Fantastic Four #26 Franklin *spoilers*

[nandes]

It would require Franklin to make this sort of cosmic retcon to himself when he was a baby or a toddler, so the explanation that he wanted to be special is nonsense. Xavier could just be lying because he doesn't want the F4 to find out about the Crucible. But that's probably thinking too much into it.

Like others have said, its probably just a way to further isolate the X line from the rest of Marvel. No mutants outside of the X men, and no mutants can have meaningful connections outside the X line. I still think this isolation is going to be used to reboot the entire X history a la DC Crisis reboots.

There's literally an entire Phoenix event happening on Avengers starting next month, and the X-Men are on one of the covers of the next main line event aka King in Black. The latter hasn't happened in a long time

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Honestly, if you can accept Moira (a character that was human for over 20 years) is now suddenly a mutant with god-like reset powers you can accept that Franklin just reality warped himself into being a mutant.

Moira becoming a mutant was a major story beat in a big story with a detailed rollout.

Slott's retcon comes in one of his FF issues after a year or so of HoX/PoX setting up Franklin as a big figure in mutantdom, and then Zdarsky's FF/X-Men series.

Slott's retcon comes across as petty and proprietary or at least a cheap diversion.

I get the frustration. He's spent years writing Marvel's top solo hero (Spider-Man), now he's handling Marvel's third major team and least popular one, his run has been outsold by Chris Cantwell's Doctor Doom series, and the first time non-FF readers care about his run is this thing with Franklin and not for anything else in his run. Because again X-Men has a bigger audience than his run on Fantastic Four does, and ever will.

[baxer]

It would require Franklin to make this sort of cosmic retcon to himself when he was a baby or a toddler, so the explanation that he wanted to be special is nonsense. Xavier could just be lying because he doesn't want the F4 to find out about the Crucible. But that's probably thinking too much into it.

Like others have said, its probably just a way to further isolate the X line from the rest of Marvel. No mutants outside of the X men, and no mutants can have meaningful connections outside the X line. I still think this isolation is going to be used to reboot the entire X history a la DC Crisis reboots.

Krakoa is very polarizing, the mutants must live or be on Krakoa and it is their final allegiance. So I guess Dan Slott prefered cut it.
Seems also like Slott want Franklin to lose everything so he can restart from a humble place

Moira becoming a mutant was a major story beat in a big story with a detailed rollout.

Slott's retcon comes in one of his FF issues after a year or so of HoX/PoX setting up Franklin as a big figure in mutantdom, and then Zdarsky's FF/X-Men series.

Slott's retcon comes across as petty and proprietary or at least a cheap diversion.

I get the frustration. He's spent years writing Marvel's top solo hero (Spider-Man), now he's handling Marvel's third major team and least popular one, his run has been outsold by Chris Cantwell's Doctor Doom series, and the first time non-FF readers care about his run is this thing with Franklin and not for anything else in his run. Because again X-Men has a bigger audience than his run on Fantastic Four does, and ever will.

it is really being outsold by doom solo? i'm not sure about it as it has lower numbering.

FF is pretty popular, it outsold almost all x-men books on september

[Thundershot]

Honestly, if you can accept Moira (a character that was human for over 20 years) is now suddenly a mutant with god-like reset powers you can accept that Franklin just reality warped himself into being a mutant. We recently had Gwenpool retcon herself into being a mutant just... out of nowhere. People need to accept when this happens, and not just assume mutant character = good, non-mutant = bad. Also, good catch on that potential Sinister Secrets hint. If that is indeed talking about Franklin that makes perfect sense

I’m not angry by saying he turned himself into a mutant. I’m mad because that’s somehow more offensive to Xavier than Sinister altering his DNA to become a mutant, and now he’s completely cut off from the people he’s gotten to hang out with and got to know.

[Gigantor]

Moira becoming a mutant was a major story beat in a big story with a detailed rollout.

Slott's retcon comes in one of his FF issues after a year or so of HoX/PoX setting up Franklin as a big figure in mutantdom, and then Zdarsky's FF/X-Men series.

