Spoilers for Fantastic Four #26 ahead
Marvel just rewrote the entire history of Franklin Richards, one of their most powerful characters. This shocking twist happened in Fantastic Four #26 by writer Dan Slott (Amazing Spider-Man), artist R.B. Silva (Excalibur) and colorist Jesus Aburtov (Venom), and its ramifications are staggering and add new layers to his character.
Franklin is the son of Reed Richards and Sue Storm from the Fantastic Four. First appearing way back in Fantastic Four Annual #4 he was born with vast powers such as matter/energy manipulation and psionic abilities. Franklin’s powers are so vast that he was able to create an entire pocket universe to save his friends and family at the end of Marvel’s Onslaught event. During Hickman’s Fantastic Four run, an adult Franklin was able to control Galactus; these instances are the tip of the iceberg for the scope of Franklin’s powers. Since he was born with them, he was considered a mutant, but had little to do with the X-Men for the longest time; instead, joining Power Pack. But as he has grown into a teenager, he has sought out more of his kind and began spending time on the X-Men’s home island of Krakoa. The team began actively recruiting Franklin at this point as well. Franklin lost his powers recently, and this sets the stage for a shocking revelation: he is not a mutant.
As a matter of fact, Professor X tells him he never was! Not only has Franklin recently lost his powers, but his access to Krakoa as well. He tries teleporting there, but Professor X informs him that because he is no longer a mutant, he is no longer welcome on Krakoa. He tells Franklin that as a child, Franklin used his amazing powers to warp his DNA to have the X gene that gives mutants their powers; Franklin did this because he was different and needed to make sense of this fact.
This illustrates just how powerful Franklin is: he was able to alter himself at the genetic level. It also shows he wished to belong and was willing to transform himself to do so. Upcoming Fantastic Four stories will need to be careful when exploring Franklin's change, as retconning him to make it so he was essentially pretending to be a mutant isn't the best metaphor when it comes to race and minorities. Slott encouraged readers to stick with the story to see how it plays out.
Once, Franklin Richards was the most powerful person in the Marvel Universe, able to slay Celestials and create universes. He is now powerless, and after this issue, he is without friends. While Franklin will get at least some of his powers back somehow, watching him figure out his life without them will add layers to his character and make for a compelling read.
