Reading the Fantastic Four comics from the start. Time to get all inner child with the kid-friendly Franklin Richards: Son of a Genius.

Son of a Genius, from writer and cartoonist Chris Eliopoulos, started as some backup comics appearing in the 2000s non-canon revival of Power Pack. These were then reprinted as standalone comics, which proved successful enough for Marvel to produce even more standalones. The setup is simple. Franklin is a precocious kid and H.E.R.B.I.E. is his overprotective robot nanny and overall voice of reason. Franklin helps himself to an invention of his dad’s, leading to comedic mishaps. Everyone in the world compares this to the legendary Calvin and Hobbes newspaper strip. But aside from similarities in the art, they’re not that alike.

Son of a Genius

• – “Microscopic.” Franklin has a homework assignment to learn about the microscopic world. He and H.E.R.B.I.E. steal Reed’s micro-pod, shirnk down to microscopic size, and explore the inside of Reed’s nose!

– “Tons of Fun.” Ben tells Franklin that when he’s grown, he can have all the junk food he wants. Franklin uses a matter-expanding machine on himself. But instead of getting larger, he balloons to a spherical shape.

– “Veggin’ Out.” Franklin needs something for show and tell, so he swipes a device of Reed’s that turns inedible matter edible. It backfires by transforming all of Franklin’s classmates into vegetables. H.E.R.B.I.E. saves the day with a “revert-ilizer.”

– “Weather or not.” Wanting wintertime fun during summer, Franklin uses a weather generator inside his bedroom. First he creates a blizzard, and then a massive storm. Sue has him clean his room, saying it looks like a tornado blew through it.

– “Send in the Clones.” Now it’s Halloween, but Manhattan is too dangerous for trick or treating, so Franklin runs some Jell-O through a cloning machine and makes Jell-O clones of himself. The clones go trick-or-treating, only to keep the candy for themselves, and then trash Franklin’s room. H.E.R.B.I.E. dissolves the clones with water.

Happy Franksgiving

– “Hamster Havoc.” Franklin’s parents give him a pet hamster. He really wanted a dog, though, so he puts the hamster in a “transmutanator” to turn it into a dog. It backfires, growing the hamster to Godzilla size. H.E.R.B.I.E. replicates an equally giant hamster wheel for it, and then they shrink it back.

– “Telepathy Terror.” Franklin may or may not have a crush on a girl named Katie. He experiments with a telepathy helmet, only to get visions of someone in his life tying him up and launching him into space. The thoughts belong to H.E.R.B.I.E., who just wants to keep Franklin safe from harm. We never learn about Katie, but later entries will reveal this is Katie Power of Power Pack.

– “Speed Demon.” After losing a race in gym class, Franklin uses a speed enhancer to live life at super-speed. He loses control, running around the world in minutes. H.E.R.B.I.E. saves him by trapping him in a force field, and then Franklin is too exhausted to win the next race in gym.

– “Ocean-Ape Escape.” Franklin orders “Ocean-Apes” from the back of a comic book. (Like Sea Monkeys, get it?) Only to be disappointed when they arrive as seeds. He uses Reed’s accelerated growth powder on them, turning them into monsters. After fighting for a bit, the monsters fall in love (!) and fly off.

– “Turkey Trouble.” On the day before Thanksgiving, Franklin accidentally steps through a portal to an alternate universe where the FF are human-turkey hybrids.

March Madness

– “Evolution Revolution.” Franklin asks his dad for help on his homework on evolution. Reed shows him an invention that can de-evolve and then re-evolve biomatter. Franklin accidentally sets it off, turning Reed into a monkey. Franklin distracts Reed with a banana and then transforms him back.

– “Molecular Mayhem.” Franklin wants to ride a new roller coaster, but he’s stuck helping his dad in the lab. He activates a subatomic sled, and he and H.E.R.B.I.E. go on a whirlwind spin through the Microverse.

– “Hair Today.” Franklin tries giving himself a haircut, with disastrous results. He takes some experimental “sonic tonic,” that makes his hair grow out of control. H.E.R.B.I.E. reverses the tonic, and Franklin ends up bald for his school photo.

– “Rodent’s Revenge.” Franklin’s pet hamster is back! To teach it tricks, Franklin hooks it up to an intelligence enhancer. The hamster gets too smart, and begins plotting world domination. H.E.R.B.I.E. electrocutes it, which puts it back to normal… or not?

– “Basket Brawl.” Franklin swipes a psychic projector to give him an edge in a basketball game. He projects his fears onto the other players, transforming them into monster basketballs.  H.E.R.B.I.E. saves the day by getting Franklin to think of them as normal, which turns them back.

