#and edwin's kitty gloves come off

[multiverseforger]

Franklin Benjamin Richards was born in New York City to Reed and Susan Richards.[6] Franklin began manifesting his powers while still a toddler due to his parents' radiation-altered genes, which drew the attention of Annihilus, who sought to use Franklin as a source for his own resurgence, transferring some measure of the child's latent power to himself with a gene-based machine, and releasing Franklin's full potential in the process. Fearing the immediate threat of his son's powers to the entire populace of Earth and unable to find another solution in time, Reed Richards shut down Franklin's mind.[7]

During a battle between Ultron-7 and the Fantastic Four, Ultron's energy output awoke Franklin and again released his powers, resulting in the sentient robot's defeat. Free of the energies expended in the confrontation with Ultron, Franklin was seemingly returned to his normal power level.[8]

Needing someone to watch over Franklin in their absence, Reed and Susan Richards came to rely on the services of an elderly woman known as Agatha Harkness,[volume & issue needed] who is also a benevolent witch. Franklin and Agatha soon developed a familial-like bond, even residing together for a time at Whisper Hill (Agatha's old residence, which was regularly destroyed and rebuilt). Eventually, Agatha returned to live in the secret witch community of New Salem, Colorado, and Franklin moved back in permanently with his parents and the rest of the Fantastic Four.[volume & issue needed] His powers, no longer dormant, continued to manifest themselves.[9]

Under the care of yet another guardian, a robot nicknamed H.E.R.B.I.E., Franklin unintentionally used his reality warping abilities to age himself into adulthood.[10] In this form, Franklin was an adept at molecular manipulation and psionics. Upon realizing his mistake, he soon restored himself to childhood.[11]

Despite his youth and inexperience, Franklin, a victim of many threats and abductions, has exhibited great courage in the face of overwhelming peril. Time and again, he has unknowingly saved innocent lives, including that of his famous family, from the likes of villainous perpetrators, such as Blastaar,[12] Norman Osborn,[13] Onslaught,[14] Nicholas Scratch,[15] and even the all-powerful Mephisto, whom he temporarily destroyed and later defeated on two separate occasions.[16][17]

Attempt at a normal lifeEdit



The first appearance of Franklin Richards as the superhero/Power Pack member Tattletale (Power Pack #17, December 1985), alongside the similarly-aged Katie Power, who suggests his codename. Art by June Brigman.

To try to give his son a "normal" life, Reed Richards devised psychic inhibitors to prevent his powers from being used, but Franklin, whether by fault or by intent, could still at times bypass the inhibitors and use his powers, such as projecting an image of himself at a long distance. At this point he secretly joined a team of pre-teen superheroes called Power Pack, in which he was code-named "Tattletale".[volume & issue needed][18]



A promotional advertisement for the "Fall of the Mutants" storyline which ran in various Marvel Comics cover dated November 1987. Franklin Richards is pictured at the far right in his "Tattletale" costume. Art by Jon Bogdanove.

Franklin's adventures with Power Pack gained him an enemy in the alien Zn'rx, and allies and friends in the Kymellian Whitemanes. Franklin was particularly close to the young Kofi Whitemane, who declared Franklin an honorary cousin in much the same way as the children of Power Pack had been adopted as honorary Whitemanes. Franklin also regarded the Power children and their parents as a sort of surrogate family — his association with them beginning at a time when he was feeling particularly distant from his parents at a time when they were living at Avengers Mansion. During this period Franklin also bonded emotionally with Avengers associate and manservant Edwin Jarvis, as Jarvis was his primary caretaker while Franklin stayed at the mansion. His friendship with the Power children also gave Franklin a taste of life among siblings, which the lonely Franklin would not experience until much later when his sister Valeria was born.[volume & issue needed]

