Franklin Richards and Marvel Time

Franklin's conscious and unconscious powers

Franklin's simplest power is to create a dream version of himself (as seen in Power Pack). His greatest (usually unconscious) power is to create a kind of dream version of all reality, as we saw in Heroes Reborn.

Franklin does not need to be conscious to exert this power, as we saw when he defeated Ultron in FF 150. His brain had been shut down months before, and he was still in a coma, but this did not stop him defeating Ultron. And in the famous case of Heroes Reborn, Franklin was only dimly aware that he had created an entire pocket universe, moved the heroes into it, and retconned their entire lives.

He did the same trick again when faced with Abraxas. Only this time he saw that his Mommy was seriously scared, so he acted consciously. For those who missed the stories, Abraxas had enough power to end all existence, He had already killed Galactus on numerous different realities, just to show what he could do. In Fantastic Four volume 3 number 49 he is defeated by Franklin Richards. Franklin sees that his Mom is scared, so he decides to fix the situation. He turns back time. Technically he fixed the broken nullifier and then got hs Dad to use it, but it was Franklin who sets the events in motion (see the scan below).

Franklin did it again with Doom's world (see Doom: The Emperor Returns, issue 1 of 3). Franklin was unconsciosuly controlling an entire world, via a ghostly avatar, while he (physical Franklin) was back at home being a kid as usual.

Franklin unconsciously creates worlds, and unconsciously controls existing worlds. It's what he does. There seems to be no practical limit to his power.

"We're like ants... just ants..."

When discussing humans and higher powers, humans are most often compared to ants. The classic example is of course Galactus, in FF 50. Galactus comments on destroying the world: "would you hesitate to step on an ant hill?" And after seeing the cosmos, Johnny Storm is overwhelmed. He can only gasp "We're like ants... Just Ants... Ants!!"

The first we see of Franklin as a young child is when he plays on a farm (in FF 135). What does he naturally do when left alone? He watches ants. And "they keep marching round in circles, like they were following orders." From the look on his face, and the comments of his minder, he is just watching them.

To cosmic beings, humans are ants. Franklin is a cosmic-level being. He unconsciously makes ants walk in circles. This is not deliberate, and is certainly not malicious. It is simply how he wants things to be and it is so. As we saw with Heroes Reborn.

Critics sometimes observe that Marvel comics can be repetitive, superficial, and lack any real danger. This is exactly what a young child wants from his stories.

Franklin's life in Real Time

Franklin Richards was born in 1968. The great events of his life take place in 1973 (when he would be five and would normally start school), 1982 (when he would hit puberty), and the late 1980s (when he would normally become an adult and father his own children). It seems that his unconscious mind is growing up normally, and at crucial times in his life the underlying reality breaks through.

The best known event in Franklin's early life was in 1973 when Reed had to shut down Franklin's conscious mind. We are told that his conscious mind was becoming aware of the universe beyond his immediate experience. This was 1973, when he would be aged 5, the age when children usually start school and become aware of the wider world. Coincidence? Perhaps. But his whole life is built of such coincidences.

(Critics could point out that the immediate cause of the danger was Annihilus, but why did Annihilus become aware of Franklin's power at that point and not sooner? Annihilus was searching with his long range probes, so obviously Franklin was giving a stronger signal at this point than before. This was when Franklin was with Agatha Harkness, his teacher - again, a parallel with school).

People change when they reach puberty. In 1982, when Franklin would have been 14, he temporarily lost the ability to hold back time. He suddenly aged to be an adult (FF 245). Reed and Sue managed to turn the mental dampers back on, and he de-aged again.

It appears that Franklin, and by implication the Marvel Universe, exist and age and develop in real time, but Franklin's unconscious mind keeps them held back to an age where he feels safe, where nothing truly dangerous or unknown can happen

Interestingly this moment when Franklin lost control was also the time when Marvel's stories started going somewhere, with real changes to characters. In the Fantastic Four, Johnny fell for Alicia, Ben left the team, the Baxter Building was destroyed, etc. Marvels' sales began to increase, and it was a second golden age. But with Franklin again in control, the other major changes are gradually retconned over the next few years. Everything is safe again.

The next major event is when Sue is expecting another baby. Note that the cosmic control rod loses its power when near the distortion area of the Negative Zone (see the climax of FF annual 6). Presumably Franklin is the same. Sue could not conceive another child until years she and Reed spent an extended time was in the Negative Zone, where Franklin's unconscious power is weakest.

A young child will naturally feel threatened by a new baby. So what happens? Franklin unconsciously transports the unborn child to a distant part of the universe (causing Sue to believe she has miscarried). The child, Valeria, grows up far away where Franklin does not feel threatened by her. He allows her to return when she is a teenager, and old enough to be a protective older sister and not a threat. None of this is malicious, it is all done on an unconscious level, reflecting a young child's hidden fears.

Franklin controls everything

So we see that Franklin has virtually unlimited power to control the universe to protect his family when they are in danger, and he often does this unconsciously.

