Franklin B. Richards

[firstbornrichards]

Character Name: Franklin B. Richards
Character Journal: firstbornrichards
Physical Description: Just over six feet tall, blond hair, blue eyes. Fit, but leaning towards the thinner side.
Age: 25 years.
DOB: December 11th, 1987.
PB: Justin Hartley

Character Location/Home: New York City
Alignment: Hero
Relatives: Reed Richards (father), Susan Richards-Storm (mother), Valeria Richards (sister)


Abilities: A few years ago, Franklin Richards was a strong candidate for the position of most powerful being in the universe, with vast reality manipulation and psionic powers. However, even that enormous power had limits and his psionic powers were almost totally burnt out on the astral plane searching for his parents. The only relict of his psychic powers are residual psychic shields and the ability to communicate telepathically with people he has been close to for a long time- currently only his sister, Valeria. However, his reality manipulation powers remain, though they are limited somewhat in scope from what they previously were. He cannot, for example, create a galaxy in miniature, nor could he erase a person from existence altogether.

Matter Manipulation: Franklin possesses the ability to manipulate matter on an atomic scale, allowing him to transmute one type of matter into another, alter its physical configuration or collapse matter to create energy, though he can typically only use this energy for simple blasts or blast attacks. The only living matter he can transmute in this fashion is his own body; he cannot, for example, simply turn another living person into stone. He must also be able to understand, at least in solid layman’s terms, the composition of the matter he is producing. He cannot create new matter, and must transmute existing matter.

Spatial Manipulation: Franklin possesses the ability to warp space, allowing him to teleport himself or others instantaneously in space. The distance of this teleportation is seemingly unimportant- with a much more important limitation being the amount of mass he can teleport with him. He can only teleport objects that he is within approximately ten feet of, with a maximum weight of approximately five tons.

Chronal Manipulation: Franklin possesses a limited ability to travel in time. He cannot simultaneously travel in time or space, requiring him to make a leap in time before one in space, and time travel is particularly taxing on him. He can only take one passenger with him safely, and he can travel backwards far farther than he can travel forwards. While he can travel backwards as far as a hundred million years, he can only leap about one hundred seconds into the future.

Weaknesses and Flaws: Franklin’s powers are limited by his physical fatigue levels and he must be careful not to overexert himself. While his powers are vast indeed, his ability to exert himself over long periods of time is no greater than that of an ordinary human who engages in moderate physical exercise.


Personality: Franklin has spent most of his life in the shadow of the tragedy that overcame his family, as well as the considerable one cast by his brilliantly talented family. Probably the most powerful member of his family, he has, for much of his life, felt like the lesser member of the family, lacking the brilliance of his father or sister and being more introspective and awkward than his mother. However, recently, he seems to have come into his own, dealing with the return of his parents fairly successfully and getting his personal life into order. He’s a bit laconic in nature, though he can be playful and goofy with the relatively few people he truly trusts. He is very concerned with carving out his own legacy, apart from simply riding on the coattails of the family name.


Backstory: Franklin’s early childhood was happy enough, but all of that changed when his parents both disappeared in a failed mission, soon though to be dead. Raised by the Grimms, Franklin spent much of his adolescence in an emotionally catatonic state, refusing to engage deeply with anyone else. It seemed that as his age of majority approached, he was recovering, but instead he was becoming deeply obsessed with finding out where his parents had gone, exploring all manner of potential avenues, until at long last, he began exploring the astral plane with his psychic powers, hoping to catch a signature of their minds somewhere in the ether and perhaps find means of bringing them home with the knowledge he could glean of their location. In this effort, he nearly completely lost himself into the limitless void of the astral plane, requiring no less than Charles Xavier himself to successfully reunite Franklin’s mind and body.

When he finally recovered from the mental strain of that, and an immediately subsequent kidnapping and brutal captivity by the Red Skull, he entered into a long period of depression which saw him basically sequester himself in his apartment, not seeing or making any effort to contact anyone else- going so far as to avoid contact with anyone else for the better part of a year. It was only in the last two years that he started to slowly emerge into society again, patching up a severely strained relationship with his sister and making the acquaintance (and beginning to date before long) of his old friend and frequent companion in childhood shenanigans, Katie Power.

The return of his parents was an interesting turning point in his life, because while on one hand he was glad to see them back after so long apart, he was forced to come face to face with how far he’d grown without them. He keeps in touch with them, but it’s difficult for him to viscerally recognize them as his parents and he’s probably closer to Ben than to his parents, and he still calls Ben “Uncle Grimm”, though he’s not always the best about staying in touch with him. He’s closest to his sister and in some ways, she’s the only family he really has.

As of late, Franklin has begun a journey to discover the “secret history” of the world, accompanied only by Valeria and establishing an anonymous Internet blog where his findings are published for a public audience. When he is not on his extensive journeys through the past, he can often be found spending time with Katie or writing about his experiences.

Sample Post:

Franklin looked stupid in a wig, though at least virtually every other man in colonial America looked similarly ridiculous to him. At least his own, supplied by a helpful image inducer, wasn’t crawling in vermin like all the others were. He’d come here to investigate the American establishment of the Hellfire Club, curious about when Sir Francis Dasherwood’s decadent circle became the vast economic and political powerhouse it was today. It had taken a bit of research (and a little bit of charm, via Valeria) to get the right credentials to get into the building, which was located in Boston and wouldn’t move to New York until well into the nineteenth century. Walking down the hall, he carefully observed anything he could. A lot of the families that would become important in the modern Hellfire Club were already in evidence here, and he’d already been introduced to a George Llelland, an ancestor of Harry Leland, as well as an Edward Frost. There had been no sign at this early juncture that mutants were much involved with the Hellfire Club, and his research had seemed to indicate that particular feature of the modern Club was largely the product of Sebastian Shaw.

So far, it was all honestly a little disappointing. Not every foray in the hidden past of the world was fruitful, though enough of them were that Historia Obscura’s traffic had been steadily increasing. Ducking behind a column as some of the elite members were coming in, he could hear something about a ritual. Was it the usual pseudo-mystical bull, or was there something interesting going on here after all? Either way, Franklin would find out.