Warning: spoilers for Fantastic Four #2 ahead!Although he is one of the greatest intellects in the Marvel Universe, the Reed Richards' lack of emotional intelligence has given him a reputation for being cold-blooded in his scientific pursuits. However, Marvel's latest volume of Fantastic Four does an exceptional job of reminding readers why Reed is, at the end of the day, a hero, and that characters defined by intellect do not have to be portrayed as lacking comion.
Time and time again, Reed's habit of putting emotion entirely aside to solve difficult, greater-scope pictures has led him to cause great harm to the world and those around him, from the threat from the Interdimensional Council of Reeds to his involvement with Marvel's Illuminati. This stems from his greatest weakness: knowing that he is the smartest one in any given room, Reed will attempt to 'fix' problems alone instead of attempting to communicate with those who will be affected. Mister Fantastic seems to have finally realized the error of his ways in the wake of Marvel's Judgment Day event, ing the Celestial's judgment when he forsook attempting to solve everything in favor of being present with his family and loved ones for the 'end of the world.'
This change of heart and good-faith effort persists through Ryan North, Iban Coello, and Jesus Aburtov's Fantastic Four (2022) #2. With bitterness and anger at Doctor Doom and find a way to give the Doombots back their lives as civilians.
Reed Richards Embraces Intellectual Comion
The key factor here is that while Doctor Doom uses Doombots as decoys and cannon fodder, there is every indication that the machines are sentient: the Runaways have a Doombot as a friend, the Doombot ‘Vincent’ became a hero in his own right, and the Doombots found in this town have essentially adopted their own civilian lives with their own lifecycles, shutting down permanently when they 'die.' The only reason Reed and Sue find any conflict with them is that, because they are Doctor Doom's creations, their number one protocol is the destruction of the Fantastic Four.
The Reed Richards of old would see no problem in wiping out the town, justifying it as the destruction of rogue hardware. But with his new empathy, the Fantastic Four's leader is able to overlook his anger with Doctor Doom and see the town of Doombots as civilians, with their own lives and concerns, and so he and Sue take the time to remove the destructive programming from each of the Doombots and depart. By flipping the script on Reed Richards' cold-blooded reputation, Marvel honors the Mister Fantastic who made his family into superheroes rather than let the world see them as freaks - the man who, as Sue puts it, "can look a Doombot in the eye and still see hope."
Fantastic Four #2 is now available from Marvel Comics!