Slott's retcon comes across as petty and proprietary or at least a cheap diversion.

I get the frustration. He's spent years writing Marvel's top solo hero (Spider-Man), now he's handling Marvel's third major team and least popular one, his run has been outsold by Chris Cantwell's Doctor Doom series, and the first time non-FF readers care about his run is this thing with Franklin and not for anything else in his run. Because again X-Men has a bigger audience than his run on Fantastic Four does, and ever will.

Let me be clear I will never defend slott but this is in fact not a recton itÂ’s a return to original continuity from Franklins original birth issue where his power came from the cosmic rays on sues body. Slott loves using continuity like a hammer. He loved it o bring up how Spider-Man killed a guy in a random 70s comic and used minutiae like that to justify crazy plot points. Now I donÂ’t think this was cheap because it was obvious from issue 25 he was gonna do it. What was cheap was deciding that right now was the time to make Franklin being a mutant or not matter. Cause it was never a major part of his character and only is here now because itÂ’s a big shock. And slott loves his shocking moments

[baxer]

I might fundamentally disagree with the mutant metaphor entirely, but the implications that kid Franklin wanted to be special so badly that he wanted to be oppressed and hunted by giant robots is honestly a disturbing thought. It retroactively makes Franklin go from being in a teenage ******* phase to outright always being selfish. Honestly, it sounds like he has a victim complex which makes no sense since he doesn't need that complex since he used to always be kidnapped, manipulated, or possessed as often as people died and returned in comics.

He was a kid, he did it unconciously. Being a really powerful being might have this effect. I remember Wiccan being afraid that it was he that created Hulkling.

[Gigantor]

They ruined Moira.

I’m so happy right now! Marvel finally did something that broke the base about this dumbass run! Oh what a lovely day

[Gigantor]

People are harassing the hell out of Slott on twitter

That’s what Twitter is for lol I don’t have an account there and don’t know any sane person who does. He gets what he deserves for engaging at all. Ask nick Spencer about that lesson lol

[Crimz]

Moira becoming a mutant was a major story beat in a big story with a detailed rollout.

Slott's retcon comes in one of his FF issues after a year or so of HoX/PoX setting up Franklin as a big figure in mutantdom, and then Zdarsky's FF/X-Men series.

Slott's retcon comes across as petty and proprietary or at least a cheap diversion.

I get the frustration. He's spent years writing Marvel's top solo hero (Spider-Man), now he's handling Marvel's third major team and least popular one, his run has been outsold by Chris Cantwell's Doctor Doom series, and the first time non-FF readers care about his run is this thing with Franklin and not for anything else in his run. Because again X-Men has a bigger audience than his run on Fantastic Four does, and ever will.

All of that is his own fault.

The Fantastic Four's return was huge and had a massive amount of interest. Doing amazing numbers the first few issues. It fell because of the quality of the book. He squandered the best setup for the FF to be big again and I will always be upset about that.

[useridgoeshere]

This is so funny because the explanation makes no sense. He's the son of two astronaut scientists that got blasted by cosmic radiation. That is WAY more unique than being one out of 10 million mutants. Clownery.

Exactly. And he even found the most complex way to make himself special. As a young child, he unconsciously knew what Mutants are and exactly what makes them Mutants on a genetic level. The biggest retcon is that he’s smarter than Valeria. Unconsciously.

[Mutant God]

This saddens and angers me, you had a sweet kid who who was connected to the X-Men and FF by being a mutant and made connections with several X-Men but now gets turn into a powerless emo loser who turns out not to be a mutant because "he turned himself into one" (how can a baby/child do that?). I really hope its a fake out as a villainous plot so I won't have to refer to Slott as a trash writer.

