Reed Richards (Ultimate Marvel)

Latest revision as of 10:01, 8 May 2022

The Maker in Ultimate Comics: Ultimates v1 #9.

Reed Richards is a male comic character who features in Marvel Comics.

Biography

Origin

As Mr. Fantastic in Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #2.

Reed Richards was the son of Gary and Mary Richards with him having a younger sister named Enid Richards.

When he was 11 years old, he discovered another dimension and told his best friend Ben Grimm. Enid, however, overheard their talk and demanded that she be taken with them to the new dimension otherwise she would tell their parents about Reed experimenting in the garage again. Thus, he was forced to promise his sister that when the time came to explore that dimension that he would take her with him.

At school, he was picked on by the other children who bullied Reed but he was often saved by Ben Grimm. In this time, his mother would attempt to console him though his father would often berate the young Reed for his inventions which led to him pulling equipment from different parts of the house leaving things in a mess. (Ultimate Mystery v1 #4)

He later attended the Middletown Middle School Science Fair where he demonstrated a teleportation device that he had created and showcased to everyone at the scene. This attracted the attention of Lieutenant Lumpkin who worked for the Director of Mainland Technology Development of the United States. He was scouted to join a think tank of other specially gifted children at the Baxter Building in Manhattan with the government paying for his time there. Ultimately, Reed's parents agreed to have their son moving to Manhattan where he came to meet Dr. Franklin Storm and his equally brilliant children Susan Storm and Johnny Storm. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #1) Five years ago, he was among the Baxter Building's class when their curriculum was headed by Dr. Arthur Molekevic. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #2)

Fantastic Four

Ultimate Enemy

He then came to fake his own death where an explosion at his family's home also came to kill his parents whilst Reed began to operate in the shadows. (Ultimate Doom v1 #1) It was then that he arranged for attacks by alien creatures who targeted the Baxter Building, the Triskelion, Roxxon, and Peter Parker's home. (Ultimate Mystery v1 #1)

Richards managed to survive the encounter where he used some emergency equipment that allowed him to survive in the Negative Zone. Whilst there, he used the dead brains of alien soldiers as wetware computers that he used to salvage the wreckage of a still functional teleporter. With it, he returned back to Earth where he embarked on an ambitious venture after creating a facility called the Dome. He then gathered a group of individuals who he called he Children of Tomorrow that were to help him making the perfect world. (Ultimate Fallout v1 #4) Built in Europe, time within the Dome was accelerated allowing for Tomorrow's Children to evolve a civilisation over the course of a thousand years whilst only a short time had passed in the real world. This allowed them to become a perfect society of superhumans who were then returned to Earth leading to a conflict with the EDI. Tomorrow's Children came to battle superhuman government operatives that included Captain Britain, Captain France, Captain Italy, Captain Spain and Thor. The Children managed to easily overpower the EDI operatives but in Thor they encountered something they had never seen before. The Maker informed his creations about the god of thunder where he advised they evolve new eyes allowing them to track the energy that empowered Thor Odinson. He then bade them to depower the gods leading them to attack Asgard where they killed Odin and destroyed Yggdrassil thus ending the Asgardian race. (Ultimates v2 #2) The City continued its expansion across Europe where the Children eliminated much opposition to them before the expansion stopped. At this point, Thor had infiltrated the City where the Maker confronted him and the Asgardian looked to get revenge for his fallen people. However, the Maker had the First Knife humble Thor who was spared in order to send a message to the rest of humanity namely that the City would stop its expansion but was claiming its new territory forever. He also revealed his identity of being Reed Richards whereupon Thor was able to depart the City and report his findings to his comrades. (Ultimates v2 #4)

Cataclysm

Secret Wars

Two Reed Richards on Battleworld in Secret Wars v1 #3.

He later managed to meet his counterpart Reed Richards with the two allying on how to defeat God Emperor Doom. (Secret Wars v1 #6)

Afterwards, he managed to come to the main reality version of Earth where he operated as the leader of W.H.I.S.P.E.R. (New Avengers v4 #1)

Despite that, he later returned where he joined a gathering of likeminded and powerful individuals who formed Project Oversight. The Maker became interested in acquiring a sample of the void god Knull and the Symbiote with him that Eddie Brock had attempted to destroy. The Symbiote had commandeered Brock's body and used it to go on the run along with taking the remaining fragment of Knull with him leading to the Maker's forces being dispatched to capture them. They disguised themselves as part of the Anti-Symbiote Task Force where they successfully recovered Brock at his fathers hope but he retained no memory of the last five weeks nor the location of the stolen fragment. (Venom v4 #7)

