Who the Clix? is a series of articles featuring information on comic book characters that have been made into figures for the popular tabletop game Heroclix. These articles are meant to help Heroclix players learn more about the characters behind their favorite pieces.
Today we look at another well known character from Days of Future Past: Franklin Richards
Appearances in Heroclix: Mutant Mayhem, Days of Future Past
First Appearance: Fantastic Four Annual #6
Team Affiliations: Fantastic Four
Note: This article will cover Franklin’s history up until the Days of Future Past divergence. Though we’re listing every Franklin appearance in Heroclix out of simplicity.
Franklin Benjamin Richards if the famous offspring of Reed and Susan Richards (better known as Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman). Franklin is a mutant and a very special mutant; unlike most mutants whose powers manifest during puberty, Franklin’s powers manifested while he was a toddler. This led to an encounter with Annihilus, where the rule of the Negative Zone kidnapped the young boy and accidentally activated his full potential. Unfortunately, Reed had no choice but to essentially but his child in a coma.
It took the attack of Ultron-7 to awaken Franklin again, with the youngest Richards unleashing a massive amount of energy to defeat the robot. This seemed to balance the young boy out and he returned to a normal childhood. Under the care of both Agatha Harkness and H.E.R.B.I.E., Franklin’s powers continued to manifest themselves in strange and different ways, with one incident even seeing Franklin age himself to adulthood.
Reed tries to give Franklin a semblance of a normal life by designing power inhibitors. Franklin is still able to bypass these inhibitors, however, and secretly joins Power Pack as Tattletale. Franklin grows close with the parents of the Power Pack as well as Edwin Jarvis, as the Power family lives at Avengers Mansion. Franklin lives with the Power family for a time to again seek some semblance of normalcy. However, once the Power family leaves Earth, Franklin returns to his home.
Franklin’s time traveling grandfather Nathaniel Richards kidnaps the young boy and switches him with an alternate teenage Franklin, that Nathaniel had raised in a pocket dimension. This version calls himself Psi-Lord and founds the team Fantastic Force. Psi-Lord is instrumental in expelling the Malice personality from his mother’s mind, only to be haunted by it. He is ultimately able to defeat Malice by sending it into the mind of the Dark Raider (an evil Reed Richards from another dimension), which also defeats the viallinous version of his father. This version of Franklin is ultimately undone by Hyperstorm, the future son of Franklin and Rachel Summers, who travels back in time moments after Nathaniel’s kidnapping and returns his young father. Hyperstorm, a powerful villain, does this in hopes of ensuring his own future.
Soon, Onslaught kidnaps Franklin in order to use the boy’s powers to reshape reality. Nate Grey and Franklin escape Onslaught, weakening the monster enough to be defeated at the cost of Franklin’s family (among other heroes). Instinctually, Franklin creates a pocket dimension where all of the deceased heroes are reborn. This dimension exists in a small blue ball that Franklin carries around with him. Generation X and Alicia Masters look after Franklin during this time.
The Celestials notice Franklin and view him as a success of their experiments. Ashema, a Celestial, takes human form and speaks to Franklin. This results in the heroes being returned to Earth while the other reality continues to exist. Franklin helps reform Galactus and seems to lose all his powers in the process. Now a normal child, Franklin is transported to Hell during an attack by Doctor Doom. Though the Fantastic Four rescue him, the event is incredibly traumatic.
During the Skrull’s secret invasion, the Skrull Lyja sends the Baxter Building in the Negative Zone. The Thing, Johnny, Franklin and Valeria try to fight off the Skrulls and end up enlisting the aid of the Tinkerer, a prisoner in Prison 42, to escape the Negative Zone.
During Norman Osborn’s time as the head of H.A.M.M.E.R, he attacks the Baxter Building with Venom and a number of agents. The only occupants are Franklin and Valeria who are able to distract and run the agents long enough for the Fantastic Four to return and repel the villains. A future version of Franklin attacks the boy on his birthday and delivers a warning to his sister, Valeria. This was also all a ruse to reactivate Franklin’s dormant powers.
When the Thing is possessed by Angrir the Breaker of Souls, Franklin Richards uses his newly returned powers to free his uncle Ben. This is explicitly against his father’s wishes. This soon reveals that the future version of Franklin has been tutoring him in the use of his powers so that he can preserve life when the time comes. The adult Franklin’s future is revealed, where he battles the mad Celestials of Earth-4280. He revives a decimated Galactus and the two destroy the Celestials. After this, the two speak about the fact that they will be all that survives this universe and together they will watch the rebirth of a new universe, much like Galactus survived the universe that preceded this one.
After the end of everything that culminated in Battleworld, Reed Richards is able to convince the Molecule Man to aid them. Once Battleworld is destroyed, the Molecule Man enhances Franklin’s power and Franklin’s imagination creates a new multiverse. Which the Richards family then spends time exploring.
At the end of these adventures, Franklin’s powers are exhausted from creating so many new realities. A living embodiment of entropy that calls itself the Griever at the End of all Things attacks the family when Franklin is at his weakest. Every reserve Fantastic Four member and friend answers a call and repels the Griever’s army. Franklin feels better after returning to Earth, but his powers still seem to be acting intermittently.
Once Krakoa is recognized as a nation state, an invitation is extended to Franklin. Franklin decides to visit and decide for himself, only to discover that Reed has masked his X-gene from Krakoa’s gates, in an attempt to prevent Franklin from ever going there. Upset at his father, Franklin decides to travel with his old friend Kitty Pryde via boat. During the journey, they stumble upon an island belonging to Latveria where Doctor Doom promises to do for Franklin what Reed cannot: restore the young man’s full power.
Days of Future Past
In the divergent future of Days of Future Past, Franklin eventually took the codename “Scrapper” and became the lover of Rachel Summers. Unfortunately, as a result of the inhibitor collar he wears, Franklin is easily killed by Omega Sentinels.