- In One More Day, none of Marvel's brains can prevent Aunt May's death from a simple bullet wound (or remember the things which have healed much worse injuries). Including Doctor Strange, who (totally removed from his ability to alter the fabric of the universe at will, being the Sorcerer Supreme), is a neurosurgeon. Enter Mephisto. And at the end of Joss Whedon's run on Astonishing X-Men, Cyclops said that he had contacted Reed, Hank Pym and the other brain trust members, who were unable to rescue Kitty from the giant bullet. In both cases, the writer wanted to set up a specific plot resolution which wouldn't have been possible if Reed Richards (and the other brains) weren't useless.
- Guardian (James Hudson) of Alpha Flight was originally a petrochemical engineer who developed his exoskeleton for mining purposes. Once he learned that his boss intended to sell his invention to the American military to be used as a weapon, he proceeded to destroy the plans, steal the prototype, and keep the control helmet for himself, as he'd created it at university. Hudson is then able to get the Canadian government on his side, and he went to work for the Ministry of Defense, leading to the creation of Alpha Flight.
- A nonsensical attempt to justify this trope was given in Amazing Spider-Man #698. The titular character (actually Otto Octavius in Peter Parker's body) was with the Fantastic Four in an alien world. Spider-Man says how this world's super-science gives him plenty of things to invent for his job at Horizon Labs. Reed Richards says that Earth's science must advance at its own, natural rate (whatever that means).
- In one story of The Avengers, a group of Avengers enter a secret U.S. government facility in search for answers towards a mysterious contagion that started in Mount Rushmore. As they're looking through computers, Scott Lang finds out that only a few scientists knew the truth of what they were making, that the others thought they were making a cure for HIV and he sadly laments that, with so much money poured into it, they could have.
- During the Brian Bendis run of The Avengers, Marvel Boy was recruited into the team and used his knowledge of advanced Kree science to create a functioning time machine. When Iron Man offered to set him up with a Stark Industries lab in order to create more inventions, Marvel Boy declined, saying that mankind would destroy itself if given advanced technology that it didn't "earn" first.
- In Avengers Forever humanity has so many inventions and resources that it could easily become a galactic empire, but it doesn't because Immortus, Guardian of the Multiverse, subtly influences everybody so that Earth remains at its present state.
- The first arc of Avengers Assemble has the Guardians of the Galaxy explaining that were it not for the constant string of global crisis and superhuman-related catastrophes, Earth would be a much more advanced civilization. In effect, the superhero/supervillain dichotomy keeps humanity from reaching its true potential.
- Toyed with in Avengers vs. X-Men, where the Phoenix-powered Phoenix Five use their powers to make the world a better place by ending war, starvation, disease, etc. However, the Phoenix Five eventually let the power get to their heads, and their fellow mutants ultimately turn on them. Furthermore, the Phoenix Five grow increasingly naïve, such as Colossus, in wanting to make lives better for the whales, endows them with the ability to walk on land (forgetting that these sea mammals cannot breathe outside of water). Meanwhile, the members of The Illuminati (which contains people like Reed Richards and Black Bolt) justify not getting involved in the conflict by stating that the X-Men might be right, and thus helping the Avengers defeat them could prevent a whole lot of good from being done.
- The presence of Captain America and The Invaders didn't make World War II turn out any differently, even though the Invaders routinely decimated Axis forces. Nowadays, it's assumed that those super-heroes mostly served to cancel out the efforts of the equally fantastic Red Skull and other Axis supervillains, resulting in a war that played out exactly as though neither of them had existed. Later on in the Marvel Universe, it was implied that the US did not use any superhuman soldiers in real-world wars, out of threat of retaliation from other nations' superhuman forces. However, it is worth mentioning that in the original run of The Invaders, the Human Torch is shown to have burned Adolf Hitler alive, with the real-life account of his death (suicide) being a fabrication that the dying Hitler tells his aide to spread. (It remains unclear why the Torch's own account isn't accepted.) In Dark Reign, Bucky (the Captain America at the time) contradicts this, claiming that he killed Hitler — the circumstances and consequences of this are never elaborated on.
- One of the biggest examples of this trope in the Marvel Universe if not superhero comics in general is the original Human Torch, a sentient superpowered android (made up of synthetic flesh) created in 1939 America. Never mind the countless scientific advances needed to create such a being, his creation had 'no'' apparent effect on the fields of genetic engineering and synthetic biology, in which he would be a major breakthrough.
