# Does Reed Richards have super strength? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2019, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484 "2019-10-08T17:33:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/21 "2019-10-09T17:03:37Z")
Stretchy superheroes are my favorites, especially Cole’s (and Kyle Baker’s) **Plastic Man**. My assumption was that the stretched body part didn’t get any heavier than it was originally. Why would it? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/22 "2019-10-09T17:04:11Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > He’s most famous for it, but he didn’t invent it. Plastic Man didn’t appear until 1941. Wun Cloo (spelled that way in the comics, even though some databases list him as Wun Kloo) was created by Gill Fox in 1939 but didn’t stretch until Cole took over the strip more than a year later. > > Both, therefore, are preceded by Flexo the Rubber Man, script by Will Harr, art by Jack Binder, who first appeared in Mystic Comics #1, March 1940. He’s shown [stretching his body and stopping a car with it](https://readcomiconline.to/Comic/Mystic-Comics/Issue-1?id=80560#7). > > Flexo is a robot, BTW. Interesting – I hadn’t encountered Flexo before, although, from the examples you give, Flexo doesn’t seem to stretch to the extremes of Plastic Man or his successors. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/23 "2019-10-09T17:19:27Z")
Maybe, at some point, he can’t support cantilevered arms. Maybe to grab something a hundred feet away, he has to snake his arm along the floor. It seems to me that in most instances of extreme stretching, you either have limbs supported on both ends (holding onto a lamppost on one end and a speeding vehicle on the other, say), or you’ve got a dynamic situation that doesn’t need to be statically stable (like brachiating off of skyscrapers). ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/24 "2019-10-09T17:32:39Z")
Along the extended arm, he drops millimeter-thin vertical struts made of his own elastified flesh as supports. You can’t see them almost all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/25 "2019-10-09T17:38:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Maybe, at some point, he can’t support cantilevered arms. Maybe to grab something a hundred feet away, he has to snake his arm along the floor. It seems to me that in most instances of extreme stretching, you either have limbs supported on both ends (holding onto a lamppost on one end and a speeding vehicle on the other, say), or you’ve got a dynamic situation that doesn’t need to be statically stable (like brachiating off of skyscrapers). Well, hell. I wasn’t thinking about LIFTING something a hundred feet away, except maybe a villain. A thin, small villain. Is this something along the lines of Doc Ock anchoring himself with two of his steel arms in **Spider-Man II?** ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/26 "2019-10-09T17:42:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Maybe, at some point, he can’t support cantilevered arms. Maybe to grab something a hundred feet away, he has to snake his arm along the floor. It seems to me that in most instances of extreme stretching, you either have limbs supported on both ends (holding onto a lamppost on one end and a speeding vehicle on the other, say), or you’ve got a dynamic situation that doesn’t need to be statically stable (like brachiating off of skyscrapers). We should remember that comic books show us second hand accounts of the actual events. Comic book artists are likely to show us an arm extending ridiculous distances without support while in reality Reed Richards has to snake his arm out like that until he can grab something. It just looks better that way in a still frame. This is probably done by comic book artists in the comic book universe as well as ours. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/27 "2019-10-09T18:37:25Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > It makes no real sense, but it let Cole draw his hero not only stretching outrageously (in some panels, he’s _folding his face!_) but also to form himself into object like a car or a blimp (which can actually roll along and fly, respectively). > > What’s interesting is that while Ralph Dibny/The Elongated Lad (and other DC innovations, like Jimmy Olsen/Elastic Lad and Lois Lane/Elastic Lass) and Mr. Fantastic/Reed Richards could also stretch, they almost never made themselves into shapes like Plastic Man. (One bity that I loved in Frank Miller’s second Dark Knight series was the confrontation between Plastic Man and the Elongated Man – “You’re so boring! You never do any shapes!”)\*\* You guys are close but not quite spot on about Plastic Man. Sure, he started out as a regular stretchy hero but he’s a lot more than that. Plastic Man doesn’t always stretch nor make shapes…he becomes things. It’s one thing to stretch. That’s fine. But in at least one occasion he became a jet engine. Not the shape of one, but an actual jet engine capable of producing thrust. He can become a car and be driven. It’s scary when you think about it. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/28 "2019-10-09T19:31:05Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > You guys are close but not quite spot on about Plastic Man. Sure, he started out as a regular stretchy hero but he’s a lot more than that. Plastic Man doesn’t always stretch nor make shapes…he becomes things. > > It’s one thing to stretch. That’s fine. But in at least one occasion he became a jet engine. Not the shape of one, but an actual jet engine capable of producing thrust. He can become a car and be driven. It’s scary when you think about it. I noted that above – when he shaped himself into a car or a blimp, he functioned as a car or blimp. Still bothers me that he didn’t twist his hands off when he rolled along, since his hands were the “wheels”. ---
