Acclaimed Fantastic Four writer Dan Slott tweeted about gender-flipping Reed Richards and artist Rachael Stott brought it to life in a new piece of fan art. The art, of which there are several separate pieces, was tweeted by Rachael on the same thread. Rachael and Dan Slott are teaming up together on the Fantastic Four event Reckoning War, which is set to launch in January of next year.
Dan Slott began writing Fantastic Four back in 2018 with the arc “Fourever.” Prior to that, Slott was the writer for Amazing Spider-Man on an epic run that lasted from issue #546 in 2008 all the way to issue #801 in 2018. Rachael Stott’s credits are equally impressive having worked on The Immortal Hulk, Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures, Doctor Who, and DC Comics’ Motherlands. Before the duo's official collaboration on Reckoning War begins though, fans are being treated to some fun artwork from Stott in response to a question from Slott.
Slott begin his tweet with a question: “want to change something fundamental about the FF?” He then went on to suggest gender-flipping Reed Richards while keeping all other elements about the series the same. Reed would still be best friends with Ben Grimm, better known as the Thing, and still be in love with Sue Storm, presumably married to her. Slott also suggested that the vanity of having Victor von Doom’s face blown off by a female Reed would only amplify the tension between them. Stott drew two versions of female Reed in response, one by herself and one being accompanied by Sue Storm, aka the Invisible Woman. A fan then requested Stott draw a gender-flipped Dr. Doom, as well, which she did. This version of Dr. Doom was without a mask, revealing only a slight scar on her face. A separate fan also requested a gender-flipped Invisible Woman, to which Stott obliged by hilariously posting a blank page.
Other fans were quick to jump on the gender-flipped Reed bandwagon, speculating about what this would mean for the Fantastic Four and the Marvel universe as a whole. One fan believed she would be the leader of the Council of Reeds while another wondered how Reed and Sue’s kids, Valeria and Franklin, would fit into the picture, either being adopted or born via in vitro fertilization. Gender-flipped heroes are nothing new to the world of comics. A gender-flipped Batman named Bryce Wayne appeared in the DC event Metal while a female clone of Peter Parker was a major character in Marvel’s Ultimate Universe.
Ironically, as the writer of Fantastic Four, nobody is in a better position to make a female Reed Richards a reality more than Dan Slott, the man who suggested it.