- Captain Marvel:
- The Death of Captain Marvel probably one of the most heartbreaking uses of this trope. Rick Jones gathers seven iconic members of the Avengers with scientific or medical backgrounds - Thor, Black Panther, Beast, Vision, Yellowjacket, Vision, Iron Man and Wonder Man - in the hopes of conquering his cancer. When they try to get Rick to tamper hopes, he accuses them of not wanting to if it damages their egos. Later, we see that not only is the Trope Namer helping, but other heroes are trying their damnedest to save Mar-Vell, but the best they can do is develop a tunic that slows the cancer's growth by 20%. The reason why they can't do anymore is because of how the cancer mutated and the Nega Bands preventing them from saving him.
- The comic hung a lampshade on this by claiming that every (mortal) sentient race has a disease similar to cancer, and many of the races had already found a cure for their race's version of the disease. Furthermore, when Rick Jones appeals to the superheroes who are scientists and doctors to find a cure for Mar-Vell's cancer, they find themselves uncomfortably realizing they could have made this kind of effort beforehand for others.
- Averted in Captain Marvel: The End. Set after a mysterious alien invasion had slaughtered most of the heroes, including Thor, humanity launched nukes globally. The surviving superheroes were able to use their powers to get to X Mansion and make a survivable habitat there: Armor used her force-field to shield their home from radiation and incoming attacks for over a year, Spider-Woman's radiation immunity allowed her to scavenge supplies, Magneto (though it cost him his life) made underground living quarters and Hazmat drained off rad zones. The Atlantean/Asgardian hybrid villain Ove learnt about this and kidnapped heroes to make a paradise city. He and his mother Amora the Enchantress took Armor and used her to make a force field arcology, Jolt from the Thunderbolts powered the city, Crystal provided permanently good weather and Magik was taken to provide quick transportation and an endless supply of demons for security.
- During the Dark Reign storyline, Norman Osborn reveals that he has the Cure for Cancer, too. Except he decides to use it on Deadpoolnote Since curing Deadpool's cancer would cause his Healing Factor to go out of control and kill him. after the Merc with a Mouth goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge over Osborn stealing his thunder at the end of Secret Invasion (2008).
- Back in the '90s, Doctor Octopus attempted to cure the AIDS virus to save a former flame. However, Spider-Man thought he was trying to turn it into a superweapon after he stole a few vials of it. Octavius is able to hold off Spidey until his tests are complete, but when he finds out that they were a failure, he heartbreakingly shuts down and allows his defeat, befuddling Spidey immensely.
- Before he became the Sorcerer Supreme, Doctor Strange was a brilliant yet arrogant neurosurgeon. When one charity approached him to help them cure a disease, Dr. Strange refused as there was little if any money involved.
- The Trope Namer is Reed Richards, better known as Mister Fantastic, leader of the Fantastic Four. A certified super-genius and one of the smartest people in the whole universe, he regularly invents mind-bending devices that tell physics where to shove it, but almost never devotes his considerable talents to anything other than superheroics. While Marvel has attempted to justify his lack of world-changiness in various ways, including that his inventions are too expensive and that nobody else can understand them, the real reason is that allowing him to make a real difference would make the world far too different to reality. The justification being used in Jonathan Hickman's run on Fantastic Four and FF and by Brian Michael Bendis in the Ultimate Marvel universe, is that it's his family which prevents Reed from putting all his efforts into changing the world. He has to choose between being a loving father and husband and devoting himself to advancing humanity (although why Reed can't take a middle ground has yet to be explained). It’s implied that the world is lucky when Reed takes the first option since, if he doesn't or if things don't work out between him and Sue, he becomes a Knight Templar (Hickman's books) or full-on villain (the Ultimate 'verse).
- Other justifications given (making this both the Trope Namer and the Unbuilt Trope) is that while a lot of Reed's stuff does get patented, he avoids making a lot of dangerous superhero stuff like the death rays and portals to hell that can't be trusted to the general public available on the free market. Also, many companies pay him explicitly not to patent his stuff because they know they can't keep up with his inventions, which would put millions of people out of work. Writer Mark Waid, for instance, showed that Reed had developed a state-of-the-art Personal Digital Assistant that would revolutionize the industry but he kept it for his own personal use thanks to a generous payment from Sony. He also had developed a cure for most forms of acne that Revlon was paying him to keep off the market. In Uncanny Avengers, it's revealed that prior to his apparent demise, Reed had been involved in numerous lawsuits regarding the unauthorized use of advanced technology he'd been developing. It's stated that the combined amount of money he'd gotten from his patents and lawsuits was well over 5 billion dollars. Although it doesn't exactly paint this "hero" in a good light if he can be so easily bribed out of helping humanity, especially when he isn't exactly lacking for cash in the first place.
