Psychic Kids Club: Nate Grey and Franklin Richards

[auggie18]

Back in the 90s, Nate Grey was doing his new character tour of Marvel Universe and he hit the Fantastic Four stage. He ended up having bro-time with Johnny Storm and hanging out with the cosmic kid himself, Franklin Richards.





I don't think that they met again before Nate died. But he's back now, so he might as well hang out with his future brother-in-law.

 

Comments

[jaybee3]

I love how everyone ages in Marvel except Franklin who goes up and down - is he a pre-teen, teen, toddler, what? depending on the artist. I fully expect Valeria to be drawn as older than Franklin at some point.

[drtechnobabel]

I would love it if they eventually revealed that the reason behind the Richards' kids fluctuating ages was because it was being done deliberately as part of some plot by Dr. Doom, or an attempt by Reed to control their emerging powers, and that Franklin's latent abilities keep shifting reality so no one else can tell what's happening. Hell, make it both, and have Reed and Doom in a years-long tug of war over whether Franklin's hit puberty or not.

[q99]

I can't see it being a Doom thing, but Reed attempting to control, yea.

[roguezombie]

This was pretty much going to be my comment too. Him and Luna Maximioff will forever remain in the 8-12 range. Now Ahura has surpassed Luna, despite being born six years after her.

[fiddlingfrog.livejournal.com]

And poor Danni Cage, doomed (hah!) forever to be a toddler.

[cainofdreaming]

I dunno about that. Wanda's kids and Jean's and Scott's kid got quite a growth spurts, so there's always the time travel/soul transference option.

Simply growing up? Yeah, that's an urban myth in MU.

[q99]

I can see Danni growing up, since the parenting thing is more a part of Luke and Jessica's story.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

[night4345]

I thought Franklin ages and deages himself based on what he feels.

[jaybee3]

This is what I always assumed as well (as an in-universe reason at least) but nobody else in the Marvel Universe seems to notice. Under some artists Franklin still looks the same age he was when Valeria was born!

[halloweenjack]

He literally did this, back when Byrne was on the book. He heard some sitcom character tell another character to "grow up" on TV when he was having a power surge, and the next thing you know, he's looking like Blonde Jesus.

[wizardru]

Speaking as someone who started reading comics when Franklin was a BABY, that kind of amuses me.

As for it only being Franklin? Kitty Pryde is hanging on line 1. She's gone up and done constantly over the last 20 or so years. And unlike Franklin, it didn't have anything to do with cosmic powers or aliens...just editorial fiat. She's not the only one, of course. It happens to any character who isn't an adult in the MU. They'll experience sudden age jumps as a new writer comes on board and then often a reversal with another writer or editor choice.

Comics, everybody!

[icon_uk]

Doug Ramsey appeared to be resurrected at the same age as his old New Mutant team-mates (early 20's or si(, so had apparently aged whilst dead (though magic being part of his resurrectiion could explain that).

Meanwhile PAD has recently confirmed that for the purposes of X-Factor, he's writing Doug as a seventeen year old.

Which would work if Doug'd body had aged and his mind hadn't (what with being dead), but it's all rather vague.

[bruinsfan]

The being resurrected older than you were when you died thing is pretty weird. You'd think the reset would pretty much have to be to age at death or earlier.

[icon_uk]

Again, magic explains a lot, especially when coupled with the technorganic virus that was also essential the Necrosha resurrections.

If the spell decreed "I restore you to life as if you had never been gone" then it might take that literally and age them to match where they should be if they hadn't ever died.

Then again, the resurrected Hellions didn't appear to be any older than they had been, so it could be Doug actually wanted to be the same age as his friends and asked the TO virus to age him a bit when it reconstructed his body from the corpse that he had been.

If in doubt, "A wizard did it", is usually as good an asnwer as you'll get... if it's good enough for Xena.

[donnblake]

I like that the origins of Nate's psi-armor was that he thought Iron Man was pretty cool.

But about the in-law comment, which world were Franklin and Rachel (I assume) married in?

[obsidianwolf]

They were romantically together in the Days of Future's Past Timleine.

And the various Hyperstorms are from time lines where they got married and had a kid who grew up to be evil and went back in time for reasons.

There was also an exiles world where there was another kid of theirs who would grow up and save the world and then rule over it as a horrible tyrant.

[donnblake]

Oh yeah, Hyperstorm. Forgot about him.

[his_spiffynesss]

As for Franklin's age, I have an explanation for it. The local gravity field of Four Freedoms Plaza is wonky.

Considering all the times the various FF buildings have gotten blasted into space, Reed naturally had the building built with that expectation. There is a backup gravity field generator going at all times, even under normal circumstances.

Nobody notices the artificial gravity field going within normal gravity field of the planet, but local spacetime continuum does. Since gravity bends spacetime, the two field's stack up the effect. As as result, everyone loses several minutes a day within the field. Which has the most cumulative effect on the youngest family members.

[alschroeder3]

You know who I always thought would have been the PERFECT teacher for Franklin?

Someone who is a close friend of the Fantastic Four.

Someone who has immense power but practice in patience in reigning it in, whose cultural code of non-interference would be of immense help with a kid who can create alternate realities and face down Celestials.

Who has devices and options that REED has envied.

Unfortunately, they just got through KILLING him.

Yes, Uatu the Watcher would have been the PERFECT teacher for Franklin, teaching him how to be careful with his powers, not to overwhelm or destroy those who haven't anywhere near the same level of power. I don't think even Uatu was as powerful as Franklin, but he was a lot closer than anyone on Earth, and his ages-long knowledge and array of devices would have helped even the odds.

I often wondered if Uatu could have glimpsed a little of the future, or had some genetic predictor to forecast the possible child of Reed and Sue, and what powers they had---and the Watchers might have ordered Uatu to keep a close watch on the FF, knowing the child of Reed and Sue would be a being of immense cosmic power that would be best raised in the tradition of the Watchers---beings of immense power, but who don't interfere.

Thus dies a favorite theory/scenario. Oh, well...