World Be Warned

– “Gravity Depravity.” Wanting to be like Spider-Man, Franklin uses a gravity machine to be able to walk on walls. It breaks the fourth wall by sucking the panel frames into a gravity well, only to reset to normal because the law of gravity can’t be broken.

– “Bully Breakdown.” Franklin is getting bullied at school. Rather than call the FF in for support, he uses a portable force field for protection. It goes haywire, causing him to lose friction and bounce all over the school. H.E.R.B.I.E. then shows the principal video of the bullying so he can take appropriate action.

– “Monkey Talk.” Franklin takes a universal translator to the zoo so he can communicate with the animals. They convince him to set them free.

– “Build a Better Bot.” Reed builds a new robot for Franklin, named H.U.M.P.H.R.I.E.S. The new bot is fun at first, but he doesn’t give Franklin the leeway that H.E.R.B.I.E. did. H.E.R.B.I.E. finds the new bot smashed, and Franklin tells H.E.R.B.I.E., “You’re perfect at what you do.”

– “Frank Smash.” While the Hulk is visiting the Baxter Building, Franklin helps himself to Hulk’s chocolate bar. This causes the Hulk to rampage, until Franklin uses his allowance to buy more chocolate for them to share.

Monster Mash

– “Ready, Steady, Yeti” Franklin teleports himself to the arctic in search of the Abominable Snowman. Although scary at first, he and Franklin become friends and enjoy a snowball fight.

– “Little Monster.” Franklin x-rays himself to figure why he’s been burping. The burp comes to life as a huge purple monster that runs rampant through the Baxter Building. H.E.R.B.I.E. stops it by de-radiating it.

– “Ghosts in the Machine.” Franklin wants to use an interdimensional phase shifter to turn himself into a ghost as a prank on his parents. He encounters a bunch of other ghosts who chase him around. H.E.R.B.I.E. brings him back, but Franklin can still see the ghosts at the end.

– “Under the Bed.” The monster under Franklin’s bed is real! Franklin and H.E.R.B.I.E. fight it for a bit, before using Reed’s dimensional rift device to banish it from Earth, even though Franklin’s parents still don’t believe the monster is real.

– “Power Trip.” Franklin wants super powers like the rest of family. The automated lab computer gives him recreations of the FF’s powers. He can’t control the powers, so he has the computer undo them.

Fall Football Fiasco

– “Fantasy Football.” Franklin uses the lab computer to turn all his toys into football players, so he can have someone to play with. They run amok until he grabs the ball and chases them back into the lab to reverse the process.

– “Lockjaw Unleashed.” Franklin is dog-sitting the Inhumans’ giant teleporting dog Lockjaw. He keeps trying and failing to get the dog to teleport himself somewhere.

– “Double Trouble.” Franklin encounters a new version of the Super-Adaptoid, which transforms itself into a second Franklin. The clone runs around causing chaos in Franklin’s life that he then has to catch up to. This story is the series at most Calvin and Hobbes style, referencing the story where Calvin cloned himself. It also confirms that Franklin’s crush Katie is in fact Katie Power of Power Pack.

– “Time and Time Again.” Franklin meets himself from the future, who shows up with a time machine. This causes some kind of time loop where their meeting keeps repeating itself.

– “Alien Encounter.” While on an outer space trip with Reed, Franklin beams a cute little alien aboard the ship. The alien multiplies into a bunch of aliens, and then they all run amok. H.E.R.B.I.E. puts them to sleep with allergy medicine (is this a drug metaphor?) and they beam the creatures off the ship.

Not-so-secret Invasion

– “Skrull Surprise.” Franklin is behaving too perfectly, and H.E.R.B.I.E. suspects something is up. Turns out Franklin was replaced by a Skrull. Franklin fights and defeats the Skrull, for some actual superhero action in this series for once.

– “Little Lizard No Longer.” Franklin is babysitting his class lizard, who drinks some radioactive goo and grows to Godzilla size. Franklin and H.E.R.B.I.E. fight him with a giant mech, and then they put him to sleep by rubbing his tummy.

– “The Other Football.” Franklin’s soccer ball gets switched for a soccer ball-like egg from Reed’s lab. It hatches to reveal a dinosaur. Franklin subdues the beast not with more tech, but with his awesome soccer skills.

– “Squid Squabble.” Franklin and H.E.R.B.I.E. travel to the bottom of the ocean to help Franklin’s friend Squid Kid. He thinks Squid Kid is under attack by the Ocean-Apes, but H.E.R.B.I.E. devises a fish translator to reveal that Squid Kid was really inviting Franklin to his wedding.

