Stan Lee's 20 Greatest Marvel Comics Creations

Reed Richards is one of the most intelligent characters Stan Lee has ever written, but this has worked to his detriment as much as his success.

Most obviously, his flair and aptitude for science set himself and the rest of the Fantastic Four on a collision course with disaster. Though this ultimately gave them their superpowers, it came at a cost too. Not least to Reed’s best friend Ben Grimm, who wound up as The Thing.

You wouldn’t necessarily know Grimm was his best friend when reading some stories, nor that Sue was his wife. That’s not to say the stories are badly written. On the contrary, Richards is often obsessed with his work, eschewing any connection to his colleagues and becoming cold, calculating. He’s ironically inflexible in his opinions given his powers.

Richards also self diagnosed himself on the autism spectrum, and while this happened years after Lee stopped writing, the groundwork was clearly there. Like so many of his characters, Richards original personality offered so much depth it was easy for Lee’s successors to continue to spin such fascinating narratives today.