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Steven Brake
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 January 2016
Posts: 562
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| Posted: 16 December 2018 at 12:28pm | IP Logged | 1
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Do you know why Reed preferred Franklin to be raised by a nanny rather than his mother?
Because he knew that it's always Harkness before the Storm.
OK, bad joke out of the way! What do people here think about Franklin Richards as a character and what he adds to the Fantastic Four? Or - is he a nuisance that needs to be avoided?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132236
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| Posted: 16 December 2018 at 3:54pm | IP Logged | 2
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Franklin was a big mistake, and shipping him off to Whisper Hill allowed Stan and Jack to shift him out of the picture without killing him.
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Greg McPhee
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 25 August 2004
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 5065
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| Posted: 16 December 2018 at 4:25pm | IP Logged | 3
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An addition that should never have been added.
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Steven Brake
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 January 2016
Posts: 562
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| Posted: 16 December 2018 at 4:47pm | IP Logged | 4
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JB wrote: Franklin was a big mistake
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Proving the tenet that there are no bad characters, just bad writers, I did enjoy what you did with Franklin in the Fantastic Four - particularly the dream-sequence with Power Pack.
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Brennan Voboril
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 15 January 2011
Posts: 1734
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| Posted: 16 December 2018 at 5:28pm | IP Logged | 5
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Disliked Franklin, loved Agatha Harkness.
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Jim Petersman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 26 June 2012
Location: United States
Posts: 625
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| Posted: 16 December 2018 at 6:26pm | IP Logged | 6
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"Franklin was a big mistake..."_____________________________________________
And now I find myself in the weird position of wanting to arguing against you citing your own work as proof that you are mistaken. ;)
Care to expound on that thought, JB?
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132236
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| Posted: 16 December 2018 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | 7
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Children are a mistake in timeless fiction, unless the author is able to convince his audience that their remaining children is perfectly acceptable.
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Brian Hague
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 14 November 2006
Posts: 8515
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| Posted: 17 December 2018 at 2:45am | IP Logged | 8
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Franklin was there when I showed up, so I'm inclined to cut him some slack, even as his age and size varied greatly from issue to issue. Doubling down on the idea with Valeria is egregiously harmful to the FF concept, especially since she's a Mary Sue who's brighter than Dad, more empathic than Mom, and more powerful than the whole lot of them put together. Isn't she just the greatest thing ever?? Franklin has been portrayed as the Idiot Child and Clumsy Little Brother ever since. So what if he's going to grow up to become a cosmically powerful Christ-like figure? Valeria's still better. So-o-o-o much better...!
Seriously, just give Valeria a whole Marvel line of her own to kick butt in and while we're at it, give Franklin one of his own as well. This has already been done once with Heroes Reborn, but hey, he'll get it right this time, promise.
The one thing that ran through all of the Heroes Reborn books and united them as a concept was the idea that SHIELD was running everything and coordinating all of their efforts. Everyone was a badass SHIELD agent with SHIELD authority backing them up.
Has anyone ever explained why a 5-to-10 year old kid would be so het-up about SHIELD and somehow have a comprehensive understanding of how their operations work so as to include those as the defining elements of his little blue "swear-to-god-we're-not-ripping-off-Tommy-Westphall-okay-yes -we-are" universe?
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Michael Penn
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 12 April 2006
Location: United States
Posts: 12429
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| Posted: 17 December 2018 at 6:17am | IP Logged | 9
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I'm reminded a little of Ross' son in FRIENDS, who very early was featured in a few storylines and did make some actual appearances, and then quite quickly was reduced in the remaining majority of the show to mere mentions with just one or two appearances. That was a wise decision and convenient to have his son essentially off the show being ostensibly raised apart by his mother. Like most ventures, at the beginning the makers were still working out what they wanted to do. Ross also had... a monkey. Some of the very best, most funny episodes of FRIENDS were in these early seasons, but Ross' son (and monkey) were mistakes. The show wasn't PARENTS or PETS.
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Ed Aycock
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 05 May 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 1004
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| Posted: 17 December 2018 at 7:37am | IP Logged | 10
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Or Murphy Brown's son Avery who also became background. I know this is comics chat about Franklin but one more TV reference, the best was Ray Romano leaning into the camera in the opening credits of "Everybody Loves Raymond" and saying, "It's not about the kids" and for 9 years, it rarely ever was.
I did like JB's use of Franklin when he appeared. Not overly cutesy or annoying and used effectively. Though I'd say my favorite use of Franklin ever was in X-Men 141. (Has Rachel ever commented on meeting a young Franklin or have writers stayed away from that?)
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Andrew Bitner
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 01 June 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 7480
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| Posted: 17 December 2018 at 7:52am | IP Logged | 11
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Franklin was a mistake. As noted, probably the best fix was to move him out of the book with a nanny. Out of sight, out of mind.
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Christopher Frost
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 24 October 2016
Location: Canada
Posts: 484
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| Posted: 17 December 2018 at 8:23am | IP Logged | 12
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I always liked Franklin but I found the issue with him wasn't his existence, it was that he was usually just there as either a background character or for a villain to menace. Our illustrious host used him to good effect in both FF #245 and #277 but those kinds of stories were rare.
Adding him to Power Pack was a good move as it actually made decent use of the character and allowed him to interact with other super powered children rather than just hanging out in the FF base all day.
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