Franklin Richards is the son of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman, and is easily one of the most powerful characters in the Marvel Universe. He has shown that he’s able to do everything from see the future to create entire realities, and some theories even say that his subconscious desire to keep everything the same is the reason for Marvel’s sliding timescale. Franklin’s powers are borderline unlimited, scaring even cosmic beings like Galactus and the Celestials, with the planet eater actively avoiding confrontations with even a young Franklin. Since the fantastic son is making his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut in Fantastic Four: First Steps, there’s never been a better time to dive into how and why Franklin’s powers work, so why don’t we get right into explaining Marvel’s Powerhouse?
The Most Powerful Mutant of All
The Fantastic Four all gained their powers from being exposed to cosmic radiation during a space flight, being irrevocably changed into who they are today. When Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman had their first child, it was revealed that the radiation affected their genetics to the point that it could alter how their children were born, and it very much did. Franklin was born a mutant. Now, it’s never been clear if either Sue or Reed carried the potential for the X-gene already (and to be clear, Marvel has even retconned the idea of Franklin being a mutant but it was his story for a long time so we’re talking about it) if it was brought about by the cosmic rays, or if they already had the potential and Franklin’s already extreme potential powers were only enhanced by throwing the rays into the mix. Whatever the reasoning behind it, Franklin was born a mutant, and easily stands as the strongest of them all, which is saying an awful lot, considering his competition is people like Jean Grey and Apocalypse.
While most mutants don’t begin showing signs of their abilities until adolescence, Franklin exhibited powers from the very beginning. The first documented use of Franklin’s powers came in Fantastic Four #130, when Franklin was still a toddler, where he used his psionic powers to wake up the Thing after he was knocked unconscious in a fight with the Frightful Four. He later demonstrated the ability to see into the future when he was still just a child, as shown during Fantastic Four #280, where he had a dream that predicted Sue Storm’s transformation into Malice, and how she would be able to defeat all of the Fantastic Four on her own. Franklin’s powers only continued to develop as he aged. While initially he seemed only to have incredible psionic abilities, it was slowly revealed that he possessed the power to change reality around him. He once used these powers to age himself into an adult in Fantastic Four #245, which gave him access to the full purview of his potential and allowed him to do literally anything he desired, although he still had the mentality of a child and soon realized he lacked the emotional maturity to be nigh unstoppable.
The Power to Change Everything
Simply put, Franklin’s powers allow him to change the fabric of reality to the will of his thoughts and imagination. Anything he can imagine he can make happen, and there seems to be next to no limit to what he can do. One of the only things that Franklin ever failed to do was save the multiverse from its collapse in the buildup to the 2015 Secret Wars event, and considering the Celestials themselves were trying to end all of reality and Captain America preventing one Incursion destroyed the Infinity Gauntlet, this isn’t exactly something that could reasonably be called a major failure. And in the immediate aftermath of the multiverse being destroyed, Franklin traveled and helped restore the multiverse by creating entire new realities.
Franklin can quite literally do just about anything. He is usually depicted as having a deep connection to Galactus, as just like the planet eater before him, Franklin will be the last survivor of his universe and exist as a cosmic entity into the next one. The only limitation he has seems to be his own mentality, as at the end of the day he’s just a kid. He wants to grow up and live as normal a childhood as he can, and he wants to be able to live without that responsibility, at least for a little bit. Franklin is all but divine in his power, but in his heart, he’s just as human as anyone else, and that’s exactly who the child of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman should be. Franklin is a fantastic character who is absurdly powerful, and I am looking forward to his MCU debut one hundred percent.
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