One of Marvel’s most famous Omega-Level mutants isn’t quite who they appear to be, and that revelation could change the X-Men’s world forever.
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.
Since his birth, Franklin Richards has been one of the Marvel Universe’s most powerful mutants. His reality-bending abilities potentially even made him the most powerful being in all of existence. However, that hasn’t been the case recently, as his powers have mysteriously started to short out. Despite the combined efforts of Mister Fantastic, Doctor Doom and the X-Men, the cause of Franklin’s dwindling mutant powers are a mystery.
And as Fantastic Four #26 reveals, Franklin Richards, one of the most potentially powerful of the Omega-Level mutants, isn’t actually a mutant at all, a detail that has cost Franklin his coveted place among the X-Men on the mutant homeland Krakoa.
Since using much of his internal power to salvage the post-Secret Wars Marvel Multiverse and barely escaping a conflict with the Griever, Franklin Richards and his reality-altering abilities have been running on fumes. Neither Reed Richards nor the mutant geniuses on Krakoa could uncover the true reason for this drop in power — at least not before he used up all of his remaining energy fighting against the Cormorant. This seems to have reverted Franklin to a base-line human, with the Krakoa Gate no longer recognizing him as a mutant and Professor X not allowing him to come back to the island nation.
After Valeria figures out the key to using the Forever Gate to reach across dimensions, Franklin quickly prepares to try and return to Krakoa. But he gets a telepathic message from Professor Charles Xavier — telling him not to do that. Xavier reveals that the true reason he and the rest of the mutants can’t figure out how to fix Franklin’s powers is that they’re not actually mutant powers. Thanks to the cosmic reality-altering aspects of his powers, a young Franklin Richards unknowingly altered the cells in his body to make it so he would have the X-Gene when he dreamed of being someone special.