The Richards and Power families became fast friends, though neither family's parents realized that any of the children other than Franklin were superpowered (though Susan and Reed discovered this later). Franklin even kept his membership of Power Pack a secret from his own parents: when he appeared before them in image form (see above) he would stick to ordinary clothes, only appearing in his Power Pack outfit before other heroes such as Kitty Pryde.[19]

Franklin even lived with the Power family for a time, when his parents decided that a superhero headquarters was a dangerous place for a child to live, and wanted Franklin to spend time in a "normal" family environment. He returned to his family when Power Pack temporarily left Earth for the Kymellian homeworld.[20][21]

Psi-LordEdit

Franklin was later kidnapped by his time-traveling grandfather Nathaniel Richards, and replaced with his teenage counterpart, Psi-Lord, who had been raised by Nathaniel in a dimension outside of time.[volume & issue needed] Franklin, as Psi-Lord, helped create the short-lived team known as Fantastic Force.[volume & issue needed] By tapping a stud hidden within the glove of his costume, Franklin was able to summon battle armor from a pocket dimension; it was designed specifically to siphon off the full measure of his powers.[22] As such, Franklin's abilities at this time were limited to telepathy, precognition, and psionic energy blasts.

Around this time, Sue's dark persona, Malice, began warring within her mind for supremacy of her body, causing Sue to become more prone to angry outbursts and a more violent use of her powers, as well as starting to wear a more revealing costume. Eventually, Psi-Lord expunged the Malice personality from Sue's body into his own. There, Malice plagued Psi-Lord for a short time.[23] Later during a battle against the Dark Raider (an evil alternate reality version of Reed Richards) Psi-Lord and the Invisible Woman forced the Malice persona into the Raider's mind leading to his defeat and the apparent destruction of the Malice persona.[24][25]

Nathaniel eventually revealed that in another possible future timeline, Franklin Richards would, with Rachel Summers, father a terrible time-and dimension-traveling supervillain named Hyperstorm.[26] In an effort to divert the attention of the Fantastic Four, Hyperstorm traveled back to the precise point in time when Franklin was abducted by Nathaniel Richards and returned the child to his parents mere seconds after he was first kidnapped, thus rendering the Psi-Lord version of Franklin Richards obsolete in the Earth-616 timeline.[27]

OnslaughtEdit

Shortly after these events, Onslaught kidnaps Franklin in order to use his abilities to reshape reality. To defeat Onslaught, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men, and several other heroes destroy first his physical form, and then his psychic form. In the process, Franklin's parents seemingly die. Franklin displays his true power, singlehandedly creating the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe to contain the heroes who had "died" in that adventure. Some of them are recreated based on Franklin's memories of them, such as the temporally-displaced teenage Tony Stark becoming an adult once more while the mutated Wasp is restored to human form. While his parents are away in the Heroes Reborn universe, Generation X and Alicia Masters look after Franklin. This universe comes to be represented by a small, bluish ball which Franklin carries with him.[volume & issue needed]

Franklin travels with several X-Men to the farm owned by Hank McCoy's parents. He plays with Artie Maddicks and Leech, both mutant children. The��Celestials recognize that Franklin represents the culmination of their genetic experiments, that he has power to rival even theirs. Ashema, one of the Celestials, representing herself as a human, visits Franklin. Ultimately, Franklin, Ashema and other forces allow the rightful heroes to return and both universes to remain functioning.[volume & issue needed]

In the wake of Mr. Fantastic's activation of the Ultimate Nullifier to destroy Abraxas, Franklin loses all his powers in the process of reforming Galactus and thus becomes a normal child.[28] Shortly afterwards, Doctor Doom makes a pact with the Haazareth Three to gain vast magical power. During Doom's attacks upon the Fantastic Four, Franklin is sucked into Hell by the Haazareth.[29] After the defeat of Doom, his parents rescue him, but Franklin has a hard time coping with the traumatic experience of being tormented in Hell. The Thing helps Franklin make a complete mental recovery by assuring him that, even if they couldn't always keep him safe, they would never give up on him.[30]

