Franklin Richards (Earth-616)

From Marvel Database

Franklin Richards

Gallery

Real Name

Franklin Benjamin Richards

Current Alias

Franklin Richards

Aliases

Avatar, Tattletale, Psi-Lord, Ego-Spawn, Franklin Benjamin

Identity

Public

Alignment

Good

Affiliation

formerly Power Pack, Generation X, Daydreamers, Fantastic Force

Relatives

Reed Richards (Mister Fantastic, father), Susan Storm Richards (Invisible Woman, mother), Valeria Richards (sister), Jonathan Storm (Human Torch, uncle), Nathaniel Richards (paternal grandfather), Franklin Storm (maternal grandfather, deceased), Evelyn Richards (grandmother), Mary Storm (grandmother, deceased), Benjamin J. Grimm (Thing, godfather), Alicia Masters (godmother)

Universe

Earth-616

Base Of Operations

Baxter Building, New York, New York (formerly) Four Freedoms Plaza; Pier 4; Massachusetts Academy

Characteristics

Gender

Male

Height

4' 8"

Weight

100 lbs (45 kg)

Eyes

Blue

Hair

Blonde

Unusual Features

None

Status

Citizenship

American

Marital Status

Single

Occupation

Student

Origin

Origin

Franklin was born a Mutant, due to his parents genetic alterations.

Place of Birth

New York, New York

First appearance

Fantastic Four Annual #6

History

Franklin Richards is the son of Reed and Susan Richards, who are better known as Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four, the first modern team of superhuman adventurers. Reed and Susan Richards developed their superhuman powers as a result of exposure to cosmic radiation during a flight in outer space. Their exposure to this radiation also had important consequences for their son, who was born years later.

First, 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. The infant was named Franklin Benjamin Richards in honor of his late grandfather, Franklin Storm, and the Richards' best friend, Benjamin J. Grimm. In his early years the sorceress Agatha Harkness acted as Franklin's nanny and protector.

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. 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 achieves 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 so much psionic energy to destroy all life on Earth. Unable to find another means to deal 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.

Months later, while the robot Ultron-7 was attacking the Fantastic Four and other superhuman beings, energy radiating from the robot affected Franklin's mind, releasing great psionic energy from Franklin's mind that overpowered and defeated Ultron. Franklin was thus released from his coma, and his psionic powers were apparently now back at the level at which they were before Annihilus subjected him to his machine.

Later, Franklin used his powers to age himself into adulthood within a very brief space of time. (In this form he became known as Avatar.) Although his psyche remained that of a child, Franklin could now make full use of his psionic potential. Realizing he still lacked the emotional maturity to control his vast powers, Franklin transformed himself back into a child, imposing psychic "dampers" in his mind so he could not use his full powers until he achieved the necessary psychological maturity.

However, Franklin did thereafter manifest the power to foresee events from alternate futures in his dreams. Unknown to his parents, Franklin became a member of Power Pack, a team of children possessing superhuman powers. He then took the "super hero" name Tattletale due to his ability to foresee the future. In one adventure involving Power Pack, Franklin even journeyed through outer space to the throne world of the alien Snarks and back to Earth. Franklin's "dream" power has also continued to evolve in other ways.

Later, claiming that Franklin's presence in this timeline would lead to destruction, Reed Richards' father Nathaniel abducted the child into the future. (In fact, Nathaniel had learned about the Fantastic Four's forthcoming disappearance upon defeating Onslaught, although he did not know about Onslaught himself.) Nathaniel raised Franklin for years in the future, training him to be a warrior and to master his superhuman powers. The adolescent Franklin journeyed back in time, arriving in the Fantastic Four's headquarters mere moments after Nathaniel had abducted him as a child.

The teenage Franklin called himself Psi-Lord, and wielded vast psionic powers, although they remained far short of his full potential. For a long period Reed Richards was held captive by an enemy known as Hyperstorm. During this period, Franklin founded the Fantastic Force, a new super-hero team to carry on his father's work of protecting humanity.

Finally, however, Psi-Lord somehow was removed from the Fantastic Four's time and was replaced by the child Franklin, as he had been at the time that Nathaniel had abducted him. Nathaniel claimed that Hyperstorm must have arranged the substitution, and that the Psi-Lord version of Franklin no longer existed in the Fantastic Four's timeline. (Ironically, according to Nathaniel Richards, Hyperstorm is the son of the Franklin Richards and Rachel Summers of yet another alternate future.)

