It’s a terrible thing for someone not to reach their full potential… I know. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that I do not have the character to be both good and great at the same time. But you do, Reed… and as such, all my hopes and desires rest in you becoming what I am not. When you grow up, I expect more. Son… I expect better. I want you to be a better friend than I was. Be a better husband. Be a better father… Reed… be a better man.
New Fantastic Four movie out. Fifth attempt. First four were awful. This one was excellent. Between that and Superman, a good time to go to the cinemas and catch a superhero flick.
I wanted to spotlight a great Fantastic Four story to go along with it. But, well, we’ve already read the best Fantastic Four stories. It’s #48-51. Here’s the link to issue 48. And we have some great ones coming up in our Marvel reading. I have a fondness for the Doom Surfer story in FF #57-60. But we’re not there yet. That’s Marvel Universe story #630 and we are only on #592.
And I don’t want to cover Fantastic Four stories from the ’70s or ’80s now, because our normal reading might get there eventually. Maybe.
But here’s a story from 2009. We’re in 1966. I’m confident I’ll be dead long before this blog gets to 2009. It’s not part of our Marvel Universe reading, but I have another section for Reading Great Comics. And I’ve got a 2009 FF story that’s one of my favorite comics.
But… my focus for both sections of the blog has been digging into single issues. And this is a 3-part story. I thought about just highlighting one of the three parts. But it doesn’t work. It’s a 3-part story.
However, I believe two things.
- A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.
- Rules were meant to be broken.
So here is Fantastic Four #570-572 from 2009 by Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham. Collectively known as “Solve Everything”.
This is more of a Mr. Fantastic solo story than a true spotlight on the team as a whole, but that’s okay.
While these 3 parts do stand alone, I feel some need to provide background and context. Including some personal context, because I like to pontificate about myself.
Dark Reign
I started reading Marvel in 1989 and my reading ramped up until by 1999 I was going to the comic store every Wednesday to pick up every Marvel Universe comic. I was also actively buying every older Marvel comic I could and all the collections of the original stories. My reading started to falter due to demands of money and time by 2003. And in 2007 I gave up completely on reading new comics, but by this time I had gotten every Marvel comic from the 30 years following Fantastic Four #1 into my house in some form, and began to focus on those older stories.
The story arc I hated that led to my dropping of all Marvel comics was called Civil War, a crossover event spanning well over a hundred comics, in which the Marvel heroes all fought each other because they were behaving wildly out of character.
The premise revolved around a new law called the Superhero Registration Act. This was also the premise of a much better event a couple decades earlier called Acts of Vengeance. And a similar law call the Mutant Registration Act was at the heart of the also superior Fall of the Mutants event. Notably, in Acts of Vengeance, Mr. Fantastic gave an impassioned speech about why the Superhero Registration Act was wrong. And by Civil War, he was an adamant supporter of a much more ethically questionable version of the law, to the point he was willing to turn against his own family over it.
While I hated it, it was a big event. Some heroes died. Some heroes who had died in the previous big event came back to life.
The following year, Marvel made Secret Invasion. I sat down to read it decades later. That was based on a cool premise that the shape-changing Skrulls had been impersonating some of our favorite superheroes for years, and this was now being revealed. Cool premise, lackluster execution. Reading it took minutes of my life I want back.
But it was a big event. Some heroes died. Some heroes who had died in the previous big event came back to life.
The following year came something called Dark Reign. I haven’t read it. Norman Osborn the Green Goblin gained a position of influence and authority in the US government. This is a bit confusing as Green Goblin is a notorious super-villain, and also long dead.
I understand it was a big event. Some heroes died. Some heroes who had died in the previous big event came back to life.
Amidst the hundreds of comics tying into Dark Reign is a Fantastic Four story. I have read this. Because I like the writer, a fellow named Jonathan Hickman.
The story begins with Reed questioning some of his life decisions of late. As he made some extremely questionable and some might say entirely out-of-character decisions, which had entirely predictable bad consequences.
Thus he builds the Bridge, which lets him peer across the multiverse to see other versions of himself who made different decisions. This helps him come to terms with his past and plan for the future.
(Yes, the new FF film also features an invention of Reed’s called the Bridge, but their functionality has nothing in common.)
He was not the only person who had built a Bridge. He was not the only person who felt the weight of solving the problems of the universe. He meets some mysterious shadowy figures who invite him to join them.
Sue hated the device and asked Reed to dismantle it. So he did.
But he reassembled it in his private room with 100 ideas that could change the world scribbled on his wall.
And added Idea #101: “Solve everything.”
Solve Everything
Mr. Fantastic is a superhero, a member of the Fantastic Four.
He’s a loving father.
A devoted husband.
With two best friends.
But he’s also a very smart man. Haunted by a future he’s smart enough to predict, and driven to make things better.
Idea #101: Solve Everything.
I appreciate the idea, which leads to a question. How do you solve everything? And Hickman is a good enough writer to have an answer. The key is to figure out who else seeks the answer to the question. Who else would have built the Bridge?