When the Scarlet Witch uses her powers to depower countless mutants, including Magneto and Professor X, the power lost by Magneto and Xavier combines and restores Onslaught, whose consciousness still lingered after his death. Onslaught takes control of both the Human Torch and Mister Fantastic in an attempt to get Franklin but is interrupted by the Thing and Invisible Woman.[volume & issue needed]

When Franklin flees to Counter-Earth, Onslaught follows him. The Avengers assess their new threat which did not exist until Franklin appeared.[volume & issue needed] After a brief skirmish, the heroes and villains decide to work together to defeat Onslaught. Rikki Barnes defeats him using a Fantasticar to send them both through the Negative Zone barrier in the Fantastic Four's lab, trapping them. Franklin returns home, Barnes finds herself on Earth-616, and Onslaught is seen floating outside the Area 42 Prison in the Negative Zone.[volume & issue needed]

Secret InvasionEdit

In the beginning of the Skrull strike on Earth, the Skrull Lyja, impersonating Sue Richards, sends the entire Baxter Building into the Negative Zone with Franklin, Valeria, and Johnny Storm inside. Franklin and Valeria team up with Johnny and the Thing to fight the Skrulls. Benjamin Grimm asks the help of the Tinkerer, who is a prisoner in the prison for the unregistered villains in the Negative Zone. The Tinkerer refuses, seeing no reason to help the people who arrested him as he was taking his grandchildren out for ice cream, and sent him to prison without due process. Franklin and Valeria plead with the Tinkerer. They strongly remind the old man of his own grandchildren. He is moved to tears, repents and agrees to help, in exchange for his freedom and reunion with his grandkids.[volume & issue needed]

Dark ReignEdit

During the Dark Reign: Fantastic Four miniseries; Franklin finds himself along with his sister under siege by Norman Osborn, Venom and a high number of H.A.M.M.E.R. agents. The siblings were on their own due to their father's experiment which left him unreachable and the other members of the Fantastic Four stranded in alternate realities.[31]

Valeria manages to separate Osborn from the rest of the H.A.M.M.E.R. agents by using a bureaucratic technicality and by having them underestimate her. Osborn is led into a room where he faces Franklin who is wearing a Spider-Man mask and calls him a villain. In the next scene, the two are chased down a hall by Osborn who is getting ready to shoot them.[32] The Fantastic Four return just in time to protect the children.[13] Mister Fantastic tells Osborn to leave the Baxter Building and not to come back. Osborn attempts to shoot Reed, only to be shot in the shoulder by Franklin. The gun Franklin used is by all accounts, a simple toy.[13]

On his birthday, Franklin is seemingly attacked by a strange intruder which is later revealed to be a future version of Franklin himself sent back through time to deliver a warning to Valeria about an approaching conflict. In the final pages, it is revealed that the attack by the adult Franklin was to plant a telepathic suggestion in the mind of his present-day counterpart, thereby apparently reawakening young Franklin's dormant mutant powers; in actuality, Franklin is not a mutant, but has subconsciously convinced the wider world at large that he is.[33]

Search for the Invisible WomanEdit

Franklin and his sister contact X-Factor Investigations, led by Madrox the Multiple Man. They find that their mother has strangely disappeared and think that their father had something to do with it.[34] According to the children, Reed Richards had been acting very strange the last couple of days. The team investigates and find that not only Sue was trapped, but also Reed, who has been replaced with an alternate version being mind-controlled by an alternate version of Doctor Doom. X-Factor find the real Reed in Latveria.[35] X-Factor and the Fantastic Four battle Doctor Doom and Layla Miller. Doom lets them "rescue" Sue and tells them all to leave. During the battle in New York, the alternate Doom/Reed is accidentally killed.[36]

Fear ItselfEdit

During the Fear Itself storyline, Franklin, against his father's prior wishes, uses his reality-warping powers to free Ben Grimm from the possession of an Asgardian warrior general named Angrir: Breaker of Souls by transforming him back into the Thing.[37][38]

