With the release of The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Franklin Richards is officially a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the franchise may never be the same. While his powers have been retconned for his cinematic debut, now stemming from the Power Cosmic instead of a mutant heritage, the film makes it abundantly clear that Franklin is destined to become one of the most powerful beings in the entire MCU. This comes as no surprise to comic book fans, who have long known Franklin as a reality-warping character with god-level abilities. However, he is not the first character in the MCU to demonstrate the power to change reality at will. For years, the Scarlet Witch has held that title, and her own journey has set the benchmark for what reality manipulation looks like in this universe.
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Warning: Spoilers for The Fantastic Four: First Steps below.
For a long time, the powers of Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen) were presented as a combination of telekinesis and mental manipulation, abilities she gained from Hydra’s dangerous experiments with the Mind Stone. That all changed in the Disney+ series WandaVision, where an overwhelming wave of grief over the loss of Vision (Paul Bettany) caused her to subconsciously generate the “Hex,” a massive energy field that completely overwrote the town of Westview, New Jersey, transforming its reality into one modeled after classic American sitcoms. Within this bubble, Wanda was effectively a god, altering matter at will, creating a new version of Vision from scratch, and even manifesting twin sons, Billy (Julian Hilliard) and Tommy (Jett Klyne).
Wanda’s incredible act drew the attention of the ancient witch Agatha Harkness (Kathryn Hahn), who revealed the true nature of Wanda’s abilities. She was not merely an enhanced individual, but a living myth, the Scarlet Witch, a being capable of wielding Chaos Magic. Unlike the structured magic practiced by the Masters of the Mystic Arts, Chaos Magic allows its user to shape reality itself. Agatha explained that the Scarlet Witch was not born but forged, a being prophesied in the cursed tome known as the Darkhold, and destined to possess power far exceeding that of even the Sorcerer Supreme. This revelation fundamentally recontextualized Wanda, transforming her from a powerful Avenger into a figure of cosmic significance, whose potential was seemingly limitless.
Wanda’s tragic journey continued in Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, where, corrupted by the Darkhold’s evil influence, her powers grew to a terrifying multiversal scale. No longer confined to a single town, she was able to use a forbidden technique called “dreamwalking” to project her consciousness across realities and possess the body of her alternate-universe self, allowing her to hunt America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez) through the multiverse.
The Scarlet Witch’s raw power became so immense that she single-handedly dismantled the magical defenses of Kamar-Taj and, in one of the MCU’s most brutal sequences, effortlessly slaughtered the Illuminati of Earth-838. In a final display of her power, she used her magic to destroy Mount Wundagore, the origin point of the Darkhold’s power, triggering a chain reaction that destroyed every copy of the cursed book across every timeline. This confirmed her as a being with true multiversal reach, able to affect all realities at once. Yet, for all this power, there is one fundamental thing that Franklin Richards accomplished as an infant that Wanda never could.
Franklin’s Resurrection Act Makes Him More Powerful Than the Scarlet Witch
The climax of The Fantastic Four: First Steps sees the team in a desperate battle against Galactus (Ralph Ineson). In a desperate move, Sue Storm (Vanessa Kirby) expends all of her energy to telekinetically push the world-eater through a portal to a distant corner of the universe. The strain of her actions costs Sue her life, and she dies in the arms of Reed Richards (Pedro Pascal). As the family grieves, the infant Franklin is placed on his mother’s chest. In that moment, Sue is brought back from the dead, her eyes briefly glowing with the power that revived her, Franklin’s Power Cosmic.
This single feat places Franklin’s potential on a level beyond what the Scarlet Witch has demonstrated. A central tragedy of Wanda’s story is her inability to sustain the lives she creates. Her sons, Billy and Tommy, were magical constructs tied to the existence of the Westview Hex. When she finally dismantled her alternate reality, her children were mostly erased along with it. Even though we know Billy’s soul survives thanks to Agatha All Along, he had to find a new human host to prolong his existence, underlining the limitation of Wanda’s Chaos magic.
Franklin, on the other hand, performed a miracle that breaks the most fundamental law of the MCU. Since The Fantastic Four: First Steps‘ mid-credits scene unfolds four years after Sue’s resurrection, we know Franklin did not create a magical copy of his mother or a temporary illusion. Instead, he reached into the realm of death and forcibly pulled her soul back, restoring her life completely. We have only seen a fraction of what Franklin will be capable of as he grows and learns to control his abilities, but by demonstrating a power that has so far been impossible in the MCU, he already has a significant head start on the path to becoming the most powerful reality-warper the universe has ever seen.
The Fantastic Four: First Steps is now playing in theaters.
Who do you think will ultimately prove to be the most powerful character in the MCU’s Multiverse Saga? Share your theories in the comments!
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Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
