FRANKLIN RICHARDS
(from Earth-691)
Real Name: Franklin Benjamin Richards
Identity/Class: Alternate timeline (Reality-691) human mutant (or possibly a Cosmic Being?; see comments) (20th-21st centuries)
Occupation: Resistance fighter (against the Martian invaders)
previously a child
Group Membership: Unrevealed (possibly the Fantastic Four)
Affiliations: Captain America (Steve Rogers), Doctor Doom (Victor Von Doom),
Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd);
The Fantastic Four
Enemies: The "Martian Masters" and their forces
Known Relatives: Reed Richards (a.k.a. Mister Fantastic, father, presumed
deceased), Susan Storm Richards (a.k.a. the Invisible Girl, mother, presumed deceased), Jonathan "Johnny"
Storm (a.k.a. the Human Torch, maternal uncle, presumed deceased);
Nathaniel Richards (paternal grandfather,
deceased), Evelyn Richards (paternal grandmother, deceased);
Franklin Storm (maternal grandfather,
deceased), Mary Storm (maternal grandmother, deceased);
John Richards (paternal great-grandfather,
deceased), Laura Richards (paternal great-grandmother, deceased);
Benjamin Jacob Grimm (a.k.a. the
Thing, godfather, presumed deceased), Alicia Masters (godmother, presumed deceased);
possibly Valeria Meghan Richards (sister), Jonathan Raven (a.k.a.
Killraven, son) (see comments)
Aliases: Unrevealed
Base of Operations: Baxter Building, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States of America, Earth-691
First Appearance: Guardians of the Galaxy I#24 (May, 1992)
Powers/Abilities: Franklin Richards was a mutant because his parents had been
mutated by cosmic radiation before he was even conceived. However, while his mutant powers were presumably
both vast and psionic in nature, exactly what abilities he possessed has never been revealed (see comments).
Height: 6' (vague estimate)
Weight: Unrevealed
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blond
History: The life of the Franklin Richards who existed in Reality-691 is presumed to be similar (but probably not identical) to that of his Reality-616 counterpart. However, since the divergence point for those two timelines occurred long before his birth, the commonality of their shared history is only presumptive and so most of that history will not be detailed here. However, several exceptions to this choice are included below:
(Fantastic Four I#50 / Marvel Presents#8 (fb)/Guardians of the Galaxy I#24 (fb)) - After having led Galactus to Earth and then been convinced by Alicia Masters to help save the planet, the Silver Surfer (Norrin Radd) rebelled against his master and attacked Galactus. The Surfer's actions helped the Fantastic Four to save humanity from Galactus. As punishment for his betrayal, Galactus trapped the Surfer on Earth.
(Silver Surfer I#2 / Marvel Presents#8 (fb)) - When the Brotherhood of Badoon made their first attempt to conquer Earth, opposition by the Silver Surfer, the only being able to perceive them despite their use of an aura of invisibility, led to events that compelled the Badoon to flee from Earth in the mistaken belief that the humans were somehow able to see them.
(Fantastic Four Annual I#6) <1968 A.D.> (topical date)- After experiencing some serious complications, Susan Richards gave birth to her first child, a son fathered by her husband, Reed Richards.
(Fantastic Four I#94) - Reed and Susan Richards named their son Franklin Benjamin Richards.
(Fantastic Four I#244 / Guardians of the Galaxy I#24 (fb) - BTS) - During a subsequent visit to Earth, Galactus chose an Earth woman named Frances "Frankie" Raye to serve as his new herald and transformed her into Nova. This new herald would faithfully serve Galactus for over five hundred years.
(Silver Surfer III#1 / Guardians of the Galaxy I#24 (fb) - BTS) - With help from the Fantastic Four, the Silver Surfer was finally able to escape from Earth. Then, as a reward for saving Nova from the Skrulls who had captured her, the Silver Surfer won a pardon from Galactus and would no longer be affected by the barrier that Galactus had placed around Earth.