Future FoundationEdit

Franklin is approached by a mysterious stranger, who has been secretly tutoring him in the use of his powers.[39] The stranger is later revealed to be a future adult incarnation of Franklin himself, who reiterates to his young counterpart that his powers must be properly harnessed for a singular intent: the act of life preservation.[40] In a confrontation between the Future Foundation and the Mad Celestials of Earth-4280, Franklin is described by one of the Celestials as 'beyond [the] Omega classification' applied to mutants, and is subsequently attacked with concussion beams. Franklin repels their attacks.[41]

Upon successfully creating a new future and simultaneously acting as an anchor for the changes he made in the process following the collapse of all reality into a single timestream, culminating with the heat death of everything, the adult Franklin, alongside his sister, a future incarnation of Valeria Richards, enters the fray in the final struggle against the Mad Celestials of Earth-4280.[42][43] He warps the three Celestials away to the inner sphere of a local gas giant. He then acquires an orb containing his younger counterpart's powers, which he stores within his chest. When the Celestials return, the adult Franklin uses the orb to revive an incapacitated Galactus. Franklin and Galactus confront the Celestials and destroy them in a prolonged battle.[42] In the aftermath, the adult Franklin shares a brief moment with Galactus. The two discuss the heat death of everything and the revelation of Franklin's immortality, specifically that he will, billions of years from now, stand beside Galactus to witness the birth of a new universe.[44]

Secret WarsEdit

Following the inevitable end of Marvel Multiverse, caused by the incursions, Doctor Doom gained the omnipotent power of the Beyonders and used it to gather the remnants of the destroyed realities to create a patchwork planet called Battleworld. Eventually those powers were stripped from Doctor Doom by the Molecule Man and transferred to Reed Richards. With his new powers, Reed along with his family, the Future Foundation and Molecule Man, began restoring the Multiverse, while also creating entirely new realities.[45]

Multiversal adventuresEdit

As they rebuild the Multiverse, a being self-described as the embodiment of entropy, the Griever at the End of All Thing, patiently waited to strike until Franklin Richards was depleted of his ability to create new universes as she repudiated their mission, claiming they overstepped their purpose. During this time, Franklin has taken up the codename of Powerhouse.[46] With the help from the heroes who were part of the Fantastic Four’s expanding members, including X-Men’s Iceman, they were able to defeat the Griever’s army. Franklin and Valeria, and their parents bids their fellow Foundation members, entrusted by Dragonman a farewell, as Earth wanted the Fantastic Four to return.[47]

Return to EarthEdit

Because time worked very differently when they were rebuilding the Multiverse, Franklin and his sister returned to Earth as young teenagers many days after the Hydra Captain America’s Secret Empire. After returning to Earth, his family entrusted their old Baxter Building to the superhero team Fantastix, and moved to Thing’s hometown Yancy Street as a new base operation and home. When a wedding between his god-uncle Thing and his new god-aunt Alicia is about to begin many days later, Franklin begin to dye his hair black.[48]

Another problem arose with Franklin's powers, they became depleted every time Franklin used them, for unknown reasons and even his father cannot understand why.[volume & issue needed]

Dawn of XEdit

Since Krakoa became a safe haven for all mutants, accessible only to those who carry the X-gene, an invitation was made to Franklin to live on the island of Krakoa, however, his parents decided it was better for him to remain with them. But when Xavier noted that Franklin's powers were depleting, he decided it was the right moment to take Franklin to Krakoa. So, Xavier and Magneto concocted a plan to usher Franklin to Krakoa by means of using his relationship with Kitty Pryde, employing the premise that they would be either helping Franklin get the full extent of his powers back or discerning if what's happening to young Franklin could also emerge in other mutants. .[49]

After losing his powers, Xavier informed him that he was not really a mutant, but rather subconsciously used his powers to turn himself into one. As a result, he declared that he was no longer welcomed in Krakoa

