Fantastic Insights

A recent issue of Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four includes some remarkably Austrian-libertarian dialogue. In a terrible battle, Reed Richards–Mr. Fantastic–has banished the FF’s arch-nemisis, Doctor Doom, to Hell. The FF decide to take over Latveria, the Romanian-like country Doom has ruled as dictator for decades. Reed is surprised that the populace are afraid of him and do not instantly believe his revisionist, anti-Doom propaganda. As Benjamin Grimm–aka The Thing–tells Reed: “I dunno. Y’re smarter’n Doom was. You always were. But government ain’t a science ya’ can learn like … I dunno … astronomy. Ya can’t figger out human behavior on graphs ‘n charts. I don’t gotta remind you o’ that.”

Reed’s wife, Sue Storm–Invisible woman–chimes in, “Exactly. […] you’re treating this like an intellectual exercise. These people aren’t a social experiemtn. And Latveria isn’t your laboratory.”

The Thing: “We got what we wanted. Latveria’s free. Who’re we not ta let it find its own way?”

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11:03 pm on November 2, 2003