(conjecture) - As the years passed, Franklin Richards grew up to become a young man. His powers also manifested and he may have become a member of the Fantastic Four. (see comments)
(Guardians of the Galaxy I#9 (fb) / Galactic Guardians#1/2 (fb) - BTS) <"As the twentieth century drew to a close"> - Anti-mutant paranoia ran rampant and a decree was passed against the mutants. In response, the Controllers(?) sent an army of upgraded Sentinel robots to obliterate them. Many mutants were killed before Magneto gathered some (or many or all) of the surviving mutants and offered to lead them from their mother-world to a safe haven in the stars. Most of the mutants decided to go with him but some, those whose ties to their mother-world were too strong to sever, refused.
(Galactic Guardians#1/2 (fb)) - The Sentinels were ultimately laid to rest in a watery grave by Prince Namor of Atlantis.
(Guardians of the Galaxy I#2 (fb)/Guardians of the Galaxy I#6 (fb) - BTS) <"In the dawning years of the 21st century" and "some years" after the mutants had left> - Earth was unexpectedly and savagely attacked by its nearest planetary neighbor, Mars. Although Earth's many super-beings fought valiantly, it was the end of their era--and they fought in vain!
(Guardians of the Galaxy I#24 (fb)) - At some point during this great War of the Worlds, an adult Franklin Richards (wearing a Fantastic Four uniform) stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Captain America, Dr. Doom and the Silver Surfer against the Martians.
(Guardians of the Galaxy I#24 (fb) / Guardians of the Galaxy I#62 (fb) - BTS) - After Eon (actually the real Eon's evil son, Era) convinced him that it was Earth's destiny to be conquered, the Silver Surfer quit the conflict, but his conscience was plagued by guilt. Centuries later, Norrin Radd would begin calling himself the Keeper.
(Guardians of the Galaxy I#6 (fb) - BTS / Guardians of the Galaxy I#50/2 (fb)) - Captain America led several desperate guerrilla raids against the Martians which ultimately resulted in his death. His indestructible shield was removed from Earth by Doctor Doom, allegedly because he felt that Captain America was too worthy a man to allow the shield to fall into the hands of Earth's conquerors, and it somehow ended up on the computerized world called Klatuu.
What happened to Franklin Richards has never been revealed.
Comments: Created by Jim Valentino and Steve Montano.
Based on the original Franklin Richards created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and Joe
Sinnott.
This profile's main image is the only appearance that the Earth-691 Franklin Richards has so far made in any published Marvel story. Since this image also contains what little information has been revealed about this Franklin, I have had to use some judiciously-applied conjecture in order to flesh this profile out a bit. However, there is something about this Franklin that writer Jim Valentino had planned to revealed in Guardians of the Galaxy I#35-36, but his run on the book was cut short when he was relieved of his duties on the series by editor Craig Anderson, and by issue #29 he had been replaced as writer by Michael Gallagher. Unfortunately, this idea has only been mentioned in a posting that Mr. Valentino made in 2005 which included a breakdown of what would have happened had he remained, as he had planned, until issue #50 and finished out his story. This massive revelation cannot be considered canon because it was never published and so I have not included it in Franklin's history, but it's fair game for a Comments section, so I'm including a summarized version of what Mr. Valentino had planned to reveal here:
(Planned Valentino story) - Over a year before the Martians invaded Earth, Franklin Richards had a sexual relationship with a woman named Maureen Raven who became pregnant with their son, Jonathan. No other details about Franklin's relationship with Maureen have ever been revealed.
(Amazing Adventures II#30 (fb) - BTS) <2000 A.D. (or in the year before the Martian invasion)> - Maureen Raven gave birth to her first child, a son who was named Jonathan Raven.
(Planned Valentino story) - When the Martians invaded Earth, they used a virus to infect Earth’s super-heroes. Whether the virus merely disabled or depowered those heroes who possessed superhuman powers or outright killed them has not been revealed. How Franklin avoided being infected has also not been revealed.
