Current Maximoff Pet Theory

Lockjaw #4 (2018)

written by Daniel Kibblesmith art by Carlos Villa, Roberto Poggi, & Chris O'Halloran

Not portraying as Bentley as that weird friend who does illegal science experiments in your basement is a wasted opportunity. 

I have just witnessed someone charcterising my blorbos in a way that I, personally, dislike and disagree with. As you can imagine, this is a most grievous insult and I am not doing well at present. Large baskets full of bread and candles and confetti will be greatly appreciated.

My favs

Franklin Richards x Luna Maximoff

So I’m basically just writing this for me and just because maybe I can get other people into the ship… And quick disclaimer, some of these points are based off things that I am inferring from the characters because they really have not been delved into enough.

This is basically a list of reasons why Franklin and Luna would work together well and some other points about the nature of the ship itself. 

Beware that this will probably be a little scattered.

Childhood friends to lovers. That’s the ship dynamic. I am honestly amazed that nobody has thought to ship this before (from what I can tell) because Luna and Franklin for years have been the two main superhero children. Their families have always been shown to be close and likely they played together as children, not to mention that they were both part of the Future Foundation at one point.

Background. Both Franklin and Luna grew up in tumultuous situations. They both know what it’s like to be the children of superheroes and to be held back because their parents wanted to protect them. (Though Franklin has not been cooped up his entire life, he’s been allowed to explore, where Luna has not.) Both of them have similar experiences, having been kidnapped multiple times by supervillains fighting their parents (which I headcanon they both have PTSD from).

Family. Both Luna and Franklin are specifically tied to their families. The Fantastic Four is Marvel’s First Family and is portrayed as a close, loving family. Luna is the only daughter of Crystal, the Inhuman princess, whose family suffers from constant infighting, and also is the daughter of Quicksilver, making her the granddaughter of Magneto (the retcon can choke). Luna’s family is anything but stable. Franklin and Luna’s family lives are opposites. Luna has practically no support from her family while Franklin suffers from too much support (in his humble teenage opinion lol). In this way they contrast and compliment each other. It’s also likely that both of them have instilled in them a strong sense family values and a want for a stable, peaceful family, which is something they have in common

Personality. Franklin (at least in the current FF run) is very cynical. Growing up the son of superheroes seems to have finally gotten to him. He’s jaded and definitely “going through a phase”. But underneath that is the boy he used to be. Someone with creativity, hope and bravery. Luna is someone who, even though she has gone through so much, has kept her kindness. She is emotionally intelligent (due to her empathy powers) and can look past someone’s outer exterior to their hearts. Underneath everything, both of them are tired kids, who somehow have managed to keep their hearts despite everything. Luna seems to have an easier time of this. But of course she hasn’t lived on earth her whole life and is still enamored by the idea of the ocean. She might be able to help Franklin see the beauty in the ordinary as to her it’s very extraordinary. But at the same time, Franklin might help to ground her more optimistic outlook on the world and together they could come to a happy balance.

And both of them are lonely. Now this is where we get into “inferring territory” because it has never been explicitly said of either of them. But in the current FF run we have seen Franklin completely isolated. He no longer has his best friend Leech with him or any of the Future Foundation members. He’s been banned from Krakoa because he’s not really a mutant (*curses Dan Slott*). The only people he has around him is his family. And from personal experience I can say that even the most kind and supportive family cannot always fill that lonely ache that comes late at night. And as for Luna…oh poor Luna. She has only ever had one friend, Adolf Impossible, who was never seen again and she went to Braddock Academy for a few weeks but did not go back. She lives on Attilan with her family, none of which are her age. Her only friend really seems to be Lockjaw…and he’s a dog… (Of course I headcanon that she’s quite close with her cousin Ahura, but that’s never been shown.) But Luna is lonely. And so is Franklin. And I figure that upon meeting each other as teenagers again, they would find some solace in one another as friends. (and in the fanfics I’m writing they are friends for a long time before getting romantic).

Note. One other thing I want to note is that Luna should not be some manic pixie dream girl to make all of Franklin’s fantasies come true and make his life better without contributing to hers. If anything, he’s the one fulfilling her dreams of being part of a big happy family (as opposed to her big dysfunctional family). Both Luna and Franklin have trauma and issues. They are not there to fix each other. They’re both going on journeys, on parallel paths that eventually converge.

