Franklin Storm

Franklin Storm is a fictional character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.

Publication history

Franklin Storm first appeared in Fantastic Four #31 and was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Fictional character biography

Dr. Franklin Storm, the father of Susan and Johnny Storm, was an accomplished surgeon. While driving to a dinner being held in his honor, one of the tires in his car blew out and the car swerved off the road and crashed, fatally injuring his wife Mary. Dr. Storm unsuccessfully operated on Mary in a desperate attempt to save her life, and blamed himself for her death. He gave up his career and turned to gambling, eventually borrowing money from a loan shark. When Dr. Storm was unable to pay, one of the loan shark's men threatened Storm and his children. Storm grappled with the man and during the fight, the man accidentally shot himself. Storm was sentenced to prison for 20 years for manslaughter. Upon his request, Susan did not visit him while in prison and told Johnny that he was dead. Susan and Johnny subsequently gained superhuman powers and became members of the Fantastic Four. Franklin Storm escaped from prison early in the Fantastic Four's career. When he learned that Susan had been seriously injured while escaping from the Mole Man's lair, he came out of hiding and operated on her, saving her life. After the operation, Dr. Storm was returned to prison. Shortly thereafter, the Super-Skrull came to Dr. Storm in his cell and used his shapechanging powers to take Storm's appearance. Franklin Storm was teleported to the Skrull homeworld and held captive there. The disguised Super-Skrull took on the name "the Invincible Man", claiming to be Dr. Storm with newly acquired superhuman powers, and broke out of prison. The Super-Skrull confronted the Fantastic Four, hoping to demoralize them by tricking them into thinking that Dr. Storm was attacking them. Reed Richards was able to recognize the impostor and forced the Skrull leaders to exchange their agent for the real Dr. Franklin Storm.^[1]

Death

Under the advice of the Skrull Warlord Morrat, the Skrulls attached a concussive energy beam projector to Dr. Storm's chest. The projector was set to go off the moment he saw the Fantastic Four. When Storm appeared, he warned the heroes to stay away and rolled over on the floor, taking the full force of the deadly concussive blast. Dr. Storm's death was avenged when Morrat was killed as a result of Invisible Woman deflecting the lasers shot by the Skrulls that nearly hit Emperor Dorekk VII's daughter Anelle. When the Fantastic Four asked for the life of the one responsible for Dr. Storm's death, Emperor Dorekk VII presented them with Morrat's body, settling their debt and dismissing the Fantastic Four back to the safety of their planet.^[2]

Legacy

Susan Storm named her son Franklin after her father in honor of his memory.^[3]

Other versions

Secret Wars

In the history of Battleworld during the 2015 Secret Wars storyline, the Battleworld version of the Fantastic Four had Franklin Storm lead the team instead of Reed Richards. Ben Grimm, Sue and Johnny followed Franklin in many scientific-adventures until God Emperor Doom came to power and Franklin died in battle.^[4]

Ultimate Marvel

In the Ultimate Marvel Universe, Franklin Storm is a scientist. For a time, he worked on the "super soldier" project alongside Hank Pym, Bruce Banner and Richard Parker. He is "poached" to lead the Baxter Building project.^[5]

At a later point during his children's younger ages, Franklin divorced his wife as she left her family on her scientific foray to discover Atlantis. He lied about this fact to his children, explaining that she died in an accident.^[6]

He removes Dr. Arthur Molhevic from the project for experimenting with creating biological life.^[7] After the creation of the Fantastic Four and the rearrangement of the Baxter Building's funding to support them, he took on the role as their mentor and supervisor. His relationship with his children Sue and Johnny is strained at times due to his instincts to protect them from danger conflicting with Reed's continuously dangerous scientific explorations and the Four's superhero adventures. He is proud of Sue's academic achievements and brilliance but less supportive of Johnny's slacking. The revelation that their mother had not died in a car crash as he had told them, but in fact had left the family on a scientific foray to discover Atlantis with no illusions of returning, briefly distanced himself from his children although the family would later reconcile. He continues to play a part in the day-to-day operations of the Baxter Building and be a father figure to Reed Richards.

