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That still shows that it was a collaboration.  No one's saying that it all came fully formed from Stan's mind, just that it wasn't a solo Kirby creation.

We all know that Stan loves alliteration, and that led to "Reed Richards" and "Sue Storm," but did it also lead to the book's title "Fantastic Four"?

Bringing in Kirby's take on Spider-Man lends credence to the Stan side of the FF's creation too.  Stan tells Jack "Hey, I'd like to do a story about a teenager who gains the abilities of a spider--a Spider-Man!  What can you come up with for that?"  Jack's input was all wrong so Stan gave it to Ditko instead.  If the same process happened with the FF, Stan says to Jack "I want to do a team book called 'Fantastic Four'--four people who get super-powers in an accident--maybe bring back the Human Torch in some way.  How about a monster and a pretty girl?  Led by one of our typical scientist types."  Jack might have thought "A foursome?  I did a foursome over at DC!" and suggested recycling some Challengers elements--some of which Stan accepted.  (Crash landing?)

Even if Jack brought in stuff from CHALLENGERS #3, Stan still had to okay and incorporate what would work long term.

That synopsis reads like a work in process, Stan working out some ideas.  In the days before computers or word processors, it was not easy to make corrections, so you did them by hand in the margins.

Finding the synopsis seems fishy to some, but they might be imagining a pristine and empty desk except for these two pieces of paper.  I keep everything!  I imagine a drawer full of messy and crinkled random notes and files.  Was there a pile of receipts and grocery lists too?  Does anyone know what ELSE Roger Stern might have found that day?

1. The Thing moved ponderously and was practically a villain (a wolf in sheep's clothing).

2. Sue was glamorous but now--literally--lost her looks!  (She would have to wear a lifelike mask to cover her permanent invisibility!)

3. Stan actually mentioned the original Human Torch, and how Johnny would differ from him.

4. No mention of costumes, but Stan did plan out Ben and Sue's regular clothes.

5. The craft did NOT crash, but managed to land.

Nothing there says Challengers!  BUT Stan DID include in the synopsis that the team felt that it was FATE that gave them their powers!  If I was typing a fake synopsis to draw credit away from Kirby and the Challengers, I certainly would have left THAT out!

The FF didn't get their costumes until issue 3.  I wonder if people would have compared the two teams if the FF remained "plain clothes" super-powered heroes.  The only real (initial) connection between the two teams is that there are four of them and Kirby drew both.

(I wonder if the dividing line identifying where Kirby started doing more of the plot is where Ben went from a villainous jerk to a lovable heart of gold type.)

Stan Lee wrote in ORIGINS that he conceived of the Fantastic Four before talking to Jack. He doesn't say anything about coming up with the names and powers of the team before speaking to Martin Goodman and Jack Kirby. He described coming up, on his own, with their basic relationships and personalities. Then he wrote: "After kicking it around with Martin and Jack for a while I decided to call our quaint quartet the Fantastic Four. I wrote a detailed first synopsis for Jack to follow, and the rest is history."

We will never know for sure who contributed what to that synopsis. But there's no reason to suspect Stan Lee was a liar about first having the idea for the Fantastic Four. And there's no reason to assume that it was the "kicking it around" with Jack Kirby that led to that synopsis containing 95% Kirby and 5% Lee, or some such creative split.