Randolph James was a former colleague of Reed Richards who was transformed into a powerful superhuman being. Randolph was assaulted outside his home, and suffered injuries that jeopardized his life. In order to speed up his natural recuperation powers, Randolph used an evolution accelerator on himself. Instead of healing him it evolved him into a superhuman being with God-like powers - the Futurist.^[1] Unfamiliar with his powers, he was manipulated by Blastaar to oppose the Fantastic Four but, as soon as he could see through it and the menace was finished, the Futurist decided to leave Earth instead of following Richards' advice to look for a way to de-evolve.^[2]

The Futurist was then captured by the enigmatic alien, the Stranger, and was imprisoned in the Stranger's Laboratory World for the alien to study him. He remained there until freed by Overmind, leaving alongside Alpha the Ultimate Mutant.^[3]

• Superhuman Intelligence: The Futurist's intelligence was enhanced to superhuman levels.^[4]
• Telepathy: The Futurist possesses telepathic abilities and can induce sleep in others.^[5][4]
• Telekinesis: The Futurist could manipulate matter with his mind and even freeze the Fantastic Four in place.^[4]
• Teleportation^[5][4]
• Cosmic Awareness^[5][4]
• Concussive Blasts: The Futurist is capable of emitting an energy blast that was able to hurl a police officer away without injuring him and a more powerful version that could stun the Human Torch.^[5]
• Flight: The Futurist is capable of levitation and interstellar flight.^[5][4]
• Transmogrification: The Futurist emitted a beam from his eyes that turned people into rodents^[6], insects^[5], and presumably other creatures.^[4]

• Gifted Intellect: Prior to his transformation the Futurist was a brilliant scientist.^[4]