Franklin Richards Cuts Loose with his Mutant Power

[shakalooloo]

From Fantastic Four #25(legacy #670), by Dan Slott and RB Silva:

Comments

[dr_archeville]

Why does Franklin have a statue of Juggernaut, who has for most of his existence been a supervillain?
Why does a statue of Juggernaut exist?
Did Cain Marko have any say in its appearance? Does he get any percentage of the sale of those statues? Or do all funds go directly to Damage Control and other organizations that rebuild following super-battles get it?

[shakalooloo]

It's as confusing as when, during Millar's run, Franklin was eating Hulk-branded cereal...

[zachbeacon]

I mean Frank knows that the Hulk is just his dad's scientist friend, right?

I'm under the impression that the F4 are just about the only supers with any control over their likeness.

I mean I was under the impression Maxie Shiffman was making Spider-Man merch for a while and 616 Marvel has an in-universe comic (entirely fictional) but Spidey has said multiple times that he's never seen a dime of it. Maybe he made some money on the Webs photo book but that was Peter Parker, not Spider-Man.

[tcampbell1000]

It's a particularly odd choice since Marko is one of the few X-Men-adjacent supervillains who is not a mutant. I'm gonna go with the theory that it's part of a collectible set commemorating a well-known mutant-on-human battle. Given Franklin's own identity struggles and the current state of Krakoan politics, "yay mutants, boo big bad human" seems likely to be a more popular message for him than "mutants vs. other, more radicalized mutants."

As public figures, folks like Juggernaut generally wouldn't have a say in the usage of their likeness: there are plenty of real-world politicians and other figures who generally just have to accept that's part of being famous, though things are murkier when it comes to actors. (My dad had a pair of Nixon and Agnew puppets in his office that I doubt were White House-approved.) If it didn't work that way, then Alicia Masters' whole career would've been very different.

[zachbeacon]

Plus, didn't Juggernaut once try to blow up the WTC? I doubt Bin Laden approved any of his bobble heads or whatever.

[lbd_nytetrayn]

All the other strangeness aside, couldn't he just, I dunno, conjure one if he wanted to?

[gnarll]

Juggernaut was an X-man. It is still a weird choice.

[zachbeacon]

So how many times has Franklin lost his powers "forever"? Is anyone keeping score?

Also, I get narratively why the gates don't recognize him but how did all the ex-mutants who lost their powers at the end of House of M get there? Kitty's boat?

Don't worry, Frank. All you have to do is let The Artist Formerly Known As Apocalypse murder you in an arena and you'll be right as rain. Somehow I don't think his parents will be willing to sign that permission slip.

[silverhammerman]

Yeah seriously, Franklin losing his powers has been the go-to plotline almost literally since it was established that he has powers at all. This is a moldy old trope, though maybe an inevitable one, given that the scale of Franklin's powers keeps being upped to more and more narratively unsustainable levels.

Franklin being older than an ambiguously toe-headed moppet might mean that this'll have emotional fallout for once. After all, he's seemingly lost the connection to the mutant community which he'd only just started to embrace, and he's now vastly overshadowed by his super-smart (but still not technically superpowered, much to my annoyance) little sister. I mean, I don't have a ton of faith in Slott, but maybe he could do something with this.

[zachbeacon]

Oh, I get WHY* it's a trope but, much like "the Thing will never be human again" (which Slott himself made fun of in his She Hulk run), at a certain point the audience stops buying it.

*Though honestly, Frank being off on Krakoa half the time would have solved a lot of the same story problems.

Slott has always been hit or miss for me but he has an obvious love for the Fantastic Four so I'm still hopeful even though his run has been very slow so far. Then again I had similar thoughts early in his Spider-Man run and that was all over the place.

Val's lack of tech powers make some sense when you consider that her family is likely worried about Doom's influence on her. Yeah, I think Val in protective powered armor makes perfect sense considering she's the token squishy human but I can see Sue being worried that it's a slippery slope into "Valbots" (which honestly doesn't seem like THAT bad of an idea either).

Edit RE "mutant community": Current teen rebellion aside, he doesn't really have a connection to the "mutant community". He has has a connection to Artie and Leach. I hope they stay in touch because his other closest friendship (Katie Power) is likely going to be strained by the sudden age gap.