- Although, it could be that he simply doesn't want to destroy the economy by making technology that make it impossible for other companies to keep up. So, not selfish exactly. And Reed has other reasons for not wanting to patent his technology, as shown below.
- Doctor Doom has a healing ray machine that can regenerate full-body third-degree-burn patients to full health in a day. Being the bad guy, he hasn't released it. But Reed hasn't even tried to duplicate or reverse-engineer that project... and Reed not only knows about the device (it appeared in Fantastic Four vs. X-Men) Reed's had possession of Doom's castle at least twice since that story arc. This gizmo appears to have been derived from Battleworld technologies that can revive people to full health so long as any remote spark of life still exists in their body, which makes the lack of creation of similar technology by Richards look even worse by comparison.
- In Fantastic Four: The Animated Series, the reason given for the Wizard's grudge against the FF is that he once built high tech devices for the fabulously wealthy, only to fall from notoriety after Reed Richards came along with "free patents and affordable inventions for the common man". Despite the implication that Reed's low cost devices rendered the Wizard's work obsolete, most of the consumer grade technology seen in the series isn't noticeably different from the real world tech of the time.
- Subverted in Fantastic Four #553, where it's shown in the future Reed single-handedly turned Earth into a utopia, granting mankind perpetual energy, extended life, universal education, and ended war, hunger, and crime. However, since there is no set future in the Marvel Universe from the perspective of those living in the present, this likely falls more into Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome.
- One issue had Reed utilize a special earpiece that allows people to speak through thought when attending to a man that he promised to be with during his dying moments. The man asks Reed why he hadn't put it for sale, but Reed reveals Sue had suggested it, but it turned out that it would cost $2 million just for one set. The man can't help but admire Sue's ambition.
- In John Byrne's original run, it was a Running Gag that someone would suggest to Reed some solution to a mundane problem, only for Reed to reply with some variant of "What makes you think I didn't try?" In one issue, Sue idly suggests it'd be nice if there was a laundry detergent that could clean, soften and dry in one cycle. Reed states he actually had created such a product, but he couldn't get it to work without adding phosphorous (an environmental pollutant).
- Tony Stark (a.k.a. Iron Man) is, depending on the invention, one of the more justified versions of the trope. Regarding his signature invention, he constantly has to struggle between the potential good of releasing or mass-producing his Iron Man suit and all the related technological advancements behind it for the good of the world, with the potential harm it would do if all the supervillains out in the world reverse-engineered it and turned it on its head. (The Armor Wars storyline actually dealt with the ramifications of the latter.) Several What If? stories have dealt with the trade-off and it rarely is as much of a Hand Wave as with most heroes capable of producing such revolutionary inventions. Although, when the series started in the sixties, technology still used transistors and vacuum tubes. Iron Man's armor worked with a set of miniaturized transistors. What is a set of miniaturized transistors? A microchip. We owe modern computers, cellphones, and almost all the electronics that we have now to Jack Kilby
... er... Tony Stark.- As this page points out, the same thing happened with the Trope Namer. Because the Fantastic Four is such a Long Runner, Reed Richards actually invented X-ray machines, metal detectors, microwave ovens, solar panels, and dishwashers years before any of these appeared in the real world.
- The AU Spider-Man: Life Story by Chip Zdarsky states that Reed's think-tank have marketed and implemented many of Reed's breakthroughs and achievements such as mobile communications, advanced prosthetic, and safe dimensional travel but Reed keeps the real high level bleeding edge stuff off the market. In issue #2, Peter finally gets fed up with hiding all of the marvels that could really make a difference from the world and wants to use them for the good of all. Reed Richards warns him that even one of their creations could end up destroying the economy, and create a situation where superheroes end up ruling the world.
- Tony Stark is a more justified case. Nearly all of Iron Man's Rogues Gallery are people attempting to create their own versions of the Iron Man armor, have stolen a version of Tony's and modified it at some point, or have done both. Releasing even early versions of his Iron Man armor to the public would remove the edge that Tony has which allows him to beat these villains or at least reduce it as well as create many more of them.
