Having superheroes around means that birthdays can be very interesting and potentially hazardous.
FANTASTIC FOUR #574
Publisher: Marvel
Writer: Jonathan Hickman
Penciler: Neil Edwards
Inkers: Andrew Currie
Colorist: Paul Mounts
Letterer: VC’s Rus Wooton
Cover artists: Alan Davis, Mark Farmer and Javier Rodriguez
Summary: All the Marvel cool kids show up at the bestest birthday party ever! We got X-kids, Power Pack, and Spider-Man in the house as Franklin celebrates his birthday!. Who cuts the cake? Who brings the best present? And who’s the special guest of honor? It’s Days of Future Franklin!
Review: The issue is subtitled, “Days of Future Franklin” and it takes place on young Franklin Richard’s birthday. The best and brightest of the young superhero generation is present to share in Franklin’s special day.
This particular issue might be considered a bit of comic book fluff but look at it from a different perspective and see that it’s more appealing to find the differences in it a refreshing change from all things dark and brooding in most stories on shelves today. The Fantastic family is loving and surrounded by supportive friends. The children get embarrassed by their parents just like regular children. The difference is that superhuman intelligence and special powers makes things a bit twisted and surreal.
Val certainly inherited her father Reed’s brain power but she also has intuition that her scientist father will never have; he doesn’t take action based on gut instinct but she Val just seems to know things without evidence being in front of her. This comes out when an uninvited visitor shows up to the Baxter Building and manages to create a shield none of the F4 can permeate. The tall blond stranger gets Val alone and in an almost word-for-word copy of the Terminator’s speech to young John Connor, the stranger delivers a deadly serious message from the future. Cryptically, the speech ends with, “…and all hope lies in Doom.”
Issue #574 also gives readers a glimpse at just how powerful Franklin Richards is even as a young boy. He’s able to create universes! Think about it. That makes him a god, does it not? He’s a creator, a prime motivator, a catalyst that changes matter. He is perhaps the most powerful character in the Marvel U. Sure Galactus can eat planets but he doesn’t fart out a solar system when he’s done. Other little boys play god when they burn ants with magnifying glasses, but Franklin can truly make and destroy existence. It’ll take some unbelievably stellar parenting skills for him not to become a psychopath or sociopath or despot.
When you need a break from the blood splatters of The Walking Dead or the angst of Blackest Night, pick up a more colorful old fashioned science fiction book like Fantastic Four. Get your geek on by dreaming of temporal anomalies and the choice you might have to make by partnering with your arch-rival to save the world.
January 2nd, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Great review! Did Franklin Richards ever grow up? He’s always a kid?
January 5th, 2010 at 9:03 pm
Franklin did grow up (via time travel) for a while around the 400s of the series, then they had Onslaught and the continuity got REALLY confusing