Marvel Confirms Yet Again That Reed Richards Is The Worst Superhero

Published Sep 18, 2026, 7:28 PM EDT

Ambrose Tardive is an editor on ScreenRant's Comics team. Over the past two years, he has developed into the internet's foremost authority on The Far Side. Outside of his work for ScreenRant, Ambrose works as an Adjunct English Instructor.

Everyone always asks who the greatest Marvel superhero is, but what about the worst? There is a strong case to be made that out of all Marvel's A-list, top-tier heroes, The Fantastic Four's Reed Richards is the bottom of the barrel. The worst among them.

That is, in spite of, or maybe because of, the fact that Richards is one of the smartest people in the Marvel Universe. In fact, he's the standard bearer for super-intelligence. Yet as a hero, he's all too familiar with failure. Going all the way back to the progenital failure that gave him and Marvel's First Family their powers.

Every great hero has their share of failures, and flaws, but Reed Richards sticks out a head above the rest of his peers, and not just because he can elongate his body. Reed's failure is systemic; it is a moral failure. And there's plenty of evidence that this makes him not just a bad hero at times, but a dangerous one. (Most notably, the descent of Ultimate Reed Richards into madness and villainy as the Maker.)

The latest problematic Reed Richards moment comes as Marvel kicks off its major X-Men/Fantastic Four crossover, DNX. With Magneto's life on the line, Mr. Fantastic tries to take a moral stance, but it leaves him looking more hypocritical and capricious than anything else.

Reed Richards' Inconsistent Ethical Standards Make His Marvel Heroism Precarious

DNX #1 By Jed McKay & Federico Vincentini

DNX is building on major plot developments in last year's X-Men event series, Age of Revelation, and starting to bring to fruition plotlines that have been simmering for over two years now. That includes Magneto's rapidly advancing "Resurrection Linked Degenerative Sickness," which has kept him sidelined as a major player and confined to a hover chair like Charles Xavier once ways.

In DNX #1, Reed Richards tells Beast he'll use "the best of his abilities" to help keep Magneto alive, but that he "cannot, in good conscience, be part of returning his powers to him." That is, Reed makes an ethical judgment call, based on Magneto's past actions. Despite the fact that Magneto has been a heroic member of the X-Men for some time now.

The problem with this is that Reed's judgment in matters like this isn't consistent. Moreover, it is that it comes from a place of self-preservation, masked as a decision made for the greater good. "I will not be responsible," Reed tells Beast, if restoring Magneto's powers led to a villainous reprise that caused harm sometime down the line. Except, Marvel readers have seen Reed Richards make the opposite call in the past, including with his nemesis Dr. Doom.

Moral Inconsistency Reed Richards Marvel's Worst Hero

Marvel Comics

Certainly, there's an extent to which Reed Richards' moral inconsistency is a product of different writers using the character differently at various points. In DNX, there has to be some dramatic tension between the Fantastic Four and X-Men to juice up the narrative, and Reed and Beast's scene is an example of that.

However, longtime Marvel readers will note that this has transcended to become a character trait for Reed. His moral center can be suspect at times, which is why a version of him had the capacity to become one of Marvel's greatest modern villains. This makes him a fascinating character, a hero who can be a compelling protagonist in one story, and an antagonist in another. Yet in terms of ranking from best to worst, it lands Mr. Fantastic on the not-so-fantastic end of the heroic spectrum.

It's possible DNX #1 is setting up a moment where Magneto wins Reed Richards' begrudging respect. It is also possible that the crossover's creative team is just all too used to Reed Richards getting on his high horse and making snap moral judgment calls that cause conflict between him, The Fantastic Four and other Marvel icons like the X-Men.