- The Incredible Hulk:
- In Incredible Hulk #420, the Hulk is reunited with Jim Wilson, one of his old traveling companions who is now dying of AIDS. Bruce attempts to use his connections with the Pantheon to use an experimental drug they're making, but the doctor there refuses because it's not ready for humans. Jim, then, begs Bruce for a blood transfusion, but Bruce isn't sure if he should. He doesn't and Bruce laments that he should have.
- Indestructible Hulk Lampshaded and perhaps averted this, with Bruce Banner lamenting the fact that all the years he spent trying to cure himself of the Hulk could have been used to fight problems like famine and disease. He then agrees to join S.H.I.E.L.D. on the condition that they give him funding to work towards bettering mankind while not in his Hulk form.
- Immortal Hulk begins to address this around Issue #25: After Bruce/Hulk takes over the organization meant to kill him, he begins formulating a new sort of plan, one that he gives some of the basics to Amadeus Cho. Namely, in that he declares war against the "world's leaders" or more specifically, the individuals and groups such as Dario Agger, the CEO of Roxxon (and a minotaur). According to Bruce, the reason people like Reed, Tony and Adam Brashear (Blue Marvel) have failed to make an impact is because of powerful people like Agger manipulating the world and thus Bruce takes it upon himself to tear down the establishment with the hopes of entrusting the younger folk to fix it. Put simply, "I can't build what needs to be built, but I can smash what needs to be smashed.".
- Averted in X-Men (2019); the mutants were able to leverage pharmaceutical and technological trade into being a globally recognized nation (outside of a few holdouts like Russia) and upending the old world order. Mutants have also become immortal through Brain Uploading technology that Death itself was in danger of dying in Jane Foster: Valkyrie.
- Originally, the Legacy Virus (a disease specifically engineered to exterminate mutants) was created by writers as an analogy to the AIDS virus (which, according to a real-world conspiracy theory, was designed to exterminate homosexuals/drug users/people of African decent/communists/liberals/criminals/veterans/whatever else). The Legacy Virus was going to remain uncured until a real-life cure for AIDS was discovered. However, numerous fans complained that the inability of Marvel's super-geniuses to cure the Legacy Virus made them look incompetent, and Marvel decided to go back on its original decision, and instead ended the virus by having Colossus pull a Heroic Sacrifice to release a airborne cure (he eventually got better).
- Ms. Marvel (2014):
- In Ms. Marvel (2016), Kamala and Bruno compete in a science fair against Miles Morales. Kamala's team makes floating water, Miles' makes a generator that converts static electricity into energy, and Bruno brings a portable cold fusion generator that can fit in his pocket. Somehow none of this results in the world changing overnight and energy companies throwing enough money in Kamala, Bruno, and Miles' faces to let them retire.
- Parodied in the annual of The Magnificent Ms. Marvel, where Kamala complains about how, despite living in a world of super-science, flying palaces and fantastic vehicles, nobody seems to have come up with a good way to deal with global warming or to at least temperature-control cities.
- In New Avengers # 9, some A.I.M. agents stole some of Wolverine's blood to manufacture bio-weapons. Iron Man then replied, "Do you realize how far we would advance as a technological species if we didn't have to put up with this every ten minutes?"
- In the short-lived NFL SuperPro, the protagonist's armor was designed to be the safest and most durable football uniform ever built. When SuperPro points this out to the suit's creator, he explains that the super-strong materials needed to make it cost millions of dollars, making it totally impractical for mass production.
- In an issue of Old Man Logan, Silver Samurai reveals that he possesses high-tech nanites that allow him to survive seemingly-fatal injuries. He then casually mentions that actually producing the nanites is far too expensive to market the tech to the public.
- In Avengers of the Wastelands, which is set in the same world as Old Man Logan, Dr. Doom has cured individuals of all kinds of bizarre sci-fi maladies and created various technological wonders like time machines, but he can't cure his own terminal cancer.
- In this video interview with Garth Ennis, the author says that one of the advantages of writing Nick Fury or The Punisher for the MAX line (separate from the regular Marvel Universe), is that if you have incredibly powerful super-beings then it makes many of the wars and events of the real world look unnecessary.
- Zig-zagged in the 2020 Power Pack miniseries. The underage heroes' official adult mentor points out to them that their powers might be useful fighting crime, but all of them would be even more useful as pollution-free means of generating large amounts of electricity. Then it turns out that their mentor was actually the supervillain the Wizard, and that his mechanisms were leaching their powers to empower him. However, after the Wizard is defeated and they get their powers back, they genuinely do use them to generate electricity for the general public in the ways that he suggested.
