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.
Certain figures within the Marvel Universe are on an entirely separate power-level than others. While Spider-Man, Captain America, and others are capable of amazing feats, they pale in comparison to the powers held by Earth's most powerful forces, including Franklin Richards, whose reality-warping powers have actually been weakening lately. But if they return, he'll take his place back as Earth's most potentially impressive power.
Now, we're taking a closer look at how powerful could Franklin Richards really become and how a grown-up version of the character proved strong enough to make Galactus his own herald.
Franklin Richards is one of the most powerful figures in the history of the Marvel Universe. The son of Mister Fantastic and Invisible Woman, Franklin has more power than both of them thanks to the cosmic energy permutating through them that grants them their abilities. His cosmic abilities allow Franklin to be almost unstoppable when fully unleashed, and can even be considered a reality-warping Omega-level mutant, most of the time. When fully unleashed, Franklin's powers can include telepathy, telekinesis, and energy projection -- among others. He's even created entire realities at times, such as when he constructed an entire secondary Earth so the heroes who were seemingly killed defeating Onslaught (including his family) were allowed to escape death.
In one reality (introduced in Fantastic Four #581 by Jonathan Hickman and Neil Edwards), a grown Franklin and Valeria worked together with their grandfather Nathaniel to travel into the past and change the future for the better -- outright influencing their younger counterparts and help fight against the Mad Celestials that were threatening the entire world. This was a good display of just how powerful Franklin can become, teaching the younger version of himself how not just to contain his powers but also how to let them flourish. This will eventually make Franklin powerful enough to perform the same impossible feats that his older version can -- the most impressive of which involved the world-devouring Galactus.
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During a battle against Mad Celestials from another reality, Galactus was called for aid by the Fantastic Four. Although he felled one Celestial, the others combined their power and were too much for Galactus to handle. But the fully-grown Franklin alone was able to turn the tide in Fantastic Four #604 by Jonathan Hickman and Steve Epting -- restoring Galactus and imbuing him with enough cosmic energy to stand up to the Celestials. This led to Galactus, famous for empowering figures with the Power Cosmic to become his heralds, briefly becoming the Herald for Franklin. Franklin Richards is perhaps the only Marvel character strong enough to perform such a feat -- and innocent enough to not try to keep that power any longer than he needs to, cementing a friendship between him and Galactus.
Last year, History of the Marvel Universe even confirmed that Franklin Richards is set to some day take the power of Galactus himself and become a being that causes a new Big Bang. Franklin's powers are some of the most powerful in the entire Marvel Multiverse, and it'll likely become a factor for the character again down the line. Even if his powers are seemingly drained by recent battles (and Galactus is dead at the hands of Thor), the future of the Marvel Universe will likely see Franklin achieve his full potential. If for nothing else, to keep that kind of power out of the hands of something like the One-Below-All, who has to kill Franklin to achieve pure dominance.
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