Talk:Mister Fantastic

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In some of the early issues of the Fantastic Four, Reed Richards and Nick Fury talked about fighting together in WWII. Was Reed a Marvel character prior to his first appearance in FF #1? Kyle UNC Law 15:26, August 17, 2005 (UTC)

No. Hoever, Reed did make a WWII-period cameo in an early issue of Sgt. Fury, and Ben Grimm did likewise in one of the Sgt. Fury spinoffs (Captain Savage, I think). -Sean Curtin 05:33, August 18, 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Vital stats

Profile: Mister Fantastic
Alter Ego: Reed Richards
Occupation: Scientist, Professional Adventurer
Place of Birth: Central City, California
Base of Operations: Baxter Building II, New York City
Costume: Dark blue bodysuit. White "V" neck, gloves, boots, & belt. Circle on left side of chest with a "4" insignia. (Made of unstable molecules).
Identity: Publicly known
Nickname: "Stretcho"
Age: Early to mid thirties*
Height: 6'1"
Weight: 160 lbs. (73 kg)
Eye Color: Brown
Hair Color: Brown (graying at the temples)

A note on Reed Richards' Age: An ubiquitous trend in superhero comics is that towards retarding the age of characters. The Marvel convention is that roughly ten years have passed since Fantastic Four #1. Reed's gray temples don't imply that he's in middle age, because one story revealed that he went gray at the age of nineteen. In the days before the longevity of Marvel's properties necessitated time compression, Reed graduated from university as a teenager, and he met Sue, a few years his junior, for the first time. Ben was a few years older than Reed, thus making him in his late thirties/early forties today. Therefore, Reed was at least in his early to mid twenties as of his first appearance. He is estimated to be approximately thirty four.

[edit] Superhuman intellect or merely human-level genius?

CovenantD, even though I know this isn't going anywhere, this one is for you. Snippet from Reed's Wiki entry, which is supported by the comics.

"Not only has Reed proven himself to be a genius in virtually every science native to Earth, he has shown himself to be more knowledgable than even some of the most highly advanced alien civilizations in the known universe as well. He has been known to turn scraps of machinery into deadly weaponry within seconds. Reed also appears to have a degree of immunity to psychic attacks; his mind is as pliable and resilient as his body. (Some comic writers have shown that Reed's intelligence was increased by the Cosmic Rays that gave him his elastic powers, and that, when his powers are nullified, he is not as hyper-intellgent - though still a genius by most standards.) Mind control is rarely effective on him; when it does work, it wears off sooner than it would a normal person." MrBigB 18:51, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

"Some writers" is a weasel phrase that doesn't even mention which writer, much less an issue number. Wikipedia itself does not meet the criteria of a reliable source. You're going to need more than that to convince me it meets verifiability standards. CovenantD 19:12, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

An example off of the top of my head happened during the Abraxas Saga. Have you read it? In it Reed travels to a parallel reality and meets a version of himself that was never exposed to the cosmic radiation. This unaltered Reed was a small time inventor that never met with any real success or made any major breakthroughs. "Our" Reed comments that the cosmic radiation must really have enchanced his intellect, something he had always suspected. There are other examples that illustrate this as well. Reed was always a genius, but the cosmic radiation made him a super-genius. MrBigB 19:18, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

I'm the one who originally added in the bolded bit in the above section. --Dr Archeville 19:29, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Do you have an opinion on this you'd like to explicitly share? CovenantD 19:33, 21 July 2006 (UTC)

Aside from desiring to make sure that I, as "some writer," receives whatever praise or criticism is due for having inserted the above sentence which seems to have drawn such attention, I am of the opinion that, yes, the Cosmic Rays did indeed increase his intellect. It's mentioned in a few comics, and in most of his RPG write-ups (which were based on the comics and in most cases were written with collaboration from folks working at Marvel Comics).

Admittedly, finding the exact issuus where such is stated (like in the Abraxas Saga, mentioned above) would be very preferable. --Dr Archeville 20:57, 21 July 2006 (UTC)