Recently, the malevolent entity Onslaught captured Franklin in order to manipulate the child's latent ability to reshape reality. Ultimately, the Fantastic Four and many of the Avengers dove into Onslaught's energy form in order to disrupt it; when the X-Men then launched a full assault on Onslaught, he was seemingly destroyed. The general public believed that the Fantastic Four and many of the Avengers had perished as well.

However, Franklin, who remained safely on Earth, had unconsciously used his vast psionic powers to create a "pocket" universe in another reality, to which he transported the vanished heroes. There the Fantastic Four and the missing Avengers led radically different lives with no memories of their pasts in their native universe.

Franklin subsequently embarked on a journey through other alternate realities with the swamp creature called the Man-Thing, the other-dimensional talking waterfowl Howard the Duck, the alien Tana Nile, and the mutants Artie Maddicks and Leech. Franklin's companions finally realized that Franklin himself had created these worlds with his psionic powers.

Franklin was soon approached by the Celestial Ashema, who showed Franklin that his parents (and Earth’s other heroes) were alive. Franklin had subconsciously shunted them into a new reality, another Earth which resided in the blue globe Franklin had been carrying with him since Onslaught. Ashema forced Franklin to make a choice: one of the worlds had to die. Literally fleeing from this awful choice, Franklin plummeted over a cliff, nearly dying. To ressurect him, Ashema melded with Franklin’s consciouness, acquiring his human perspective on life and death. Through Franklin, a compromise was struck: both worlds could live, but Earth’s heroes had to leave Franklin’s creation and return to their own world. Franklin’s alternate Earth was later transported to our solar system by Dr. Doom and placed in orbit on the far side of the sun, where it was named Counter-Earth (an earlier Counter-Earth had been created by the High Evolutionary and removed by the Beyonders).

Reunited with his family, Franklin moved into Pier Four, the FF’s new waterfront headquarters. Franklin got a pet,a dog-like creature named Puppy who seemed a younger, smaller twin to the Inhumans’ Lockjaw, and a new caretaker, the dimensionally displaced Caledonia. Franklin also acquired a sister when the time-dancing Valeria von Doom (claimed daughter of Susan Richards) joined the family. Franklin’s time at Pier Four proved brief; when catastrophe loomed, Reed and Sue sent Franklin, Puppy, and Caledonia to Haven, a school located on the far side of the universe, where they were soon joined by Valeria. When Franklin dreamed of Valeria’s death at the hand of the cosmic force Abraxas, he and Valeria retuned to Earth. When Abraxas did appear, Valeria and Franklin combined their powers to resurrect the only being capable of stopping Abraxas: Galactus.

Franklin learned that Valeria was the sister he had sent elsewhere, and he exhausted his remaining powers to restore her to his mother’s womb as an infant. After Valeria’s birth, Franklin felt ignored and unloved, and his attempts to regain his parents attention inadvertently led to the creation of the mathematical menace Modulus. As he began to feel apart of the family again, he was transported to Hell by Dr. Doom; though quickly rescued, Franklin was severely traumatized by the incident, even believing he was still in Hell. Only his family’s love and the honesty of his uncle Ben made Franklin realize that no matter how bad things got, his family would always do their best for him. Franklin has since sought a more normal childhood, attending private academies, going on New Jersey camping trips with friends his own age, and even playing Little League baseball. While trying desperately to succeed in the latter, he tapped into his powers again, temporarily disrupting the space-time continuum. With his family’s guidance, Franklin has the potential to become one of the most powerful beings in existence.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Franklin Richards

An Omega-level mutant. Franklin Richards is a mutant with vast psionic powers. When Franklin achieves the conscious use of his full powers, he will have telepathic powers, tremendous telekinetic powers, the ability to fire enormously powerful energy blasts, and the ability to rearrange the molecular structure of matter, even up to a cosmic scale. His powers are so great that he has been compared to the Celestials, rather than other mutants.

Reality Manipulation (latent): ability to manipulate reality itself. Nigh-omnipotent reality warping powers on a potentially infinite level, even up to a cosmic scale. His abilities are so great that he can create “pocket” universes in alternate realties. (A pocket universe is a cosmos that does not equal our own in size).

• Molecular Manipulation: ability to rearrange the molecular structure of matter, even up to a cosmic scale.

