#like a less racist version of how talking about Red hood often involves everyone circuitously talking around the “Iranian ambassador” thing

[artbyblastweave]

I just saw someone posit that the first step on Ultimate Reed richards' path to becoming the Maker was his encounter with the Reed Richards of the Zombie universe. Do you think that there's any meat to that interpretation?

Yes and no. The thing about Ultimate Fantastic Four is that the first six issues in particular are a really interesting re-imagining of the team to bring the entire thing in line with the artistic and political sensibilities of Ultimate Spider-Man, Ultimate X-Men and The Ultimates. The biggest and most important change is that the FF aren't well-established adult professionals who fucked around and found out, and they aren't driving the bus- they've been swallowed up by the same military-industrial pipeline that Nick Fury is grooming Peter Parker to become a part of over in Ultimate Spider-Man. Reed in this version slingshots from a neglectful/abusive home life where he was completely unappreciated, to a think-tank that's purely interested in juicing him like a lemon for actionable military technologies. There was a very deliberate psychological pressure-cooker situation that Bendis was setting up there, this kid was never going to be as successful or as well-adjusted as 616 Reed.

That said, though, the zombie situation isn't totally unrelated to this, because 2149 Reed was presenting himself as 616 Reed as part of the honeypot, he was presenting himself as an aspirational vision of Ultimate Reed's future development. Here's what you could be a part of! A dimension where you're globally respected, an elder luminary of a community of thousands of superheroes, happily married with a family! And then Ultimate Reed he takes the bait and from there it's Whoops! All Cannibals. And I can't imagine that you'd come away from a rugpull like that with a less bleak outlook on your either your personal prospects or the prospects of the world at large. And more than anything in the world I want any video essayist trying to do an involved rundown of The Maker's character arc to have to give a deep sigh and spend a couple of minutes talking about the long-term implications of the Zombie Dimension. I am not going to let anybody memory hole the Zombie Dimension