Tonight on The Flash‘s latest episode, “When Harry Met Harry,” Harrison Wells puts together a team to track down The Thinker, and populates it with some of the greatest minds in the multiverse — his own.
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The team brought together the Earth-2 Wells with his counterparts from Earth-12, Earth-22 and Earth-47 (with a cameo by the Wells from a Gandalf-inspired Wells).
The idea, dubbed the Council of Wells, may be a riff on The Council of Reeds, a concept introduced during Jonathan Hickman’s run on The Fantastic Four for Marvel Comics.
(Yes, we watch Rick and Morty, too, but Rick and Morty postdates the Council of Reeds.)
The basic premise is that a group of different versions of the character Reed Richards from multiple different universes within the Marvel Multiverse gathered together in order to try to effect positive change across their respective realities.
Within this council were wildly divergent spins on the character. Some were physically very different in terms of build, facial hair, visibly evident power-sets, etc. and stretching powers did not seem to be all that evident beyond the Reed Richards of the main Marvel Universe. One fairly common element though was that a number of the Reeds seemed to possess their universe’s version of the Infinity Gauntlet which would only work in their respective reality. The council was devoting to solving problems and averting large-scale threats. Notably, they would work to solve hunger, prevent Galactus from destroying different earths, and essentially gather and lobotomize versions of Doctor Victor von Doom from different realities.
Reed Richards was initially tempted to join the group. He was put off by the idea of dealing with Dr. Doom in this manner. However, the real final straw was when it was explained to him that he would have to leave his world, friends, and family behind to essentially become a multiversal protector of sorts. Unable to cut ties in this manner, Reed refused membership right around the time the council was largely decimated by a group of Celestials from one parallel universe leaving only a handful of alternate Reeds alive. These alter-Reeds would go on to cause havoc throughout the Hickman run before meeting various largely unceremonious ends while being various degrees of villainous.
The Flash airs on Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
The history of The Council of Reeds provided by Michael Brown.
