Posted in: Comics, Marvel Comics, X-Men | Tagged: DNX, fantastic four, Frankln Richards, spoilers, x-men

Is Franklin Richards To Be A Mutant Again, Ahead Of Avengers Doomsday?

Is Franklin Richards to be a Mutant again, ahead of Avengers Doomsday, courtesy of the X-Men/Fantastic Four Crossover Event DNX?

Once upon a time, Franklin Richards, son of Reed Richards and Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four, was a mutant. He was established as part of mutantity in the future-set Days Of Future Past issues of Uncanny X-Men #141-142 in 1981 by John Byrne and Chris Claremont.

When Byrne went on to write and draw the Fantastic Four, he has Reed Richards talk about him as a mutant in 1983…

And Chris Claremont wrote the original Fantastic Four Vs X-Men series, concerning Franklin Richards, Kitty Pryde and Doctor Doom.  And there was also Power Pack…

Decades later, this came up in House Of X and the Age Of Krakoa in 2019, as Professor Xavier established a mutant isolationist nation, welcoming mutants but not humans. Franklin is noted as an Omega-Level Mutant.

And the more recent X-Men/Fantastic Four series from 2020 saw them almost go to war over Franklin Richards and his wishes.

As potentially the most powerful mutant in the world. But one whose powers were waning.

A rapport was reached, but Reed Richards' study of the Krakoan gates was an ominous one.

In Fantastic Four #25, drawn by HOXPOX artist RB Silva, Franklin was doubling down with the mutant legend.

But during the big battle, Franklin seemed to use all his powers up.

One trip to the Krakoan gates later?

Nothing. An abandonment of a dream. An identity. A way of being. But with the Forever Gate, Franklin had a way to return to Krakoa. And in Fantastic Four #26, that abandonment gets underlined. And history is rewritten.

Franklin Richards is not a mutant. Never was a mutant. It was all Mutant Appropriation. And joins Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver and Squirrel Girl as Marvel characters who were mutants but who are no longer, from a time when Marvel Comics was deliberately dialling down the mutant on the orders of then Chairman Ike Perlmutter because Fox wouldn't play ball with the X-Men licenses with Marvel Studios. But that was then, Disney bought Fox, so all was well in the world…

It hit some readers harder than it might have otherwise. Franklin used his powers to make other people think he was a mutant, but he was never one. Which has been interpreted by some as an intentional slam on the trans experience. Fantastic Four writer Dan Slott tweeted out, "Marvel Comics is serialised storytelling. Every issue is a chapter in an ongoing tale. The story is always evolving and building. If characters keep standing on solid ground things get predictable. 'What just happened?!' is what gets readers to 'What's going to happen NEXT?!'" Of course, that was some time ago.

Looking back, X-Men writer Jonathan Hickman said "we would not have laid down the track we did in House of X and Powers of X and X-Men/Fantastic Four if we weren't planning on playing with that stuff–and who knows, we still might–but the truth is that Dan's story evolved. Which is kind of the larger point. Dan's the writer of the Fantastic Four. He gets to write the book. And I support him the same way I'd support Leah on hers or Zeb on his, and on and on. Velocity and volume make the job hard enough, and none of us have the time or energy to spare on pointless territorial disputes. And at the end of the day, you're talking about characters that have been around for over 50 years. It'll be fine."

Jordan White, former X-Men Senior Editor said "It is not an oversight that he is so prominently talked about in the first issue of House of X. Obviously, that's a character that Jonathan has spent a lot of time thinking about and caring about when he wrote Fantastic Four. So he was 100% going, yes, Franklin Richards is one of, if not the most powerful, mutants of all time. Obviously, he's going to be an important player in the history of mutantkind and in what happens on a species-wide level with them… Mister Sinister was talking about the fact that Franklin is the one omega-level mutant he doesn't have the DNA of yet and how he wants it… But again, as much as we wanted to use him because he's a mutant, he's clearly a Fantastic Four character. And they made the decision that I — sorry, guys, do not agree with — to make him not a mutant. And he's their character to do that with. And that's the direction they went. And as a result, he was not on the table for us anymore."