Telepathy (latent): He can read minds and project his own thoughts into the minds of others within a radius of 250 miles (on Earth). With extreme effort he can greatly extend that radius. His notable abilities include:

• Telepathic Illusion: ability to create realistic telepathic illusions and cause people to experience events which are not actually occurring.
• Telepathic Cloak: Can mask his presence from being detected by others. His abilities can at times go undetected or be counteracted by other more powerful telepaths depending on their level of skill in using their own psi abilities. He can extend these defenses to others around him as well.
• Mind Link: ability to develop a mental link with any person which remains as a connection to that individual.
• Telepathic Camouflage: ability to mask himself, and other peoples' presence from those around him. Can telepathically disguise himself, making his appearance to those around him quite different (changing the appearance of clothing, as well as more detailed disguising).
• Mind Control: ability to control the minds of others upon mere concentration.
• Mind Possession: ability to possess the mind of another, and use that beings body as your own.
• Mind Alteration: ability to alter the minds of others by force of will.
• Mental Amnesia: ability to cause loss of particular memories, and amnesia in another person or even in a group of people.
• Psionic Shield: ability to erect a psychic shield for protection of himself and of others minds.
• Psionic Blasts: can project psionic force bolts which have no physical effects but which can affect a victim's mind so as to cause the victim pain or unconsciousness and can even kill an adversary.
• Astral Projection: ability to Astral Travel and communicate with others astrally through his own will, or through contact with the thoughts and memories of others. In the astral realm, where he can use his powers to create "ectoplasmic" objects. He cannot engage in long range astral projection on the earthly plane.
• Mental Detection: can sense the presence of another superhuman mutant within a small but as yet undefined radius of himself by perceiving the distinctive mental radiations emitted by such a being.
• Mind Transferal: able to transfer both his mind and powers into other host bodies should his own physical body be somehow killed.

Telekinesis (latent): possesses telekinetic abilities enabling him to levitate and manipulate living beings, inanimate objects, and to some extent energy psionically. He can “lift” as much as 10 tons of weight and possibly even more and can enable himself to “fly” at great speed.

• Bio-Blasts: ability to fire enormously powerful energy blasts which he generates from his bodies extrasensory potential.

Precognitive Dreams (latent): precognitive abilities, which manifest themselves in his dreams, enabling him to envision possible future events. Although there are countless possible futures, Franklin foresees the most probable future path, and therefore his predictions usually come true. Franklin seemingly cannot foresee events more than roughly a few days in the future. Franklin's precognitive power developed to the point at which he could see images of future events when conscious.

Dream-Self Projection (latent): ability to place himself in a trance-like state which remaining fully conscious. While he is in this trance, he can project an intangible, ghostlike image of himself to another location, through which he can see and hear what goes on at the location. What Franklin has called the “dreams” he has while in this state are not truly dreams, but his conscious awareness of the environment into which he has projected his “dream-self.”

Franklin Richards has imposed mental blocks within his own mind to prevent him from using most of his psionic potential while he is still such a young child. It is possible that the strength of these blocks has faded over time, or that they cannot prevent him from utilizing his full powers unconsciously, as he did in creating the alternate reality to which he dispatched his parents and others following their clash with Onslaught. The mental blocks also work only when Franklin is in his physical body; his astral form can apparently use all of his psionic potential if it has separated from his physical form.

The mental blocks did not restrict Franklin from using his precognitive abilities, which manifest themselves in his dreams, enabling him to envision possible future events.

Abilities

None known.

Strength level

Franklin Richards possesses the normal human strength of a boy of his age, height, and build who engages in moderate regular exercise.

Weaknesses

None known.

Paraphernalia

Equipment: None known.
Transportation: None known.
Weapons: None known.

Notes

• No special notes.
  

Trivia

• Out of the 2 most powerful reality manipulators in the universe, Franklin is the the more powerful of the two, the other being James Jaspers
• It has often been speculated that Earth's human race is evolving into a superhuman race with great psionic powers, and Franklin may be an early example of what humanity will someday become.
  

See Also

• Appearances of Franklin Richards (Earth-616)
• Character Gallery: Franklin Richards (Earth-616)
• Fan-Art Gallery: Franklin Richards (Earth-616)
• Quotations by Franklin Richards (Earth-616)
• Images that include Franklin Richards (Earth-616)

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Links and References

• Marvel Directory
• Franklin Richards (Earth-811) - The history of the "Days of Future Past" Franklin Richards.