Franklin Richards
Franklin Richards is a male comic superhero who features in Marvel Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Origin
Franklin Benjamin Richards was the son of Reed Richards and Susan Storm-Richards. (Fantastic Four Annual v1 #6) Years later, he gained a younger sibling that was his younger sister Valeria Richards.
The radiation somehow affected Susan Richards' body in such a way as to give her serious difficulties in giving birth. For unknown reasons, soon before she was to give birth to Franklin, Susan Richards' blood cells were observed to be carrying a strange form of energy that threatened the lives of both herself and the baby. Presumably, this energy effect is linked with Susan Richards' superhuman powers over energy that enable her to become invisible and to create force fields. With Franklin's birth imminent, Reed Richards and his teammates, the Human Torch and the Thing, journeyed into the anti-matter dimension called the Negative Zone to find the only means known to Mister Fantastic of saving his wife and unborn son: the Cosmic Control Rod wielded by Annihilus, one of its most dangerous inhabitants. Mister Fantastic succeeded in obtaining the Rod and drained energy from it into a special container, which he and his two colleagues then brought to their own dimension. Reed Richards succeeded in using the energy from the Rod in bringing the energy in his wife's blood under control, and she safely gave birth to a healthy son. (Fantastic Four Annual v1 #6) The infant was named Franklin Benjamin Richards in honor of his late grandfather, Franklin Storm, and the Richards' best friend, Benjamin J. Grimm. (Fantastic Four v1 #94) In his early years the sorceress Agatha Harkness acted as Franklin's nanny and protector. (Fantastic Four v1 #103) The cosmic radiation that had given Reed and Susan Richards their superhuman powers also resulted in affecting the genetic structure of their son: Franklin was born a mutant. Unlike most superhuman mutants, whose unusual powers do not emerge until the mutant reaches puberty, Franklin began manifesting his superhuman powers at a very early age. The very first indication of his powers was shown when the Frightful Four had beaten the Fantastic Four, as a toddler Franklin Richards used this power to wake up the Thing and this allowed the Fantastic Four to achieve victory.[17] In the normal course of events, Franklin's psionic powers would presumably increasingly emerge as he grew older until they reach their full, vast potential when he achieved maturity. However, this normal process was ruined by Annihilus, who, during a later conflict with the Fantastic Four, placed Franklin within a machine that triggered the release of his full psionic potential. Franklin was too young and inexperienced to control the vast energies building up within him, and Reed Richards feared that his son would be unable to prevent himself from releasing enough psionic energy to destroy all life on Earth. Unable to find another means of dealing with the problem in the short space of time left before disaster would strike, Reed was forced to use a device that rendered Franklin comatose, and thus unable to project psionic energy. (Fantastic Four v1 #141)
Fantastic Four
One day, Ben Grimm gave Franklin a rubiks cube to play with where the boy's frustration caused him to use his powers to solve it. The sudden manifestation of his powers caused a H.E.R.B.I.E. to sound a warning but it was destroyed by the Mutant energy. (Fantastic Four v1 #244) He then heard on the television about growing up and inadvertently used his powers on himself. This caused him to become an adult where he lost his memories but his powers were much more developed. His arrival attracted the attention of Johnny Storm who mistook Franklin for an intruder and attacked him but Franklin's increased powers allowed him to easily overpower the Human Torch. Susan Storm-Richards arrived at the scene where she also battled the mysterious invader but came to realise that this was her son where she revealed this to him. (Fantastic Four v1 #245)
Future Foundation
Powerhouse
At this time, his father registered the presence of a higher-dimensional being arriving on Earth and heading towards the Baxter Building. The entity was believed to had targeted Container Zero and sought to stop it from being opened. Thus, Mister Fantastic took the Fantastic Four and Franklin as well to stop the being in order to tap into his son's great power. Arriving at the Baxter Building, the found the structure in ruins at the hands of the Cormorant who easily knocked the Thing outside the immediate area. Franklin then entered the fray and tapped into his dwindling power which was depleted as a result where he only caused the Cormorant to bleed from the hits sustained by the boy. With his powers gone, Franklin had to flee the scene and looked to get the help of the X-Men but found the Krakoan gateway did not allow him entry into it after his powers had been burnt away in the fight. Despite losing his powers, the danger passed when the Cormorant had departed the area but not before breaking Container Zero and releasing the Zero Source where this pre-primordial power threatened to consume existence. It was Franklin's sister Valeria who stopped the danger by capping the energy with her new tele-pod design that formed the Forever Gate that was a doorway into any point in space-time. (Fantastic Four v6 #25)
