Marvel especially are big fans of leaping forward in time and exploring all possible futures for their fictional universe, from the various dystopian fates awaiting the X-Men to that Spider-Man story that ripped off the Dark Knight Returns where an elderly Peter Parker got sad that his radioactive semen killed Mary Jane. That is a thing that happened. They vary wildly, and each possible future tends to get undone by the intervention of a member of it travelling back in time (think Days Of Future Past). The one exception, and a constant throughout all Marvel time-leaps, is that Franklin Richards will someday become the most powerful being in the universe. Yes, possibly even higher than The Living Tribunal. The son of Mr Fantastic and the Invisible Woman will one day grow a sweet beard, live forever, pass through the heat death of the universe before creating a new one in his image, and will whip Galactus into being his herald. Right now, though, hes just a precocious, blond-haired five-year-old.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