Afterwards, a new crisis emerged when Cletus Kasady sought to free Knull from his imprisonment by acquiring the genetic codex fragments that resided in former Symbiote hosts. To stop him, Eddie Brock consulted with the Maker who created a machine to safely remove the codex from the targeted people. Among these included Dylan Brock and Normie Osborn but the laboratory came under attack from a group of Symbiotes. During this time, Richards himself came to be infected by a Symbiote thus making him into an aspect of Carnage's will where he chased after the two kids for their codex fragments. This brought him into battle with Avengers where with the aid of the Symbiote Sleeper they set the Maker on fire thus extinguishing the creature possessing him. Richards himself managed to survive and escaped into the sewers. (Venom v4 #19)

Meanwhile, another aspect of Richards had was involved in killing Rikki Barnes whereupon he was captured and detained at the prison on L'ar Gath 5. Once there, he made an alliance with several of the alien prisoners there where they agreed to join him in forming an empire. At the time, the prison was infiltrated by Alex Power and the Future Foundation who were seeking out the scattered shards of the Molecule Man. This saw them free the Maker after mistaking him for their reality's version of Reed Richards. (Future Foundation v1 #3)

Completing his work on his artificial Symbiote, the Maker was then ready to complete his transition back to his Earth and built a portal for the journey. The hidden laboratory was found by Eddie Brock who wanted the Maker's help to examine his son Dylan to find the reason for his nightmares. Richards, however had no interest in helping him and a brief fight erupted where the Maker used his artificial Symbiote to separate Brock temporarily from his other. The laboratory was then attacked by a supervillain named Virus who wanted revenge against Brock. The resultant explosion damaged the portal and sent everyone through it with them being scattered across the Multiverse. Despite this being the case, the Maker found himself back on Earth-1606 as he intended and was ready to enact his new scheme. (Venom v4 #26)

Overview

Personality and attributes

As a superhero, he came to operate under the name of Mister Fantastic. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #21) After falling into villainy, he came to take the name of the Maker. (Ultimates v2 #1)

He was determined to fix what was wrong and save his former friends. This led to him looking to solve everything in the universe. (Ultimate Fallout v1 #4)

Physical confrontation was something Reed had always hated. (Ultimate Doom v1 #1)

Dr. Franklin Storm had commented that Reed possessed a powerful mind but tended to live in his head too much. It was this reason that he urged his former student Richards to back up his thinking to another person every now and then otherwise he would lose perspective. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #10) It was said that Reed liked to torture himself with existential questions. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #6)

Reed placed those who served as his students under an ongoing and never-ending education. (Ultimate Fallout v1 #4)

Richards had claimed that he would never make mistakes and acted aggressively when placed in a scenario where an experiment ended badly. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #2) He came to consider himself to be the ultimate Reed Richards who would solve everything. (New Avengers v4 #13)

It was shown hat he had a younger blonde haired sister named Enid Richards. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #1) He came to miss his parents whilst he stayed at the Baxter Building though they would never visit him. Reed had made numerous attempts to make his father happy such as shipping a custom made one of a kind motorcycle though he still not content with his son. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #2) He had considered visiting his parents but would often be too afraid to do so and panic at the last moment. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #10)

One of his childhood best friends was Ben Grimm who looked out for Reed and protected him from the bullies that would pick on him. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #1)

Dr. Franklin Storm was said to had been impressed with the young Reed Richards and had loved the boy. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #2)

Whilst at the Baxter Building, he came to meet fellow student Susan Storm where the two had an attraction to one another. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #2) However, Reed never took initiative on the matter with Susan telling him that he was important to her and kissed him. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #7) He would come to admit that Susan was a bit smarter than him. (Ultimate Mystery v1 #3) After seeing his 616 counterparts life, Reed had looked to try and re-establish a relationship with his own Susan as he saw the children they would have together. (Survive! v1 #1)

Reed had to go through painful lengths to expand his intellect in order to keep ahead of his Children of Tomorrow. (Ultimate Comics Ultimates v1 #6)

Powers and abilities

The Maker's experiments in New Avengers v4 #2.