- Project Pegasus, a division of the U.S. Department of Energy devoted to discovering alternative energy resources, has a method of converting solid radioactive waste into harmless material. This invention alone should revolutionize nuclear power and earn billions of dollars. The ramifications of such technology among the world has yet to be explored.
- Spider-Man's webbing. Real life spider silk is, pound for pound, stronger than steel, tougher than Kevlar, as flexible as yarn, and incredibly lightweight. It's also prohibitively hard to manufacture, as spiders don't "farm" well. Peter Parker somehow has managed to manufacture synthetic spider silk that's cost-effective enough for him to always be in supply; while it does dissolve after about an hour, no adhesive company seems interested in buying the formula and tweaking it to last longer.
- The Squadron Supreme of Earth-712 did try to remake their world into a utopia with their powers and technology. The end result was a totalitarian dystopia, and the battle that finally forced the Squadron to acknowledge this resulted in the deaths of several members, as well as the deaths of some of those who fought against them.
- In the case of Storm and other characters with Weather Manipulation powers, it's been suggested that continual use of their powers would destabilize weather patterns (as demonstrated in one battle between the X-Men and Alpha Flight where Shaman's blizzard spell wreaked havoc on the weather cycle). Most weather controllers aren't creating weather out of nothingness, they're manipulating the existing environment, and drawing resources such as airborne moisture towards one location simply draws those resources away from other areas in need.
- In an issue of Superior Spider Man, the Vigilante Man Cardiac breaks into the Boneyard, the warehouse where the confiscated weapons and gadgets of supervillains are stored. While searching for a specific item, Cardiac angrily states that all this technology should be out there making the world a better place, not wasting away on shelves. However, at one point one of Spidey's co-workers at Horizon Labs is concerned about all the time being spent on developing new weapons, and Spidey provides a list of all the revolutionary civilian applications his weapons offer, leaving the co-worker astonished.
- Invoked in The Unstoppable Wasp. When Nadia is in the throes of her first major mania episode, she starts writing notes down concerning people she knows, particularly her friends within G.I.R.L.. When one of those girls, Taina, catches sight of a note wanting to fix her cerebral palsy, she's furious that she thinks she really wants to "fix" that as that's a part of her and she has no right on what she should or shouldn't fix. It takes about a week and Nadia seeking help for the young heroine to confront Taina and admit that that wasn't her at all, but her bipolar disorder talking. After admitting she also wanted to try to fix her bipolar disorder as well under that drive, Taina calms down considerably and reaccepts Nadia's friendship.
- Black Panther:
- The fictional African nation of Wakanda is, due to a surreptitious abundance of Unobtainium as a natural resource, more advanced than even first world nations. This does not extend to any other part of Africa we see, though this is probably why writers don't show it very much, although to their credit from fairly early on they attempted to justify it by having the Wakandans have a policy of isolation that goes back centuries, due to a belief that The World Is Not Ready and would only use their tech for evil. Fair, but that doesn't explain why they refuse to share non-harmful inventions. For example, the Wakandans have also cured cancer but are holding out on the rest of the world; when Captain Marvel was dying of cancer, the Wakandan King was there and said he could do nothing due to the long-term effects of Mar-Vell's nega-bands... but that still doesn't explain why Wakanda withholds its cancer cures from the rest of the world. During Geoff Johns' The Avengers run, Black Panther and Iron Man were seen signing documents to allow portions of their tech to be shared with the world for the betterment of mankind; nothing ever came of this, and the documents were never mentioned again.
- Regarding the cancer thing, the council discussing notes that if the rest of Earth really wanted to deal with cancer, they wouldn't sell items with carcinogens or something of the like. So, they may think that the rest of the world could actually develop things like a cancer cure if they wanted to (at least regarding the macro-level.) Additionally, the reveal they did have a cure came a decade after Mar-Vell's death (and whether it would've worked in him, given he's an alien, especially a genetically-modified super-soldier). Of course, the fact that many kinds of cancer come from a multitude of sources including dumb luck (Sunlight can cause cancer after all) or even occupational is never brought up, which only raises further questions as to the extent of Wakandan science.
- It's eventually revealed that Wakanda has a galactic empire of their own. Meanwhile, many parts of the Marvel Earth would be awestruck at seeing a toilet for the first time.