[multiverseforger]

Franklin Benjamin Richards was born in New York City to Reed and Susan Richards.[6] Franklin began manifesting his powers while still a toddler due to his parents' radiation-altered genes, which drew the attention of Annihilus, who sought to use Franklin as a source for his own resurgence, transferring some measure of the child's latent power to himself with a gene-based machine, and releasing Franklin's full potential in the process. Fearing the immediate threat of his son's powers to the entire populace of Earth and unable to find another solution in time, Reed Richards shut down Franklin's mind.[7]

During a battle between Ultron-7 and the Fantastic Four, Ultron's energy output awoke Franklin and again released his powers, resulting in the sentient robot's defeat. Free of the energies expended in the confrontation with Ultron, Franklin was seemingly returned to his normal power level.[8]

Needing someone to watch over Franklin in their absence, Reed and Susan Richards came to rely on the services of an elderly woman known as Agatha Harkness,[volume & issue needed] who is also a benevolent witch. Franklin and Agatha soon developed a familial-like bond, even residing together for a time at Whisper Hill (Agatha's old residence, which was regularly destroyed and rebuilt). Eventually, Agatha returned to live in the secret witch community of New Salem, Colorado, and Franklin moved back in permanently with his parents and the rest of the Fantastic Four.[volume & issue needed] His powers, no longer dormant, continued to manifest themselves.[9]

Under the care of yet another guardian, a robot nicknamed H.E.R.B.I.E., Franklin unintentionally used his reality warping abilities to age himself into adulthood.[10] In this form, Franklin was an adept at molecular manipulation and psionics. Upon realizing his mistake, he soon restored himself to childhood.[11]

Despite his youth and inexperience, Franklin, a victim of many threats and abductions, has exhibited great courage in the face of overwhelming peril. Time and again, he has unknowingly saved innocent lives, including that of his famous family, from the likes of villainous perpetrators, such as Blastaar,[12] Norman Osborn,[13] Onslaught,[14] Nicholas Scratch,[15] and even the all-powerful Mephisto, whom he temporarily destroyed and later defeated on two separate occasions.[16][17]

Attempt at a normal lifeEdit



The first appearance of Franklin Richards as the superhero/Power Pack member Tattletale (Power Pack #17, December 1985), alongside the similarly-aged Katie Power, who suggests his codename. Art by June Brigman.

To try to give his son a "normal" life, Reed Richards devised psychic inhibitors to prevent his powers from being used, but Franklin, whether by fault or by intent, could still at times bypass the inhibitors and use his powers, such as projecting an image of himself at a long distance. At this point he secretly joined a team of pre-teen superheroes called Power Pack, in which he was code-named "Tattletale".[volume & issue needed][18]



A promotional advertisement for the "Fall of the Mutants" storyline which ran in various Marvel Comics cover dated November 1987. Franklin Richards is pictured at the far right in his "Tattletale" costume. Art by Jon Bogdanove.

Franklin's adventures with Power Pack gained him an enemy in the alien Zn'rx, and allies and friends in the Kymellian Whitemanes. Franklin was particularly close to the young Kofi Whitemane, who declared Franklin an honorary cousin in much the same way as the children of Power Pack had been adopted as honorary Whitemanes. Franklin also regarded the Power children and their parents as a sort of surrogate family — his association with them beginning at a time when he was feeling particularly distant from his parents at a time when they were living at Avengers Mansion. During this period Franklin also bonded emotionally with Avengers associate and manservant Edwin Jarvis, as Jarvis was his primary caretaker while Franklin stayed at the mansion. His friendship with the Power children also gave Franklin a taste of life among siblings, which the lonely Franklin would not experience until much later when his sister Valeria was born.[volume & issue needed]

