FANTASTIC FOUR #574 preview art by Neil Edwards

By Kevin Mahadeo

When it comes to Marvel's First Family's firstborn, Franklin Richards, FANTASTIC FOUR writer Jonathan Hickman puts on his party planner hat with pizzazz.

"It's Franklin's birthday party," exclaims Hickman. "Let's get everybody together and have a good time and some cake."

The party issue-#574, hitting stores on January 6 with art by Neil Edwards-harkens back to the older days of comic books storytelling, which often featured one-off slice-of-life stories, such as the occasional Kitty's Bedtime Stories or the X-Men playing a game of baseball. Hickman says those stories allowed for interesting characterizations and interactions, creating an emotional connection between the characters and the reader. With his current run on FANTASTIC FOUR, the writer looks to bring back these fun, slightly whimsical tales.

"I think what we're trying to do with the FF in general is tell modern stories with a little slice of romanticism, kind of a 'better days past' kind of thing," explains Hickman. "I think one of the tricks that we're trying to use to do that is the structure of the format."

Like with any birthday party, expects guests galore. As the oldest super hero team in the Marvel Universe, the members of the FF have made their fair share of friends throughout the years. However, Franklin gets a special

FANTASTIC FOUR #574 preview art by Neil Edwards

surprise when a few of his old Power Pack pals show up. Considering Franklin's status as a former member of that group, Hickman says it only seemed natural that a few of the kids would show up for the party. And despite being older than its members while reading POWER PACK growing up, he admits to being a fan of the first-ever kid-only super hero team.

"It's all-ages good fun," says Hickman. "There's nothing wrong with that. There's a reason people remember [POWER PACK] and MICRONAUTS and ROM and all that stuff fondly. Some of it was very bad, but some of it was very, very good. Are there any Power Pack haters out there? I don't know."

Part of the Pack's appeal came from their dynamic, which Hickman describes as "completely dysfunctional because they're children." He also singles out Jack as his favorite member, calling him the "Johnny Storm of Power Pack." For the upcoming issue, however, the writer points out that the kids have grown up a little since their adventuring days.

"Now they're supposed to be a little bit older and I try to write them older," he says. "Alex is obviously the most adult-like now. He's supposed to be 19 and he and Reed have a conversation that's pretty interesting."

Along with Power Pack, two other characters from Franklin's past show up: Artie and Leech. Both these characters hold a special emotional bond with the young Richards as they kept him company when his parents

FANTASTIC FOUR #574 preview art by Neil Edwards

seemingly died during Marvel's Onslaught crossover event. Despite being a problem for many writers, Hickman says writing child characters comes rather easy for him as he just steals a lot of lines from his own children.

"That's a pretty solid way to go," he laughs. "There's a certain sense of humor that kids have that adults are too cynical to have. I think it's important to try and capture that. I think sentence structure is a big deal when you're writing kids. You got to screw it up a little every now and then because it just reads better as a kid [talking]. And they have funny adjectives that they use. Kids are easy if you got kids. Kids are probably really, really hard if you don't have them."

As for other characters making an appearance, Hickman mentions that Spider-Man "allegedly shows up." Back in FANTASTIC FOUR #571, Franklin asked his parents if they could convince the high-swinging hero to stop by the party, something that didn't sit too well with Franklin's Uncle Johnny.

"It's what Franklin wanted for his birthday and Johnny thinks that's ridiculous when a much cooler super hero lives in the same house as Franklin does," explains Hickman. "Johnny doesn't like that other super heroes are more popular than he is. Why should they be? Especially Spider-Man, who is basically the opposite of Johnny in that Spider-Man is kind of a loser and Johnny is not. Why in the world would he be more popular? It doesn't make sense. Hilarity ensues."

FANTASTIC FOUR #574 preview art by Neil Edwards

However, Hickman also makes note that there's more to the issue than just simple fun and games.

"I will say it would be a mistake to think there is no drama in the issue," he promises. "And it would be a mistake to think that there's no action in the issue and big things don't happen. It is a very important emotional issue and it is a very important thing to do going forward so that people can really, really connect with the character."

As for the most important question of all, the biggest mystery regarding the young son of a genius, the question fans have been asking for years: exactly how old is Franklin Richards? Well, Hickman only teases the possibility of an answer to this age-old Marvel conundrum:

"I will say there is some dialogue related to that in there. And that's as good as an answer as you're going to get."

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