The Bridge is the answer to the question. “How do I solve everything?”
“Aggressively”, answers the Reed Richards of a different universe.
He was not the first Reed Richards to ask the question. He is not the first to find the answer.
Perhaps together with the Reeds of the multiverse, he can reach his full potential.
This idea of reaching one’s full potential is a fascinating one to reflect on, and at the core of this arc.
Of course, there’s another implicit question. Not just how does one solve everything, but what is the cost?
With the Council, the Reeds save an Earth from Galactus.
Sue notes that Reed has been spending a lot of time with himself.
“I know your work is important,” she says, channeling Eliza Hamilton.
The Council shows Reed the Farm. One of hundreds of barren worlds they terraformed to grow crops to help feed the hungry across the universes. This is the Council at their best.
The Council shows Reed the Hole. Here they mentally lobotomize the Dooms of the multiverse to prevent their interference. This is the Council at their worst.
On his first assignment, our Reed performs surgery on a sun and saves billions.
We get a lot of flashback interludes of Reed’s childhood and the lessons he’s learned from his father.
Reed has made his decision to join the Council when the Celestials attack.
Reed and several others are sent back to their own Earths to bring weapons to help.
He hears Sue, standing outside his room.
A longstanding theme of the Fantastic Four is that Reed can get absorbed in his work to the neglect of his wife and family.
But she knows his work is important and assures him she’ll be waiting for him when he’s done.
Only our Reed returns to the Council. His weapons turn the tide.
But one Reed’s mind was attacked and he’s lost his brilliance. Now he has nothing. This confuses our Reed. Even without his mind, he has his wife, his kids, his family.
But the other Reeds have nothing.
Because everything has a price. And the price of solving everything is everything. Every other Reed gave up his family to be part of the Council. They have no wife, no Ben or Johnny, no children. They have only the work.
Our Reed doesn’t accept this outcome and walks away.
He remembers something his father told him as a teenager, before his father disappeared from his life. We quote a part of it above. It’s why we are reading this story. Here’s the full speech.
Reed, I’ve given you plenty of advice over the years– and I know you’ve listened because I see what you’ve become… a man capable of making his own decisions. But I want you to remember one last thing before I go… The world is ugly. It should not be, but it is. It will force you to do things you know you should not do– to compromise– simply because you feel like you have no other choice. This weakens us. It makes men less than what we should be, and it will be even more difficult for you because you have an extra burden… Because you have a gift that will affect many people.
But this [your head]… without this [your heart]… means nothing. It’s a terrible thing for someone not to reach their full potential… I know. As I’ve grown older, I’ve realized that I do not have the character to be both great and good at the same time. But you do, Reed… And as such, all my hopes and desires rest in you becoming what I am not.
When you grow up, I expect more. Son… I expect better. I want you to be a better friend than I was. Be a better husband. Be a better father… Reed… be a better man.
There’s that phrase about reaching one’s full potential again. But this challenges what it means.
This has not really been a Fantastic Four story. It’s been a Reed Richards story. But the ending reveals who he is. And who he is is all about family. His relationships define him. To his friends, Ben and Johnny. To his kids, Franklin and Valeria.
To his wife, Sue.
When his father talked about Reed reaching his potential, he wasn’t talking about solving everything. He was talking about something more.
This arc begins Jonathan Hickman’s run on Fantastic Four. The next issue will see Thing and Human Torch on an adventure. But this isn’t the last we will see of the Council of Reeds.
And the series will explore the question, what makes our Reed special? Why out of a multiverse of other versions, is he the only one ready to choose family over the great work?
It’s a common trick in comics to get to the core of a character by seeing other versions of them. Captain America has had many replacements over the decades, but the stories exist to emphasize that there is only one Captain America. Dan Slott wrote a Spider-Man story called Spider-Island that explored what would happen if everyone in Manhattan got Spider-Man’s powers. It gives space to explore what really makes Spider-Man special.
And so, here. Contrasted with a multiverse of other Reeds, we can really explore what makes our Reed worthy of the name Mr. Fantastic.
Jonathan Hickman has done many great superhero titles for Marvel. He followed his FF run with a run on Avengers that seems like it may be the basis for the upcoming Marvel films. And then he offered a bold new reimagining of the X-Men in House of X. Lately, he has a cool new take on Spider-Man in Ultimate Spider-Man.
Outside of Marvel, he’s done many great but weird sci/fi comics like Manhattan Projects and East of West.
One quote from East of West has been echoing through my head a lot in these times.
This is the world. It is not the one we were supposed to have, but it’s the one we made. We did this. We did it with open eyes and willing hands. We broke it, and there is no putting it back together.
Reading Great Comics
This is the eighth entry in our “reading great comics” series.
- Sandman #19
- Kurt Busiek’s Astro City #1
- The Saga of the Swamp Thing #21
- Usagi Yojimbo #93
- Zot! #30
- The Tick #3
- Batman and Superman: World’s Finest #7