The Richards and Power families became fast friends, though neither family's parents realized that any of the children other than Franklin were superpowered (though Susan and Reed discovered this later). Franklin even kept his membership of Power Pack a secret from his own parents: when he appeared before them in image form (see above) he would stick to ordinary clothes, only appearing in his Power Pack outfit before other heroes such as Kitty Pryde.[19]

Franklin even lived with the Power family for a time, when his parents decided that a superhero headquarters was a dangerous place for a child to live, and wanted Franklin to spend time in a "normal" family environment. He returned to his family when Power Pack temporarily left Earth for the Kymellian homeworld.[20][21]

Psi-LordEdit

Franklin was later kidnapped by his time-traveling grandfather Nathaniel Richards, and replaced with his teenage counterpart, Psi-Lord, who had been raised by Nathaniel in a dimension outside of time.[volume & issue needed] Franklin, as Psi-Lord, helped create the short-lived team known as Fantastic Force.[volume & issue needed] By tapping a stud hidden within the glove of his costume, Franklin was able to summon battle armor from a pocket dimension; it was designed specifically to siphon off the full measure of his powers.[22] As such, Franklin's abilities at this time were limited to telepathy, precognition, and psionic energy blasts.

Around this time, Sue's dark persona, Malice, began warring within her mind for supremacy of her body, causing Sue to become more prone to angry outbursts and a more violent use of her powers, as well as starting to wear a more revealing costume. Eventually, Psi-Lord expunged the Malice personality from Sue's body into his own. There, Malice plagued Psi-Lord for a short time.[23] Later during a battle against the Dark Raider (an evil alternate reality version of Reed Richards) Psi-Lord and the Invisible Woman forced the Malice persona into the Raider's mind leading to his defeat and the apparent destruction of the Malice persona.[24][25]

Nathaniel eventually revealed that in another possible future timeline, Franklin Richards would, with Rachel Summers, father a terrible time-and dimension-traveling supervillain named Hyperstorm.[26] In an effort to divert the attention of the Fantastic Four, Hyperstorm traveled back to the precise point in time when Franklin was abducted by Nathaniel Richards and returned the child to his parents mere seconds after he was first kidnapped, thus rendering the Psi-Lord version of Franklin Richards obsolete in the Earth-616 timeline.[27]

OnslaughtEdit

Shortly after these events, Onslaught kidnaps Franklin in order to use his abilities to reshape reality. To defeat Onslaught, the Fantastic Four, the Avengers, the X-Men, and several other heroes destroy first his physical form, and then his psychic form. In the process, Franklin's parents seemingly die. Franklin displays his true power, singlehandedly creating the "Heroes Reborn" pocket universe to contain the heroes who had "died" in that adventure. Some of them are recreated based on Franklin's memories of them, such as the temporally-displaced teenage Tony Stark becoming an adult once more while the mutated Wasp is restored to human form. While his parents are away in the Heroes Reborn universe, Generation X and Alicia Masters look after Franklin. This universe comes to be represented by a small, bluish ball which Franklin carries with him.[volume & issue needed]

Franklin travels with several X-Men to the farm owned by Hank McCoy's parents. He plays with Artie Maddicks and Leech, both mutant children. The Celestials recognize that Franklin represents the culmination of their genetic experiments, that he has power to rival even theirs. Ashema, one of the Celestials, representing herself as a human, visits Franklin. Ultimately, Franklin, Ashema and other forces allow the rightful heroes to return and both universes to remain functioning.[volume & issue needed]

In the wake of Mr. Fantastic's activation of the Ultimate Nullifier to destroy Abraxas, Franklin loses all his powers in the process of reforming Galactus and thus becomes a normal child.[28] Shortly afterwards, Doctor Doom makes a pact with the Haazareth Three to gain vast magical power. During Doom's attacks upon the Fantastic Four, Franklin is sucked into Hell by the Haazareth.[29] After the defeat of Doom, his parents rescue him, but Franklin has a hard time coping with the traumatic experience of being tormented in Hell. The Thing helps Franklin make a complete mental recovery by assuring him that, even if they couldn't always keep him safe, they would never give up on him.[30]

