What is keeping the X-Men and the Fantastic Four on edge and how does Kate Pryde tie into it?
The X-Men and the Fantastic Four have a point of conflict that's going to be tackled in the upcoming 'X-Men Fantastic Four' - and it centers around Franklin Richards, the world's most powerful mutant. Jean Grey may have razed planets while possessed by the Phoenix, but Franklin has created universes, all while under his own power. Those powers have started to decline and Professor X believes its time to bring Franklin to the mutant nation of Krakoa, away from his family. But how did we get to this point?
The First Crossover
While the X-Men and the Fantastic Four have crossed paths many times before, their first big crossover happened in the limited series 'Fantastic Four versus the X-Men' by Chris Claremont and Jon Bogdanove. X-Man Kitty Pryde had been grievously injured in the events of the Mutant Massacre, to the point where her powers were out of control and she was unable to take solid form. After examining her form, Fantastic Four leader Reed Richards said he would be unable to help her - leaving the X-Men turn to Doctor Doom for help.
Misunderstandings and manipulations ensued, but more relevantly for this series is the bond forged between a young Franklin Richards and Kitty Pryde. Franklin, who was a much younger child back then, did not have much control over his powers and found himself projected astrally to Kitty Pryde's containment pod in Latveria. Kitty was horrified to learn that the X-Men had turned to Doctor Doom for her sake. She was preparing to leave the safety of the containment tube that was holding her form together and let herself dissolve into the air so the X-Men would not have to deal with Doom for her sake. Franklin, through sheer force of will, managed to focus his astral projection enough to grab her attention and convince her to return to her pod, saving her life.
The two bonded during the events of the mini-series, although that connection has not really been touched upon since. The upcoming 'X-Men Fantastic Four' mini-series is set to change that. Kitty Pryde - who now goes by Kate - has been featured on nearly all the covers in this event concerning Franklin. The preview pages see Professor X recruit Kate in order to take advantage of that very connection.
Why is Franklin losing his powers?
Short answer: the Multiverse was destroyed and he had to fix it, which tends to burn a kid out. The longer answer still start with the Multiverse being destroyed, in a major Marvel 'Secret Wars' crossover event. The road that led to the destruction of the Multiverse also imbued the villain Molecule Man with godlike power, that Doctor Doom drew open to declare himself the god of a world that stitched together bits of various Marvel universes into one giant planet known as Battleworld. Doom was defeated in the end, though the Molecule Man was still a repository of unlimited power.
Reed Richards used Franklin's power to dream up and shape entire universes, along with the Molecule Man's power, to recreate universes that were lost, as well as new ones, and thus restore the Marvel multiverse. The Fantastic Four were gone for months, recreating the Multiverse one universe at a time.
When the Fantastic Four returned, in the series written by Dan Slott, it was revealed that all that Multiversal recreation has taxed even the limits of Franklin's powers. Franklin only has a limited amount of power left - every time he uses his powers, he gets that much closer to not having any powers at all.
Why the X-Men care NOW
The X-Men are currently going through a major, unprecedented shift in their status quo. They have decided they ha ve had enough of humanity's constant attacks on mutant kind, and have declared themselves to be their own nation off on the island of Krakoa. They have the wealth, resources and firepower to back this up - they have effectively eliminated death, for mutant kind. They have also offered powerfully effective medicines for free to any country that recognizes Krakoa as its own nation, with all the rights that it confers. The mutants have built their Utopia and the hard part now will be keeping it.
No one has actually come out and said it, but having the most powerful mutant in the world on the X-Men's side really would not hurt their cause. Professor X is looking to recruit Franklin to Krakoa - ostensibly, to help Franklin from losing his powers and figuring out how to prevent the same from happening to other mutants. While he's aged up during his time out in the Multiverse, Franklin is still a teenager and convincing him to leave his parents - and his parents to let him go - isn't going to be easy. Which is why, according to the preview pages, Kitty's presence will be essential as the X-Men make their case.
Sinister minds are at work
One hopes that the Fantastic Four and the X-Men are able to have a civil conversation about all this - they are, after all, arguably superheroes who act to a standard we're meant to admire. If they somehow manage to avoid the traditional misunderstanding-battle-team-up pattern of most superhero crossovers, though, there are other forces at play. In an interview with Newsarama, writer Chip Zdarsky said that "there are other forces at play here which will test both the FF and the X-Men."
One of those forces has been revealed in Marvel's 'Incoming!' one-shot, a book filled with teases about the events concerning the Marvel Universe. One of those teases shows us Mister Sinister, who is on his eternal quest to create his most perfectly evolved self through genetic manipulation. Sinister has DNA samples of almost all of Marvel's most powerful mutants - there's just one he's missing, and it's Franklin Richard's.
Sinister has been given amnesty on Krakoa and is, technically, on the X-Men's side, but there's not a person on the island who actually trusts him. It's all in the name - his motivations are nothing if not...Sinister.
'X-Men Fantastic Four' #1 is out February 5 and is written by Chip Zdarsky, drawn by Terry Dodson and inked by Rachel Dodson, with ink assistance by Dexter Vines and Karl Story, color art by Laura Martin and lettering by VC's Joe Caramanga.