Reed Richards Is Useless Discussion - Television Tropes & Idioms

with the original Reed Richards Is Useless page.

Dark Sasami: Not everyone knows who Reed Richards is or what makes him so useless. Could someone explain that, and maybe throw in some other non-subversion examples of this trope?

Seth: Errm yes they do. I mean i'm sure there are going to be some people who haven't heard of him but since F4 is one of the most well known comics there are most will. We have more obscure entries around here. Plus the entry already explains the trope pretty well. I will add a paragraph for Reed, i think there used to be one in there buts its been buried.

In case that doesn't clear it up its pretty simple - people with powers never help the world for the better. Reed Richards who has such a big nerdy brain has never cured cancer, captain planet never did use his awesome powers to just fix the environment, spider-man never got rid of the pidgins around airports and storm never solved world hunger. They are all too busy defending the world from Supervillains to try.

Eakin: Are we listing all the alternate history stories where somebody DOES change things as subversions? And what about Mad Scientists? Dr. Frankenstein conquers death, but decides to bury the process by which he did so because it disgusts him. Especially egregious in the original novel since the monster could have been good if he hadn't been a Jerkass. Are we only including comic book examples?

Ununnilium: It's not really a good idea to categorize when all but one of the entries are in a single category, and the one that isn't is pretty close.

smith2000: Somebody should make a comic book which goes to the other extreme(change everything). First thing superbeings would do is to conquer world and then every issue deals with same people being in charge of everything.(Judge Dredd is kind of like that; Judges have totalitarian city; civilians are 99% unemployed and robots do nearly all work)

Tanto: That Naruto example doesn't really work, methinks. I mean, just because someone's a genius doesn't mean they have to change the world (or like taking written tests).

The more relevant aspect would be that for all Shikamaru's skill at strategy, his teams still run into problems all the time. But even that is stretching it, really.

Later: In fact, after a bit more thought, I'm deleting it. It doesn't really fit this trope at all. The Naruto world is not our world, and Shikamaru isn't the typical fictional supergenius.

Alan: Also, I'd like to point out that Shikamaru's father, a man of similar ingenuity actually DOES spend most his time researching and developing medications. Take a look at that enormous book on antidotes Tsunade was reading from in Episode 135, from what I understand that he wrote that by himself.

Anime example: Shikamaru from Naruto may very well be the most useless genius ever. In one episode, it is said he has an IQ of over 200, yet being a ninja sure wouldn't do a heck of a lot for that potential. Worse still, it's said he doesn't like written tests. This kid needs a life; you'd think he'd be out being a scientist or something.

Vicious Love: Anyone here read more than one volume of The Monarchy? There's a character in there who can invent and manufacture obscenely advanced technology in PICOSECONDS, but I haven't read far enough to know whether her reluctance to end all of the world's problems overnight is justified.

Mystyc: This page was suffering from a severe case of over-subversions. I've done what I can.

Joysweeper: I was here

and it struck me that these comments are very relevant, though less in curing-all-the-world's-ills and more in stopping-real-events. It's about a 9/11 issue. ''Consider the options: Completely ignore the event, and go on with continuity, and you're just stupid shallow emotionless entertainment (with no grasp of current events). Have the superheroes "saving the day" would just be... too painful. And stupid. And painful. Have the superheroes sit on the sidelines and not help would make the superheroes ASSHOLES. Really, having them fight alongside the REAL heroes, the firemen and policemen and doctors, is the only option for writing these issues — and they have to be written.''

Didn't Superman take over the world once already? And screw it up? I remember a JLA issue where he tells off Lex Luthor, saying 'Yeah, we could do everything, but then humans wouldn't have any incentive to advance'.

In fact, this was a big thing in one of the many Doctor Fate series. Inza Kent solves everyone's problems and they turn into lazy jerkasses.

And it's well established Storm can't go make it rain in drought areas without causing a -different- drought.

I've read a ton of Black Panther comics. T'Challa has a huge charity concern going. In fact, it screws up his country something bad when villains sneak in with refugees.

And finally, I'm reminded of Captain Atom's crowning moment of awesome. "I'm lost in time, stuck with Nazis and if I blast them all, history might change. On the other hand, fuck 'em. They're Nazis." Much ass-kicking and Nazi-slaughter ensues.

Piss shivers (and vomit shivers) are caused by a lot of warm liquid leaving the body, causing a drop in body temperature. Just so you know.

Doctor Nemesis: Deleted / amended this because it was all getting a bit Thread Modey. It's also actually based on a slight misreading of the text; the acne cure that the discussion mentions actually was sold on; the advancement held back was actually some kind of super-computer. Which, whilst the overall point that's being made holds up, is a slightly different concern than the one being aired. I've also reworded slightly in order to reflect this whilst keeping the same overall point.

Hand Waved somewhat during the Mark Waid run on Fantastic Four, when one issue revealed that Reed does indeed make money off of his patents... by taking money from other corporations to delay releasing advanced products that would revolutionize whole industries overnight and likely destroy the world economy by putting millions out of work. For instance, he takes money from Revlon to delay the release of his cure for acne so they can continue to sell their own acne-treatments.
- Which to this troper is verging on a Moral Event Horizon moment. Especially the acne cure bit.
- Well considering how fragile our economy is, as we've seen lately, I think Reed's kind of in the right to not suddenly screw countless business out of livelihood because he solved their problems.
- Yes of course, rich people staying rich is far more important than sick people getting better.
- Which is seem in the The Authority who don't have a problem, causes massive job lose and the world's economy was almost ruined, which they don't care.
- True enough, but you'd think that he could partner up with Tony Stark's business expertise and financial prominence to gradually introduce at least some of his innovations to the economy. And then there's the outright life-saving medical miracles. People are dying without those, Reed.
- Well that is a good given point, but then some doctors may be angry to lose prestige over the fact someone developed an actual cure, not a treatment to the disease. Although that is not likely to happen though.
- Oh yes, a group of golf course athletes might be a little upset. That's a perfectly good reason to hold back LIFE SAVING cures.
- Of course the Black Panther trumps Richards easily. His country has a cure for CANCER and apparently feel they can hold it back from the rest of the world. The reasons he does so are even more utterly ridiculous than the imbecilic ones that Reed Richards has

I'm curious if the Hyperclan's remaking of the world in Grant Morrison's run on JLA falls under this trope.

BritBllt: Swapping out this quote...

"Nobody thinks of the idea of using this to help out real-life cocaine addicts because that would actually make sense."

—Linkara

For this older one that was removed...

"Stardust, whose vast knowledge of interplanetary science has made him the most remarkable man that ever lived, devotes his abilities to crime-busting..."

— Stardust the Super Wizard

, Fantastic Comics #14

I think it's important to have a straight-faced demonstration of the trope as a header quote so people can instantly see what it means, and I always laugh when I read it - in one simple phrase, it demonstrates the bizarre values dissonance of comic book genius-heroes perfectly.

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