WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #26 by Dan Slott, R.B. Silva, Jesus Aburov and VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
Many readers know Bucky Barnes as Captain America's plucky young sidekick who later returned as the deadly Winter Soldier. As long as the Marvel Universe has been around, this has remained a fairly consistent fact. However, the infamous '90s Heroes Reborn alternate reality introduced another version of the sidekick, Rikki Barnes, in a world that was created by Franklin Richards.
While both of these young heroes have been part of the main Marvel Universe for years, they just met face to face in Fantastic Four #26.
In this issue, the Future Foundation returns to Earth after years of traveling the cosmos and restoring the multiverse. This group includes Rikki, who immediately notices and greets the teenage Franklin. Rikki is noticeably excited to meet Franklin, explaining that she joined up with the foundation after he left.
More importantly, Rikki tells Franklin that he created her whole world. Rikki is practically speechless, telling the young hero all about how he created her friends, family and everything else in her life before thanking him. Franklin awkwardly says "You're welcome," before Rikki notes how weird the whole meeting is. Then again, Rikki notes, it's not every day that someone meets their "maker."
Indeed, Franklin didn't just create Rikki, he formed an entire universe. After the massive "Onslaught" crossover of 1996, the Avengers and the Fantastic Four had seemingly sacrificed their lives to save the world. In truth, Franklin subconsciously created a pocket dimension, where he transported all of these heroes.
This new world was called Counter-Earth, where the heroes lived parallel lives to their previous ones on Earth-616. Counter-Earth was largely similar to Earth-616, albeit with some differences in history, costume designs and a few other anomalies.
One major change to history was the existence of Rebecca Barnes, who debuted as Captain America's sidekick in Rob Liefeld and Jeph Loeb's Captain America run. This new character was the granddaughter of Richard and Peggy Barnes, good friends of Captain America during World War II. During the war, Cap was known to have a sidekick named, Bucky, just like on Earth-616. In the modern-day, however, Rikki suited up as the new Bucky. Rikki became Cap's new sidekick, teaming with Steve and the Falcon against foes like the Red Skull and his World Party, along with the Sons of The Serpent. When Galactus first arrived on Earth, Rikki even convinced the Silver Surfer to betray and stop his master.
After the heroes of Earth-616 returned to their universe, Rikki was eventually killed in action. Later, when Onslaught returned, Franklin escaped from the villain by creating a copy of Counter-Earth. Once Onslaught arrived there, the monster used Rikki as a vessel to return to Earth-616.
Unaware of Onslaught's presence, Rikki went on to fight crime on this new world. Rikki was also given the Nomad uniform by Black Widow. As Nomad, Rikkiworked with a group of heroes known as the Young Allies, which Rikki a solid base of friends and teammates. Eventually, however, Onslaught finally revealed himself, and Rikki forced her teammate, Gravity, to kill her so that the demonic entity couldn't escape.
After 2015's Secret Wars, Franklin and the Future Foundation ventured out to recreate the multiverse. A reborn Rikki Barnes later joined the Future Foundation in their mission, although this was after Franklin had returned to Earth.
Now, Barnes retains her memories of both her homeworld and her Marvel Universe adventures. Although Franklin is having difficulties with his powers now, Rikki stands as a living, breathing reminder of just how powerful Franklin Richards really is.