It was remarked that he was an exceptional and gifted man even when he was a child with his brain working on another level. It was said that he was working on applied sciences decades ahead of others. Since childhood, he had an aptitude for science where he often conducted experiments or created inventions in the house. During his teenage years, he was shown to had postulated the existence of another dimension. He was even in the process of developing a machine that would allow access to these other planes of existence. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #1) Reed had said that he had also studied biology every day of his life over the course of 15 years. It was noted that Reed possessed an IQ of 267. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #20) Stark had commented that Richards held a level twelve intellect. (Ultimate Comics Ultimates v1 #10)

He later came to gain superhuman powers after a failed teleportation attempt into the N-Zone that caused an explosion. This had resulted in him gaining the ability to stretch out his limbs to incredible distances. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #2) This led to him lacking any internal organs where instead he had a pliable bacterial stack that was not torn by his stretching abilities. It reacted with the air he breathed in to pour a rich supply of nutrients into his bloodstream. He was said to possess a rough approximation of lungs but lacked anything like a stomach. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #7) The accident that gave him his powers also made his mind as flexible as his body with him becoming smarter every day. A medical file indicate that his brain was working so efficiently that he had practically given up sleeping as a result. He could stretch his brain allowing him to better solve any problem presented to him. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #25) A noted side effect of his enhanced abilities was longevity as he came to lack an entropy-based naturally decaying biology since his transformation. (Ultimate Comics Ultimates v1 #6)

Reed was able to conduct quick calculations in his head whereby in a ball-like shape he could bounce around a set number of locations to reach his intended goal. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #5) He was shown to be capable of devising a means of neutralising a person within a short span of time. (Ultimate Doom v1 #1)

After his encounter with the Molecule Man, his body was split into numerous pieces each of which formed into a new version of the Maker. As a result, this Reed Richards became a being with a thousand bodies yet had one mind that was connected across realities. (Future Foundation v1 #2) One of these incarnations came to breed an artificial Symbiote from his own universe and enhanced it for his purposes. This being was bonded to his body where it could form weapons as needed by the Maker including autocannons. (Venom v4 #26)

Among his creations included:

• Minimates : embryonic versions of the Ultimates that were grown in a virtual petri dish from hard light reflections of the original team. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #25)
• Fantasti-Car : a flying car that Reed had developed as a mode of transportation. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #10)
• Fantastic Oh-Five : a battle-suit Reed had been working on in his spare time that had the Thing's strength, the Human Torch's firepower, the Invisible Woman's forcefields and Mister Fantastic's elasticity allowing him to fight powerful superhuman foes. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #26)

Reed had also designed a helmet able to turn his thoughts into three-dimensional constructs making them appear suddenly though they at times tied into his subconscious mind. He was able to manifest constructs of people or of an entire team to help fight in a battle. However, this process required a great deal of power to maintain and could eat the energy reserves of an entire country. (Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #26)

An edict he gave his Children was that they evolve or become extinct. (Ultimate Fallout v1 #4)

On his native Earth, he once established a facility called the Dome that was used to house his Children of Tomorrow. Within it, time was sped up allowing for centuries to pass and allow a civilisation to grow whilst only a few months passed in the real world. Within the Dome, there was the City that served as the headquarters for him and Tomorrow's Children where he was advised by his First Council. (Ultimates v2 #2) The City later took a name for itself which was the Organo-Mechanic Nexus-Iterated Techno-Radical Organizational Networked Intelligent Computer Unity System (O.M.N.I.T.R.O.N.I.C.U.S.) (New Avengers v4 #5)

Notes

• This version of Reed Richards was created by Mark Millar, Brian Michael Bendis and Adam Kubert where he made his first appearance in Ultimate Fantastic Four v1 #1 (February, 2004).
• The character was based on Reed Richards created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Alternate Versions

• In Ultimate Fantastic Four/X-Men Annual v1 #1 (2008), an alternate future was shown where Sue Storm after the birth of her child Franklin betrayed Reed and abandoned him in the N-Zone. Whilst trapped there, he adopted the armor of the slain Nihil and operated as Nihil as he sought his escape. This timeline was averted when the time travelling future Sue Storm was stopped from initiating her plan to eliminate all Mutants.

In other media

Films

• In Fantastic Four, the Ultimate Mister Fantastic's origin was adapted for the setting of the live-action film where he was portrayed by actor Miles Teller.

Video games

• In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance, the Ultimate Mister Fantastic appeared as an alternate skin in the setting of the video game.
• In Marvel: Ultimate Alliance 2, the Ultimate Mister Fantastic appeared as an alternate skin in the setting of the video game.
• In Marvel: Future Fight, the Maker appeared as an enhanced costume for Mister Fantastic in the setting of the mobile video game.

Appearances

• Ultimate Fantastic Four v1: (2004)
• Ultimate Fallout v1:
• Ultimate Mystery v1:
• Ultimate Doom v1:
• Secret Wars v1:
• New Avengers v4:
• Ultimates:
• Venom v4: (2019)
• Future Foundation v1: (2019)
• Absolute Carnage v1:

External Links

• Marvel Database Entry
• Comicvine Entry
• Wikipedia Entry

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