Meet Franklin & Valeria Richards, the Children of the Fantastic Four

The children of the Fantastic Four were destined to be special. After Mister Fantastic (Reed Richards) and the Invisible Woman (Susan Storm Richards) had a baby named Franklin, they raised him knowing he would become one of the most powerful beings in the universe. Then, when the Richards had a daughter named Valeria, they gave her the space she needed to become one of the world’s smartest people. 

Bound together by blood, love, and cosmic radiation, the Fantastic Four were Marvel’s First Family long before any of them had children—but with the lessons they learned from raising those two kids, the Fantastic Four went on to mentor a whole generation of geniuses with the Future Foundation. Now, let’s take a closer look at Franklin and Valeria Richards and break down how they grew up as part of the Fantastic Four, as seen in stories found on Marvel Unlimited!

FRANKLIN RICHARDS & THE FANTASTIC FOUR

Despite a few tense moments during her pregnancy, Sue gave birth to Franklin in FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL (1963) #6 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Franklin manifested his vast psychic powers when he was a toddler and—even though his nanny, Agatha Harkness, usually kept him away from battles—he began showing signs he had the potential to become one of the most powerful beings in the Marvel Universe. When Franklin’s immense power nearly overwhelmed him, Reed briefly put his son in a coma until his abilities became more manageable.

As he developed the ability to see the future, Franklin began hanging out with a group of young heroes called the Power Pack. After aging himself into adulthood and briefly becoming the villainous Avatar, Franklin spent some time training in the future with his time-traveling grandfather, Nathaniel Richards. He returned to the present day as the teenage Psi-Lord in FANTASTIC FOUR (1961) #376 by Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan and formed a team called Fantastic Force. Ultimately, Psi-Lord—who only used a fraction of Franklin’s full power—was replaced by his younger, adolescent self.

HOW POWERFUL IS FRANKLIN RICHARDS?

Before Franklin grew naturally into a teenager, he used his limitless Omega-level powers in several ways that reshaped the Multiverse. When the Fantastic Four and the Avengers seemingly died fighting a powerful villain called Onslaught, Franklin saved them by sending them into a pocket parallel universe called Counter-Earth he created in ONSLAUGHT: MARVEL UNIVERSE (1996) #1 by Scott Lobdell, Mark Waid, Adam Kubert, and Joe Bennett. After those heroes returned to Earth, Franklin also restored Galactus, another one of the universe’s most awesomely powerful cosmic beings. 

After the many worlds of the Multiverse crashed into each other and collapsed in the lead-up to SECRET WARS (2015), Franklin played a key role in rebuilding all of existence. With his family and a group of young geniuses called the Future Foundation, Franklin spent years traveling and creating new realities to restore the Multiverse. 

Having nearly exhausted his powers, Franklin returned to Earth, where he seemingly used up his remaining power to take on villains like the Griever at the End of All Things and the Cormorant. While everyone thought he had completely drained his powers, Franklin had just limited his knowledge and access to his powers to one day a year, as he revealed in FANTASTIC FOUR (2022) #18 by Ryan North and Carlos Gomez. With some understanding of how cosmically important he will become, Franklin imposed this limit on himself to spend time with his parents, his uncles, and his sister while he still could.

THE STRANGE BIRTH OF VALERIA RICHARDS

Before Valeria Richards was born, she was a teenage hero from another timeline. Valeria was conceived in an alternate dimension called the Negative Zone and emitted dangerous amounts of radiation while in the womb. Although Invisible Woman thought she lost the baby, Franklin subconsciously used his powers to send his unborn little sister to another reality, where she grew up with that world’s Susan Storm and a heroic Doctor Doom. 

As the teenage Marvel Girl, Valeria Von Doom fell into the Marvel Universe and was hesitantly embraced by the Fantastic Four after debuting in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #15 by Chris Claremont and Salvador Larroca. As she and Franklin extinguished their energy powers to save Galactus, Valeria returned to her embryonic state in her mother’s womb.