Now the sixty four thousand dollar question: how often are his family in danger? Answer: ALL THE TIME! They are superheroes, they put their lives on the line every day!

Then how often would Franklin feel an unconscious worry about his family? ALL THE TIME!

Then how often would Franklin be subtly fixing things by putting things back how he thinks they should be? ALL THE TIME!

As a young child, whose parents face death every day, what would be Franklin's greatest unconscious fear? The future. Like any young child he would dislike too much change.

Would he simply remove all the bad guys? No. Young children like stories about bad guys being defeated. It makes them feel safe. Franklin would ensure his favorite bad guys keep coming back in order to be defeated again. Young children like their stories to be repetitive.

If all this is true, what would we expect to see in the Marvel Universe? Time slowing down, heroes surviving against the odds, and sometimes even coming back from the dead. The same villains coming back again and again. Occasional moves back in time when things go wrong. In other words, we should expect Franklin to unconsciously create Marvel Time.

This is pretty much confirmed in FF 284. We learn that Franklin's role (in this case in his PsiLord persona) is to prevent bad futures from happening.

The origin of Franklin's powers

Before Franklin was born, there was no Marvel Time. In the early and mid 1960s, Marvel Comics operated in Real Time. Marvel Time began when Franklin was born. Coincidence? Let us see.

Question: why is Franklin so powerful? Because his mother can make force fields and his father can stretch? So what? That has nothing to do with omega class time-space abilities. It makes no sense. So what is the real origin of his powers?

For the answer we must go back to FF Annual 6, the birth of Franklin Richards. We see right at the start that Reed and Sue do not give their son superpowers: they give him a deadly radiation cancer that threatens to kill both mother and baby! And they need a particular element from the Negative Zone to save them.

Reed used Annihilus' Cosmic Control Rod to save his wife and baby, allowing Franklin to be born. The Cosmic Control Rod has vast power that can be shaped by the user's mind. And it specifically gives immortality, as Annihilus reminds us on many occasions.

What do we know about the Negative Zone? It first appeared in FF51, described as a dimension that connects all parts of our universe, allowing Galactus and the Silver Surfer to travel faster than light. (It is no coincidence that Franklin has a special connection with Lockjaw and Puppy, the dimensional travelers.)

It was explained in FF annual 6 that combining even a tiny amount of the positive and negative universes would release vast amounts of energy. In other words, this is Einstein territory. E=mc² Anyone who truly masters the negative zone can master time, space, and energy. But not even Annihilus never mastered this - this is why he wanted Franklin. Let us look at why is Franklin is special:

Franklin Richards, Zero Man

For final proof that Franklin's power is from the Negative Zone, see the 1998 Fantastic Four annual. It shows us the Real Time Fantastic Four, in a reality where Marvel Time never existed. Everyone is their true chronological age and Franklin has grown up normally. Instead of powers that are unlimited and unconscious, his powers are more controlled (though only barely) and are far easier to understand: Franklin's natural state is as the Zero Man, "a living conduit to the Negative Zone." Zero probably refers to Zero Point energy, the infinite source from which universes spring.

Annihilus realized Franklin's potential in FF 138-141, and tried to siphon off that power. In doing so we learn that Franklin's mind can reach across the entire universe, and galaxies are like toys to him.

From his birth we see that Franklin has the power to stretch time for himself and those around him. As we follow his life we will see that power in action. We will also see that Franklin Richards is the key to the history and future of the Marvel Universe. Look at the picture of Franklin, the Zero Man. Remind you of anyone? Yes, it's eternity, the embodiment of our regular universe. This is no coincidence! Franklin embodies the Marvel Universe. Everything depends on him, as we shall see.

Franklin Richards as repressed adult

What about when Franklin would have become an adult? In the late 1980s he should have reached the age of 20 and reached full maturity. At that point, the age-suppressed Franklin again experiences a loss of control. This loss of control threatens the very fabric of the Marvel Universe. The only way to solve the problem is for Nathaniel (his grandfather) to take him completely out of this time stream and let him grow up normally, coming back as a teenager for a short time. (It's all there in FF 376).

So it seems that Franklin could not completely miss out his teenage years, and so he had to spend some time as the teenage Psi-Lord before going back to the safety of young childhood again. Psi-Lord grew up in the near-real-time MC2 universe.

Here we have another mystery solved. It is well established that Franklin has Celestial-level unconscious powers, so why is his teenage version relatively powerless? Surely by that time he would have more access to his abilities? Mutants usually unlock their full powers at puberty, so why not Franklin? Clearly he is still operating on two levels: conscious and unconscious. Clearly, Psi-Lord is only the surface. The real power is still operating on a deeper level, unnoticed as always.

His Zero-Man persona (FF annual 1998) indicates access to greater power, but still he fears that he might destroy the universe by accident (by sucking it all into himself - how appropriate is he already controls the Marvel Universe!) So he plans to move to Wakanda to be near the source of energy dampening Vibranium.

