Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

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Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by Col_Fury »

Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! #1
“Mission Unstoppable!”
January, 2009

Appearances:
Franklin Richards, Mr. Fantastic, HERBIE, Fantastic Frank(alt-Franklin Richards)a bunch of alternate reality Reed Richards’

Synopsis:
Pg1-pg5
Reed is finishing up an inter-dimensional conference call with other Reed Richards when Franklin happens by. He later tries to use the machine to contact other Franklins, but HERBIE stops him. After they leave the monitor turns on; another Franklin Richards(Fantastic Frank) is trying to contact other Franklin Richards.

References:
Reed is having his conference call to solve the world’s energy crisis. Sounds pretty familiar to the plot from the current FF book…

Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! #1/2
“Fantastic Frank”

Appearances:
Fantastic Frank(alt-Franklin Richards), alt-HERBIE, Dr. Doom(alt-Kristoff), alt-Reed Richards, alt-Sue Richards

Synopsis:
Pg1-pg5
Fantastic Frank tries to contact other Franklin Richards, but when he doesn’t get a response he does some super heroic things around town. He returns to chat with his parents and is attacked by Dr. Doom.(Kristoff) After a skirmish Dr. Doom is teleported to a different dimension.

Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! #1/3
“Chimp Change!”

Appearances:
Alt-Franklin Richards(monkey), alt-Mr. Fantastic(monkey), alt- Invisible Woman(monkey), alt-HERBIE, Mole-Monkey, alt-Katie Power(monkey)

Synopsis:
Pg1-pg5
Monkey Franklin is working on a machine to solve his Earth’s energy crisis when he hears that the Mole-Monkey is causing trouble. He runs off to deal with him, saving monkey Katie Power in the process. When he returns home, his parents have destroyed the machine he was working on.

References:
This is not the same Reed & Sue seen recently in Marvel Apes. Marvel Apes Reed is really smart & Marvel Apes Sue has a human appearance. This Reed & Sue both look like monkeys, and both are really stupid. Franklin is the genius in this reality.

Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! #1/4
“HERBIE: Son of a Super-Computer”

Appearances:
Alt-Franklin Richards, alt-HERBIE, alt-Mr. Fantastic(robot), alt-Invisible Woman(robot), alt-Robot(?) Torch(robot), alt-Thing(robot)

Synopsis:
Pg1-pg5
HERBIE is running around causing a mess, Franklin tries to clean up after him. The Fantastic Four arrive and scold Franklin after HERBIE tells his parents that the mess is Franklin’s fault. HERBIE then uses his dad’s inter-dimensional conference call system to try to contact other HERBIEs, and they teleport themselves to a different dimension.

Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! #1/5
“Franklin Freakout!”

Appearances:
Franklin Richards, HERBIE, Thing(Ben Grimm), Francine Richards, F.R.A.N.K.L.I.N., alt-Franklin Richards(monkey), alt-Franklin Richards(4th story), and a bunch of other alt-Franklin Richards, but not Fantastic Frank

Synopsis:
Pg1-pg5: same night as first story
A bunch of alt-Franklins arrive in our Franklin’s dimension and make a mess of the Baxter Building, passing the Thing sleeping in his chair in the process. Their respective HERBIEs arrive and corral them back to their respective dimensions. HERBIE is left to clean up the mess and Franklin goes back to bed. Afterward, the Kristoff Dr. Doom from the second story appears in our dimension and swears vengeance on Franklin Richards.

Only the first and fifth stories take place in ‘our’ dimension, both in the same night. All of it’s indoors, so there’s no indication of time of year. Also, I’m inclined to place this issue around current books, given the similarity in plots.(didn't Reed also have an inter-dimensional conference call in the main book recently? Or am I misremembering things again?)
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by Somebody »

Two things:
1) The turkey FF are reprised from Happy Franksgiving (we see turkey-Reed in Reed's call, albeit with a slightly different character design, and turkey-Franklin and T.U.R.K.I.E. in story 5).
2) Reed has made interuniversal conference calls to himselves before - notably in FF3 57-59 (the Adam Warren arc just before Waid). The costumes in here (based on the Kirby template, which Hitch ditched) mitigate against placement beside current issues.