(Amazing Adventures II#18 (fb) - BTS / Amazing Adventures II#30 (fb) - BTS) - In the fifth year after the invasion, Maureen Raven gave birth to a second son who she named Joshua Raven.
(Amazing Adventures II#18 (fb) - BTS / Amazing Adventures II#30 (fb) - BTS) <2006 A.D. (or in the fifth year after the invasion)> - While hiding on New York City's Welfare Island, Maureen Raven, her two sons and Dr. Ann Carver were found by humans in a helicopter. Assuming that this meant that the Martians must have been driven back, Carver and the Ravens approached the three men, believing that they had been saved. However, the trio actually served the Martians and the leader, Dr. Raker, ordered Saunders to kill the women but to be careful not to harm the children, and that's what he did. Raker took the older boy, Jonathan, to be trained as a gladiator who would fight and kill for the pleasure of the Martian Masters. During this time, Jonathan was given the nickname "Killraven" which became his official gladiatorial name.
(Amazing Adventures II#18 (fb) - BTS / Amazing Adventures II#30 (fb) - BTS) - Although Jonathan believed that his brother had been killed along with their mother and Dr. Carver, Saunders had actually refused to kill Joshua because he was just a kid. Saunders ending up taking Joshua who was trained to be his understudy as an Exterminator. Joshua was eventually given the codename Deathraven.
(Planned Valentino story) - Less than sixty years after the Martian invasion, the giant vessel Drydock arrived on Earth-691 after having hit a time rift while travelling back to the 31st century from their most recent visit to 20th century Earth-616. The Guardians then met Killraven, a man now in his fifties, who was a warrior without a war. The Martians had been defeated, the Freemen had disbanded and Killraven had found himself wandering aimlessly. Killraven gave the Guardians the full story of what happened to Earth’s super-heroes during the invasion. Finding himself attracted to Yellowjacket (and she to him), Killraven joined the team, returning with the Guardians to the far future.
Somewhere in this two-part story, it was Mr. Valentino's plan to have it revealed that Jon Raven was actually the son of Franklin Richards, "thus tying his legacy to Marvel’s first family." Mr. Valentino wasn't sure if "they" would have let him bend things that far, but he would have given it a shot. Based on what little was mentioned in that posting, it isn't clear if the familial link between Franklin Richards and Jon Raven is something that would have been discovered by the Guardians or if it was something that would only have been revealed to the readers.
Wow. Although I started this profile almost six months ago, I've only just now realized that Jonathan Raven could have been named after his great-uncle, Jonathan "Johnny" Storm. It was only a few years after Valentino's planned story would have been published that Hyperstorm was revealed to be the son of another Franklin Richards and his real name was established as being Jonathan Reed Richards.
As you can see, the scarcity of available information makes it difficult
to provide a detailed summary since it leaves so many questions unanswered. Here's a list:
Along with Jonathan Raven, I've listed Valeria Meghan Richards as a possible relative because she was only born as the result of a rather convoluted series of events, and I'm unsure of those events could have occurred in the Earth-691 timeline.
Since Jim Valentino was planning on writing a two-issue "Amazing Adventures" storyline for Guardians of the Galaxy I#35-36 that would have revealed the full story of what happened to Earth's super-heroes during the War of the Worlds, he was quite careful about what he did reveal in those issues that he did get to write. In total, only seven characters whose Earth-616 counterparts were alive in the then-present-day mainstream MU were shown or stated to have participated in the war: Iron Man (Tony Stark), Captain America (Steve Rogers), Doctor Doom, the Vision, Wonder Man/Hollywood (Simon Williams), the Silver Surfer, and Franklin Richards. Out of those seven, two (Iron Man and Captain America) died fighting the Martians, and four of the other five survived until the 31st century. Only the fate of the seventh, Franklin, has never been revealed.
