Franklin Richards (character)

Franklin Richards
File:Franklinrichards.PNG Franklin Richards. Art by Salvador Larroca.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	Fantastic Four Annual #6 (November 1968)
Created by	Stan Lee Jack Kirby
In-story information
Alter ego	Franklin Benjamin Richards
Species	Human Mutant
Team affiliations	Fantastic Four Fantastic Force Power Pack Generation X Daydreamers
Notable aliases	Ego-Spawn, Avatar, Tattletale, Psi-Lord, Franklin Benjamin
Abilities	Reality warping, Telekinesis, Telepathy, Energy blasts, Precognition, Astral projection

Franklin Richards is a fictional character in Marvel Comics' universe. Born in Fantastic Four Annual #6 (November 1968), Franklin is the young son of Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four and the older brother of Valeria Richards. He is a mutant with vast reality-manipulating powers. Franklin is also considered an Omega-level mutant.

Fictional character history

Origin

Franklin Richards (named after his maternal grandfather) was born in New York City. He is a mutant, thanks to his parents' radiation-altered genes. Franklin wasn't a typical mutant, because he began manifesting his powers at an extremely young age. This drew the attention of Annihilus, who used a machine to release Franklin's full potential, before he was mature. Unable at the time to find a solution for his son, Reed Richards placed Franklin into a coma.

During a battle between Ultron-7 and the Fantastic Four, the energy leaking from Ultron awoke Franklin and his powers. The energy release from Franklin was enough to defeat Ultron. Free of the excess energy, Franklin was returned to his normal power level.

Franklin later aged himself into an adult. For a brief time, Franklin became known as the Avatar. In this form, Franklin had vast amounts of power to manipulate energy. Franklin didn't stay in this form for long, because he knew it wasn't right for him. Before he regressed himself back to a child, Franklin placed psychic locks on his mind, keeping him from using his abilities until he was mature enough to do so.

Attempt at a normal life

Some time afterwards, while the Richards were expecting a second child (who would later become Valeria Richards), they secretly moved to a suburban home in an attempt to give their children a 'normal' childhood, hoping that they could keep them safe from their enemies.

File:Mra2.JPG

A promotional advertisement for the "Fall of the Mutants" storyline which ran in various Marvel Comics cover dated November 1987. Franklin Richards is pictured at the far right in his "Tattletale" costume. Art by Jon Bogdanove.

He was briefly affiliated with the child superhero team Power Pack, where he used the codename Tattletale. At this time, enough of Franklin's powers had "leaked" past the blocks that he gained certain psychic abilities, including precognition and astral projection. At some point after his association with Power Pack, these powers disappeared.

Franklin's adventures with Power Pack gained him an enemy in the alien Zn'rx, and allies and surrogate family in the Kymellian Whitemanes. Franklin was particularly close to the young Kofi Whitemane, who declared Franklin an honorary cousin in much the same way as the children of Power Pack had been adopted as honorary Whitemanes. Franklin also regarded the Power children and their parents as surrogate family, as his associations with them began at a time when Franklin was often separated from his own parents and living at Avengers Mansion; during this time Franklin also bonded emotionally with Avengers associate and manservant Edwin Jarvis, as Jarvis was his primary caretaker while Franklin stayed at the mansion. His friendship with the Power children also gave Franklin a taste of life among siblings, which the lonely Franklin would not experience until much later when his sister Valeria was born. The Richards and Power families became fast friends, though neither family's parents realized that any of the children other than Franklin were super-powered (though Susan and Reed discovered this later). Franklin even lived with the Power family for a time, when his parents decided that a super-hero headquarters was a dangerous place for a child to live, and wanted Franklin to spend time in a "normal" family environment. He returned to his family when Power Pack temporarily left Earth for the Kymellian homeworld.

