Warning: This post contains spoilers for Fantastic Four: First Steps.
Franklin Richards’ screen time in Fantastic Four: First Steps may be brief, but he’s already dominating conversations about the divisive Marvel movie.
Some of the fascination with Franklin can be attributed to the allure of the universe-shaping “babies=cute” formula, but the most pressing Franklin Richards discussions revolve around the powers he demonstrates late in the film when he seemingly resurrects his mom following the climactic battle with Galactus.
It’s the kind of scene that has fans asking: “Wait… is Franklin Richards actually that powerful even though he’s so, so smol?” If we look at the Marvel comics, the answer is an emphatic “yes.” Over the years, Franklin Richards has become Marvel’s “baby ex machina,” summoned when something needs to be broken, bent, or rebuilt at the cosmic level. And for MCU fans, that could become a problem.
When Franklin was born in 1968’s Fantastic Four Annual #6, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby kept his powers a mystery. The idea was to let fans speculate about the abilities of a child born to two superheroes during cosmic circumstances. One of the earliest demonstrations of Franklin’s powers came when he revived Ben Grimm during a battle with the Frightful Four. That’s impressive on its own, but it proved to be a mere tease of what Franklin was really capable of.
Soon, readers learned that Franklin was born with Omega-level mutant abilities. However, he couldn’t control those powers as a child, leading Mr. Fantastic to place him in a coma for his own safety. Extreme? Dickish? Perhaps, but that proved to be the first of many times Marvel writers would need to find a way to remove or restrict Franklin’s powers. Often accompanied by vague explanations, these occurrences reflect the meta-issue that Franklin is simply too powerful to keep around if you’re trying to establish a threat.
Over the years, Franklin has killed Mephisto (when he was just a toddler), traveled through time, assumed multiple forms, and demonstrated mutant powers that even many of the most powerful mutants in the world can’t quite match. At times, he’s essentially presented as a god. Like a god, his most notable power is the ability to create and shape entire universes.
During the Onslaught saga, when a being created from the minds of Xavier and Magneto attacked Earth’s heroes, The Fantastic Four and members of The Avengers seemingly sacrificed themselves to stop that powerful new villain. However, it was later revealed that Franklin had saved our heroes by sending them to a pocket universe he created. The storyline that followed (Heroes Reborn) is a widely reviled moment in Marvel history best remembered for a version of Captain America with Omega-level pecs. The failures of that storyline should have served as a warning that it’s generally not a good idea to have a hero who can negate the greatest consequences of your biggest events.
Yet, Marvel persisted. In Jonathan Hickman’s Secret Wars (2015), Doctor Doom becomes God Emperor (good work if you can get it) by using the powers of the Beyonders to destroy much of the multiverse. After Doom was defeated, Franklin (with help from his dad and Molecule Man) began recreating the multiverse based on his imagination. Yes, Franklin Richards helped to redesign the Multiverse in his own image. While Secret Wars generally received far better reviews than the Heroes Reborn arc, it also served as a reminder to modern Marvel fans that Franklin Richards is often waiting in the wings to make everything right again (unless the writers have shelved his powers for the offseason).
Which brings us back to First Steps. We don’t yet know if the MCU version of Franklin will eventually display all the same powers he has in the comics, but reviving Sue Storm with help from the Power Cosmic clearly nods to his comic legacy. More importantly, the film’s first post-credits scene shows Doctor Doom observing Franklin. It’s a not-so-subtle hint that Doom wants to either utilize the child’s powers to unleash the multiverse chaos that Marvel Studios has teased for the plot of Avengers: Doomsday or prevent Franklin from stopping him.
So yes, there’s a very good chance Franklin Richards’ powers will play a major role in the MCU’s next big storyline. Will Marvel Studios resist the temptation of having Franklin Richards once again set everything right while avoiding the multiverse storytelling traps that they have thus far struggled to navigate? Only time will tell.
