone Ranger analogue who was the father of William Leather's adoptive father. His powers are his mind which spreads out and colonizes the minds of anyone who gets within one hundred feet of him. The full implications of this power are unknown, but this "stretching" of his mind is the analogue to the flexibility of Mr. Fantastic.
• Kim Süskind The counterpart of the Invisible Woman, can generate force fields and become invisible, she is also Dowling's lover. She is described as the most dangerous of the Four, capable of popping peoples' heads and has threatened to castrate her enemies. She is the daughter of a Nazi rocket scientist. Suskind may be named after real-life physicist Leonard Susskind, who is considered the father of String Theory (Ellis often uses themes of advanced and experimental physics in Planetary). Her physical apperance appears to be based on the X-files character of Dana Scully.
• William Leather The counterpart of Johnny Storm, the Human Torch and can fly, generate destructive energy bursts and surround himself with an aura of what appears to be blue flame. He can also regenerate from injuries and possibly has some degree of super-human strength. ormerly a daredevil he seems to be the most active member of the Four, often venturing along with their clean-up crews to take care of any problems. William Leather's mother, Miriam, was the wife of Bret Leather, The Dark Millioinaire, an analogue of The Shadow and one of the Century Babies and son of the Dead Ranger. However, Miriam cheated on Bret with a loan shark, William's biological father. Cheated of the awesome powers Leather would have passed on to his son, William joined Dowling. Leather was recently captured and placed in Planetary custody. Snow blinded him while questioning him. Given Leather's regenerative capabilities, it may be assumed that this is temporary.
• Jacob Greene analogous to The Thing Greene was a fighter pilot during World War II who flew secret missions for the Allies. Greene was a rock like being, his hideous mutation making him the least seen but also the most deadly of The Four. Unlike the other three, Jacob Greene appears to be a straight-forward killing machine, used on missions with the objective being simple destruction. As of this writing, he has been stranded in space to remove him from consideration without killing him by Elijah Snow.

Ellis is presumably commenting on the selfishness of the Fantastic Four in withholding their technology and research from the people of Earth. Ellis also seems to be criticizing the military-industrial complex responsible for the Fantastic Four by playing up the role of Nazis in the scientific planning and Dowling's involvement with Science City Zero.

It is noteworthy that recent issues of the Fantastic Four have focused on them making the world "better" and exactly how Reed Richards' inventions have been made public.

In one issue, the Four eliminate a group of characters analogous to Superman, Green Lantern and Wonder Woman, who it is suggested would have made Earth a better place. It has been suggested that Ellis is commenting on how Marvel's characters, with their flaws and foibles, became more popular in the Sixties than DC's more idealistic and cheerful characters.

In the Planetary/JLA cross-over, Terra Occulta, Planetary actually took the role of the Four, displaying the same selfishness and thirst for power. Snow has repeatedly been warned that his desire to destroy the Four could drive him to be more like them.

Ironically, starting in 2004, Warren Ellis began writing Ultimate Fantastic Four, where such commentary is muted, if present at all.