WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Fantastic Four #28, by Dan Slott, R.B. Silva, Jesus Aburtov & VC's Joe Caramagna, on sale now.
The Fantastic Four have been locked in a battle with one of the universe's most powerful entities, all because of Reed Richards' arrogance, Valeria Richards' brilliance and the former powers of Franklin Richards.
Reed created a doorway to anywhere a few months ago, with the intention of keeping it open and the Fantastic Four serving as the guardians of it. After Valeria opened the door, creatures big and small began to come through it, creatures that Franklin Richards created while building his own worlds. They were on the run from the Griever at the End of All Things, and the Fantastic Four had no way of stopping her.
But in Fantastic Four #28, the FF comes up with an ingenious way to stop the Griever by using the doorway to send her to her certain demise. And in the process, the team got a hint about the end of the Marvel Universe.
The Griever arrived while Franklin created the various universes for the Future Foundation to explore. In Fantastic Four #2 by Dan Slott, Sara Pichelli, Elisabetta D'Amico, Marte Garcia & VC's Joe Caramagna, Frankin returned after creating enough worlds to push his powers past their breaking point. That is when the Griever at the End of All Things arrived and said that the "boy god's" reign was over and that it was time to make things right again. She then set out to destroy every world that Franklin created, wiping every being out of existence, and not even the Molecule Man was strong enough to stop her when she attacked.
During this battle, Dragon Man acknowledged that Franklin was more powerful than Thor, Hulk and the Silver Surfer, but that he was still powerless to stop the Griever. Reed had to bring in the Fantastic Four to beat her, and he brought in every member of the Fantastic Four in history to fight by his side. They still couldn't beat her, but Reed realized her weakness was not being able to teleport anywhere without a ship. After destroying all but one of her ships, they convinced her to give up. But now that there is a door, the Griever at the End of All Things could make it to Earth to seek revenge.
It took Reed Richards' intelligence to stop her again, as the heroes were still no match for her might. Reed realized that the Griever only wanted one thing in life: to destroy everything. Understanding her true motivations, Reed told her the door could take her to the end of the universe so she could be there when it collapsed and died. She accepted, but she also gave the Fantastic Four an interesting nugget of information. Though she had already shown each of them possible deaths for themselves, she told Franklin that she believed she would see him again at the end of the universe.
This made no sense to Franklin, as he has lost his powers and is just a normal kid now. His cosmic powers are gone, and he learned he isn't even a mutant like he thought. He said he didn't see how he could be at the end of the universe, but the Griever said "we'll see" with a small look and went to the end of the universe.
However, Griever's comments suggest that Franklin is merely having temporary issues with his powers. As firmly established in Mark Waid, Javier Rodriguez, Alvaro Lopez, Carlos Lao and Joe Caramagna's History of the Marvel Universe, Franklin is destined to be one of the last living beings in the universe, alongside Galactus. And if the Griever is right, that's still his ultimate endgame.
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