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World's Greatest Heroes is not directly connected to any of the previous iterations of the Fantastic Four, telling its own version of the team's origin and meetings with their greatest villains. The series begins with the FF as already-established adventurers, foregoing an actual "origin episode" for the group, presumably on the assumption that audiences would be familiar with the creation of the team after the release of the live-action movie a few months prior.
However, in eschewing a retelling of the team's origin, the show leaves the differences between its version of the team's genesis and other media insufficiently detailed. As established in the show's opening sequence and restated in several episodes, the cartoon's version of the origin draws on the live-action movie in a few ways, placing the the four not on a shuttle, but on a space station, and with their archvillain-to-be, Doctor Doom, alongside them. However, the episodes "Doomsday" and "Out of Time" establish a further difference drawn from the Ultimate Fantastic Four comic books: Doctor Doom was directly responsible for causing the station's shielding to fail, leading to the accident which gave the FF their powers and left him with his famous scars. Beyond these basic facts, however (which were not presented as "revelations," but as if they were information that the audience was already supposed to be aware of), no more details are ever given as to what precisely happened on the station. "Out of Time" makes a point of showing Doom surrepticiously bringing a small box containing a blue jewel aboard the shuttle, but its significance is never explained.
When the seires was released outside of America, it featured a modified opening sequence with new narration that verbally established the origin of the team, but which did not expand on the mysteries of the origin any further. In fact, the modified sequence actually removed Doctor Doom from the group shot of the team as they board the shuttle.
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