It was my fault that our flight to mars failed and we nearly lost our lives when we crash-landed on earth…

Mr. Fantastic in Fantastic Four #2

Real name: Reed Richards
First appearance: Fantastic Four #1 (1961)
Affiliation: Founding member and leader of the Fantastic Four
Powers: An elastic body that he can stretch and reshape. His scientific knowledge and inventions are equally important to the team’s adventures.
Review coverage: Through Fantastic Four #43.

The scientist behind the flight

Reed Richards can usually find a scientific answer to the Fantastic Four’s problems. Unfortunately, he also helped create their biggest one. In Fantastic Four #1, his determination to get into space overrides Ben Grimm’s concerns about cosmic radiation. The flight gives all four their powers, but Ben pays a particularly visible price. That tension belongs near the beginning of any look at Mr. Fantastic.

Reed’s efforts to help Ben continue in Fantastic Four #8, where a possible cure is the reason for work behind a closed laboratory door. Ben reads that exclusion very differently. It is an early example of a recurring problem: Reed may be trying to help without making the people closest to him feel included.

A life beyond the laboratory

The quieter stories matter too. Fantastic Four #11 gives the team room to discuss their past and their feelings, including Sue’s feelings for Reed and Namor. Later, Fantastic Four #35 brings Reed back to his university and ends with his engagement to Sue. Their relationship has reached a concrete turning point, rather than simply becoming “more nuanced.”

Reed’s scientific work also becomes part of that relationship. In Fantastic Four #37, he builds the means to take the team into space as Sue seeks an answer to her father’s death. I read that as a meaningful expression of his devotion, even if a trip into danger is an unusual way of showing it.

Leadership has a cost

Fantastic Four #40 makes Reed’s methods harder to celebrate without qualification. He restores the team’s powers, but Ben’s forced return to being the Thing ends with Ben leaving. My review also questions Reed’s failure to explain the power stimulator sooner.

The following conflict tests his loyalty as well as his ingenuity. He tries to reach Ben through the Wizard’s influence in Fantastic Four #42, then risks a dangerous treatment in Fantastic Four #43. Reed’s intelligence remains vital, but his relationships deserve just as much attention as his inventions.

An early-continuity note: The published Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos #3 review identifies Major Richards as Reed before his superhero career, placing him in the wartime setting. This is how these early stories present his background.