Back to Franklin in this universe. When he reached his early 20s (Real Time early 1990s) his biological clock seems to have taken over. He needed to father his own children. He produced an offspring, Hyperstorm. The son represent's Franklin's deepest fears of growing up, and in the grown-up dimension he (Franklin, now a father) is then killed by mutant hunting sentinels. This is all very Freudian, as noted below. Hyperstorm has Franklin's reality changing ability, but without his sense of duty to care for the world, and without his deep repressive tendencies. So in Franklin's regular universe, Hyperstorm is a danger to all that exists.

Franklin's deep family insecurities are also revealed in the Zombie universe, where he is killed by a bite from She-Hulk, who replaced his uncle Ben in the FF.

Everyone loves Franklin, but deep down he has serious issues. But they are not irrational. He really could destroy the universe if he is careless. He needs his family's safety for his psychological health. Note that it is Nathaniel who helps Franklin/Psi-Lord at the moment of crisis. The other team members don't trust Nathaniel in this matter. But Franklin does, because Nathaniel is family and that is all that matters.

The battle with Hyperstorm seemed to distract Franklin, weakening his control over the Marvel Universe. So in the early 1990s stories in all the comics become more adolescent and obsessed with image. This culminates in a being called Onslaught who kidnaps Franklin and poses a real threat to Franklin's safe universe. Franklin's Marvel Time powers go into overdrive, creating another new, safe universe where everything can go back to how Franklin subconsciously thinks it should be.

Freudian Franklin

The Fantastic Force series took place during the time when Franklin was teenage Psi-Lord (starting in FF 376, then in the Fantastic Force series). This shows that Franklin is a Freudian analyst's dream.

Franklin has multiple personalities: the kid has dream adventures (Tattletale), the confused repressed guilty teenager (PsiLord), the good adult (avatar), and the bad adult (Ego-spawn). Egospawn was created by Franklin in FF328 because Franklin saw his mother get angry at his uncle Johnny, and Franklin feared that the family would break up. So Franklin unconsciously possesses the mind of a local thug in an effort to remove this threat to his mother.

All of these personas come back together in Fantastic Force 17. Fantastic Force was a big Freudian message of guilt about Franklin trying to usurp his father and save, then unwillingly destroy, his mother.

Franklin appeared as a teenager because his father (Reed Richards) was about to disappear in a cataclysm. In FF 375-380 there are various references to this future dystopia. In 380-383 we see that the teenage Franklin has a terrible relationship with his parents. He loves them, especially his mother, but she rejects him. Then Reed is (apparently) killed in front of them both.

Meanwhile In an alternate future, Franklin consummates a relationship, becoming a sexual adult. The result is Hyperstorm, an evil being who threatens to destroy the universe. That future Franklin is then punished by the authorities (the sentinels, the police arm of the anti-mutant state). All very Freudian!

Back in this reality, the central conflict is over destroying and trying to save his family. In issue 1 he explains, "I renounced everything I believed in to come back to this time and save my family from the dark raider." But his grandfather warned it would mean the end of the Fantastic Four. And it turned out the Dark Raider was an alternative reality version of his father (Reed Richards), and the team DID break up!

All this time Franklin is trying to hide. His battle suit completely hides him. He telepathically hides his appearance from everyone (as explained in isue 4). He's doign a job he hates, usually failing, making things worse when he does succeed, and just wants to curl up and hide somwhere, and get back to being a child when his mother loved him.

Franklin: Son of a Genius

A comics fan recently asked, why are there no good Franklin stories? The answer is simply because Franklin, unleashed, can do anything. He is the ultimate deus ex machina. So it is hard to think up any story where he can play a role without solving the problems all at once.

The best Franklin stories would have to revolve around his dangerous mental state, his unconscious power, and his complex relationships. But that would require a writer of exceptional genius.

Meanwhile, there are some very good Franklin stories where he is treated as just a kid. Many of the Power Pack stories are good. And "Franklin: Son of a Genius" (where Franklin looks and acts like Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes) is excellent. Purists may argue that Son of a Genius is not canonical,. I disagree. It is perfectly consistent with the other stories, when seen from a six year old's point of view. And thanks to Marvel Time, none of the other stories are canonical either, so what's the problem?

Apart from the "Franklin as kid" stories, writers don't know what to do with him. So come on Marvel, bite the bullet! Let Franklin grow up, and let comics grow up with him. Explore what he has really been doing for the past forty one years. (Or since any story planned now would not be published until 2009, that would make Franklin forty two, the answer to the great question of Marvel Life, the Marvel Universe, and Everything Marvel .)

Come on Marvel, publish that story. You know it makes sense.

1.	The energy of the cosmic control rod is not just something he holds in his hand, it is part of him.
2.	His father is the smartest guy on Earth.
3.	His mother controls an exotic form of energy that can even penetrate and defeat a celestial (see FF 400). In the future she may be able to refine this power to be at the Molecule Man level (see FF 553 or nearby).
4.	Both of his parents have powers based on warping and stretching.