History
Unstable molecules are not generally employed by heroes other than the Fantastic Four, whose day-to-day clothes are treated with them to allow for use of their powers in situations that do not require their uniforms, although Mr. Fantastic has, on rare occasion, gifted fellow superheroes with costumes of the material (most notably the X-Men's costumes, as well as Henry Pym's. Mr. Fantastic also made a suit of unstable molecules for Spider-Man which allowed him to masquerade as Venom). The formula has occasionally been stolen by supervillains such as the Mad Thinker (who used it to create Awesome Andy), as well. It was also swiped by Taylor Industries, the company owned by Night Thrasher. Reed Richards allowed Thrasher's team, the New Warriors to keep the costumes they had, so they could fight crime more effectively. The Power Pack had costumes made of unstable molecules manufactured for them by the Kymellian smartship Friday; as the alien Kymellians had no direct contact with Earth natives prior to this, it's possible that they developed their own form of unstable molecules, as certain Kymellians naturally develop super-powers.
The molecules also had a downside. The Trapster once defeated Reed Richards through the use of a white powder which rendered unstable molecules inert, thereby preventing Reed's suit from stretching with him. Also, if repulsors are set to a certain frequency, synchs the atoms in the materials and breaks them down.
Although a potentially lucrative commercial enterprise, unstable molecules are deemed too dangerous for use by the public in general - when a fashion designer procured a small sample of unstable-molecule fabric and attempted to have the process reverse engineered, the "lock" kept on the molecules by Mr. Fantastic was undone, unleashing their instability, which spread to neighbouring molecules in a chain reaction that dissolved surrounding matter, including humans. The reaction was thankfully contained by the Invisible Woman.
To a certain extent the phrase has become a source of humour regarding the pseudo scientific explanations that arose during the Silver Age of Comics.
Read more about this topic: Unstable Molecules
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