Ten Things Reed Richards Feels Guilty About

Reed Richards might be one of the smartest men on Earth, but he doesn’t always make the right choices. While Mister Fantastic tries to be a good teammate and father, he has a history of making bad decisions that have hurt the other members of the Fantastic Four.

In his darkest moments, Reed’s decisions have negatively affected both other superhumans and the regular citizens of the Marvel Universe. However, when faced with his errors, Mister Fantastic has tried his hardest to make amends.

Let’s look back at some of the worst things Reed Richards has done and break down why he feels guilty about each of them. From well-intentioned mistakes to actively harmful decisions, here are the moments that prove Reed Richards can’t always be fantastic.

GIVING THE FANTASTIC FOUR POWERS

Reed Richards feels responsible about creating the Fantastic Four. At his insistence, Sue, Johnny, and Ben took an unscheduled trip into space in a rocket he designed in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. The exposure to cosmic rays in space transformed them into superhumans and Reed convinced his teammates to become heroes once they returned to Earth.

Reed carried some guilt for transforming his friends into superhumans with fantastic abilities. Knowing they could no longer lead normal lives, the scientist encouraged the team to become heroes and celebrities to try prevent them from becoming outcasts, as revealed in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #60 by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo.
 

TRANSFORMING BEN GRIMM INTO THE THING

Mister Fantastic always acknowledged his role in the Fantastic Four’s creation, but he felt particularly guilty about turning Ben Grimm into the Thing. While Reed and the rest of the team can turn their powers off and on at will, Ben spent years stuck in his giant, rock-covered body. Over the years, Ben occasionally transformed into his human form, but Reed struggled to find a permanent solution to this problem.

When Mister Fantastic assembled a young group of geniuses called the Future Foundation, his daughter Valeria Richards, along with the other children, figured out how to revert Ben to his human form once a year.

LYING TO THE THING ABOUT HIS POWERS

As Mister Fantastic studied the Thing’s powers, he came to believe that Ben had mental blocks that kept him from transforming back into his human form. Reed assumed that his friend stayed in his rocky form because he feared Alicia Masters, his longtime love, only loved the Thing and not Ben Grimm. However, during the events of 1984’s SECRET WARS, Ben discovered his ability to return to his human form while living on Battleworld. Reed attributed this newfound ability to the alien world, inspiring Ben to stay on Battleworld longer than he would have otherwise.

Upon returning to Earth, Ben lost his ability to transform at will, prompting Reed to tell him the truth about his powers in THING (1983) #23 by Mike Carlin and Ron Wilson. Reed’s revelation infuriated the Thing and caused him to quit the Fantastic Four entirely. While Reed regretted his lie, the friends eventually made peace as Ben rejoined the team.

DE-POWERING FRANKLIN RICHARDS

Franklin Richards, the child of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, was destined to become one of the most powerful beings in the universe. In FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #141 by Gerry Conway and John Buscema, Franklin got an early taste of his full power when the villainous tyrant Annihilus put him into a Gene Transmuter. As a result, Annihulus prematurely unleashed Franklin’s psionic powers.

Franklin rapidly began losing control of his abilities, forcing Reed to blast his son with an experimental device that neutralized his powers and left him comatose. Although Reed saved his son’s life, his decision devastated him and compelled Sue to leave the team. Reed and Sue came dangerously close to splitting up for good, but they reconciled with help from Namor and the Inhumans. Franklin recovered shortly thereafter.

KILLING THE THING

When Doctor Doom embraced his mystical heritage, he unleashed a wave of misery on his arch-nemesis’ life. Doom used his dramatically enhanced magical powers to cast Franklin away to a hellish underworld, melt part of Reed’s face, and trap him in an arcane library that he could not understand. Reed eventually escaped and responded by trying to take over Latveria. To exact revenge, Doom possessed the Thing and forced Reed to kill his best friend in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #508 by Mark Waid and Howard Porter.

After Ben died in his arms, Reed fell into a deep slump – and the Fantastic Four even split up. Mister Fantastic became obsessed with resurrecting the Thing and found a way to travel into the afterlife with his teammates. Once Reed finally forgave himself, the One-Above-All granted the Fantastic Four’s wishes, resurrecting Ben and restoring Reed’s face. 
 