PS: Monkey-Katie was Katie Powers, if you reread :)
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by Col_Fury »

Somebody wrote:1) The turkey FF are reprised from Happy Franksgiving (we see turkey-Reed in Reed's call, albeit with a slightly different character design, and turkey-Franklin and T.U.R.K.I.E. in story 5).
Good catch!
Somebody wrote:2) Reed has made interuniversal conference calls to himselves before - notably in FF3 57-59 (the Adam Warren arc just before Waid).
Sweet. I knew I wasn't making stuff up. :)
Somebody wrote:The costumes in here (based on the Kirby template, which Hitch ditched) mitigate against placement beside current issues.
I was just thinking about that... Is it that the costumes in the Franklin one-shots are the classic Kirby suits, or do they just look that way because of the simpler art style?
I don't know,but I thought I'd throw that out there.
Somebody wrote:PS: Monkey-Katie was Katie Powers, if you reread :)
Whoops. :)
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by Somebody »

Col_Fury wrote:
Somebody wrote:The costumes in here (based on the Kirby template, which Hitch ditched) mitigate against placement beside current issues.
I was just thinking about that... Is it that the costumes in the Franklin one-shots are the classic Kirby suits, or do they just look that way because of the simpler art style?

I don't know,but I thought I'd throw that out there.
Art style. If you render down the Pacheco costumes into this sort of art style, that's pretty much what you get - there's nothing resembling the raised "4" or seams on ANY of the detailing in this series.

[For comparison, look how poor Beast's ended up since NXM - no two artists have made him look even vaguely similar to one another's work. Some artists have even gone beyond cats for inspiration - I seem to recall that the CW:X artist based him on a bear. We've not let that bother us...]

If you try and place this earlier, you have problems with the collars to consider (they varied between very thin, and great big areas of dark blue) and Franklin's own age, since you have to go back to the early John Byrne issues to have them in Kirby-based costumes before FF3 39.

[After Byrne ditched the Kirby template in favour of the black/navy blue and white costumes, only the short-lived Alan Davis design had even approached the Kirby template until Pacheco's second, "back-to-basics" design (he, I believe, designed the navy blue costumes with the huge "4"s used during Onslaught, and which were reinstated by Salvador Larroca for most of Claremont's run).]
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by dimadick »

Somebody wrote: If you try and place this earlier, you have problems with the collars to consider (they varied between very thin, and great big areas of dark blue) and Franklin's own age, since you have to go back to the early John Byrne issues to have them in Kirby-based costumes before FF3 39.

[After Byrne ditched the Kirby template in favour of the black/navy blue and white costumes, only the short-lived Alan Davis design had even approached the Kirby template until Pacheco's second, "back-to-basics" design (he, I believe, designed the navy blue costumes with the huge "4"s used during Onslaught, and which were reinstated by Salvador Larroca for most of Claremont's run).]
According to the helpful notes on the costumes found in the Fantastic Four Plaza, the Kirby costumes were introduced in "Fantastic Four" vol. 1 #3 (March, 1962) and lasted with minimal variations to #256 (July, 1983). The only major variations of the period was that the Thing dropped the helmet, full body-suit and boots of his original uniform in favor of plain shorts and the Invisible Girl wore a looser (and striped) outfit during her first pregnancy.

The Byrne design mostly differs in the coloration of the uniforms. From light blue costumes with dark blue/black collars, gloves, belts and boots to dark blue costumes with white accessories. Variations of the period included the Thing briefly going back to wearing a helmet and full body suit (starting with #302 - May, 1987), the Thing wearing long pants and boots but going topless (starting with #359 -December, 1991), the Invisible Woman wearing a revealing swimsuit as a uniform (starting with #371 - December, 1992), the Thing wearing a helmet again to cover claw marks in his face, left by Wolverine (starting with #374 - March, 1993), the Thing keeping the helmet and long pants but adding a tank top (starting with #377 - June, 1993), the Think keeping the full uniform but ditching the helmet (starting with #386 - March, 1994), and the Invisible Woman wearing full pants but wearing a tank top (starting with #388 - May, 1994). For some reason stylistic variations only focused on these two members.

The Onslaught uniforms consisted of full body uniforms for everyone but the Thing, long white collars, big visible "4" signs above the heart area but otherwise kept the Byrne colorations. They only appeared in #415-416 (August - September, 1996) and issues relating to the crossover. The Heroes reborn costumes were introduced in "Fantastic Four" vol. 2 #2 (December, 1996) and included combinations of light blue and dark blue/black coloration. I think they were more reminiscent of the Kirby-style than the Onslaught ones.

