Summary

• Reed Richards showcases his dark and dangerous side with the creation of a "temporal recoupler," a gun that can brutally kill time travelers.
• The concept for the device, which Reed claims rapidly ages a time traveler's body, demonstrates the twisted nature of Reed's mind and his incredible intellect in coming up with such a horrifying concept.
• While Reed is prepared to take a life if necessary, he ultimately proves that he doesn't need violence to win, relying on his intelligence and the of the Fantastic Four to outsmart his foes.

Warning: Contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #17!

The Kang variant shows just how dark his mind can get. To stop Rama Tut from changing all of human history, Reed introduces a “temporal recoupler” - a device capable of brutally killing any time traveler.

Fantastic Four #17 – by Ryan North, Carlos Gómez, Jesus Aburtov, and Joe Caramagna – sends Sue and Reed Richards back into early human history, where they witness Rama Tut attempting to destroy primitive humans.

The two immediately hatch a plan to stop him, which Reed Richards' latest invention, the "temporal recoupler." Reed claims the device can cause "instant death" in a time traveler by rapidly aging their body into the local time frame. It's a horrifying concept, one demonstrates just what Richards could be capable of if he wasn't a hero.

Mr. Fantastic's New Gun Could Stop Any Time Instantly

If He's Willing To Use It

Although the temporal recoupler promises a quick death, the mechanics of it show just how twisted Reed Richards’ mind can be. Defeating a time traveler is no easy task; the device would essentially force them back into a single time frame. As fast as that may seem, accomplishing it would be a heinous process. It’s also an idea that Reed seemingly came up with in a pinch, meaning it took very little planning to dream up something that would destroy even the most talented of Marvel’s time travelers.

It’s not unheard of for Mister Fantastic to make some morally questionable decisions, and other timelines have also shown how dangerous villainous variations like the Maker can be. That lends further credence to the idea that leaving heroism behind would make Reed Richards one of the most dangerous men in the universe. Fortunately for Kang in Fantastic Four #17, Reed generally leans toward outsmarting his foes, rather than killing them. Ultimately, they use the temporal recoupler only as a distraction, to let them swap in false bodies. Neither Reed nor Sue intended to kill Kang, and their real plan was clever enough to prevent that from being necessary.

Reed Richards Doesn’t Need Violence To Win Every Fight

But He Is Always Prepared

Though the explanation for the gun's design leans toward technobabble – intentionally so, given that Reed is distracting Rama Tut – but he sums it up by saying: "It's instant death; the only way to beat a time traveler." Though he its to being "loathe to take any life," Reed acknowledges that he is prepared to, and he almost certainly means it, though in this case the situation does not amount to that. In any case, at the conceptual level, the temporal recoupler is one of Marvel's most horrifying ideas.

As long as Reed can think his way out of a problem, there's little need to resort to graphic violence. Even though he threatened to use the temporal recoupler to save human history, killing Kang would have pushed him over a line that is dangerous to cross. Mr. Fantastic doesn't need to resort to murder to win, especially when he has the Invisible Woman on the same wavelength. In Fantastic Four #17, Reed Richards proved that he could devise a weapon to kill Kang, but with his brilliant mind and the Fantastic Four at his back, he doesn't need to.

Fantastic Four #17 is available now from Marvel Comics.