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Summary
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Fantastic Four
reveals Franklin Richards didn’t lose his powers, retaining the ability to alter reality. - Marvel rewrites 6 years of stories, showing that Franklin suppressed his powers but they reactivate once a year.
- This twist sets the stage for Franklin to reclaim his full powers eventually, and maybe even his mutant status.
Marvel’s most powerful hero just made a grand return, as Fantastic Four rewrites years of comic lore. Franklin Richards is the son of Reed Richards and Susan Storm – a wildly powerful reality-warper who can create entire new universes in moments. However, recent comics have made big changes to Franklin, removing his powers, rewriting their origin, and putting his awe-inspiring cosmic purpose in question. Or at least, that’s how it’s seemed for the last six years…
In a preview of Fantastic Four #18, fans learn ‘The Secret of Franklin Richards.’ The pages reveal that Franklin never actually lost his powers – instead, he used his own near-omnipotence to cut himself off from his full potential, having realized he could never have a normal childhood as a godlike being. Franklin truly believes he naturally lost his powers, however this new retcon states that this is a false memory Franklin created so he could just be a kid.
Now, it’s revealed that once a year, Franklin’ powers and full memories return, allowing him to check-in on “where the world is at” and game out any incoming threats. This year, Franklin’s cosmic senses draw his attention to a chain of invisible asteroids, all heading for Earth.
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Fantastic Four just made it official: Franklin Richards never lost his powers, he’s still safeguarding Earth, and he can be Powerhouse again whenever he wants.
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Fantastic Four’s Franklin Richards Still Has His Powers
Powerhouse Reawakens His Powers Once a Year
Introduced in 1968, Franklin is the first child of Reed Richards and Sue Storm, operating under the codename Powerhouse. Franklin has the ability to alter reality and to create entirely new universes. Indeed, Franklin created the Marvel Multiverse as it currently exists, having replaced the original version fans know after its destruction in 2015’s Secret Wars. However, after that major feat, Franklin’s powers began to wane – he sensed that he only had so much cosmic power left and began saving it up for major occasions. One such occasion was an attack by the alien warrior Cormorant, against who Franklin exhausted the last of his power.
Now, Marvel is retconning that power loss as something more calculated. Having encountered possible versions of his future self, Franklin began fearing who he would become if he possessed godlike power for the rest of his life. Franklin then cut off his own power, likely using his precognitive abilities to look ahead and choose a path where he could safely lose his cosmic influence. As Franklin states, he has been considered a god in the past but doesn’t want to be corrupted by spending his adolescence as Marvel’s most powerful hero. The new status quo – Franklin keeping watch over the Marvel Universe once a year – is a compromise both in-world and out, allowing Marvel to keep developing Franklin without having to factor for a god-tier reality manipulator in every story.
Franklin unlocking his powers once a year has an interesting mirror in his uncle Ben Grimm, aka the Thing, who is able to return to his human form for 24 hours once a year.
Why Franklin Richards Is So Powerful
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Originally, Franklin’s power was blamed on the cosmic radiation that transformed his mother and father, essentially making Franklin a gigantic leap forward in human evolution. However, it was later explained that he was an Omega mutant, with his natural abilities mixing with his parents’ powers to create an unfathomably powerful being. During Jonathan Hickman’s acclaimed Fantastic Four run, it was revealed that Franklin has a very specific cosmic destiny – to be the only survivor of the current cycle of creation and play a part in the beginning of the next. This role is similar to that Galactus played in the previous cycle of the multiverse, and the two even became friends, with Galactus becoming the ‘Herald’ of Franklin’s immense power. Indeed, fans saw Franklin fulfill this destiny in Mark Waid and Javier Rodríguez’s History of the Marvel Universe.
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Fantastic Four’s new reveal rewrites some earlier moments as hidden clues Franklin was suppressing his powers…
In Al Ewing and Joe Bennett’s Immortal Hulk #24, Franklin Richards is described as the “anointed prince” predestined to be the last living human. Given the way that Marvel’s cosmic events shape reality – and the way Franklin’s origin has fluctuated over the years – it now seems more likely that in this case, cause is following effect. In other words, that the universal powers chose Franklin as the vessel for the next cycle of creation, then caused the Fantastic Four’s origin to give him the powers needed to fulfill his purpose. Whether accident or predestination, Franklin has an unprecedented command over reality and a very clear role in the destiny of the multiverse.
Past comics have suggested that Franklin is so powerful because of his immense imagination. This may simply be because he’s a child, but if it’s more specific to Franklin himself, that could explain why he was chosen to help kickstart the next cycle of creation (imagination being what the Marvel Universe is fundamentally made of.)
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New Retcon Is a Satisfying Rewrite of Franklin’s Powers
Over the last six years, Franklin’s powers and origin have suffered a number of rewrites. First, Franklin’s diminishing powers were introduced, then it was revealed that he had never actually been a mutant – instead, he’d used his powers to give himself an X-gene, seeking a sense of belonging outside his family. While some comics hinted he’d eventually regain his powers, it was made clear that he could no longer spin entire realities into being.
The new retcon that Franklin limited his own powers changes all this, but also fits in perfectly with the last half-decade of stories – indeed, it even makes some moments better. In 2021’s Fantastic Four #28 (from Dan Slott and R.B. Silva), the cosmic being known as the Griever at the End of All Things hinted that Franklin would eventually regain his powers and live until the collapse of the multiverse. While originally just a tease for possible future stories, ‘The Secret of Franklin Richards’ suggests that the cosmic villain was able to sense what Powerhouse couldn’t – that his powers were still very much there, but being suppressed by his own choice.
This twist could be used to reclaim Franklin’s identity as a mutant, since it would make sense he hid his X-gene when deactivating his powers.
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Is Franklin Richards a God Again?
Franklin May Be an Official Mutant Again Soon
It’s unlikely that ‘The Secret of Franklin Richards’ will end with Franklin reclaiming his full abilities year-round. It’s always been difficult for Marvel to write Franklin’s immense power level without creating plot holes, and the current volume of the series has been far more concerned with single-issue stories than fundamentally changing the family’s dynamic. While it’s still possible this is the grand return of Powerhouse, it’s more probable that this retcon will simply establish the new ‘rule’ that Franklin Richards still has his powers and can access them once a year.
This twist is likely to be well-received by fans, as it cleaves closer to Fantastic Four‘s most beloved stories, keeping Franklin’s throne as Marvel’s most powerful hero warm for whenever the publisher wants him back at full power. It could even be used to once again make Franklin an official mutant – given he deactivated his own powers to be a normal kid, it would make sense he also hid his X-gene during a time when Marvel’s mutants were all but required to move to the island of Krakoa. Ultimately, only time will tell how the details of this major rewrite pan out, but as of now Fantastic Four has made it official: Franklin Richards never lost his powers, he’s still safeguarding Earth, and he can be Powerhouse again whenever he wants.
Fantastic Four #18 is available March 20 from Marvel Comics.
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