**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/29 "2019-10-09T20:50:58Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > You guys are close but not quite spot on about Plastic Man. Sure, he started out as a regular stretchy hero but he’s a lot more than that. Plastic Man doesn’t always stretch nor make shapes…he becomes things. > > It’s one thing to stretch. That’s fine. But in at least one occasion he became a jet engine. Not the shape of one, but an actual jet engine capable of producing thrust. He can become a car and be driven. It’s scary when you think about it. He also got blowed apart under the ocean and spent years putting his pieces back together. He’s a little bit more than just a stretchy guy. I’m not sure how he could _become_ a jet engine though. What’s the fuel source? How does the propulsion work? Maybe I should remember that it’s just a comic and I should really just relax. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2019, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/30 "2019-10-09T21:02:52Z")
Wiki has some interesting info on[Plastic Man](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plastic_Man#Powers_and_abilities). His powers are remarkable even in the comic book universe. He can change density and create additional muscle to increase his strength. > [@](#): > > Malleable Physiology: Plastic Man’s powers are derived from an accident in which his body was bathed in an unknown industrial chemical mixture that also entered into his bloodstream through a gunshot wound. This caused a body-wide mutagenic process that transformed his physiology. Eel [Patrick “Eel” O’Brian] exists in a fluid state, neither entirely liquid nor solid. Plastic Man has complete control over his structure. Throw in immortality and invulnerability, and not really being physiologically human anymore either: > [@](#): > > Rubber-Organs: As stated by Black Lantern Vibe, Plastic Man’s internal organs (such as his heart when Black Lantern Vibe tried to rip it out) couldn’t be removed, unlike many of the Black Lanterns’ victims. This perhaps implies that Plastic Man is himself more like one giant, living organ than he is a “whole” made of component parts and organs, etc. ---
**Author:** ![P-man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/p-man/32/3606_2.png) [@P-man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/P-man)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2019, 2:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/31 "2019-10-10T02:57:03Z")
In the original FF origin story Reed immobilized The Thing by wrapping his stretchy arms around him. Maybe it just slowed Ben down long enough for him to calm down, though. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2019, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/32 "2019-10-10T11:41:04Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I noted that above – when he shaped himself into a car or a blimp, he functioned as a car or blimp. > > Still bothers me that he didn’t twist his hands off when he rolled along, since his hands were the “wheels”. That’s exactly the thing, Cal. When he becomes a car he BECOMES a car. There’s no way for his hands to twist off as he doesn’t really have hands at that point, he has wheels and axles and a drive train and such. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2019, 11:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/33 "2019-10-10T11:47:48Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > That’s exactly the thing, Cal. When he becomes a car he BECOMES a car. There’s no way for his hands to twist off as he doesn’t really have hands at that point, he has wheels and axles and a drive train and such. He doesn’t have to keep his body intact. As noted above, he was once blown to smithereens but eventually was able to put his body back together again. There is no explanation for how such a car is fueled, but I suppose ordinary gasoline would work if he formed himself into an engine, which seems to be feasible with his powers. ---
**Author:** ![Marion\_Morrison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a87d85/32.png) [@Marion\_Morrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marion_Morrison)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2019, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/34 "2019-10-10T11:52:09Z")
No mention of Plastic man? Why not? I see others have… [https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmajorspoilers.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F10%2FPlastic-Man-5-Cover.jpg&f=1&nofb=1](https://proxy.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fmajorspoilers.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2018%2F10%2FPlastic-Man-5-Cover.jpg&f=1&nofb=1) ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2019, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/35 "2019-10-10T15:44:26Z")
> [@Marion\_Morrison](#): > > No mention of Plastic man? There are numerous mentions of Plastic Man in this thread, starting with the opening sentence of the first post. > [@Marion\_Morrison](#): > > Why not? Because you don’t bother to learn the facts about a situation before you start spouting off your opinions about the situation. Bye, Marion, time for you to ride off into the sunset. ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2019, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484/36 "2019-10-10T15:56:13Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > I noted that above – when he shaped himself into a car or a blimp, he functioned as a car or blimp… When Plas turned into a blimp in the Kyle Baker story, he required the Incendiary Monk to fill him up with hot air. He didn’t provide his own lifting gas. I suppose when he becomes a car he needs to fuel up before he can drive anywhere. OTOH, when he changed into a fan to blow smoke out of a room, he didn’t plug himself in first. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-reed-richards-have-super-strength/841484.md?page=1)