– “Wizard Wipeout.” The Wizard infiltrates the Baxter Building and hypnotizes Franklin and the FF. This leaves H.E.R.B.I.E. and robot receptionist Roberta (remember her?) to defeat the villain.

Summer Smackdown

– “Thunderous Throwdown.” Franklin attends a wrestling match where Ben is taking on a superhuman wrestler named Thunder. Franklin then gets in the ring with a force field device.

– “De-aged Dad.” Reed encourages Franklin to make friends with kids his own age, so Franklin uses a de-ager ray on his dad. They horse around for an afternoon. When Reed turns back to normal, he appears to have learned a lesson, and takes the rest of the day off to hang out with Franklin.

– “Night of the Living Pet.” Franklin’s hamster is dead (!). He uses mad science to revive it, creating a zombie hamster. It runs wild for a bit before he catches it and now has a new undead pet.

– “Unmistaken Identity.” Franklin uses a holographic image inducer to impersonate his teacher for a parent-teacher conference, leading to not one but multiple mistaken identities as things progress.

– “H.E.R.B.I.E.’s Love Bug.” H.E.R.B.I.E. has a date with Roberta, except she’s not programmed for romance. Can Franklin cheer up his heartbroken robot pal?

Sons of Geniuses

– “Mission Unstoppable.” Franklin spots Reed using a “cross-dimensional communicator” to conference with other Reeds in other universes.  Franklin pulls off a heist to reach the communicator.

– “Fantastic Frank.” An alternate universe where Franklin has super-powers, but everyone in his family does not.

– “Chimp Change.” In this alternate universe, everyone is a chimp. Chimp Franklin confronts a chimp version of the Mole Man.

– “H.E.R.B.I.E. Son of a Super-Computer.” And in this alternate universe, everyone is a H.E.R.B.I.E.-style robot except for Franklin. He’s the human nanny to a precocious and troublemaking young H.E.R.B.I.E.

– “Franklin Freakout.” Back in “our” universe, Franklin and H.E.R.B.I.E. must deal with a crowd of alt-universe Franklins coming through a portal.

Dark Reigning Cats and Dogs

– “Forty-year-old Franklin.” Franklin wants a dog his birthday, only to be told not until he’s older. Then he meets an older version of himself from the future. They go on a time travel adventure, and older Franklin leaves the teleporting Inhuman dog Puppy with Franklin as his new pet.

– “Frankenrichards’ Monster.” It’s Halloween, and Franklin wants to see a real monster. H.E.R.B.I.E. turns monstrous after getting struck by lightning.

– “Homework Hassle.” Franklin uses a hologram to make everyone believe he’s doing his homework when he’s really goofing off.

– “The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend.” There’s a new kid in Franklin’s class at school – Kristoff! There’s an instant rivalry between them, until Franklin steps in to save Kristoff from bullies.

– “Multiple Personalities.” Franklin uses a shape-changing device to come up with Halloween costume ideas.

– “Dark Reigning Cats and Dogs.” Puppy uses his teleporting powers to fill the Baxter Building full of other dogs.

April Fools

– “Picnic Panic.” During a fun day at the beach, Kristoff summons giant ants to attack Frankin’s picnic. Franklin forms a Fantastic Four of his own with himself, Katie Power, Squid Kid, and Puppy.

– “Nightmare.” Franklin has been having nightmares, so he uses a “nightmare extractor” to deal with it. Except that this brings the nightmare to life.

– “Cloud Craziness.” Franklin uses Puppy’s teleporting power and a weather-controlling device in hopes of having a perfect day at the park. It doesn’t go as planned, of course.

(These are all the one-shots I had access to this week, but I see there are three or four more out there. I’ll assume they’re more of the same.)

Trivia time: As you can guess, all this is considered an alternate universe and not canon to the Marvel Universe. The biggest difference is that Franklin is not a mutant in this timeline, but an ordinary human kid.

These comics were popular among critics as well as readers. Franklin Richards was nominated for the Special Award for Humor at the 2008 Harvey Awards.

Fantastic or frightful? There’s nothing necessarily wrong with this series, it’s all very light and funny, and the art is colorful and lively. It’s just that they feel so repetitive after reading them in one sitting like this. It’s the same plot over and over, with slight variations each time. I suppose you can say that about a lot of our favorite serialized fictions, but it especially stands out with this one. Or maybe I’m being too harsh, because it’s a fun-to-read comic for younger readers, and that’s all it has to be.

Next: Sky booms.

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