Extra Reasons.

they both have glowy eyes so that’s frickin’ awesome

Luna just came out of comics limbo and looks to be about the same age as Franklin now based on her appearance

If they get married I get to tie together my two favourite Marvel families (Fantastic Four and Magneto’s Family)

They’re both rich kids.

They pass my vibe check and that’s what’s important

They both have been through so much and they deserve some happiness

I love them both and why shouldn’t I ship it?

And that’s it. <3 Feel free to message me if this brings you onto the ship. I am shipping them all by myself over here and enjoying it immensely.

Thank you to @lecinea and @suestormicons​ for the edits of Luna and Franklin at the top. 

https://suestormicons.tumblr.com/post/636319007081988096/franklin-val%C3%A9ria-fantastic-four-brother

https://lecinea.tumblr.com/post/96610940032/all-new-x-factor-13

The Potential of Luna Maximoff

Before we start... I’m going to focus mainly on Luna’s modern appearances (Son of M-current) since I haven’t read all of her comic appearances, and she was either a baby or a plot device with no personality (other than needing to be rescued) in those past comics. 

A lot of this is also speculation about her character (obviously) and how I see her, so there will be a lot of unanswered questions that I pose about her.

Luna Maximoff has the potential to be such an interesting character and comic book authors are missing out by not using and developing her. 

First, her powers. She’s an empath. Empathy is a power that we really don’t see a lot in comics since telepathy is favoured over it the majority of the time. (It’s a nice alternative with so many telepaths.) But empathy is a really good power because of the (obvious) emotional depth it has. A character with empathy can be someone who is very emotionally intelligent. 

It’s already been touched on in both Son of M and All-New X-Factor, but Luna has been shown to not quite understand why she shouldn’t just heal people of their emotional trauma. 

This would be such an interesting arc for her. Just to watch her come to terms with the fact that people have to go through pain to grow and that she also has to go through pain to grow. 

As an empath, it would also be extremely interesting to see how Luna herself deals with emotions. Does she embrace them? Can she force herself to feel happy with her powers? Does she get overwhelmed by the emotions of others around her? How does she deal with knowing everyone’s emotions? Does she try to help them? Does she leave them alone? There are just so many questions here that I just want people to explore.

Luna has also been shown to be very understanding of other people (mostly due to her empathy), and I love this as a trait in characters. She loves people and wants to help them. But this could also lead to her giving away her energy to people trying to help them and burning out because she doesn’t have anyone to support her.

And that leads into my next point. I think Luna is a lonely character. Does she even have any friends on Attilan? The only times we’ve seen Luna with other kids around her age is when she was with the Future Foundation, X-Factor and when she was on Hala with Crystal. But  none of these friends turn out to be long term for her.

She did go to the Braddock Academy for a while too, but we never saw this, and it didn’t last long. That’s the thing with all of the friendships Luna has had, they never seem to be lasting. By all rights, she should be close friends with Franklin and Valeria Richards, but they’re almost never seen together. I think it’s been a missed opportunity there. 

The only person who Luna could potentially be friends with on Attilan (other than Lockjaw) is her cousin, Ahura Boltagon. He’s the closest family member in age to her. Ahura is also an interesting character, who I think should be used more, but I think he and Luna compliment each other well. They both are empaths to a certain degree and both have grown up in the Inhuman royal court. Luna cured him of insanity when he was a child, and I think they could have a really close bond. Ahura is also kind of angsty and dark, while Luna tends to be more happy and optimistic. 

Speaking of Luna’s interactions with her family, let's talk about the other side of the family. Luna has somehow never met Billy and Tommy and I think this is a travesty. We already know that Erik loves Luna a lot and Lorna and her get along great. We haven’t seen her with Wanda recently enough to know how she feels about her though. I just wish we could get a comic with all of them in it. But also regarding the Magnet family, I feel like Luna is the only one in the family who is good with emotions. It would probably hurt her to see all of them fight as much as they do. She loves them all so much and doesn’t want to see any of them hurt. 

And on the topic of loving her family. I really think Luna should be allowed to spend more time with her dad. 

Pietro loves her so much (despite his past errors) and he loves her the same. I think now that Pietro has been trying to be a better person, she should be able to see him more. This would also be interesting because you could explore what it’s like for her to be the child of divorced parents. Who does she like living with more? How did she feel about her mom marrying Ronan that one time? How does she feel about her dad dating other women? Does she want her parents to get back together? There’s just so much under the surface.