When the Scarlet Witch uses her powers to depower countless mutants, including Magneto and Professor X, the power lost by Magneto and Xavier combines and restores Onslaught, whose consciousness still lingered after his death. Onslaught takes control of both the Human Torch and Mister Fantastic in an attempt to get Franklin but is interrupted by the Thing and Invisible Woman.[volume & issue needed]

When Franklin flees to Counter-Earth, Onslaught follows him. The Avengers assess their new threat which did not exist until Franklin appeared.[volume & issue needed] After a brief skirmish, the heroes and villains decide to work together to defeat Onslaught. Rikki Barnes defeats him using a Fantasticar to send them both through the Negative Zone barrier in the Fantastic Four's lab, trapping them. Franklin returns home, Barnes finds herself on Earth-616, and Onslaught is seen floating outside the Area 42 Prison in the Negative Zone.[volume & issue needed]

Secret InvasionEdit

In the beginning of the Skrull strike on Earth, the Skrull Lyja, impersonating Sue Richards, sends the entire Baxter Building into the Negative Zone with Franklin, Valeria, and Johnny Storm inside. Franklin and Valeria team up with Johnny and the Thing to fight the Skrulls. Benjamin Grimm asks the help of the Tinkerer, who is a prisoner in the prison for the unregistered villains in the Negative Zone. The Tinkerer refuses, seeing no reason to help the people who arrested him as he was taking his grandchildren out for ice cream, and sent him to prison without due process. Franklin and Valeria plead with the Tinkerer. They strongly remind the old man of his own grandchildren. He is moved to tears, repents and agrees to help, in exchange for his freedom and reunion with his grandkids.[volume & issue needed]

Dark ReignEdit

During the Dark Reign: Fantastic Four miniseries; Franklin finds himself along with his sister under siege by Norman Osborn, Venom and a high number of H.A.M.M.E.R. agents. The siblings were on their own due to their father's experiment which left him unreachable and the other members of the Fantastic Four stranded in alternate realities.[31]

Valeria manages to separate Osborn from the rest of the H.A.M.M.E.R. agents by using a bureaucratic technicality and by having them underestimate her. Osborn is led into a room where he faces Franklin who is wearing a Spider-Man mask and calls him a villain. In the next scene, the two are chased down a hall by Osborn who is getting ready to shoot them.[32] The Fantastic Four return just in time to protect the children.[13] Mister Fantastic tells Osborn to leave the Baxter Building and not to come back. Osborn attempts to shoot Reed, only to be shot in the shoulder by Franklin. The gun Franklin used is by all accounts, a simple toy.[13]

On his birthday, Franklin is seemingly attacked by a strange intruder which is later revealed to be a future version of Franklin himself sent back through time to deliver a warning to Valeria about an approaching conflict. In the final pages, it is revealed that the attack by the adult Franklin was to plant a telepathic suggestion in the mind of his present-day counterpart, thereby apparently reawakening young Franklin's dormant mutant powers; in actuality, Franklin is not a mutant, but has subconsciously convinced the wider world at large that he is.[33]

Search for the Invisible WomanEdit

Franklin and his sister contact X-Factor Investigations, led by Madrox the Multiple Man. They find that their mother has strangely disappeared and think that their father had something to do with it.[34] According to the children, Reed Richards had been acting very strange the last couple of days. The team investigates and find that not only Sue was trapped, but also Reed, who has been replaced with an alternate version being mind-controlled by an alternate version of Doctor Doom. X-Factor find the real Reed in Latveria.[35] X-Factor and the Fantastic Four battle Doctor Doom and Layla Miller. Doom lets them "rescue" Sue and tells them all to leave. During the battle in New York, the alternate Doom/Reed is accidentally killed.[36]

