Fantastic Four #26 Franklin *spoilers*

[baxer]

Nothing changes. Simplest explanation is that in that timeline he is never discovered to have turned himself into a mutant. The real explanation is that story does not actually care that Franklin is a mutant, or that the random blonde man is actually Franklin for that matter. Everything still happens.

It is a paralel earth now.

powered heroes were hunted too, so calling Franklin a "mutie" to stok fear makes sense

[OopsIdiditagain]

Franklin has never been like the other kids. He was born in a family of super-beings.
Of course, he would follow anyone who will tell him “I’m going to fix you.”

But there is also this desire of teenagers of emancipation, of building a life of his own, far from his family. On Krakoa, there are also “super-beings” and they were welcoming at first.

isn't the entire panel on the first page just saying he made himself a mutant to feel special?

[OopsIdiditagain]

One can have multiple citizenships on Earth so why not multiple citizenships on both Krakoa and USA?

To be fair, there's quite a number of countries on Earth that don't allow multiple citizenships. A few of them are countries like Krakoa that feel threatened by neighboring countries.

[Zelena]

isn't the entire panel on the first page just saying he made himself a mutant to feel special?

It’s Xavier saying this.

But I would say that having cosmic powers is already a very special thing.

What is special with mutant identity is that you are not special alone but together with a lot of people.

This Xavier lacks the subtility (and kindness) of all previous Xaviers…

[Kingdom X]

First off, it is not tone deaf as there are people who have pretended to be something they are not for reasons and that is a valid story to tell if followed through properly, but that out of the way, get all of this mutants equal whatever real life identifier you decide to come up with out of the discussion as it is dangerous. The fantasy of being born with powers is relatable to everyone and all lives of adventure include danger whether it is world ending or personal.

Right people pretend to be minorities all the time... https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/03/us/je...rnd/index.html. If Franklin got celebrated for this then it would problematic, but it seems like he got punished since he’s locked out of Krakoa. Even still, it’s not one to one because people who do this in real life are manipulators and liars and Franklin was a child who literally didn’t know what he was doing.

[Devaishwarya]

It’s Xavier saying this.

But I would say that having cosmic powers is already a very special thing.

What is special with mutant identity is that you are not special alone but together with a lot of people.

This Xavier lacks the subtility (and kindness) of all previous Xaviers…

And I blame that entirely on Slott. Writing a character with whom he clearly has very little or no experience in a scenario that can be interpreted as an FU moment to HiX-Man and the X-Men and continuity (although that might have never been the actual intent...hence the uproar and backlash)
At the end of it all though...a writer deciding to go against or re-write continuity is a standard practice in comic book writing...and as such amounts to absolutely nothing deserving of all the noise.

[Drexelhand]

Judging by the characters returning, I think Slott is continuing upon the DeFalco/Ryan era. It looks like Psi-Lord is coming back in some form which leads me to believe Hyperstorm is the culprit behind the Xavier message.

I hope Sharon is next.

Psi-Lord and Hyperstorm are coming back? If that's the case, then there is definitely more to this than Franklin was never a mutant.

[gonnagiveittoya]

I'm assuming the reasons are logistical (not wanting to have FF tied so much to the X-Books plots) but Sinister isnt a "real" mutant either and he's a head of the Krakoa government.

[GenericUsername]

Agreed! Especially Wanda and Pietro. Wanda should have been the third X-Woman.

As for Franks, That just happened five minutes ago. I don't consider that a retcon yet.

Wanda wouldn't have had much chance for significance. Being that there were initial similarities between her and Jean. And that there were so many x-women. She'd have just been drown out there.

[Devaishwarya]

I'm assuming the reasons are logistical (not wanting to have FF tied so much to the X-Books plots) but Sinister isnt a "real" mutant either and he's a head of the Krakoa government.

He's solely an X-Men property...X-writers/editors could do whatever they want with him (and have done so). Franklin wasn't, isn't and never will be.

[Journey]

I don't see why. Her having nothing has to do with her being out of the books. And she was out of the books for longer when she was a mutant and Mags' kid.

It wasn't some magic bullet. Her more fleshed out stories are from her time in Avengers. Her history from Nights of Wundagore. Her most famous mini from her marriage with Vision.

The mutant thing really did nothing for her but thrust her out of comics for years. Because her being made a pariah after HoM was exactly why editor Jeanine Schaeffer said she hated her.

Okay but nowadays ain't nobody reading about Wanda from the days of old the casuals trying to learn about the character will likely just pick up, Disassembled, House of M, Decimation, Children's Crusade, and maybe her solo if they can find it, most of the stories rely heavily on her use to be mutant/Magneto's daughter status I only knew about her pre-MCU due to X-Men Legends 2, & Wolverine & the X-Men, that's another point for mutant Wanda, just saying the retcon might not have completely destroyed her character like it did Pietro but it pretty much put her in stasis, it's not like the Franklin's situation where they never did anything with it a lot of her most known stories focused on being a mutant to the point where I think she does need it.

[GenericUsername]

Okay but nowadays ain't nobody reading about Wanda from the days of old the casuals trying to learn about the character will likely just pick up, Disassembled, House of M, Decimation, Children's Crusade, and maybe her solo if they can find it, most of the stories rely heavily on her use to be mutant/Magneto's daughter status I only knew about her pre-MCU due to X-Men Legends 2, & Wolverine & the X-Men, that's another point for mutant Wanda, just saying the retcon might not have completely destroyed her character like it did Pietro but it pretty much put her in stasis, it's not like the Franklin's situation where they never did anything with it a lot of her most known stories focused on being a mutant to the point where I think she does need it.

That's their fault really. When I started reading in the 90s, I went back and read more stuff. If they want to stop at knowing part of a character, that's a personal choice. So those are the most known stories to them, mostly because they never really tried to get to know the character.

I don't think it put her in any stasis she wasn't already in. Like I said, she was gone for years while being a mutant and Mags' kid. It was 5 years before she was in any book, and 7 before she was in an ongoing. That's a lot longer than she's been away since the retcon. Which has been months. The reality is Marvel doesn't want her in many books and hasn't for 15 years. Retcon or not.

[danielsan52]

Psi-Lord and Hyperstorm are coming back? If that's the case, then there is definitely more to this than Franklin was never a mutant.

Speculation. But that definitely looks like Psi-Lord’s gloved hand holding the Ultimate Nullifier.

[OopsIdiditagain]

It’s Xavier saying this.

But I would say that having cosmic powers is already a very special thing.

What is special with mutant identity is that you are not special alone but together with a lot of people.

This Xavier lacks the subtility (and kindness) of all previous Xaviers…

I'm not sure about this analysis. Yes, mutants are a group but the mutant experience is still something special compared to other heroes.

Having cosmic powers isn't that unique when you're in a family filled with superpowered geniuses but being a part of a marginalized group is. Franklin is acting like people who pretend to be other races or have mental illnesses for clout, Xavier shouldn't sugarcoat it.

[Relugus]

I'm not sure about this analysis. Yes, mutants are a group but the mutant experience is still something special compared to other heroes.

Having cosmic powers isn't that unique when you're in a family filled with superpowered geniuses but being a part of a marginalized group is. Franklin is acting like people who pretend to be other races or have mental illnesses for clout, Xavier shouldn't sugarcoat it.

I continue to think Xavier is reverse-psyching him. Using rejection to make him want to "prove" he is a mutant. That's my take, though I acknowledge that it gives Dan Slott credit for having more brains than he seems to have.