And about the Inhuman side of her family. It would be so interesting to see how Luna’s relationship changes with them as she grows up. Would she come to realize that a lot of the ways that the Inhumans do things are wrong? Would she start to fight back against Crystal about these kind of things? Would she start to want to leave her home for good, or would she want to stay so she can try and change it for the better? Does she start to rebel against them in small ways, by bringing things from earth to Attilan like books with more modern ideas and music?

Luna’s relationship with Crystal has the potential for a big fallout between the two of them. Crystal hasn’t always been the greatest mother, especially recently.

Luna has been shown to love her mother a lot and to want to be with her desperately, but I think that in some ways this is just Luna’s want to be comfortable. Luna was kidnapped a bunch as a child (which she probably has trauma from), so she probably feels the safest with her mother, something that is completely understandable. But as she grows up, things will change. Luna might start wanting to leave home more and to make more friends, but Crystal is quite protective of Luna, and might not let her. And if Luna’s outlook on the Inhuman way of life changes, there could be a lot of differences that might push them apart.

Another thing I want to touch on is how despite all the hardships she’s gone through, Luna is still a sweet and kind character. She’s been through so much, and she feels so much beyond just her own feelings. It’s amazing that she hasn’t broken down or that she isn’t pessimistic. She’s just kind and wants to help people as best she can. She’s still learning how to help these people, but she has good intentions. It’s really just a nice breath of fresh air to see a character that has gone through so much, but is still able to smile and love the way that Luna seems to love. 

Luna is the kind of character who would hardly get angry, so that when she does get angry, you feel it. She knows the power that emotions hold. She could literally radiate anger. But I don’t see her as one to hold grudges. She knows what that can do to a person.

Luna knows how actions make people feel. She doesn’t want other people to ever feel the ways she’s had to feel. I think this is evident in the kinds of friends she has made. Both Georgia (All-New X-Factor) and Adolf (Future Foundation) were both lonely people. Georgia was mourning and new to the team, and Adolf was still finding his place among the Future Foundation. Luna reaches out to the lonely people and the outsiders because she herself has felt lonely and been an outsider. 

And speaking of Luna feeling like an outsider… We have to remember that Luna grew up as a human in an Inhuman world. There’s this really great post by @writingcaterpillar that talks about how Luna didn’t know she was human, and how in Son of M she points out that some of her friends hate humans. So from this we can infer that those who did know that Luna was human would not have liked her very much. And even after she gained her powers, I doubt this would change things very much. 

Another post by @imperiuswrecked goes deeper into this and talks about how the Inhuman genetic council might have actually denied Luna terrigenesis more based on her being a “half-breed” of a mutant and an Inhuman than based on it being a risk to her. (Another thing is that the genetic council sucks in general. They don’t have a good record of treating people well, just look at Ahura.) I feel like there is a lot you could uncover about Luna and how her family treats her. She’s not a pure blooded Inhuman. Do they discriminate against her? Do they deny her things and rights since she is not a “true Inhuman”? 

And Luna has only just started to defend herself. @imperiuswrecked​ has another post that talks about how in Son of M Luna defends herself physically for the first time. And in All-New Inhumans, Luna starts to argue a little bit with her mother. She’s learning to stand up for herself, but slowly. In All-New X-Factor, she even goes to see Pietro without Crystal’s permission, doing something that she wants, not that her mother wants.

That was longer than I expected, (no it wasn’t, who am I kidding) but I just really love Luna. I wish Marvel would look into her more. I feel like she hasn’t been explored nearly enough. She is a character who is kind and feminine. She is very in touch with her emotions, but lonely. She is compassionate towards others and still learning to fight for herself and for how she feels. 

I just have so many ideas about Luna and where she could go and how she could grow as a character, but clearly Marvel isn’t as interested in her as I am, so I guess I’ll have to write some fanfiction. :D

A father

He is not wrong tho Sue. Maybe listen to ur kid who isn’t a super genius for once?

I like to imagine that Luna and the twins have arguments about who's really the older one AKA who should be in charge when they hang out

the fact that Luna Maximoff was literally born before Billy and Tommy but bc of the retro-reincarnation* the twins are full grown adults and Luna is still a middle-schooler.

*nobody in the mid-2000s was playing close enough attention to the timeline, also because Luna is the Franklin Richards of Atillan and will never age.