Fear ItselfEdit

During the Fear Itself storyline, Franklin, against his father's prior wishes, uses his reality-warping powers to free Ben Grimm from the possession of an Asgardian warrior general named Angrir: Breaker of Souls by transforming him back into the Thing.[37][38]

Future FoundationEdit

Franklin is approached by a mysterious stranger, who has been secretly tutoring him in the use of his powers.[39] The stranger is later revealed to be a future adult incarnation of Franklin himself, who reiterates to his young counterpart that his powers must be properly harnessed for a singular intent: the act of life preservation.[40] In a confrontation between the Future Foundation and the Mad Celestials of Earth-4280, Franklin is described by one of the Celestials as 'beyond [the] Omega classification' applied to mutants, and is subsequently attacked with concussion beams. Franklin repels their attacks.[41]

Upon successfully creating a new future and simultaneously acting as an anchor for the changes he made in the process following the collapse of all reality into a single timestream, culminating with the heat death of everything, the adult Franklin, alongside his sister, a future incarnation of Valeria Richards, enters the fray in the final struggle against the Mad Celestials of Earth-4280.[42][43] He warps the three Celestials away to the inner sphere of a local gas giant. He then acquires an orb containing his younger counterpart's powers, which he stores within his chest. When the Celestials return, the adult Franklin uses the orb to revive an incapacitated Galactus. Franklin and Galactus confront the Celestials and destroy them in a prolonged battle.[42] In the aftermath, the adult Franklin shares a brief moment with Galactus. The two discuss the heat death of everything and the revelation of Franklin's immortality, specifically that he will, billions of years from now, stand beside Galactus to witness the birth of a new universe.[44]

Secret WarsEdit

Following the inevitable end of Marvel Multiverse, caused by the incursions, Doctor Doom gained the omnipotent power of the Beyonders and used it to gather the remnants of the destroyed realities to create a patchwork planet called Battleworld. Eventually those powers were stripped from Doctor Doom by the Molecule Man and transferred to Reed Richards. With his new powers, Reed along with his family, the Future Foundation and Molecule Man, began restoring the Multiverse, while also creating entirely new realities.[45]

Multiversal adventuresEdit

As they rebuild the Multiverse, a being self-described as the embodiment of entropy, the Griever at the End of All Thing, patiently waited to strike until Franklin Richards was depleted of his ability to create new universes as she repudiated their mission, claiming they overstepped their purpose. During this time, Franklin has taken up the codename of Powerhouse.[46] With the help from the heroes who were part of the Fantastic Four’s expanding members, including X-Men’s Iceman, they were able to defeat the Griever’s army. Franklin and Valeria, and their parents bids their fellow Foundation members, entrusted by Dragonman a farewell, as Earth wanted the Fantastic Four to return.[47]

Return to EarthEdit

Because time worked very differently when they were rebuilding the Multiverse, Franklin and his sister returned to Earth as young teenagers many days after the Hydra Captain America’s Secret Empire. After returning to Earth, his family entrusted their old Baxter Building to the superhero team Fantastix, and moved to Thing’s hometown Yancy Street as a new base operation and home. When a wedding between his god-uncle Thing and his new god-aunt Alicia is about to begin many days later, Franklin begin to dye his hair black.[48]

Another problem arose with Franklin's powers, they became depleted every time Franklin used them, for unknown reasons and even his father cannot understand why.[volume & issue needed]

Dawn of XEdit

Since Krakoa became a safe haven for all mutants, accessible only to those who carry the X-gene, an invitation was made to Franklin to live on the island of Krakoa, however, his parents decided it was better for him to remain with them. But when Xavier noted that Franklin's powers were depleting, he decided it was the right moment to take Franklin to Krakoa. So, Xavier and Magneto concocted a plan to usher Franklin to Krakoa by means of using his relationship with Kitty Pryde, employing the premise that they would be either helping Franklin get the full extent of his powers back or discerning if what's happening to young Franklin could also emerge in other mutants. .[49]