In response to yesterday's post, an anonymous commenter contemplated what it would be like to find out that Civil War is the result of Franklin Richards wanting to have his action figures fight each other.
My first instinct was to make a glib response to the effect that Franklin would do a better job of portraying the heroes in character. But then I started to think about it. What's Reed been doing? He's been focusing on building his prison, and trying to make people conform to the law. In the process, he's been distant towards his family, and he seems more interested in how awesome building a prison in the Negative Zone is, than the fact the people he's putting in it were his friends and allies. Reed has a history of not paying enough attention to his family, of getting buried in the tests tubes and weird, other dimensional energy fields. It isn't because he doesn't care about his wife and kids, he just forgets to show it. His big brain gets on a track towards some astounding new invention, and the rest of his life just fades out. It's not intentional, but his young son might not realize that. He sees Dad spending all his time in the lab, and sure he comes out every once in a while with a new toy for Franklin, but he doesn't spend any time showing Franklin how to use it, or playing with it with him. All of which could make him come off kind of poorly in his son's eyes.
Then there's Tony Stark. I doubt that Franklin has interacted much with Tony Stark, but he's probably seen Iron Man a bit. And what is Iron Man? It's a guy in a big, really powerful suit of armor, that tends to shoot people (or robots) with energy from his palms. I'd imagine that Stark employs voice modulating software, and I doubt Iron Man sounds all that friendly. He probably sounds angry, and a bit scary to a small kid.
And wasn't Captain America the guy leading the heroes into their final battle with Onslaught, the one that lead to the Heroes Reborn world? If that's the case(I've no idea if it is, but it seems likely) Captain America helped take away Franklin's family for, well, however long they were gone. He was so gung-ho to save the day, he sacrificed himself, and a lot of other people for the cause. Sounds a bit like Fanatic Cap that popped up in CW #4.
As for Peter unmasking, well, he gets along pretty well with Reed, so Franklin might put him on Dad's side, and who knows, maybe Franklin was around the day Reed and Johnny helped Peter with the symbiote, and caught a glimpse of his face.. It wouldn't explain how he knew Pete's name, but the kid has reality-warping powers, people have figured out his identity with less.
I can't explain Clone Thor killing Bill Foster, or why the New Warriors became cannon fodder, or why Franklin would have a bunch of schoolkids die in the process, but no hypothesis is perfect. Still credit to the anonymous commenter for the clever idea.
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8 comments:
Franklins powers are limited by blocks in his mind but he can alter reality so I doubt anythings really much more then a temporary solution.
And if your theory holds true it can be explained ala HoM. Wanda gave certain people certain wishes and then the rest of the world fit itself around those changes.
Franklin could just have been making his mommy and daddy figures fight and then his powers caused it to happen in a way that was going to gaurentee it.
Surely not even Marvel are so creatively defunct to repeat House of M barely two years later?
If Civil Bore does turn out to be a mind-control plot, it's going to be Onslaught, as they've got to be launching his series off the back of something.
I hadn't thought about this until you mentioned it in this post, but Franklin might very well know that Peter is Spider-Man (well, he does now, butt I meana before). When the Four were looking afer the symbiote (after removing it from Spidey), Franklin shared a "moment" witht it. It tried to hypnotise him in order to free it, and briefly touched his mind, before recoiling in fear. I think the immediate fallout from that was the loss of the original set of psychic blocks on his powers, but since the symbiote knew who Peter was (and was obsessed with him at the time, this being pre-Venom), perhaps Franklin could have picked up on that when their minds were joined.
mallet: Good point. I think it's going to wind up that fans blame Wanda for anything they weird or nonsensical the next few years.
She's marvel's version of Superboy-Prime retcon punches!
kelvin: Ugh, Onslaught. I've been trying real hard to not think about his immenent return.
And that thought about the symbiote giving the identity away is an interesting one. I hadn't considered if might have slipped up like that.
Actually, Franklin knowing about Pete is in continuity now IIRC. In the recent Spider-Man/Human Torch mini (which was excellent btw), the entire FF family found out about Peter Parker and they've been having annual dinners or something for a while now based on it's last issue (again...IIRC)
With that in mind, Franklin could easily know Peter's identity. Neat hypothesis though, had really not thought about it, and it probably isn't it, but good thinking anyway.
I'm not buying it, because no way would Franklin influence Ben Grimm to drop out of the conflict and bury his head in the sand. Franklin idolizes Ben, and unlike the Reed scenario, Ben's done nothing to make Franklin feel like he's being pushed away. Ben would probably be the hero of a Franklin-created Civil War, not the conscitenious objector. (To a lesser extent, Johnny would also step to the forefront). Put the Thing in Captain America's position in the story and I might see it, but I can't find it likely this way.
Besides, they keep on forcing "real world situation" down our throats, and to undo it by Dr. Strange or Franklin Richards messing about with the fabric of reality would be a big cheatypants of a finale.
My God! It all makes sense now! Either that or Quesada & Millar are really clones.
zeb: I wasn't aware that story was in continuity. Good to know.
bully: Yeah, Ben's actions are one of those things that doesn't synch up.
Unless Franklin is extraordinarily mature and sees being a conscientious objector as a truly wise action.
Naw, I can't see it either.
hale; If Quesada and Millar are clones, then we need to find the person who cloned them, and hurt that person. Like one Joey Q isn't bad enough...
rember doom took franklin to hell....maybe that plus reeds lack of love..plus him bein trapped in the body of a 4 yr old ...made him snap!! plus if frank was doing it all..hes homies in power pack would show up by now.....
and a side note..isnt it funny how julie powers is big (in exslisor/runnyaways/loners)
but franklin is the same age......i hope one day they show the rest of them power kids and their true age as of now. i think franklin is the reason they havent aged..you cant age him with out aging reed an sue.....since he rolls with power pack they to have been trapped in the age except for julie. weird
gabesummers
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