Warning: contains spoilers for Ultimate Invasion #1!Doom even sacrificed an entire universe rather than abandon his hate. However, despite all that, there is a foe who Reed hates and fears more than his nemesis.
In Ultimate Invasion #1 by Jonathan Hickman, Bryan Hitch, Andrew Currie, Alex Sinclair and Joe Caramagna, the Maker asks Richards whether, given the chance, Reed would erase him from existence, and Reed says yes. It’s a telling moment; Reed might often be uncaring, but he’s not cruel, and there are few villains he’d react to with such spite. In the Maker, Reed sees his worst instincts. His callousness and ego with no morality to restrain them. He knows just how bad he could be, and seeing that self brought to life, there’s nothing he wants more than for it to have never existed.
Reed Richards Hates the Maker Above Doctor Doom
The Maker is a version of Reed Richards from another dimension, and started off as a hero. That Reed was traumatized by the events of Ultimatum, and began working on ways to control the world around him. After being defeated by the rest of the Fantastic Four, Ultimate Reed took on the persona of the Maker in Hickman and Esad Ribić’s Ultimates vol 2, building the ‘Children of Tomorrow,’ his own futuristic society, and in the process destroying much of Europe. After 2015’s Secret Wars by Hickman, Ribić, Ivan Svorcina and Chris Eliopoulos, the Maker is one of the few survivors of the Ultimate Universe, and the only villain to the multiverse as it once was. Now, with Ultimate Invasion, readers are finally seeing his attempt to return to, and reshape, his home universe using technology stolen from Earth 616’s Illuminati.
Reed Saved Doom, But He'd Erase the Maker
The original Reed’s response to the Maker’s question is all the more impactful because 616 Reed has had the opportunity to erase his greatest villain before but chose not to. In Hickman, Steve Epting, Rick Magyar, and Paul Mounts’ FF vol 1 #2, Reed is faced with the option to ‘purge’ Doctor Doom’s brain forever. While he hesitates for a moment, he chooses not to, instead healing his greatest foe. Similarly, in Secret Wars’ finale, Reed granted Doom an undeserved act of grace by healing his scarred face: the one thing the villain couldn’t do himself. Doom is an inarguable multiversal threat, and yet Reed still can't bring himself to give up on his enemy in such a final way. When it comes to the Maker however, his answer is different.
Ultimate Invasion continues the theme from Hickman’s Marvel oeuvre that Reed Richards’ greatest enemy will always be himself. The recurring villains of Hickman’s Fantastic Four/FF run were the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, alternate Reed Richards who have chosen to abandon their families in favor of the ‘greater good,' divorcing themselves from morality in the process. In fact, before Ultimate Invasion, the Maker’s last appearance was in Venom vol 4, working with the council of Reeds in order to potentially recreate the Ultimate Universe. Once again, Hickman is continuing the theme of Reed Richards realizing that the smartest man on Earth is also the deadliest - and for all his posturing, that's not Doctor Doom.
Ultimate Invasion #1 is on sale now from Marvel Comics.
