FRANKLIN RICHARDS

 

POWERHOUSE

Real Name: Franklin Benjamin Richards

First Appearance: Fantastic Four Annual (Vol. 1) #6, November 1968

Powers: Franklin Richards is the son of Reed and Sue Richards (aka Mr. Fantastic and the Invisible Woman of the Fantastic Four). The cosmic radiation which altered the Richards' genes to give them superhuman abilities resulted in the development of an x-gene in their son's genetic structure. As a result, Franklin was born a mutant and, unlike most mutants, manifested his powers during childhood.

Franklin possesses phenomenal potential for mental powers, including telepathy, telekinesis, and reality altering. Early occasions showed Franklin capable of atomizing living beings with explosive psionic force, bestowing superhuman physical and psionic powers on other people ("Ego-Spawn"), and aging himself and his powers to adulthood on a whim ("Avatar"). After this last incident, the adult Franklin returned himself to childhood, placing psionic dampeners on his own mind to keep his abilities in check until he reached adulthood. A small fragment of his powers still managed to manifest itself through the dampeners, though, and it was during this period of time that Franklin was a member of the Power Pack as Tattletale. He began receiving precognitive visions in his dreams, as his unconscious mind began playing out scenarios based on upcoming events. These dreams varied in intensity and accuracy, but always represented something that was going to happen in the near future. He could also project his "dream-self", similar to an astral form. Tattletale would project his consciousness as a psionic representation of his physical body, visible to the naked eye and indistinguishable from his normal appearance. His "dream-self" was intangible and could travel anywhere he could conceive of in an instant. His mind was still active in his body while his "dream-self" was out, though: He could send his psi-form out on reconnaissance, and physically report to others what his "dream-self" was perceiving at another location.

His other powers began to manifest themselves far more frequently, however, and Franklin's psionic potential was beginning to rage out of control. His grandfather, Nathaniel Richards, removed him from our timeline and raised him in a parallel reality, sending him back to the Fantastic Four the instant after he left, only now as a teenager. Franklin, now called Psi-Lord, had full access to and relatively good control over his telepathic and telekinetic powers now, capable of performing all the standard feats associated with those abilities (read minds, communicate psionically, control or alter thoughts and memories, create illusions, project psionic force blasts or fields, levitate himself and other forms of matter, etc). He also used wrist braces which allowed him to access a full suit of psi-sensitive armor, normally stored in a pocket dimension. This suit was equipped with psi-sensitive materials that could dampen his psi-energy to safe levels if he got out of control, and harness his powers to channel them safely without risking an overload. The suit also contained a series of sensors capable of detecting energy signatures, psionic activity, dimensional transits, etc. At one point, though, Franklin's powers began to manifest uncontrollably, creating a series of pseudo-independent counterparts: Tattletale, Ego-Spawn, and Avatar. Eventually, his alternate timeline son, Hyperstorm modified the timeline to return Franklin to his correct age, effectively undoing Psi-Lord's existence.

Often considered to be the most powerful mutant ever born, his reality altering power is such that he can create entire universes at will. He can control their growth, shape their physical laws, conjure new elements to the universe (as Onslaught did with Franklin's powers when he created a second sun in the sky). He hasn't demonstrated absolute power over life and death, however, other than nurturing the development of life in his pocket universes. So while there were many, many people created by Franklin to inhabit the Heroes Reborn universe, he hadn't shown the ability to individually wish them in and out of existence. His reality-altering mutant ability is universal and omega-level as he can manipulate matter and energy, laws of physics, and has demonstrated control over memory and history.