During the Ultimatum storyline in Ultimate Fantastic Four #58, Franklin Storm is killed when a tidal wave tears through Manhattan and slams into the Baxter Building.^[8]

In other media

Television

• Franklin Storm appeared in the 1994 Fantastic Four episode "Behold, A Distant Star" voiced by Richard McGonagle. Just like the comics, Franklin Storm lost his wife in an accident and an altercation with a loan shark led to an accidental murder. When Invisible Woman had a shrapnel in the lower part of her brain after a recent Skrull attack, he had to come out of hiding to perform the surgery. He turned himself over to the arriving cops after performing the surgery. After being freed from his volcanic prison, Super-Skrull replaced him in prison and took on the guise of the Invincible Man who broke out of prison and went on a rampage on the city and ran afoul of the Fantastic Four. They soon realize that Franklin Storm is Super-Skrull in disguise. Warlord Morrat had a concussive energy beam projector attached to Franklin Storm's chest. The projector was set to go off the moment he saw the Fantastic Four. When Franklin Storm appeared, he warned the Fantastic Four to stay away and rolled over on the floor taking the full force of the deadly concussive blast on himself.

Film

• Franklin made his live action debut in Fantastic Four, portrayed by Reg E. Cathey.^[9] This version is an African-American man who is the director of the Baxter Foundation, a government-sponsored research institute for young prodigies. Franklin first appeared when he and Sue discovered Reed Richards and Benjamin Grimm at a science fair, successfully demonstrating teleportation engineer with a teleportation device that Reed and Ben constructed, despite being disqualified from the fair for not demonstrating "real science." Believing that Reed is the answer to completing the Quantum Gate, a teleportation device that can teleport to another dimension, he invites Reed to the Baxter. During a board conference, it is revealed that Franklin is pressured by the military officials led by Harvey Allen for continuously funding his research, yet still failing to succeed at his end of the deal. He convinces them that Reed is finally what they're looking for, but is dismayed when he also intends to bring back stray-ward protege Victor von Doom, who left the Baxter after giving up on his research, not before setting fire to his data servers, prompting Allen to claim that he should be in custody for it. However, Franklin still wants to give him a second chance, as he started the project to begin with, and deserves to be involved in its long-awaited completion. He goes to see the reclusive von Doom himself, and although von Doom initially refuses his offer, changes his mind when he learns that Sue will be there, whom he has a thing for. After Johnny crashes his car during a street race, a disappointed Franklin scolds Johnny for his reckless behavior, despite his capabilities of so much more (Johnny constructed the car himself). Franklin recruits Johnny to work for him in exchange for Johnny's car, as he claims the car mostly his, since he funded Johnny's construction process. After the team is finished with the Quantum Gate, Allen disappoints the team when he reveals his plan to bring in professionals from NASA to go through the machine instead of them. Franklin tries to convince Harvey otherwise, after promising the team they'd go through the machine. While this happens, they go on an unsupervised trip anyway, leading to the incident. After being questioned by soldiers in Area 57, Franklin demands to know what happened to his children, horrified of the sight at what has become of them. After Reed disappears, Allen weaponizes the rest of the four against Franklin's wishes. Wishing to end it once and for all, he convinces Sue, who resents Reed for abandoning them, to help locate Reed so he can finish a second Quantum Gate and send a team to Planet Zero so they can find a possible cure for their condition. Once Reed is located and brought in by Grimm, Franklin and Johnny warmly welcome back Reed, who willingly finishes the Gate. Once the team goes through the machine, they bring back a transformed Victor von Doom, learning that he was alive on Planet Zero the whole time. Upon Victor von Doom going on a rampage while trying to return to Planet Zero, Franklin Storm confronted him near the transport device to Planet Zero in an attempt to reason with him. This fails as Doom kills Franklin in front of the Fantastic Four, telekinetically frying him. As Sue and Johnny grieved over his dying body, his last words were to promise him to look after each other.

References

1. ↑ Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #31
2. ↑ Fantastic Four Vol. 1 #32
3. ↑ Fantastic Four #94 (January 1970)
4. ↑ Secret Wars #6 (October 2015)
5. ↑ Ultimate Origins #3 (2008)
6. ↑ Ultimate Fantastic Four #24
7. ↑ Ultimate Fantastic Four #2
8. ↑ Ultimate Fantastic Four #58
9. ↑ Siegel, Tatiana (May 8, 2014). "Fox's 'Fantastic Four' Reboot Adds 'The Wire's' Reg E. Cathey (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved May 8, 2014. 

External links

• Franklin Storm at Marvel.com
• Franklin Storm at the Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe