It isn't often we get to hear Reed Richards toot his own horn, as far as his stretching powers are concerned. In fact, I'm delighted when he does so, because that means he's actually using them. But I wonder how many of you caught a little discrepancy in Fantastic Four #64, when Reed shouted out his code name in the heat of battle:
Specifically, he tells us how he got that name:
Which would be a relief, if it were actually true. It would be so much easier to swallow, if it turned out that newspapers, wanting to attract readers, thought up such a sensational name to put in bold print. Because, really, can you even imagine a stuffed shirt like Reed Richards giving himself a corny--to say nothing of immodest--name like "Mr. Fantastic"? Johnny, maybe--but Reed?
Well, yes, as it turns out. And, embarrassingly, with almost no forethought:
Though look how writer Roy Thomas, in a retelling of the FF's origin story, tries to skirt around the immodesty issue by hiding it in plain sight:
(Y'know, Reed, admitted immodesty doesn't make you sound any less vain on this issue.)
At any rate, unless there were reporters at the FF's crash site--or unless Reed slipped a few dollars under the table to a few columnists so that he wouldn't have to admit to choosing that ridiculous sounding name himself--I'm afraid he was indulging in a little wishful thinking in his running dialog to Sue. Still, if anyone is going to "stretch" the truth, our first choice would have to be Reed, wouldn't it?
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