The Fantastic Four: First Steps marks the arrival of Marvel’s First Family in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU), but the uniforms for characters like Reed Richards don’t exactly match. The Fantastic Four are perhaps the best-known superhero team to ever come out of Marvel Comics. Having originally been introduced in 1961, these heroes have had a lot of time for their story to be explored, and an opportunity to grow together as a team.

And an iconic part of the team has always been their uniforms. The specially enhanced clothing designed by Reed Richards allows each hero to use their abilities uninhibited by the restrictions of their clothing. This means that Sue’s costume can turn invisible along with her, and Johnny’s suit can withstand enormous heat. However, the comics often show the heroes in mostly matching outfits, which the MCU appears to be veering away from.

Mister Fantastic’s Hero Suit Looks Notably Different Compared To The Rest Of The MCU Team

Reed Richards’ Suit Is Missing Some Uniform Trim

While each of the team has largely similar costumes, with predominantly light blue bodies and white trim in gloves, boots and around the neck. However, Reed Richards’ outfit is missing this key white trim around the neck that appears to be a signature part of the look for the rest of the team. This notable difference is hard to miss, and it makes Reed stand out from the rest of the team.

While the absence of one part of the trim may seem minor, it suggests that there could be reasons for the variations. For instance, both Johnny and the Thing have the white trim extending down their arms, while Sue’s stops after the collarbones. As minor as these differences are aesthetically, it does suggest that the ideation behind these costumes was considered carefully and meticulously, both by the costume designers, and within the story by Reed.

Mister Fantastic’s Powers Could Explain Why His Suit Looks Different To The Rest Of The Team

Mister Fantastic’s Elasticity Is A Challenging Power To Adapt On-Screen

One of the most challenging things to get right in adapting The Fantastic Four to live-action has always been the powers. Johnny has a visually delightful power in that he can ignite his whole body in flames, but it presents a challenge with combining this with having him still look like a person, with expressions and emotion. Sue’s power makes her invisible, which is not great for a visual medium. And the Thing is a large pile of living rocks.

But as complex as the rest of the team is to get right, it’s Mister Fantastic’s powers that present the biggest challenge. Reed can stretch, fold, bend, and manipulate his entire body into various shapes. But in live-action, making a human stretch and bend nearly always comes across as uncanny valley, or simply unbelievable. But with most of his body covered, and using one solid color for the most part, it can hide the uncanny nature of Reed’s abilities, and avoid complicated CGI, which has to work out not only what to stretch and where, but the way the colors change. Ultimately, it feels like a quality of life improvement for the VFX guys to avoid adding dozens or even hundreds of hours of extra work.

The MCU’s Fantastic Four Suits Not Matching To Begin With Means Mister Fantastic’s Suit Tweaks Make Even More Sense

Reed Richards Is A Perfectionist In All Areas Of His Life

Within the world of the story, Reed is also an eternal tinkerer. Reed is one of the most intelligent men in the universe, and he is always working on something, but more often than not, at least 10 somethings at once. With minor variations in the costumes of each member of the team, it lends itself to the idea that Reed is constantly refining the suits and their designs, improving on the way they interact with their powers, and making alterations to better fit with preferences and requirements.

The suits are also very different at their core, with each one being custom-designed with the wearer’s powers in mind. As mentioned previously, Sue’s suit can become invisible, Johnny’s withstands heat, and Reed’s can stretch to enormous lengths. Reed has spent a lot of time and consideration working on these outfits, and the last thing that will be on his mind is whether they match precisely, because he is far more interested in them working for their intended purposes. Still, The Fantastic Four: First Steps will either prove this theory correct, or leave the odd costume differences totally unexplained.