SENDING HULK INTO SPACE

Alongside other influential heroes, Reed Richards founded the Illuminati, a group of leaders that secretly addressed major threats and determined the outcome of key events. One of the Illuminati’s first acts involved banishing the Hulk to outer-space after one of his particularly destructive rampages in NEW AVENGERS: ILLUMINATI ONE-SHOT (2006) #1 by Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev.

As soon as the Illuminati sent Hulk into exile, Reed felt guilty but still informed Bruce of their decision through a recording on his ship. Although the Illuminati intended to send Hulk to a paradise, he ended up on Sakaar, a violent world ruled by gladiatorial combat. The Hulk took over that world and returned to Earth seeking vengeance on Reed and the other Illuminati members in WORLD WAR HULK.

CIVIL WAR

Reed Richgards supported the U.S. government’s decision try register super heroes and their secret identities, defending the Superhuman Registration Act during CIVIL WAR (2006). Despite previously speaking out against similar legislation, Reed saw the law as a necessity that would save lives. Along with Iron Man and Yellowjacket (Hank Pym), Reed helped build Prison 42, a jail in the Negative Zone for unregistered heroes in CIVIL WAR: FRONT LINE (2006) #5.

Together, these scientific minds also created Ragnarok, a clone of their old ally Thor in CIVIL WAR (2006) #3 by Mark Millar and Steve McNiven. The clone killed Goliath (Bill Foster), causing Reed to start doubting his position, especially since the rest of the Fantastic Four left him. After Reed saved his wife during the final battle between the heroes in CIVIL WAR, the couple took an extended break from the Fantastic Four to repair their relationship.

ENABLING THE SKRULL SECRET INVASION

While the Fantastic Four first encountered the shape-shifting alien Skrulls as foes, Reed Richards and the other Illuminati leaders accidentally played a critical role in shaping their plans to invade Earth in NEW AVENGERS: ILLUMINATI (2006) #1 by Brian Michael Bendis, Brian Reed, and Jim Cheung. The Skrulls captured Reed and the other Illuminati members and studied their powers, using their analysis to equip an army of Super-Skrull agents with numerous abilities.

Although the heroes escaped, the Skrulls cloned Reed and used that information to try and outsmart Earth’s heroes in NEW AVENGERS (2004) #44 by Bendis and Billy Tan. When the Skrulls attacked Earth in SECRET INVASION (2008), they recaptured Reed, who quickly came to understand how the Skrulls had used him. As he desperately searched for his missing family, Reed developed a device that could expose hidden Skrulls.

THE END OF THE MULTIVERSE

As a member of the Illuminati, Reed Richards learned before nearly anyone else that the Multiverse was collapsing in NEW AVENGERS (2013) #1 by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting. The Illuminati desperately tried to stop the incursions between colliding worlds but failed. When the heroes refused to destroy alternate realities to protect their own, Namor teamed up with Thanos and several villains to kill other worlds before they collided with the Marvel Universe.

Once the remaining heroes learned of the looming threat of Multiversal collapse and the Illuminati’s extreme measures to deal with it, the Avengers and Fantastic Four turned against them. However, the heroes had no choice but to team up and build life rafts that could survive the collapse of reality. These rafts, however, did not prevent the deaths of the Fantastic Four and Future Foundation, devasting Reed in SECRET WARS (2015) #1 by Hickman and Esad Ribic. When Reed eventually defeated Doom, he helped restore the universe along with all the lives that had been lost in Battleworld.

TELEPORTING THE BAXTER BUILDING

The Negative Zone is a harsh alternate dimension filled with vicious aliens like Annihilus. When several aliens from the Negative Zone attacked the Baxter Building through a portal, Mister Fantastic dealt with the invasion in an instant by teleporting the Fantastic Four’s headquarters one year into the future, as revealed in FANTASTIC FOUR (2022) #4 by Ryan North and Iban Coello.

In addition to the aliens, Reed’s plan also sent Franklin, Valeria, and the Thing’s adoptive children into the future too. As the public turned against Reed, the Fantastic Four split up, and a devastated Reed mourned the temporary loss of his kids. The Fantastic Four reconciled once Reed owned up to his mistake and waited exactly one year to welcome their kids back home.

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