Psi-Lord

Franklin was later kidnapped by his time-traveling grandfather Nathaniel Richards, and replaced with his adult counterpart, Psi-Lord, who had been raised by Nathaniel in a dimension outside of time. When Franklin returned to the present as Psi-Lord, he helped create the short-lived team known as Fantastic Force. During this time, Franklin displayed telepathy, precognition, and psionic energy blasts.

It was then revealed that in another possible future timeline, Franklin Richards would, with Rachel Summers, father a terrible time- and dimension-traveling supervillain named Hyperstorm. Hyperstorm kidnapped Psi-Lord and replaced him with his child self.

Onslaught

Shortly after these events, the being known as Onslaught kidnaps in order to use him for his abilities to reshape reality. To defeat Onslaught, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men, and several other heroes destroy first his physical form, and then his psychic form. In the process, Franklin's parents seemingly die. It was at this time that Franklin displayed his true power, single-handedly creating the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe to contain the heroes who had "died" in that adventure. While his parents were away in the Heroes Reborn universe, Franklin was looked after by Generation X and Alicia Masters. This universe ultimately came to be represented by a small, bluish ball which Franklin would carry with him.

Franklin travels with several X-Men to the farm owned by Hank McCoy's parents. He plays with Artie Maddicks and Leech, both mutant children. There he manifests problems with his powers, fortunately Leech is able to damp them down.

During his stay with Generation X, Franklin, Artie and Leech meet with Howard the Duck and a Rigellian ally of Thor named Tana Nile. The plant-controlling villain Black Tom Cassidy attacks at the Danger Grotto tree house they enjoy staying in. Howard saves them all, seemingly destroying Black Tom. Man-Thing appears and takes the entire group off the grounds. All of them traveled to different alternate realities, before realizing that it was Franklin who created those fantastic worlds.

Later, Franklin and Alicia attend an unveiling of a statue commemorating the sacrifices made by the heroes. It focuses on Thor's hammer, Captain America's shield and his father's stretching arm. The Mad Thinker, who dislikes the statue, attacks the gathering with an array of shape-changing robots. The Thunderbolts, a group of villains pretending to be heroes, defeat the robots and safely rescue Franklin. This honest good deed would start many of the group down the road to reformation.

The Celestials recognized that Franklin represented the culmination of their genetic experiments, that he had power to rival even theirs. Ashema, one of the Celestials, representing herself as a shapely black woman, visits Franklin. At first she demands he destroy one of the universes. Not sure what to do, he visits the Heroes Reborn version of his family, who do not know him. Ultimately, Franklin, Ashema and other forces allowed the rightful heroes to return and both universes to remain functioning.

In honor of the tenth anniversary of Onslaught/Heroes Reborn Event; Marvel has released a five issue miniseries entitled ONSLAUGHT REBORN, by Jeph Loeb and Rob Liefeld; in which Onslaught returns to Earth-616 (the designation of the Earth / timeline known as the mainstream Marvel Universe, where the vast majority of Marvel Comics superhero stories take place) to get his revenge on Franklin.

Ordinary human

By the wake of Mr. Fantastic's activation of the Ultimate Nullifier to destroy Abraxas, Franklin lost all his powers in the process of re-forming Galactus and thus became a normal child.

Shortly afterwards, Doctor Doom made a pact with the Haazareth, to gain vast magical power. During Doom's attacks upon the Fantastic Four, Franklin was sucked into Hell, by the Haazareth. After the defeat of Doom, his parents rescued him. Franklin had a hard time coping with the traumatic experience of being tormented in Hell. For a time he believed he had not actually left Hell at all, and that it was all an elaborate hoax by the Haazareth to make him let his guard down so that they can torture him further. With help from the Thing and Franklin's mother, he made a complete mental recovery.

