Alternate Universe Reed Richards Is Awesome: Difference between revisions

For various reasons, [[Status Quo Is God]] is a common trope. Even if it doesn't apply to the characters and overall plot structure, the world and setting itself is unlikely to deviate significantly from its origin. This is especially true when [[Reed Richards Is Useless]], making any and all [[Added Alliterative AppealAlliteration|marvels made by these mad men meaningless to the masses]]. Before long, people inside and outside the story will start [[Lampshade Hanging|noting]] that they can only really count on the resident Reed Richards to rectify problems when doing so restores the status quo.

** Reed Richards from Earth-70105, setting of the ''[[Bullet Points]]'' miniseries where, because of a single bullet, Peter Parker is [[The Incredible Hulk (Comic Book)|The Incredible Hulk]], Steve Rogers is [[Iron Man]], Bruce Banner is [[Spider -Man (Comic Book)|Spider Man]] and Reed Richards, well - at the cost of losing his three companions ([[Nick Fury|and his eye in the process]]), becomes ''the head of S.H.I.E.L.D.'', and he's [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|damn competent at doing that, too.]]

** ''[[Exiles (Comic Book)|Exiles]]'' has featured numerous Reeds, most of them pretty [[Badass Bookworm|badass]]. Two particularly good ones include a rebel resistance fighter against the evil ruler of his earth(an evil Invisible Woman), and a former gladiator who builds a device that forces a fully powered Galactus to flee.

** The Marvel MAX series possibly counts as well.

** In "What if The Punisher received the Venom symbiote", the Punisher kills the Kingpin too. However, upon realising that the symbiote was ''controlling him'' (blackouts, attacking allies, trying to kill [[Spider -Man]] etc), he has a [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] when he tells it that if he won't be in control, ''he'd rather die and take the symbiote with him''. The symbiote backs down, and the Watcher of that universe states that the Punisher actually got control over it. Also turning the suit into physical firearm weapons like [[The Mask (Comic Bookcomics)|The Mask]] counts.

* One issue of ''[[What If]],'' written by [[Simon Furman]], featured Tony Stark, upon first inventing the Iron Man suit, make his technology available to governments around the world. This has many positive effects, especially in health care; unfortunately, it has many negative effects as well, as despite his best efforts, governments used it in arms races; and despite ''their'' best efforts, the tech filtered out to supervillains, who used it in arms races of their own. Years down the line, most non-armor based heroes and villains were made obsolete, an enhanced [[Doctor Doom]] killed the Fantastic Four, and Magneto declared that if the world's governments didn't back off from their use of Stark-tech--astech—as it was being used to persecute mutants--hemutants—he was going to start wreaking havoc on an unprecedented scale. Stark attempted to capture Magneto and use him to generate a worldwide electromagnetic pulse to shut down ''all'' technology, both his own and otherwise, in a last-ditch attempt to undo the harm he'd unwillingly caused; however, his best friend Jim Rhodes talked him out of it by reminding him of all the good Stark-tech had done and could still do. Stark chooses to [[Take a Third Option]], using the threat of the Magneto pulse to blackmail the world's governments to stop using his technology for offensive purposes.

** In another [[What If]] where Tony is stuck in Camelot, he ends up having to repair his armour, which he does by (starting with a medieval forge) using [[Sid MeiersMeier's Alpha Centauri|"Crude Tools to fashion better tools"]]. He eventually succeeds [[King Arthur]], making sure Camelot never falls, and kicking of the [[Industrial Revolution]]... ''in the 8th century''.

* ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' [[Deconstruction|deconstructs]] this severely, as the arguable theme of the story is somewhere between "Superheroes are neurotic screw-ups who do nothing but escalate the conflict" and "[[Beware the Superman]]".

** Alternately, ''[[Watchmen (Comic Bookcomics)|Watchmen]]'' ''is'' a [[Deconstruction]] of it for the [[DC Universe]], demonstrating that even a single person with [[Game Breaker]] powers like those of the [[Silver Age]] [[Superman]] would have dramatically changed the course of history.

*** This is brought up in a conversation between Nightowl I and Dr. Manhattan. Nightowl tells Manhattan that he thinks he'll work on cars when he retires, stating that not even Manhattan could change cars. Manhattan then tells him that because he can synthesize materials, companies could mass-produce much more efficient cars. Sure enough, in the present, Nightowl's business in cars seems incredibly low.

* Alternate versions of ''[[Superman]]'' can display this, such as ''[[Superman: Red Son]]'' where he [[Take Over the World|takes over the world]].

** In [[Pre Crisis]] stories, [[Lex Luthor]] once had a [[Pet the Dog]] moment where he saved the civilization of an alien planet. The locals idolized him for it (renaming their planet "Lexor"), and Lex decided he liked being seen as a hero ''somewhere,'' so he kept on doing nice things for the locals for years, even marrying a Lexorian woman. Then he [[What Have I Done|accidentally destroyed the place]] in a fight with Superman. Naturally Lex [[Blame Game|blamed him for it.]]

* ''[[City of Heroes (Video Game)|City of Heroes]]'' has the alternate dimension of Praetoria, which is your standard superheroes-turn-world-into-shiny-police-state. Of especial note is the (on Primal Earth) not very science-minded Synapse's alternate counterpart Neutron being responsible for providing the world with cheap robotic labor.

** On the other hand, Alt!Phineas and Alt!Ferb are closer to the brainwashed versions from ''Phineas and Ferb Get Busted'' {{spoiler|due to Alt!Candace being overly protective of them. They eventually show the same seeds of coolness as their main universe counterparts}}.

* [[The Venture Brothers (Animation)|Rusty Venture]] finds this version of himself after a villain with a portal in his stomach falls on top of him. He tries to kill his other self with a rock, alt!Rusty catches him and drags him back home. The whole thing is played as a gag.