Reasons Why Franklin Richards Is The Most Nonsensical Marvel Character

Many people associate the beginning of the Marvel universe with the first issue of Fantastic Four released in 1961. At least at the onset, it seemed that the stories in Fantastic Four were happening in ‘real time,’ but slowly, time in the Marvel universe began to change, stretching and compressing and even fully reversing itself from time to time. And although many comic book fans have identified how difficult it is to resolve the sheer number of happenings with the in-universe explanations of how long the characters have been around, or to what extent to their powers affect the world they live in, no character has posed more preposterous conundrums than the perpetually young son of Mr. Fantastic and The Invisible Woman. Here are eight reasons why Franklin Richards is the most nonsensical Marvel character ever conceived.

8. He Should Be Much Older By Now

Since comic book issues for ongoing titles only come out about once a month, it makes sense that the time experienced by the characters between the pages moves a lot slower than it does in real life. However, most characters (especially young ones) still exhibit signs of aging and life progression as the years roll on. For example, Peter Parker evolved before readers’ eyes from an insecure high school bookworm to an overworked university stud muffin that juggles multiple girls—he even got married eventually. And the X-Men’s Kitty Pryde was first introduced as being 13 years old girl in 1980, but now appears to be at least in her mid 20s. Franklin Richards, on the other hand, is a different story. He makes his first appearance as a baby in Fantastic Four Annual #6, released in 1968, and things start off okay as Franklin is aged up to a toddler by the time his mutant powers begin to manifest in Fantastic Four #130 (released in 1973). But since then, his child-like appearance hasn’t changed very much at all, despite the fact that he’s been around for 87 percent of Fantastic Four‘s publication history and should probably be at least 25 in comic years at this point.