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I've written before about how illogical Reed Richards and Tony Stark are acting during the Civil War. Straczynski seems to be hell-bent on casting them both as major Republican assholes, especially in last week's Amazing Spider-Man #535. Tony Stark went from father figure to adversary in twenty two pages. First, he threatened Peter while touring the Negative Zone super-prison: "But I agree with you on one thing, Peter. It would be a terrible thing. To be here. For the rest of one's life." Second, he makes a veiled threat that Aunt May and Mary Jane safety depends on Peter's loyalty. Finally, when Peter does try to escape Stark's Tower with his family, Stark attacks him in full Iron Man gear. And the worst thing is-Peter really hasn't committed any crime whatsoever!
We've seen Tony Stark act in this totally over-the-top evil way before, during Avengers: The Crossing, published in 1995. In that series, Stark killed two people in Avengers Mansion and eventually "died" himself. A time-displaced younger version of Tony Stark from an alternate reality became Iron Man. This all went away after Heroes Reborn and it was all kind of swept under the rug when Heroes Return occurred. There's some speculation on message boards that the Civil War Tony Stark is the one from The Crossing. Yet another theory postulates that Stark has been driven insane by the Extremis nano technology.
I can't buy into this, because it wouldn't explain Reed's bizarre behavior. In the last panel of this week's Fantastic Four #540, Reed sings a lyric from the Tom Lehrer song about Wernher von Braun. The song was meant to a satirical view of the ex-Nazi scientist who contributed to the NASA space program. Supposedly it's made up of real quotes from the scientist. Why is Reed singing it? He must have gone off the deep end to let a deep dish like Sue Richards fly the coop. Nuff said.
Weird power trip machinations aside, ordinarily Reed Richards would be EXACTLY the sort of geek who would find Tom Lehrer hilarious. I like to think so, anyway.
I think the lyric is supposed to be an escape hatch for Reed's character. He knows it's wrong, but is concentrating on the numbers, etc. to cover up for the fact that suddenly he is a spineless wuss who is scared he might lose everything if he doesn't tow the line.
I still wish someone would mention the whole Latveria debacle, as that makes a more logical motivation.
And after seeing Tony in this week's FF, I don't know how he can ever be seen as a hero again. If he doesn't die, Tony will have to do one of the greatest Mea Culpas in super-hero history - second only to Hal Jordan.