10 Worst Things Reed Richards Has Ever Done

2. His Misogyny Toward Sue

Reed Richards The Maker
Marvel Comics

The original idea for the Fantastic Four was as a deliberate subversion of the typical superhero archetype, especially that of team up books where all the heroes get along. The FF were a family, and like any family, they bickered and sniped at each other at the drop of a hat.

For the most part, that original run and how Stan and Jack played that original running gag holds up marvelously. Unfortunately, there's one part where the old books show their age: Reed's misogynistic behavior toward Sue.

Pretty much all modern writers who work on the FF nowadays like to just pretend this was never a thing, and there's nothing wrong with that, but when you want to talk about the worst things Reed has ever done, talking down to one of the most magnificent women in the Marvel universe like she's some useless helpless thing and having that be played for laughs definitely needs to be mentioned.

But hey, at least this era of Reed is well and truly behind us, right? More than our top entry can say.

Contributor
Contributor

John Tibbetts is a novelist in theory, a Whatculture contributor in practice, and a nerd all around who loves talking about movies, TV, anime, and video games more than he loves breathing. Which might be a problem in the long term, but eh, who can think that far ahead?