The Fantastic Four returned to wearing light blue uniforms with black accessories in "Fantastic Four" vol. 3 #1 (January, 1998). They were the Alan Davis design that you mentioned. The Larroca design was introduced in #4 (April, 1998) and does have similarities with the Onslaught ones. The main difference is the inverted coloration, light blue where the older one had dark and vice versa. Including the long black collars of the newer costumes.
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by Somebody »

dimadick wrote:The Onslaught uniforms consisted of full body uniforms for everyone but the Thing, long white collars, big visible "4" signs above the heart area but otherwise kept the Byrne colorations. They only appeared in #415-416 (August - September, 1996) and issues relating to the crossover. The Heroes reborn costumes were introduced in "Fantastic Four" vol. 2 #2 (December, 1996) and included combinations of light blue and dark blue/black coloration. I think they were more reminiscent of the Kirby-style than the Onslaught ones.

The Fantastic Four returned to wearing light blue uniforms with black accessories in "Fantastic Four" vol. 3 #1 (January, 1998). They were the Alan Davis design that you mentioned. The Larroca design was introduced in #4 (April, 1998) and does have similarities with the Onslaught ones. The main difference is the inverted coloration, light blue where the older one had dark and vice versa. Including the long black collars of the newer costumes.
Strictly, the Onslaught costumes didn't keep the Byrne colour scheme - Byrne made them black & white, and it was only after he was gone they became navy & white.

And I.... have no idea what you're talking about re: Larroca. The costumes were navy & white there, just as in Onslaught. You're very confused over something. (Moreover, I'm pretty sure it was later than FF3 4 that they returned to the Onslaught costumes, and not consistently until near the end of the first year).
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by dimadick »

Somebody wrote:
dimadick wrote:The Onslaught uniforms consisted of full body uniforms for everyone but the Thing, long white collars, big visible "4" signs above the heart area but otherwise kept the Byrne colorations. They only appeared in #415-416 (August - September, 1996) and issues relating to the crossover. The Heroes reborn costumes were introduced in "Fantastic Four" vol. 2 #2 (December, 1996) and included combinations of light blue and dark blue/black coloration. I think they were more reminiscent of the Kirby-style than the Onslaught ones.

The Fantastic Four returned to wearing light blue uniforms with black accessories in "Fantastic Four" vol. 3 #1 (January, 1998). They were the Alan Davis design that you mentioned. The Larroca design was introduced in #4 (April, 1998) and does have similarities with the Onslaught ones. The main difference is the inverted coloration, light blue where the older one had dark and vice versa. Including the long black collars of the newer costumes.
Strictly, the Onslaught costumes didn't keep the Byrne colour scheme - Byrne made them black & white, and it was only after he was gone they became navy & white.

And I.... have no idea what you're talking about re: Larroca. The costumes were navy & white there, just as in Onslaught. You're very confused over something. (Moreover, I'm pretty sure it was later than FF3 4 that they returned to the Onslaught costumes, and not consistently until near the end of the first year).
Simply take a look at their design in Larroca's covers then.
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by Somebody »

Uh... I did. #1-11 all show the Davis costumes (even after they'd mostly switched in the interior, bar the occasional oddity like Johnny using a Davis costume when sparring with Caledonia). From #12 onward, the basic costumes are the same as the Onslaught costumes.
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by Paul Bourcier »

So, to sum up: we shouldn't let the costume art determine placement of this story and we may as well just cue this up after the last Franklin comic? :?
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by Somebody »

Paul Bourcier wrote:So, to sum up: we shouldn't let the costume art determine placement of this story and we may as well just cue this up after the last Franklin comic? :?
I was trying to say, before all the digressions, that it (and presumably future issues, at this rate) should be placed before the F4 switch to the Hitch costumes.
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Re: Franklin Richards: Sons of Geniuses! 1

Post by Paul Bourcier »

Somebody wrote:
I was trying to say, before all the digressions, that it (and presumably future issues, at this rate) should be placed before the F4 switch to the Hitch costumes.
So before FF 554, then. And there's no problem putting this after SUMMER SMACKDOWN. Thanks!
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