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In Marvel comic book canon, it’s been suggested that Reed Richards is likely autistic — and, if that’s true, it might make one of comics’ oldest love triangles make a lot more sense.

During a presentation titled 'Autism in Comic' Books at Emerald City Comic Con 2025, Britton Payne — whose day job is VP Business & Legal at Nickelodeon, but as a parent of an autistic child and longtime comic book fan, he’s started researching how comics and other media portray autistic characters — mentioned that the Fantastic Four’s resident 'big brain' has been identified as being potentially autistic on two different occasions in Marvel canon, with Grant Morrison and Jae Lee’s 2000 series Fantastic Four 1234 being the first. (Additionally, current Fantastic Four writer has said on social media it’s how he approaches the character, even if it’s not an explicit connection.)

Payne said that, while Marvel hasn’t leaned into the autistic side of Reed in any depth, it’s actually something that would make sense of a longstanding part of his lore.

“I was just talking about how the idea that the famous love triangle between Sue Richards, Reed Richards and the Sub-Mariner make sense if you throw autism into the Reed character,” he suggests. “If you're saying that Sue loves him, but also finds a problem with how they relate, and the way that she finds something missing in her relationship with Reed is in abundance in this almost naked guy who's all Mr. Hotshot. It kind of would make a lovely love triangle.”

It makes sense; if Reed struggles with making emotional connection and Sue is looking for that, then of course the overly-emotional, melodramatic Namor would seem like a somewhat attractive alternative — especially given his penchant for showing off those Atlantean abs.

Payne used the splash page of Fantastic Four #2 — the 2022 current series’ second issue, not the second-ever FF comic; you can see it to the side — as an example of subtle storytelling regarding the two characters. “We're learning what's it like to be in love with somebody who's autistic, and it is really kind of cool to see her perspective and how she has sort of evolved and how she is understood,” he suggested. “Like, ‘I love this guy. Now let me figure out how we can do it.’ Just like every other relationship, by the way; that's not just because of autism. You've got to do that no matter who you are.”

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