Many believe that Mister Fantastic’s actions were even more nefarious than Tony Stark’s. Perhaps the two biggest know-it-alls in comics, Reed Richards and Tony Stark are each confronted with moral dilemmas that are directly tied to the unintended consequences of superpowers – prompting the characters’ heel turns. Whereas Stark is acting from a place of emotion after being confronted and traumatized by a mother whose child was lost in the Stamford explosion, Richards is applying a cold, immoral calculus that knowingly sacrifices his friends and allies.
The Civil War event was revolutionary for how it divided some of Marvel’s most iconic heroes along surprising ideological lines. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers take center stage as the champions of the two opposing sides, as Captain America's stance allows heroes much-needed autonomy when fighting injustice, acting on their own moral com, whereas Iron Man’s stance is that heroes need oversight. What starts as legislation to hold superheroes able through government registration and training quickly spirals out of control when Captain America has the foresight to determine that governmental control of superheroes could be used to ignoble ends. This prompts the declaration that Steve Rogers is a fugitive and many skirmishes, some of them deadly, with Iron Man’s pro-registration allies then ensue.
While all this is happening, Mister Fantastic is operating in a truly disturbing capacity, developing prison facilities in the Negative Zone for all opposing superheroes. His actions are even more warped than Reed’s biggest flaw is recklessly pursuing the unknown, this is a case where being convinced of what he knows turns him villainous.
Throughout Civil War, Iron Man expresses that he doesn’t enjoy any of his extreme actions in of registration, but he truly believes that they are right. Mister Fantastic, on the other hand, seems to relish the control, even whistling a tune based on the Nazis’ resident rocket scientist while working with his negative zone prison in Fantastic Four #540 by J. Michael Straczynski and Mike McKone. The Fantastic Four also reveals that Reed was acting from a place of misplaced superiority after using his Bridge technology to view alternate timelines where society destroyed its uned heroes, causing him to abandon all moral qualms about achieving registration at all costs. In doing so, he embraces the same type of mad scientist role that causes rampant speculation that Reed's evil variant, The Maker, will be Marvel’s next big bad.
Mister Fantastic’s villainous turn is further emphasized by how it impacted the Fantastic Four. His embrace of the registration act and escalation of its authoritarian nature drives away his family, with the Thing disgusted by the fighting and Sue and Johnny Storm ing Rogers’ side.
That is why Reed Richards is Civil War’s ultimate villain. He is the man behind the curtain and the reach of his misguided efforts dooms his superhero brethren more than anything Tony Stark does. Ultimately, Mister Fantastic embodies the extremes that Captain America foresaw, making Iron Man’s villainy pale in comparison.