Valeria later on had developed a means to allow the Forever Gate to teleport a person anywhere in existence. Franklin then sought to use it to transport himself to Krakoa and meet with the Mutants there in the hope of restoring his powers. However, before he could do so, he was contacted by Professor X who claimed that he had discovered that Franklin was not a real Mutant. Instead, his desire to belong somewhere led to his reality manipulation powers to manifest an X-Gene and now that the power was gone he had been turned into an ordinary human. As such, he no longer had a place on Krakoa and the Professor barred him from travelling to the island. (Fantastic Four v6 #26) At this point, waves of refugees were emerging from the Forever Gate all of whom were escaping the destruction of their realities at the hands of the Griever where they had sought shelter from Franklin Richards who had created their worlds. Franklin came to reveal that he had lost his powers and felt out of place without them where he was comforted by his family. To cheer him up, his father decided to give his son the Iron Man Armor that Tony Stark had given his recently and calibrated it for his use. It was used as part of a clever trap to deal with the Griever who had arrived on Earth-616 to destroy the escapees after learning that Franklin Richards had lost his powers. She was tricked into the Fantastic Four's headquarters at Yancy Street where she battled the Iron Man Armor that was being remotely piloted by Franklin. Once inside, the refugees were evacuated from the site and Reed Richards deleted the many pocket dimensions inside thus trapping the Griever inside seemingly defeating her. (Fantastic Four v6 #27)
Due to being immortal, he came to survive the billions of years with only Galactus keeping his company until the end of time. At this point, the universe was expected to collapse and give rise to the Ninth Cosmos with Galactus expending his remaining energy for the act and Franklin expected to take his place in the new universe. (History of the Marvel Universe v2 #1)
Overview
Personality and attributes
He was named Franklin Benjamin Richards in honor of his late grandfather, Franklin Storm, and his father's best friend, Benjamin J. Grimm. (Fantastic Four v1 #94) He later came to take the codename Powerhouse. (Fantastic Four v6 #2)
At one point, he turned himself into an adult but lacked the emotional maturity of being one. (Fantastic Four v1 #245)
He was the son of Reed Richards and Susan Storm-Richards. (Fantastic Four Annual v1 #6)
Powers and abilities
However, one account claimed that he was not a true Mutant and that his desire to belong had led to his powers manifesting an X-Gene until his abilities were depleted. (Fantastic Four v6 #26)
It was said that his powers would develop alongside his intellectual and emotional maturity. (Fantastic Four v1 #245)
When his powers were restored, he gained the power to create baby universes with ease. (Fantastic Four v1 #574)
At one point, he came to age himself to adulthood allowing him a greater access to his abilities but he lacked the intellectual and emotional maturity to use these powers. (Fantastic Four v1 #245)
After losing his powers, he was provided a Fantastic Four-themed version of the Iron Man Armor that had been built for Franklin's father by Tony Stark. Franklin was able to use all its systems and even pilot it remotely which he used for a brief time. (Fantastic Four v6 #27)
Notes
- Franklin Richards was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby where he made his first appearance in Fantastic Four Annual v1 #6 (November, 1968).
- In Alter Ego "Stan Lee's Amazing Marvel Interview!" (2011), Stan Lee recounted, "In trying to be realistic, as we always did ... Sue Storm and Reed Richards in The Fantastic Four had been married for quite a while, and I figured the most natural thing in the world would be for them to have a baby. Then it occurred to me we could have a lot of fun with that, because we would assume that if two people with super powers have a baby, the baby might have a super power. But what super power would he have? And we could keep the readers guessing for years until the baby grew up. ... Of course, Sue's pregnancy took about a year and a half or two years, because comic book time is somewhat different than real-world time. And we wanted to stretch that out as long as we could while we tried to figure out whether she'd have a boy or a girl and what to name it. We finally decided on a boy named Franklin Richards."
Alternate Versions
- In X-Men v1 #141 (1981), an alternate future version of Franklin Richards was shown to had inhabited the future timeline of Days of Future's Past that was designated as Earth-811. This version grew to adulthood in a world dominated by Sentinels where he became the lover of Rachel Summers.
- In Fantastic Four Annual v1 1998 (1998), an alternate version of Franklin Richards was shown in a future timeline designated as Earth-98. This version was born in 1968 where his Mutant powers manifested turning him into a living gateway to the Negative Zone thus forcing him to wear a crown of Vibranium to control his powers. In the Fantastic Four, he came to take the code name of Zero Man and later started a relationship with Wakandan princess Zawadi with the pair having a daughter named N'Yami.
In other media
Television
Video games
Appearances
- Fantastic Four Annual v1: (1968)
- Fantastic Four v6:
- History of the Marvel Universe v2:
- X-Men / Fantastic Four v2:
External Links
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