Because of the danger of their adventures, Child Welfare questioned the safety of the Baxter Building, due to the numerous super villain attacks on it. After much reluctance, Reed and Sue agreed that if necessary, their children could be taken away. However, an initial condition was that a "dummy" safe-house was to be set up, and a press release to be announced that the children had already been moved. The decision to actually move Franklin and Valeria was rescinded after the safe house that they were to be placed in was reduced to a crater (along with everything within a half-mile radius). It is uncertain exactly which of the FF's enemies carried out the attack, or why (there is speculation that Reed carried out the attack himself to allow him and Sue to keep the kids), but it was enough to convince Child Welfare.

198

After events of Decimation, Franklin is listed as one of the mutants that have not been depowered. He has still not shown any abilities, so the validity of this remains to be seen.

Powers and abilities

Franklin is an Omega-level mutant possessing nigh-omnipotent psionic powers. According to Roma, Franklin's power was equal to those of the Celestials. These powers have manifested as telepathy, telekinesis, energy blasts of concussive force (In Adulthood). Also Precognition, Astral projection and reality manipulation -- the ability to make a thought or desire a reality. It was an incident when he made Alicia [Lyja in disguised] love his uncle Johnny the cause of this was to make both of his uncles happy because as long as Alicia and Ben are together Ben will never turn human like he wanted. And he thought Johnny was unhappy and single and Uncle Ben couldn't be human because of Alicia, so he altered reality making Alicia[Lyja] love Johnny while the real Alicia was abducted by Skrulls and replaced by Lyja. However, being a child, his abilities are restricted to an extent by his limited control -- at any given moment his powers could spawn the unthinkable with something less than a thought, or risk temporary depletion if overly exerted. It is unclear what power levels Franklin will achieve as an adult, as several future incarnations from alternate realities have been shown to vary in power, however it must be noted that the adult Franklin Richards seen in the present of Earth-616 during the Days of Future Present crossover tapped into the powers of Rachel Summers, augmenting his own abilities with the near-infinite energy of the Phoenix Force.

Name

While he was born in Fantastic Four Annual #6 he didn't receive his name until two years later in Fantastic Four #94 where his parents decide on Franklin Benjamin Richards, his middle name is taken from his Godfather Benjamin Jacob Grimm, the Thing. Franklin shares the same middle name as Peter Benjamin Parker, Spider-Man, who once told Franklin "Uncle Bens are always right". Franklin's first name comes from Franklin Storm, his maternal grandfather. Coincidentally, Franklin, son of an inventive genius, has the same name as a past inventing great, Benjamin Franklin.

Other versions

Earth X

In Earth X, Franklin Richards curses Namor for killing the Human Torch, by turning half of his body into fish-like scales, and if he ever leaves the ocean water, his other half would catch fire. Afterwards, Franklin takes Galactus' armor and, entering the third stage of his evolution, becomes Galactus himself. As stated in the story, he is Galactus as long as no one tells him he isn't. As Galactus, Franklin Richards saves the Earth by consuming the Celestial growing inside. He reveals himself to his father, Reed, before leaving the Earth, stating he will never return. At the end of the story, Reed, after gaining the cosmic consciousness, states his first task will be to save his son.

Days of Future Past

In the X-Men storyline Days of Future Past, it was shown that in one possible future timeline, he would be the lover of Rachel Summers, but that he would be prematurely killed by Omega Sentinels. In variants of this timeline they have a child with various destinies; the most notable being as the villain Hyperstorm. He also had another child with Rachel named Dream Summers with telepathy/empathy.

The Twelfth

In Power Pack issue 36 (published in April 1987), Franklin and his friends battled the giant robot Master Mold. The Master Mold's primary objective was to eliminate The Twelve, the future leaders of mutant-kind. In detecting his presence, Master Mold describes Franklin Richards as a mutant entity of the "ultimate" potential and the only mutant ever to develop such power. Future incarnations of Richards are then shown. One image depicts him as a teenager clad in a dark blue suit with a yellow belt, boots and gloves accompanied by red gauntlets, along with a jacket of the same color. This teen version of the reality-warping psionic is known as Ultiman. A following image portrays Franklin as a striking figure somewhat older in appearance than "Ultiman" and closely resembling the Silver Surfer, albeit with marks on his face not unlike the "hound scars" commonly associated with Rachel Summers of Earth 811. Master Mold refers to this incarnation only as The Twelfth.