It's worth noting that two of those seven wore armor that concealed their bodies (and thus their ages) and four possessed extended lifespans that kept them looking younger than they would have if they had been normal humans. This is consistent with Mr. Valentino's idea that Earth-691 was subject to the same sliding timescale as Earth-616 and that, when he was writing GOTG from 1990 to 1992, the Martian invasion that had originally occurred in 2001 would have been pushed almost two decades further into the future.
Chronological considerations
By the time this Franklin Richards first appeared, the timeline now
known as Earth-691 had been in existence for over twenty years. However, it had undergone a lot of
revision over the course of those years.
The Guardians of the Galaxy concept first appeared in Marvel Super-Heroes II#18 (January, 1969). "Earth Shall Overcome!" introduced the Guardians and the future era in which they lived. However, aside from the Badoon, the story didn't include any references to characters who had ever appeared in any of the comics that Marvel had published. Also, only two dates were mentioned in the story: the year 1988, when Major Vance Astro's starship was launched, and the year 3007, when Astro and Yondu were brought as prisoners to the planet Earth which had recently been conquered by the Badoon Empire. There was absolutely no indication that this future Earth was in any way connected to Marvel's present-day Earth with its many costumed super-heroes and super-villains.
The concept of the second War of the Worlds first appeared in Amazing Adventures II#18 (May, 1973). "The War of the Worlds!" introduced the character of Killraven and his future Earth of the year 2018 A.D., a planet which had been conquered by the Martians in 2001 A.D. after their earlier invasion in 1901 A.D. had failed. As with the Guardians, no connection to the world of Marvel's super-heroes was initially established. In fact, when a reader of the first story wrote in to ask what had happened to all the superheroes, the editorial reply in Amazing Adventures II#20 was that that they "tend(ed) to think that WAR OF THE WORLDS takes place outside the Conventional Marvel Universe, that it's one of many possible futures mankind could have in store." The reply went on to say that "even if it did / does / will occur along the same time continuum as the present-day Marvel superheroes," the readers had to remember that it was happening almost fifty years from now — which would put Reed Richards in his mid-eighties, Daredevil in his late seventies, and even Spider-Man would be comfortably on the Medicare rolls. This would seem to establish that, if WotW was a possible future of Marvel-Earth, then the Martian invasion of 2001 was locked in as occurring 28 years in the future from the present-day MU. This would be an important consideration to remember once the sliding timescale was adopted.
As 1974 began, the Guardians of the Galaxy and Killraven existed in two separate futures, neither of which had been definitively linked to the present-day Marvel Universe. That began to change when the Guardians made their second appearance in Marvel Two-In-One I#4-5 (July-September, 1974). "Seven Against the Empire!" had Major Vance Astro meet his boyhood idol, Captain America, whom he'd seen in action once in 1972, for the first time when Cap, the Thing and Sharon Carter traveled to the year 3014 A.D. to investigate the Badoon conquest of Earth. Aside from the fact that it seemingly established that the GOTG future was one of the present-day MU's possible futures, this story also preserved the chronology from the first GOTG story, with Astro revealing that he had been born in 1962 and had left Earth in 1988. Of course, Astro also mentioned how Cap had been "released from that iceberg back in 1964," thereby showing that the sliding timescale hadn't yet been adopted.
The integration of the timelines continued in the next year, when the Guardians, who had time-traveled from 3015 A.D. to the present-day MU, met the Defenders and Vance's younger self, the 13-year-old Vance Astrovik, in Defenders I#26 (August, 1975). "Savage Time!" contained a history lesson about the Guardians' timeline, as told by "the major" to his unwitting younger self. As with the MTIO story, it preserved the 1988 date that Astro's ship was launched into space, but it also incorporated the 2001 Martian invasion and the later revolt led by Killraven and his Freeman into the GOTG chronology. When young Vance, who had not been told that the aliens were actually from the future, became upset that the negative things that had happened in the history of the major's planet could happen on Earth too, the major comforted him, admitting that they could happen but that no world's future was predestined and only the past was absolute. As the major stated, he couldn't change the history of his world, but Vance could alter the shape of things to come, and that would be true even if Vance's future were the major's past. This story seemingly confirmed that the Guardians' timeline was one possible future of the present-day MU.
