7 Marvel Problems Even Reed Richards Couldn’t Solve

Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards has one of the highest I.Q.s in the Marvel universe. His intellect is so great that he’s often one of the first heroes called upon when a world-ending tragedy emerges — and with good reason. Reed has saved the Marvel universe several times by inventing devices like the ultimate nullifier, a weapon capable of stopping cosmic-level threats like Galactus. But despite his reputation, Reed Richards isn’t a miracle worker, and even a genius of his caliber has limits. There have been many times over the years when Reed has flat-out failed in stopping threats to the Marvel multiverse, sometimes at great cost.

With The Fantastic Four: First Steps hitting theaters this summer, we thought it might be a good time to look back on seven times Reed Richards’ unparalleled intellect wasn’t enough to solve a major Marvel mishap.

He Was Unable to Restart Wolverine’s Healing Factor

When a strange virus from the microverse shorts out Wolverine’s famous healing factor it makes sense that the Ol’ Canucklehead would turn to Reed Richards for help … eventually. After first asking Tony Stark and The Beast for help and coming up empty-handed, a despondent Logan tries Richards only to be denied once again. Playing the part of a Debbie Downer, Reed explains to Wolverine all the ways his adamantium bones will try to kill him now that he has no healing factor, but offers absolutely nothing in the way of practical solutions.

Reed’s only suggestion boils down to Wolverine hiding from all his enemies long enough for him to maybe figure out a cure. For such a smart guy, you’d think Reed would realize how stupid it is to ask Wolverine not to fight.

He Failed to Stop the Hulk Twice

Reed Richards is part of a cabal of Marvel heroes known as the Illuminati, who meet in secret to discuss what’s best for the rest of the Marvel universe. During one such meeting, the Illuminati decide that the Hulk is too much of a danger to Earth and hatch a plan to exile him to a distant planet where he can live out the rest of his life in peace. Unfortunately, their plan backfires when the Hulk travels through a wormhole and instead ends up on the war-torn planet Sakaar, where he succeeds in leading a revolution and becoming a great leader. Unfortunately, a spy sabotages the ship the Hulk arrived in, killing his wife and unborn child and causing him to swear revenge on the Illuminati.

Upon returning to Earth, the Hulk is an even bigger threat than he was when the Illuminati decided to banish him. Feeling responsible, Reed attempts to stop a rampaging Hulk by using his stretchy powers to bind him. Sadly for Reed, the fight ends tragically with his body stretched to the limit and lacking the strength to reshape itself.

He Picked the Wrong Side During Marvel’s Civil War Event

When the “Superhero Registration Act” splits the Marvel universe into two factions, Mr. Fantastic stuns the rest of the Fantastic Four by siding with Tony Stark and the pro-registration group. That’s fail number one, as Stark’s authoritarian regime wants to register all superheroes, making their identities public and giving them official Government jobs that would essentially make them part of the U.S. military.

Reed screws up again when he builds Prison 42, a superhero jail located in the Negative Zone where Iron Man and his lackeys detain unregistered heroes with no due process whatsoever. Digging himself deeper, Reed helps to create a clone of Thor that goes on to kill superhero Goliath, alienating him from his family and friends even further. Eventually, Richards would see the error of his ways and reconcile with the rest of the Fantastic Four, but not until after changing the whole world’s perception of him from a helpful scientist to a heartless technocrat who prizes logic over empathy.

He Couldn’t Stop Onslaught

The ’90s were a wild time for comics, and Marvel was no exception. Take Onslaught, for example. A physical manifestation of psychic energy created from a combination of Charles Xavier and Magneto’s subconsciouses dressed up in a Super Shredder version of Magneto’s armor, Onslaught is the kind fo extreme edgelord the decade was famous for. Given that he was pretty much created solely to be an unstoppable threat — see also, DC’s Doomsday — it’s understandable that Reed alone wouldn’t be able to stop him.

What is a little embarrassing is that he had to be saved from certain death by his young son Franklin, who threw him and the rest of the Fantastic Four, as well as the Avengers, into a pocket dimension he literally pulled out of thin air. Maybe everyone on Earth-616 has been asking the wrong Richards for help.

He Couldn’t Help Beast Bring Back the Mutants

During the climax of Marvel’s House of M event, the Scarlet Witch utters the words “No more mutants,” instantaneously wiping out all but 198 mutants from existence. Not only that, but the X-gene — the gene responsible for giving mutants their abilities — completely disappears from the Marvel universe. Doctor Hank McCoy, AKA Beast, gets right to work trying to find a way to restore the mutant population, only to be stymied at every turn.

Beast’s search for a way to bring the X-gene back eventually brings him to the Baxter Building and Reed Richards’ laboratory. While Reed works hard and gives it the old college try, ultimately, he’s unable to help McCoy.

He Couldn’t Save Aunt May’s Life

When Peter Parker’s Aunt May is struck by a bullet meant for him, Spider-Man does everything in his power to save her. Parker goes to Dr. Strange, Iron Man, Doctor Doom, and eventually Reed Richards to try to find a way to save his aunt. Sadly, none of them are able to help, leading Spider-Man to eventually make a deal with Mephisto that costs him his marriage.

We’re not calling Reed a liar or anything, but for a guy who routinely travels through time, visits alternate dimensions, and developed a fabric made of unstable molecules, fixing an old lady with a gunshot wound should be a piece of cake.

He Can’t Cure His Best Friend

Of all Reed’s failures, the one he takes most personally is his inability to permanently reverse the Thing’s condition. Ever since the space flight that caused the Fantastic Four to mutate into their current states, Ben Grimm has begged and pleaded with his friend to find a way to make him normal again. Over the years, Reed has tried repeatedly to change Ben’s orange, rocky exterior back into regular skin, with varying results.

Sometimes he’s able to cure his friend temporarily, but eventually something always happens to revert him back into The Thing. No matter how hard he tries, Reed just can’t seem to find a permanent cure for his best friend’s condition, a condition he feels at least partly responsible for.

If you have a Reed Richards failure you think should have been on the list, let us know in the comments!