MC2

In the MC2 universe, Franklin is in the Fantastic Five under the name of Psi-Lord. He's also that universe's Nexus Being. He has a friendly relationship with Spider-Girl. They are mutually attracted to each other until her father, Spider-Man, points out that she is only 15, several years younger than Franklin. After that, their relationship becomes platonic. It was revealed in Avengers Next #2 that Franklin recommended Kate Power to help the Avengers find the powerless Thunderstrike. A huge increase in his powers, triggered by cosmic rays exposion, leaves him radioactive, and with a blazing skull for a face, forcing him to wear a containment helmet all times.

Marvel Zombies

In the Marvel Zombies: Dead Days one-shot (which served as a prequel to the Marvel Zombies 2005/2006 miniseries) Franklin was revealed to have been bitten by She-Hulk. This bite killed him.

Exiles

The Exiles, a group of superheroes taken from several different realities, traveled to a future Earth where their mission was to stop Franklin Richards' son from conquering that world. Franklin himself is not shown in this storyline.

Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius

Art by Chris Eliopoulos

In the out-of-continuity humor series Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius, Franklin is portrayed as a Calvin-esque troublemaker who can't resist "playing" with his father's inventions, with disastrous results. Franklin must then scramble to reverse the effects/clean up after the results of his "play", with the help of his long-suffering robot nanny H.E.R.B.I.E., or face punishment from his parents. In the Son of a Genius one-shot Everybody Loves Franklin, Franklin encountered a non-superpowered version of Katie Power (the "real" Franklin's former Power Pack teammate); while Franklin at first disliked Katie in stereotypical young boy fashion, he seemed to develop a crush on her (reciprocated by Katie) when he discovered that she had a talent for mayhem similar to his own.

Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius began as a series of back-up strips, each one appearing in all Marvel books released in a certain publishing week. The strips were well-received by Marvel readership and the concept was granted a self-titled one-shot, which primarily reprinted the published strips to date. A second one-shot followed, subtitled Everybody Loves Franklin, with new material. A third one-shot, a Summer Special of new stories, and a fourth, subtitled Happy Franksgiving; in which includes a unique mini-tale involving Thanksgiving Day, have already been released. And a fifth one-shot titled, World Beware, It's Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius was followed by Fantastic Four Presents Franklin Richards, Son of a Genius: Monster Mash. All of the Son of a Genius stories to date have been drawn by Chris Eliopoulos and co-written by Eliopoulos and Marc Sumerak.

Power Pack - All Ages Version

In the Fantastic Four and Power Pack miniseries, Franklin Richards is promoted a few grades and enrolled in the same class as Jack Power. Because of persecution as a result of him having the Richards name, Reed later decides that he should be kept in the Baxter Building for home schooling, possibly as long as College. Franklin then runs away with Jack, then proceeds to get captured by Doctor Doom. Doom switches bodies with Franklin for a short time to pursue the destruction of the Fantastic Four, leaving Franklin trapped in Doom's comatose body. When Jack Power undoes the body swap, Franklin wakes up and immediately leads the Power Pack in sending Doctor Doom to the Negative Zone.

After this adventure, Julie Power creates a costume for Franklin, dubbing him the "honorary fifth member". The costume looks like a standard Power Pack costume, done in orange and having the all-seeing eye icon of his "tattletale" costume from the original series. It remains to be seen if it has the special abilities of the other Power Pack costumes.

This version of Franklin does not display any powers.

In other media

In the film X2, Franklin Richards' name briefly appears on a computer monitor among government files relating to mutants.

References

• MarvelApp.com: Franklin Richards