Warning: contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #44!
In the most recent issue of Fantastic Four, the powers of Reed Richards seem to have rubbed off on his son, Franklin Richards. Despite possessing unlimited power, Mister Fantastic’s son still uses his own version of his father’s stretching powers to fend off the family’s most recent threat.
Reed Richards and the rest of the Fantastic Four gained superpowers after being exposed to cosmic rays on an adventure to outer space. Due to this exposure, Reed and his wife Sue Storm passed on their powers to their son, Franklin. However, rather than turning invisible or creating forcefields like his mother or stretching like his father, Franklin developed the ability to warp reality, making him one of the most powerful people in the Marvel universe. Following the collapse of the multiverse during Secret Wars, Franklin and his family used his power to help create the entire multiverse. Sadly, he has since lost his reality-warping powers, however by entering Thought Space – a dimension in which thoughts are made tangible – he’s been able to recreate them against his family’s latest foes.
Fantastic Four #44 by Dan Slott, Andrea Di Vito, Davide Tinto, Rachael Stott and Jesus Aburtov comes in the midst of the Reckoning War. Currently, the Fantastic Four and their friends and family are trying to defend the universe from an ultra-powerful alien race known as the Reckoning. While Franklin and Valeria mount their defense in Thought Space, Valeria warns the Reckoning that Franklin’s experience with reshaping reality makes him a god in Thought Space. To prove this point, Franklin launches an attack on the Reckoning, stretching white fists from the ground that resemble his father’s own powers.
The moment makes for a fun return to form for Franklin, once a being of incredible power, as he holds off an alien race single-handedly. By so quickly occupying the present enemies, Franklin reminds readers that he has at times been one of Marvel’s heaviest hitters, able to back up his physical abilities with immense creative potential, and taking down enemies including Mephisto. The story also shows here Franklin’s close bond with his father. While the child could feasibly form any number of attacks, he immediately goes to a defense evocative of Reed’s own powers, whether consciously or subconsciously.
One of the enduring mysteries of Franklin’s abilities are how much of his powers he owes to his parents. Long thought a mutant, it was recently revealed Franklin had actually changed his own genetics, and his powers weren’t actually dependent on the X-gene. This means his abilities are born of cosmic radiation, but there have also been hints that in many ways, his own reality warping combines the infinite malleability of Reed Richards’ stretching and the Invisible Woman’s power to create invisible shapes and structures. Franklin’s use of Thought Space shows how their powers could add up to his own, as he ‘stretches’ the world around him into new shapes. In this moment, it’s possible to understand his own abilities as an amped-up version of his parents’ powers taken to their logical limit.
Mr. Fantastic may be eccentric and often portrayed as intellectually absorbed, but the driving force of his character and the Fantastic Four as a whole is Reed Richards’ love for his family. Franklin Richards‘ encounter with the Reckoning in Thought Space reflects his close relationship with his parents, saving the universe by manifesting his powers in a way so close to the abilities of Susan Storm and Reed Richards