[bmaryott]

Not as often as Ben Grimm has lost his powers "forever" and then been transformed into The Thing "forever"!

[zachbeacon]

Nah, this time Dr Conners is cured of being the Lizard forever and you can take that to the bank.

[icon_uk]

Great Norton's Ghost! A classic ReBoot icon!

NICE!

[starwolf_oakley]

We've seen mutants characters lose their powers. Banshee lost his powers for a while after saving Japan from Moses Magnum. (They never said if he would still be "detected" as a mutant, though.)

[zachbeacon]

I haven't read that story in forever. I could have sworn it wasn't so much that he "lost his powers" as that he lost his voice ... which controls his powers.

[bruinsfan]

Yeah, using his powers at such amplitude injured Sean's vocal chords. He was still a mutant, he'd just lost his ability to use his powers.

Which really, Franklin temporarily exhausting his nigh-infinite powers should be very similar to. He'd still have the mutant gene, the well just would have run dry of the cosmic energies he normally generates and uses.

[zachbeacon]

Yeah, personally I see Franklin's current situation as being a bit like all the times Wolverine has burnt out his healing factor; it'll likely be back eventually but he's running on empty now.

[deh_tommy]

Pfft, just kill him and he’ll be right as rain. That’s the mutant way to do things. That’s just mutant culture! Humans just don’t get it. Any chance he’ll get to be homeschooled or bamfed to the Island, or is he no longer welcome because he’s not pure enough?... you know, the fact that 616 Franklin’s destined to be the last thing at the end of all things kind of wrecks that “we always lose” idea Moira and Xavier are so keen on, doesn’t that?

• --Å-- •ssholes.

[scorntx]

Well, so does Bishop's future, where mutantkind were not exterminated en masse by Sentinels, but eventually rose up and smashed all them metal things into junk.

Strange that Bishop seems to not mention that.
... or Rachel mentioning that time she and Excalibur travelled back to her future and reprogrammed the Sentinels to not kill all Mutants.

(Maybe it's just that Moira's ideas are self-destructively crap.)

[icon_uk]

IIRC Rachel basically reprgrammed the future Sentinels to "Protect mutants".

It's a good thing their machine logic NEVER takes overly general programming terms and applies them in ways which become incredibly dangerous...

[scorntx]

Haven't the Sentinels occasionally turned on humans because they realised all humans can technically count as mutants?
So if they're programmed to protect all mutants...
Well, that can't go wrong.

(Now, if you're one of the several non-human species Earth has running around on it, then that sounds like a good time to start worrying...)

[shakalooloo]

The first Moira timeline, before she knew she was a mutant, and did not interfere at all, is the one where none of the big mutant disasters happened, and she died peacefully.

Clearly, the best way to solve mutantity's problems is just to kill Moira MacTaggert and let her stay dead.

[scorntx]

Think killing her might just be a touch extreme.
(and y'know, frowned on 'round these parts.)
Maybe ask her to just try not helping mutantkind at all.
Say, by sitting in a locked room somewhere. Not coming up with ideas.


Now, killing Beast on the other hand, that sounds like an idea with teeth...
Might not solve all of mutantkind's problems, but it seems like it'd solve at least a few.
Especially the ones he's caused.

[strejdaking]

Why do you think none of the mutant disasters happened? They were wiped out while humanity lived on, and she never noticed because she is impossible to detect as mutant.

[deh_tommy]

To be fair, no one knows “the truth” apart from a very select few that Moira has chosen to trust.

The problem is I feel like we’re supposed to believe her too even though that idea has been shown to be utter bullcrap. Heck, who’s to say the X-Men’s story dies with her? Those timelines still go on with or without her in them, right? Especially seeing how only, like, three or four of them end with everyone dying.

[gnarll]

This seems quite mean. And it just comes across as a way to sever the Franklin/Mutant ties. Incidentally, he'll still have an x-gene, so the gate should still be working for him.

This honestly looks like its more of his dads work. Its cruel and arbitrary enought to fit his M.O. Probably sore about Xaviers mindwipe and whipped up a more effective version of his gadget instead.

[gnarll]

Come to think of it, having teenage Franklin hanging round on Oxytocin Island with Rachel is probably something a dad should worry about.

[zachbeacon]

That's a really good point.

"Do you want Hyperstorm? Because this is how you get Hyperstorm"

Then again the Richards line will eventually result in Kang so it isn't gonna go well in any case.

[jlbarnett]

Kang is the descendant of Nathaniel Richards, not Reed and Sue

[zachbeacon]

That's why I said "the Richards line". Last I knew it was unclear if Kang was a product of Reed's branch, Kristoff's, or some other sibling we don't know about.

Given some of the early Doom connections, I assume it's either Kristoff or Val's line.

[jlbarnett]

some other sibling we don't know, because he's not from the 616

[gnarll]

I was thinking it could end up like a Kitty Pryde-Peter Rasputin situation, but yes, Hyperstorm is a worry too.

[deh_tommy]

That I can buy both possibilities (Reed suppressing his son’s natural powers against his knowledge/consent and the Quiet Council/Krakoa not considering him mutant enough for them anymore) depresses me.

[gnarll]

"No more mutants" people got to go to Krakoa. Franklin just ran out of gas. That happened a lot to Sunspot and Cannonball early on after their powers manifested.

Reeds got a history of doing things like this, while it does not fit with the way Krakoa works at all.

Of course it could just be a writer deciding to get Krakoa out of his hair and not caring about accuracy.

[deh_tommy]

Yes, but people like Exodus and the man who until recently went by Apocalypse makes that clear to them that they are lesser, tainted, impure. We don’t know how they got to Krakoa, so they either travelled there via portal or they hopped a ride on Kitty’s boat since her new job is to get mutants to Krakoa who otherwise wouldn’t be able to.

[shakalooloo]

Have they yet explained why Kitty Pryde can't use the gates?

[donnblake]

"Hey, remember how we just had that big dust-up with the Fantastic Four, and we more or less got everything we wanted, and, like, Reed isn't right now working on a device that will prevent anyone with the mutant gene from breathing Krakoan air?*"

"Yes?"

"Well, according to our nascent religion and culture, Apocalypse should now beat their son to death in single combat."

"... I'll get the oxygen tanks."

(*As he did to the Atlanteans following Sue's marriage to Namor in one of his more villainous What-Ifs)

[lissa_quon]

I thought that mutants were a genetic thing. You don't just burn out on that. Wouldn't the gates at least detect hte genetics? Won't his powers just - regen?

Like yea he exhausted them but - "they were a finite resource and they are done now" makes no effing sense. That's like saying I've grown all the fingernails I'm going to and I bit them all off and thats it.

[obsidianwolf]

It is possible for a mutants powers to be permanently damaged in some way but your right the genetics should still be there. (Gambit for example had his powers artificially reduced by brain surgery from Sinister, then restored and then burned out from pushing too hardso they dropped back to post surgery levels)

Franklin's powers have come and gone a lot and it almost seems to be a feature of his powers though there are some alternate futures where his powers get fucked up permanently leaving them much weaker. The MC2 time line for example had him beat Hyperstorm one on one but his powers were nearly burnt out leaving him just a moderately powerful Telepath and Telekinetic..

As to why the gates don't just sense his genes. It's possible it takes an active cerebro readable x-gene to make them work. That mutants whose powers haven't kicked in yet don't show up on Cerebro so it's possible the gates work by a similar principal.

[nyadnar17]

This feels....so damn mean spirited. I hope there is more to it than this, but man this feels mean.

Like your kid whos mixed or just discovered they are lgbt started exploring that side of themselves so *boob* no more minority.

[shadowpsykie]

i am betting Reed did something... he's not above messing with his family... even on a cellular level.

[shadowpsykie]

i am betting Reed did something... he's not above messing with his family... even on a cellular level.

[donnblake]

Maybe- but I thought that Xavier had more or less explicitly prevented him from being able to do this one science.

[cygnia]

What about Val though?

[bruinsfan]

My thought exactly. "This mutant/punk phase you were going through was tearing our family apart. So annoying. A little engineered retrovirus DNA rewriting, and problem solved."

[donnblake]

I am constantly waiting for Val to do a run as a villain, so I can buy that!

[zachbeacon]

She can team up with Jack Power and Bentley.

Also - let's face it - at least one of the Things's new kids.