No, it’s not whatever morally unethically stuff he may have done in some comic storylines. The multiple decisions to make him evil is just an attempt to paper over the fact that he is ultimately just a wiggly, stretchy guy, which is inherently goofy. It’s this goofiness that prevents any good movie adaptation of the Fantastic Four from being made.

Don’t get me wrong. There’s a lot of pathos in having your body irrevocably altered and made unnatural. It is one of the central themes that the Fantastic Four are different now due to accidentally being exposed to cosmic rays while on a space mission, and there’s no way for them to go back to normal. They then choose to make the best out of their circumstances and help others, even if they are subject to the fears and apprehension of the very same people that they rescue.

However, I think that attempts to plaster Reed Richards with guns, antihero morality, “grimdark”-ness like you would any other edgy male power fantasy character is more cringe than just acknowledging that he is a stretchy, wiggling, elastic guy. Stop trying to ignore his stretchiness; it just throws off any chance of getting a decent Hollywood movie adaptation. Triple A production studios has had their own inelasticity revealed, in the sense that they can’t wrap their head around Reed Richards’ combination of Patriarchal Social Hierarchically Approved White Guy, plus stretchiness.

I’m throwing absolutely no shade towards the creators of the Fantastic Four here! They did an excellent job tackling xenophobia, sexism, racism, fascism, etc., in their works. I’m hoping to make my point that there are certain superpowers/abilities that appeal easily as power fantasies to your basic cisgender, older, white, millionaire film producer. I think perhaps me and you, a sympathetic audience can be okay with a guy stretching around and being rubbery and not having it diminish their qualities of personality or perceived standing, but I don’t think that many filmmakers are doing so.

The Human Torch can fly around and shoot fire at people. That’s pretty cool. The Invisible Woman… She’s a woman while most film producers are not, but she can still be pretty understandable as a power fantasy since she can turn invisible and use force fields. Still easy-to-grasp power fantasy concepts.

The Thing is where perhaps the original concept of the comic can still peer through. He’s super strong and tough, but he also became hated and feared due to looking notably monstrous and hulking.

Meanwhile movie adaptations of the Fantastic Four continue to trip over themselves because they are afraid to acknowledge that Reed Richards is both a very standard authority figure guy, but also his body is very stretchy, and being very stretchy is NOT a superpower you can easily spin as a power fantasy.

Other fictional characters with super elasticity are characters like Monkey D. Luffy, Plastic Man, Elongated Man, of which they are notably playful, comedic characters and/or young. Reed Richards is a middle-aged scientist man, and aside from the original comics and cartoons’ one-liners, does not really get the chance to do any goofing around with his goofy powers in the Super Serious Films for Super Serious Grown Ups.

Fundamentally I think that Reed Richards not being traditionally strong by being muscular or glowing with energy, but instead being a stretchy noodle person makes the type of filmmakers who rely on adapting superhero comics as pure power fantasies uncomfortable for multiple reasons, but of which I’ll note as prominently because it throws a spanner into their works. The refusal to acknowledge either the strangeness of a paradoxical stolid authority figure who also has a body that is the consistency of laffy taffy, or the inherent humor, then this is why I think that Hollywood filmmakers have consistently failed to make a good Fantastic Four film. You can’t just “Stereotypical Tough Guy Film” out of it.

Acknowledge the strangeness, and go Cronenbergian horror pathos! Acknowledge the inherent humor and go (The name of that one comic book movie with The Spleen in it)! Do some combination of both and pull a Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy! You’re not going to get a Typical Tough Guy Individualist Power Fantasy Film out of Reed Richards, so please stop approaching from that angle. But Reed Richards is the rubbery, stretchy, binding force that ties the Fantastic Four together as a team of good, kind-hearted people who work together and make sense of their new lives along the way, and that’s a pretty cool story IMO.