In 1976, Marvel published two comics which hinted at connections
between Killraven's world and the present-day MU, both of which were written by Bill Mantlo. In the
first story, Spider-Man met Killraven in Marvel Team-Up I#45 (May, 1976). "Future Shock!" was a time
travel story in which a malfunctioning time machine caused Spider-Man's return to his own time (from
the Salem Witch Trials) to overshoot and take him to a devastated future where he met Killraven. After
the two teamed up to save themselves from three Martian tripods, Killraven revealed to Spider-Man that
it was the year 2019, just eighteen years since the second Martian invasion of Earth. When Spidey was
overcome with despair after finding out that he, the people he loved and his world were all going to
be ground into paste by the Martians in less than thirty years, Killraven pointed out that, while he
mourned a lost past and Spider-Man was mourning a shattered future, neither of them really knew if
one was related to the other.
This was the first Killraven story that I'd ever read and I rather liked it. It
was also read by a fan from Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In a letter published in Marvel Team-Up I#49, this
Mark Gruenwald wrote that Spider-Man shouldn't have been concerned about the Martians. Mr. Gruenwald
argued that Killraven's world of 2019 couldn't possibly be in Spider-Man's future because Marvel-Earth
was NOT in Killraven's past. He came to this conclusion because he found it highly improbable that
the Martians had attacked Marvel-Earth in 1900 because such a momentous event would have definitely
had an effect on the reality of Marvel-Earth that would have kept it from being as it was depicted
in various stories set in the '30s (Doc Savage), the '40s (Invaders) and the '60s (Fantastic Four).
He also that found it improbable that "the inception of the mass super-hero population of the '70s
wouldn't have found some way to stem a possible Martian invasion before it could occur."
The second story was published a few months later in Amazing Adventures II#38 (September, 1976). "Deaths Dark Dreamer!" was a fill-in story in which Killraven visited the Miami Museum of Cultural Development and became caught up in a nightmare projected from the mind of a sleeping astronaut during which he encountered physical manifestations of super-heroes from the dreamer's youth. However, although it was stated that the astronaut had once encountered the real Man-Thing during a training mission in the Florida Everglades, the story doesn't make it clear if the other characters Killraven encountered were drawn from the astronaut's memories of real super-heroes who were active during his youth or if they were from memories of "myths" about whom he had read (in comic books?) when he was a boy.
The next significant revelation occurred in Marvel Two-In-One I#69
(November, 1980). "Homecoming!" showed what happened when Major Vance Astro contacted his 16-year-old
self, Vance Astrovik, in an attempt to alter his own past so that he never became an astronaut and thus
would avoid the thousand years of misery that the major had experienced. Although the Thing warned him
that trying to change his own past would only create an alternate timeline, Astro insisted on trying
anyway, and, due to a situation caused by his meeting his past self, Astro was forced to trigger young
Vance's latent mutant psionic powers so that they manifested centuries earlier than they did for him.
Although he hadn't managed to change his own past, Astro was still happy because he knew that, in at
least one timeline, Vance Astrovik would not grow up to become a Guardian. Marvel Comics would later
begin claiming that this was the event that caused Earth-691 to diverge from Earth-616, as mentioned
in footnotes in a number of issues of the first Guardians of the Galaxy series.
However, this idea has
been disproven by later stories which have revealed the existence of differences in the histories of
these two timelines that predate this supposed divergence point by decades, if not centuries.