- This premise is partly explained by the Watchers' intention to not interfere in the affairs of other races. Their first attempt to help others involved them sharing their knowledge of the atom with a less advanced alien race. While most of the aliens used their newfound knowledge of nuclear energy for peace, some used it to create destructive nuclear weapons which led to a massive atomic war and then to an attack on a neighboring planet whose inhabitants managed to retaliate with their own nuclear missiles, leaving both worlds devastated and both civilizations in ruins, with a surviving member of the first race blaming the Watchers for giving them the knowledge before they were ready for it. This led the Watchers to being non-interventionists.
- Over the years, dozens of supervillains and government agencies have invented Power Nullifiers that essentially allow them to turn superpowers on and off with a flick of a switch. At no point does anybody suggest using this technology to help the many Marvel characters suffering from crippling Power Incontinence. Especially noticeable in Wolverine and the X-Men (2009), where the Mutant Response Division has developed collars which suppress all mutant powers. Despite the series including characters like Cyclops and Rogue, two of the most iconic examples of "I can't turn my powers off", nobody even suggests stealing a few and either picking the locks, or modifying/streamlining the devices so the users could take them off at will. To be fair, Rogue herself has used similar devices at certain points, most recently during her marriage to Gambit. The implications are that most of those devices aren't that viable for everyday use, and thus are only brought up on specific occasions.
- Unlike Oracle, no-one wonders why X-Men's Professor X is still in a wheelchair. This is because he doesn't seem to really care. He was moved to a healthy clone body under highly unusual circumstances, but his spine was broken later. Originally, Professor X used his telepathy to prevent himself from feeling pain coming from his injured legs. This in turn, caused his clone body to receive the same injury. He hasn't been in a wheelchair for years, thanks to a combination of Blessed with Suck and Cursed with Awesome.
- In X-Men Legacy #242, Hellion, angrily, invokes this trope when, after witnessing many incredible events during his run with the X-Men, they are just trying to replace his lost hands with robotic hands instead of finding a way to grow new ones for him.
- Averted in Big Town, an Alternate Universe miniseries where Reed Richards actually did release all his technology for civilian use, rapidly turning New York City into a techno-utopia. He also finds a way to replicate the accident that gave the Fantastic Four their powers, so anyone who wants to can be a superhero. However, while he has vastly improved the average quality of life, he can't fix underlying societal problems so crime, poverty and violence still exist.
The trope was both
averted and played straight, according to circumstances. That's because Reed Richards is usually useless in universes with steady and ongoing publications with no defined closing date; and he's usually
awesome in alternate universes. Ultimate Marvel is a rare case of an alternate universe with ongoing publications during 15 real-world years.
- Ultimate X Men: Before Professor X and Magneto founded the X-Men, they offered their mutants to help government/industry solve numerous problems (i.e., the energy crisis, ending world hunger etc.). Government/industry declines the offer, not wanting to upset the status quo.
- Upheld with the lack of superhuman involvement in political affairs. When the Ultimates assisted the US government in the overthrow of a rogue Middle Eastern regime in The Ultimates 2, it resulted in an invasion force of a Chinese/Russian superhuman task force against the USA.
- Deconstructed in Ultimate Fantastic Four with Reed Richards himself; the governmental think-tank he belongs to keeps him focused predominantly on military technology and restrains release of his successful creations. The frustration at not being able to change the world despite knowing his technology could provide incredible advances to humanity eventually drives Reed insane. So insane that he takes up the mantle of the now-deceased Ultimate Doctor Doom and becomes a supervillain known as the Maker, whose actions lead to the annihilation of Germany and Asgard. Furthermore, Reed then tried to turn Earth into a utopia with plans including distributing free energy, the sentient seed, and blowing up the Iranian Parliament. After that, he turns into a multiversal scale menace, reappearing in Secret Wars (2015) and The Ultimates (2015).
- Upheld in the Hunger mini-series, where Captain Marvel, right before he can give final approval for NASA's human colonization of Mars, is distracted by the arrival of Galactus (the Earth-616 version).
- Tyrone Cash, who perfected the Hulk serum so that the user does not lose his intellect when hulking out, was called out on this by both Nick Fury and War Machine. He could have used his genius to help the government in the superhuman arms race or even turned his refined Hulk formula towards the greater good in medicine. Instead, he operates in a third-world country living a Scarface-inspired life. And that's how he likes it.