With some mystical help from Doctor Doom, Valeria Richards was born in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #54 by Carlos Pacheco, Rafael Marin, Karl Kesel, and Mark Bagley. After helping deliver her, Doom named Valeria after his first love and used the infant to mystically spy on the Fantastic Four, which set up a lasting connection between the pair. 

As Valeria grew into her adolescent years, she developed a vast intelligence that rivaled her father’s genius. Despite her age, Valeria quickly grew more intelligent than Reed, which cemented her as one of the smartest individuals in the Marvel Universe.

VALERIA AND THE FUTURE FOUNDATION

Even as a child, Valeria Richards emerged as a leader among the young geniuses of the Future Foundation. Frustrated by the world’s stagnating scientists, Reed Richards assembled the Future Foundation to think up innovative solutions for massive problems in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #578 by Jonathan Hickman and Dale Eaglesham. After developing a serum that restored the Thing’s human form once a year, the Future Foundation helped Doctor Doom recover his lost intelligence. As she took on some of Doom’s more deceptive qualities, Valeria brought her villainous godfather into the team to deal with threats like the Interdimensional Council of Reeds, a group of her father’s alternate reality counterparts. 

After facing Mad Celestials hellbent on destroying the universe, Valeria and the Future Foundation designed vessels that could survive the impending collapse of the Multiverse. Although the young team died in an Incursion, the Future Foundation’s ship saved Reed, who helped resurrect the young geniuses when he restored the universe. 

Valeria joined her parents, her brother, and the rest of the Future Foundation on a years-long mission to rebuild the dead worlds of the Multiverse. When she returned to Earth, Valeria took the codename Brainpower and helped her family face the Griever of All Things in FANTASTIC FOUR (2018) #2 by Dan Slott and Sara Pichelli.

FRANKLIN & VALERIA IN THE FUTURE

When the Future Foundation faced several existential threats, they got some help from adult versions of Franklin and Valeria, who stand as the ultimate testament to the Fantastic Four’s parenting skills. The adult Franklin Richards traveled to the modern Marvel Universe to restore his younger counterpart’s powers and warn the young Valeria about some upcoming events in FANTASTIC FOUR (1998) #574 by Jonathan Hickman and Neil Edwards. When Galactus fought a losing battle against the Mad Celestials, the adult Franklin and Valeria arrived in the present day, repowered Galactus, and helped defeat the rampaging cosmic entities. 

Although the adult Valeria warned her parents about trusting her younger self, the two Franklins got along well. The adult Richards children even stayed in the present day long enough to join the Future Foundation, giving Franklin time to explicitly tell Reed he was a great father, but these versions of Franklin and Valeria eventually had to leave. A similar version of Franklin survived until the end of reality and took his memories of his family’s love into the next universe.

THE FANTASTIC FOUR’S OTHER CHILDREN

Beyond the Richards kids, the Fantastic Four regularly help raise other children within the walls of the Baxter Building. Shortly after they got married, the Thing and Alicia Masters adopted two young alien children, the shape-shifting Skrull N’Kalla and the Kree Jo-Venn, who debuted in EMPYRE: FANTASTIC FOUR (2020) #0 by Dan Slott, R.B. Silva, and Sean Izaakse. During the brief time Ant-Man (Scott Lang) led the team, the Fantastic Four also watched over his daughter, Cassie Lang, and they even took in Doctor Doom’s young heir Kristoff Vernard for a time. 

The Fantastic Four also watched over the young members of the Future Foundation. Under the mentorship of a former child hero named Alex Power and the robotic Dragon Man, the Future Foundation brought the Richards kids together with four Moloids from the Mole Man’s kingdom, two Atlanteans, a young clone of the villainous Wizard named Bentley-23, and two young mutants named Artie and Leech. This group eventually grew to include other promising young recruits from the Inhumans and Wakanda. 

Between their time on Earth and in the Multiverse, the members of the Future Foundation spent several years growing up together. While they may not be biologically related to members of the Fantastic Four, the Future Foundation learned how to carry their legacy of discovery and exploration into the future and across the far reaches of the Multiverse.

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