Ten years later, in 1990, the first Guardians of the Galaxy series debuted. As mentioned above, it was initially written by Jim Valentino who, having plans to reveal the true story of the War of the Worlds at a later point in his run, restricted the number of contemporary Marvel characters who appeared in his stories. The large number of mutants who made a cameo appearance in one issue were an exception because they were all shown leaving Earth before the invasion. Mr. Valentino's belief that Earth-691 and Earth-616 were both affected by the sliding timescale was made manifest when he retold the team's origin in Guardians of the Galaxy I#26 (July, 1992). "The (Secret) Origin of the Guardians of the Galaxy" not only revealed (to the readers) that Starhawk had secretly manipulated events to ensure the team's formation, it also accommodated the sliding timescale concept by changing the launch date of Astro's spacecraft from 1988 to "early in the twenty-first century." This change also pushed the Martian invasion of 2001 at least thirteen years into the future, making 2014 the earliest possible date for the invasion.
However, for better or for worse, the writer who took over after Jim Valentino was removed, Michael Gallagher, did not believe that the sliding timescale applied to Earth-691. As a result, not only did he write stories in which the Martian invasion still occurred in 2001, those WotW stories included contemporary Marvel characters who looked identical to how their Earth-616 counterparts were then being presented in the comics of the time.
Since the first Guardians of the Galaxy series ended in 1995, I don't believe that there have been any confirmed appearances by the original GOTG team in Marvel comics. Instead, their name was co-opted by a new GOTG team that formed in 2008 and were native to Earth-616, so their stories provided no new information about Earth-691. However, although the original GOTG haven't been seen, Killraven has actually made a fair number of appearances since his graphic novel was published in 1983. A number of these newer stories feature Killraven having adventures away from Earth-691. Other KR stories are set on Earth-691 but also seem to be fairly inconsequential, either cameos or stories by writers who chose to use Earth-691 more because it served as a suitably exotic location for a story they wanted to tell.
Out of all the KR stories published since 1983, only three of them seem to have been meant to have an impact on Earth-691. The first is the Killraven one-shot from 2000 which I rather like but am not sure really fits into pre-established KR continuity. The second story is Marvel Zombies 5#2 which supposedly reveals why the Martians abandoned Earth in 2020 but which I absolutely detest and hope will be removed from continuity because of that reason and the way that it totally butchers Killraven's character. And that leaves the third story which is the most recent one.
Spider-Man Unlimited Infinity Comic#6 (October, 2023) is part of a 12-part storyline in which two Spider-Men are pursuing the Spot across timelines trying to prevent him from killing his alternate selves. "On the Spot, Chapter 6" has them arrive on Earth-691 where they find the alternate Spot is already dead. They are then attacked by a Skorpsman who is killed by Killraven who recognizes the Spider-Man he met back in Marvel Team-Up I#45. Given that the Spot can only travel across time, this is meant to be Earth-691 in the year 2023. I like this story for two reasons. First, the fact that Killraven's war against the Martian Overlords is going well but hasn't yet been won implies that the war didn't actually end in 2020, as was claimed in that story that I detest. Second, the fact that the 616 Spider-Man tells the 1048 Spider-Man that "Earth was invaded in 2001 here" would seem to firmly establish that Earth-691 really isn't subject to a sliding timescale. Of course, it's a bit odd that the 616 Peter Parker didn't seem to notice any discrepancy between having had to travel over forty years into the future to meet Killraven in 2019 but only having to travel between timelines to meet KR in 2023.
The following table lists some events from Earth-691's history and provides some possible dates for when they would have occurred relative to the "present" of Marvel comics published in certain years, assuming that Earth-616 and Earth-691 were both affected by the sliding timescale. Years listed in quotation marks are years of publication and just represent whatever the present year was in those stories.
Event
Source material
Original date
Relative to "1975"
Relative to "1990"
Notes
First Martian invasion
Amazing Adventures II#18
1901 A.D.
same (pre-sliding timescale)
same (pre-sliding timescale)
did not occur on Earth-616
Birth of Vance Astrovik
Marvel Two-In-One I#5
July 3, 1962
Vance is 13 years old*
Vance would be 16 years old
*as established in Giant-Size Defenders#5
Captain America released from iceberg
Avengers I#4
1964*
10 years ago
13 years ago
*as mentioned in Marvel Two-In-One#5 (1974)
Galactus!