[Revolutionary_Jack]

Let me be clear I will never defend slott but this is in fact not a recton itÂ’s a return to original continuity from Franklins original birth issue where his power came from the cosmic rays on sues body. Slott loves using continuity like a hammer. He loved it o bring up how Spider-Man killed a guy in a random 70s comic and used minutiae like that to justify crazy plot points. Now I donÂ’t think this was cheap because it was obvious from issue 25 he was gonna do it. What was cheap was deciding that right now was the time to make Franklin being a mutant or not matter. Cause it was never a major part of his character and only is here now because itÂ’s a big shock. And slott loves his shocking moments

This kind of thinking smacks of the originalism argument used in the Supreme Court. You can cite continuity nerd-trivia to say "it's a return to status-quo" but the context and norms is another thing. I mean Magneto was intended by Kirby-Lee to be a psycho-bad guy with no redeeming virtues. If that Magneto hadn't been overhauled, he'd never have become a major influential character in comics. The same applies to many other things that changed or had to have changed in order for these characters to survive.

Franklin being a mutant was a major part addressed in a few stories. The Chris Claremont Fantastic Four/XMen crossover in the '80s, Jonathan Hickman's run, and many others from the '80s to today. It was a big setup in the bestselling HOX/POX series that once again made X-Men the center of Marvel. It was also part of a major crossover event by Chip Zdarsky. And it was addressed in Mark Waid's History of the Marvel Universe.

All of that is his own fault.

The Fantastic Four's return was huge and had a massive amount of interest. Doing amazing numbers the first few issues. It fell because of the quality of the book. He squandered the best setup for the FF to be big again and I will always be upset about that.

Slott historically never had experience turning undersellers into hits or reviving characters and titles fallen by the wayside. His biggest success was Amazing Spider-Man (aka the title that always sells and always gets most resources because there's a law at Marvel that says "Spider-Man always ships on time").

[ericng]

This is a real nonsensical lame retcon.

If he's not a mutant, how did he get his powers since he was a child?

If he's not a mutant, why was he part of the Days of Future Past storyline when he was the hubby of Rachel?

I think the real reason is just that Marvel doesn't want him to have any connection with Krakoa.

[gurkle]

Let me be clear I will never defend slott but this is in fact not a recton itÂ’s a return to original continuity from Franklins original birth issue where his power came from the cosmic rays on sues body.

This may also be a Tom Brevoort thing, since he confirmed that part of the inspiration for the Scarlet Witch/Quicksilver retcon was a single page in Thor #134 where Lee and Kirby suggested that they might actually have gotten their powers from the High Evolutionary.

Of course in both cases, one stray reference from the Lee/Kirby days doesn't outweigh the following decades and decades of comics that followed, so the retcon doesn't really make any sense. But some editors and writers really love reverting characters to whatever they were in the '60s comics.

[Gigantor]

This kind of thinking smacks of the originalism argument used in the Supreme Court. You can cite continuity nerd-trivia to say "it's a return to status-quo" but the context and norms is another thing. I mean Magneto was intended by Kirby-Lee to be a psycho-bad guy with no redeeming virtues. If that Magneto hadn't been overhauled, he'd never have become a major influential character in comics. The same applies to many other things that changed or had to have changed in order for these characters to survive.

Franklin being a mutant was a major part addressed in a few stories. The Chris Claremont Fantastic Four/XMen crossover in the '80s, Jonathan Hickman's run, and many others from the '80s to today. It was a big setup in the bestselling HOX/POX series that once again made X-Men the center of Marvel. It was also part of a major crossover event by Chip Zdarsky. And it was addressed in Mark Waid's History of the Marvel Universe.



Slott historically never had experience turning undersellers into hits or reviving characters and titles fallen by the wayside. His biggest success was Amazing Spider-Man (aka the title that always sells and always gets most resources because there's a law at Marvel that says "Spider-Man always ships on time").

Like I said I don’t like slott and I don’t agree with what he has done. But I have read his books enough to know his style and he is obsessed with the “original intent” idea of the character he digs up crap from the 60s as a twist and when people don’t like he argues it’s not a twist you just don’t know cannon. He did it all the time on Spider-Man. One of the major plot points of superior Spider-Man was that doc ock and green goblin were never on the sinister six at the same time. He used that to explain why they wouldn’t work together to conquer the world like usual. You say it’s dumb he says you don’t know cannon and repeat