Why Did Reed Richards Take Two Civilians With Him on a Dangerous Flight?

CBR

By Brian Cronin

Published Jan 1, 2019

In their latest look at long-resolved comic book plots, CSBG reveals why Reed Richards brought along his girlfriend and her teen brother!

This is "Provide Some Answers," which is a feature where long unresolved plot points are eventually resolved.

The other day, I wrote about how it was eventually explained how Reed Richards was able to get away with the whole "stealing a rocket ship" deal. However, a number of readers also wanted to know why Reed Richards also brought with him on the flight his civilian girlfriend and her teen brother. It certainly seems pretty darn irresponsible, right?

First off, let's once again look at the original action that led to the creation of the Fantastic Four...

It appears as though some time passes after the crash landing (although years later, Joe Casey would reveal that there was actually not much time between the crash and the team going into action as a team), but still, the question remains - why would Reed bring along his girlfriend and her teenage brother on a trip like that?

The main answer, for the time, was simply that no one really cared. That's honestly the answer to most of these things, ya know? If you look at the introduction of Bucky in Captain America Comics #1, it doesn't make any sense. The kid's name is Bucky and he puts a mask on and calls himself Bucky and somehow no one figures this out? How many kids are hanging around army barracks named Bucky? However, Joe Simon and Jack Kirby obviously felt the need to have a teen sidekick, since nearly every other superhero was having a teen sidekick at the time after Batman debuted his own sidekick, Robin.

In other words, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby wanted a female member of the team and they wanted a teen member of the team, so they had to get them on that rocket ship, whether it made sense or not.

Of course, it is worth noting that the whole rocket ship crash was likely inspired by Jack Kirby's Challengers of the Unknown, which came out only a few years before the Fantastic Four took their bow. And sure, in that story, there was also a lot of contrivance to get the guys all together...

But it still makes a lot more sense than bringing along a girlfriend and her teen brother when you're stealing a rocket ship, right?

Luckily, while Stan Lee and Jack Kirby did not think it was something worth explaining, later writers stepped in and came up with an interesting explanation/retcon!

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In Thing #1 (by John Byrne, Ron Wilson and Joe Sinnott), Byrne goes over Ben Grimm's history and he adds some notable changes to the origin of the Fantastic Four, including some major new additions...

What is also notable here is that we see, for the first time, that Reed's reasoning was that he felt that he had to prove that it was safe, so he brought along two civilians because he was SO sure that it was safe that he didn't think it was a problem. Of course, it is worth noting that Byrne specifically has this as BEN'S take, because this was the only way that the whole thing would work in his mind. So it doesn't mean that Ben is CORRECT, right?

However, in 1991's Fantastic Four Annual #24, that explanation - that they were along for the ride to prove the safety of the rocket ship, was officially accepted as fact in the two-page origin sequence at the beginning of the issue (it is an uncredited story - anyone know who wrote and drew it? Al Milgrom wrote and drew the main story, but I don't believe it's his art)...