Fantastic Four I#50
"1966"
???
???
Marvel Presents#8 shows Vance remembers this
Badoon invasion attempt
Silver Surfer I#2
"1968"
???
???
Marvel Presents#8 shows Vance remembers this
Vance sees Cap in action
Marvel Two-In-One#5
1972
3 years ago
6 years ago?
event probably happened in both timelines
Vance learns future history (memory erased by Dr. Strange)
Defenders I#26
1975
STARTING POINT
3 years ago?
event only happened on Earth-616
Major Astro activated Vance Astrovik's mutant powers
Marvel Two-In-One I#69
"1980" (published)
1 year in the future?
2-3 years ago?
event happened on Earth-616 – alleged divergence point
Frankie Raye becomes a Herald of Galactus
Fantastic Four I#244
"1982" (published)
1-2 years in the future?
2 years ago?
event happened on both Earth-616 and Earth-691;
Franklin is described as being five
years old in FF I#245
Silver Surfer is freed from Earth
Silver Surfer III#1/GOTG I#24
"1987" (published)
3 years in the future?
less than 1 year ago?
event happened on both Earth-616 and Earth-691
Events that occurred only on Earth-691
Vance Astrovik joins USAF
OHotMU I#12
1980
5 years in the future
2 years in the future
Earth-691 event
Ozone Catastrophe
Defenders I#26
1982
7 years in the future
4 years in the future
skin cancer epidemic on Earth-691
Vance Astro's starship leaves Earth
Marvel Super-Heroes II#18
1988
13 years in the future
10 years in the future?
Bionics Wars
Defenders I#26
1990s
15+ years in the future
12+ years in the future?
Earth-691 event
Treaty of Peking
Defenders I#26
1995
20 years in the future
17 years in the future
Earth-691 event
Mission to Mars
Amazing Adventures II#38
1999
24 years in the future
21 years in the future?
Earth-691 event
Second Martian invasion
Amazing Adventures II#18
June 29, 2001 A.D.
26 years in the future
23 years in the future?
Earth-691 event
Jonathan Raven captured by Keeper Raker
Amazing Adventures II#18/27
2006 A.D.
31 years in the future
28 years in the future?
original story implied that JR was captured in 2001 A.D.
Since 2023 was 48 years after the future history of Earth-691 was first published in 1975, I thought of adding another column to the table, one that would provide data about when the various events had happened or would happen if Earth-691 did have a sliding timescale and 12 "Marvel years" had passed since what had been "1975." However, given how unlikely that scenario seems to be, there really isn't any reason to do so. Still, I might as well point out that, if "2023" was the equivalent of "1987" in the original history, then the Ozone Catastrophe would have occurred 5 years ago and the planet would have been suffering through a near-famine; Vance Astro would have been an astronaut but the launch of his interstellar spaceflight would still be 1 year in the future; and the Martians would not be invading Earth-691 for another 14 years. In fact, if the 4-to-1 ratio between real world and Marvel years was a real thing, which it isn't, then the year of the Martian invasion (2001) won't be reached until the "present day" of the Marvel Universe was the setting of comics published by Marvel in the year 2079.
In theory, everything that happened to Franklin-616 prior to his appearance in Marvel Two-In-One I#69 (November, 1980) should also have happened to Franklin-691. However, since there is good reason to doubt that Major Astro's premature activation of Vance Astrovik's mutant powers was the actual divergence point, that means that the two timelines could have diverged much earlier, perhaps (and probably) well before Franklin was even born.
On the other hand, although GOTG editor Craig Anderson sometimes included footnotes to remind readers that the Guardians' timeline diverged from the mainstream Marvel Universe in Marvel Two-In-One#69, he doesn't seem to have acted to prevent the GOTG writers from using characters who had been introduced into the Marvel Universe after the supposed divergence point (like Apocalypse) or characters who had undergone major transformations after that point (like Frankie Raye becoming Nova or Quasar becoming the Protector of the Universe). That makes it a bit difficult to assess how similar their lives were to those of their 616 counterparts.