Tom Brevoort, current Senior X-Men Editor and also SVBP and Executive Editor of Marvel Comics, said, "It's something that we came up with together, though it's quite likely that I was the one who suggested it when the question came up. And that's likely a reflection of when I started reading the books. You see, for the first decade-plus of his existence as a character, Franklin wasn't ever referred to as a mutant at all. Rather, his powers were clearly a result of his parents having been altered by cosmic rays (plus the additional factor of the energy from Annihilus' Cosmic Control Rod that was necessary to ensure a safe birthing process.) Consequently, Franklin's powers manifested almost immediately, whereas mutants (at least up to that point) typically began to display their powers in puberty. It wasn't until the "Days of Future Past" storyline in UNCANNY X-MEN where an older Franklin was among the survivors in the dystopian future that people began to consider him a mutant. Thanks to its popularity, X-MEN tends to swallow up a lot of unrelated characters and concepts—Longshot and his cast, Captain Britain and his cast, etc. But especially with the rise of Krakoa and the change in the status of mutants worldwide, that presented some challenges to us on the Fantastic Four front. Specifically, we didn't think it made sense for Franklin to relocate to Krakoa, nor for him to be exempt from the laws of regular humans in the way the assorted X-Men characters were. So when the opportunity presented itself to separate church and state came up, we took it. I didn't really view it as anything other that reasserting the original status quo, but clearly some readers of a more recent vintage assigned it greater importance than that. But as I said at the start, that's kind of the luck of the draw. Somebody's got to wear the black hat, after all.."

Well, the upcoming DNX Fantastic Four/X-Men crossover event including the X-Virus, which kills people or turns them into mutants. Just as with the previous X-Men/Fantastic Four stories, will Franklin Richards' humanity or mutancy come up? It would be an easy way to make Franklin a mutant again ahead of the upcoming Avengers Doomsday movie, with both the Fantastic Four, the X-Men and Doctor Doom… you know, there's a petition to make the change still online, with twelve signatures. Might it get a burst of activity?

DNX #1 (OF 5)
Written by JED MACKAY
Art by FEDERICO VICENTINI
THE X-VIRUS UNLEASHED!
The X-Men and 3K. Each steered by an original heir of Xavier, each with their own vision for the mutant people. Each at one another's throats. Cyclops and the Chairman both experienced the future of the Age of Revelation and came home with a renewed mission: The X-Men to prevent that future. 3K to own it. While the X-Men seek out the Fantastic Four to help save one of their own, the White Beast begins his plan to unleash the X-Virus in a major population area! The debut issue will be the latest Marvel comic available in TRUE BELIEVERS BLIND BAGS, each containing an exclusive cover not available for regular ordering.On Sale 9/2

"The latest in the two legendary super team's history of iconic team-ups, DNX kicks off when the CHAIRMAN, the misguided original Hank McCoy, A.K.A. founding X-Man Beast, and his Machiavellian group of supervillains known as 3K prepare to unleash a virus that will forcibly—and horribly—transform humanity into mutants! This long-seeded plan, built up since the very beginning of MacKay's hit run, hits the Marvel Universe with seismic repercussions that not only impact MacKay's continuing work on the franchise, but upset the very balance between mutantkind and humanity as we know it!"

"DNX is the next big milestone event of our X-Men run," MacKay explained. "Age of Revelation showed the future, and DNX shows that future's impact on the present! The X-Men and 3K are on a collision course that has been set since issue one—and only one will survive. And with the Fantastic Four joining the fray, this is going to be an event that will transform the X-Men dramatically." "I'm so happy to be working on DNX," Vicentini shared. "I love what Jed is doing with X-Men, and I've been telling him for a long time that I wanted to work with him. Now the opportunity has arrived, and it's an even bigger challenge because I finally have the chance to work on the Fantastic Four too! I can't say anything about the plot, obviously, but I want you to know that I'm very excited about what we're doing, and I'm sure it'll be something you'll definitely want to read. That's how I feel both as the artist and as a fan!"

Or if not Franklin Richards, what about Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver? What about Squirrel Girl???

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