For example, when the Silver Surfer recalled (in GOTG I#24) how he
had won a pardon from Galactus, a footnote referenced Silver Surfer III#1, suggesting that all of the
events in that issue's story had happened on Earth-691 as well as on Earth-616. This would mean that,
among other things, the Elders of the Universe had been plotting to kill Galactus, the Skrulls had
lost their shape-changing abilities, and Nova had been held hostage by the Skrulls in an attempt to
force Galactus to consume a thousand worlds in the Kree Empire. Those situations, in turn, imply that
earlier events in Earth-616's history had also taken place in the 691 timeline, like the boxing match
that the Champion had fought against Earth's strongest heroes, the detonation of the Hyper-Wave Bomb,
and the rise of the space pirate Nebula. However, as long as those events have never actually been
depicted in-story as occurring on Earth-691, we readers can only assume speculate that they
did take place, and those speculations may be wrong.
Anyway, this has been a long-winded way for me to explain why I included some events from stories set on Earth-616 in this Franklin's history.
What about the rest of the Fantastic Four?
As mentioned above, Mr. Valentino was very circumspect when it came
to revealing what happened to Earth-691 counterparts of Earth-616 characters, and the Fantastic Four
were not part of that small group whose fates he revealed. This was presumably in part because of
his belief that Earth-691 and Earth-616 were both affected by the same sliding timescale. However,
his replacement as writer, Michael Gallagher, did not share that view. Instead, Mr. Gallagher seems
to have regarded the 2001 Martian invasion as being a fixed point in history. Since he wrote his
GOTG stories from 1992 to 1995, that meant that he treated the Earth-691 characters from those years
as if they were identical to the Earth-616 characters from those years. Even their appearances were
identical, despite the fact that the Earth-691 characters who fought in the War of the Worlds should
have been at least six years older than their Earth-616 counterparts. This is why GOTG I#61 showed
the 691 Quasar who died in 2001 A.D. looking exactly like the 616 Quasar from 1995.
Anyway, my point is that Gallagher's GOTG stories did show a fair
number of 1990s Marvel characters fighting in the War of the Worlds, and the Fantastic Four were among
them. Here's a list of the five scenes in which any of the FF appeared:
The only event in which the 691 FF were definitively known to have been involved was when they forced Galactus to leave Earth-691, shown in a one-panel flashback in GOTG I#24 that includes the footnote "*It happened in the classic FF#50. -- Classic Craig." Considering how contradictory the appearances listed above were, I don't think that I could work out a chronology that would be self-consistent, and so I have decided to not even try to write subprofiles on the FF. Who knows, maybe some future writer with a respect for continuity will try to unravel the confusing mess that has been made of Earth-691's history...but I wouldn't count on it.
In Reality-691, the Martian Masters invaded Earth in 1901 and 2001 A.D.
In Reality-616, the Martian Masters invaded Earth in the early 20th century. See the comments in this profile.
Current Marvel storylines have retconned Franklin
from being a mutant. I don't care for the retcon, and fortunately,
Earth-691's history is NOT contingent upon Earth-616's ret-cons.
--Snood
Profile by Donald Campbell.
CLARIFICATIONS:
The Franklin Richards from Reality-691 has counterparts in multiple alternate timelines
throughout the Marvel Multiverse, including (but not limited to) the following:
Aside from them, this Franklin Richards has no known connections to:
images: Guardians of the Galaxy I#24, page 11, panel 3 (only image)
Appearances:
Guardians of the Galaxy I#24 (May, 1992) - Inked with a silver nib by Steve Montano! Edited
with a red pen by Craig Anderson! Written and drawn during a blue moon by Jim Valentino!
First Posted: 12/29/2024
Last updated: 12/29/2024
Any Additions/Corrections? Please let me know.
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