John Byrne’s Fantastic Four #232-295 (plus extras)

See the bottom of this post for info re: ISBN’s and Volume contents.

I would say that there are three outstanding and exceptional runs on the Fantastic Four comic, one of them, which I’ve mentioned in a previous post, was of course courtesy of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, another was by Mark Waid and Mike Wieringo over forty years later. And sitting right in the middle of these two, is the work of John Byrne.

Strangely, the runs mentioned all began almost exactly twenty years apart, so if there is a twenty year cycle of excellence for the Fantastic Four, we should expect something very special in 2021. In fact, it’s my intention to be the FF scribe by that year.

Byrne’s run on the FF is the second longest of any creative team, only Stan and Jack produced more consecutive issues. It was considered at the time to be a return to a Golden Age for the team.

As far as Byrne’s concerned, he had an edge over most creative partnerships as he was the sole creator of the book. He has said in interview that a singular creative vision is able to produce a strip more closely resembling the creators intent. Well, yes, that makes sense, but it doesn’t count for much if the creators intent and vision is not to the buying public’s taste. However the sales of FF over the years of Byrne’s tenure as creator and the fact that he was the sole creator for such an extended time (five years) would suggest that his stories “worked”.



Cover from FF 252

  But as any comic reader will admit, the number of issues produced and the quantity of copies sold are not always directly proportionate to the quality of the product. Think of all of the X-Titles and Image craziness with incentive-multiple-cover-polybagged-trading-card-insert-limited to 200 copies per customer, in the 90’s.

But Byrne was working in an earlier time, when, frankly, shit did stink. So sales did count for something and Byrne’s work was well above average and a retrospective of this era in general could not be considered complete without mention of Byrne’s work across the medium and the FF in particular.

What we get over the course of the Byrne run is a sense of character and changing roles within the family unit. There’s nothing particularly new in the run but it is a return to the fundamentals of the team, indeed, the first issue that Byrne produced was titled “Back to Basics” which sets the tone for the next few years worth of stories.

That’s not to say that we have five years of  comics that simply maintain the status-quo. We see Johnny grow from a teen into a young man, particularly in regard to his romantic involvement with a long term supporting character. He still has his hot-headed and impetuous nature, but his wants, needs and desires grow up with him. We see Sue realise her potential with an increase in confidence and ability plus a fitting name change to Invisible Woman. Ben…..Hmmm, well the Thing angle is a bit of a disappointment for me, I’ll give you a bit of perspective.

In 1983 Byrne was commissioned to produce an ongoing Thing comic. He did, it was OK. So how do you go about creating a stand-alone comic for the Thing?

You estrange him from the other members of the FF.

Byrne writes the character of Ben Grimm with believability and depth, that’s not the problem. The problem is, for the reason mentioned above, there is a huge portion of the Byrne run devoid of the Ever-Lovin’ Blue Eyed Ben. It really is a great loss. I’ve always seen FF as a true family, it’s not like the Avengers with a rotational membership. The Fantastic Four is a single entity comprised of four particular individuals.




Panel from FF 284

  I have nothing against the character of She-Hulk, Ben’s replacement, but she ain’t him. And this is for a LOT of issues. This is the only major negative point in an otherwise memorable run, but I have to say, for me it’s a BIG one.

The stories themselves are exactly as they should be. High-Adventure, cosmic threats, explorative jaunts into the Negative Zone and nefarious plots from a certain dastardly European monarch. Two of the most memorable arcs are Doom epics. In one we have the team in a situation where they assist Doom in regaining his Latverian throne because of the chaos, terror and poverty caused by his overthrow. It’s a very well crafted tale that leaves both the reader and the FF with an ambiguous feeling in regard to the morality of their actions. Have they been expertly played by the conniving Doom? The other story transplants the four into surrogate bodies, sans powers, with Reed in particular mercilessly tortured by the atrocious but charismatic Doctor.

Good stuff.

This is not a particularly cheap run to get hold of  in either single issue or collected format. However, the trade paperbacks are printed on good quality paper, it’s glossy and I prefer matte, but that is a purely personal preference, based on the fact that the original art was produced for newsprint.



Panel from FF 262

 John Byrne’s Fantastic Four is well worth a read. It’s a high point in regard to both Byrne’s career and Fantastic Four history. It’s also a benchmark in the comic media of an era when comics had grown up in terms of character and story development, but hadn’t yet reached the “gritty” phase that firstly bolstered and later, nearly destroyed an industry that I love. The issues contain intelligent and well crafted stories, but with a sense of wonder, discovery and most importantly of all, adventure.

The entire run, including some worthy extra issues (and some not so worthy) has been collected in eight trade paperbacks, there is also a Volume 0, which collects some one off issues produced by Byrne before the main body of his run, but as I don’t have it, it’s not commented on in this post.

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 1 – ISBN 9780785107798

Fantastic Four #232-240

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 2 – ISBN 9780785114642

Fantastic Four #241-250

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 3 – ISBN 9780785116790

Fantastic Four #251-257, Annual #17, Avengers #233, Thing #2

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 4 – ISBN 9780785117100

Fantastic Four #258-267, Alpha Flight #4, Thing #10

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 5 – ISBN 9780785118442

Fantastic Four #268-275, Annual #18, Thing #19

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 6 – ISBN 9780785121909

Fantastic Four #276-284, Secret Wars II #2, Thing #23

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 7 – ISBN 9780785127352

Fantastic Four #285-286, Annual #19, Avengers #263, Annual #14, X-Factor #1

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne 8 – ISBN 9780785127369

Fantastic Four #287-295

Mad Thinker Reads- Fantastic Four by John Byrne


MT

Jack & Stan Do It Again For The First Time

Where is the future that was promised to us when we were kids?

Do any of you own flying cars, or even hoverboards?

How many of you have seen a gorilla fight a robot?

The closest thing to the future that I was expecting are those shoes that have tiny wheels on the soles. But I’m in my thirties, I can’t wear those. And frankly they’d be a poor substitute for the rocket powered roller skates that Santa didn’t buy for me.

Why do I have these expectations? I’ve suckled from the teat of many works of fiction over the years, some were forgettable, but some have had a long standing effect. In retrospect it’s not difficult to see why some have stayed with me: Believability.

Not a word that can often be attached to the outlandish stories that were produced in the Silver Age of Comics, but bear with me. What’s believable about a group of friends stealing a spaceship only to gain super-human powers in orbit? What about when they meet an entire race of inhuman allies that have secretly lived in the Himalayas for a jillion years? Not to mention Atlantean/Human Halflings, WW2 androids or the Living Fuhrer.

What about when this group are given distinct personal qualities that often clash, but are able to continue working together, as a team, because of the close relationships built on love, respect and shared responsibilities?

OK, now we’re getting somewhere.

I know It’s been said elsewhere, but really, there was nothing in comics like Fantastic Four before that incredible series began and it’s still one of the greatest runs of comics ever. Over 100 issues of perfection.

Fantastic Four 1-102 (Nov. 1961-Sep. 1970) and Annuals 1-6, by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and (mostly) Joe Sinnott had everything comics need and a lot more. Yes, there’s plenty of action, some of the best that you’re ever likely to read. Time travel, giant robot gorillas, dastardly inter-galactic plots and more. All of it expertly scripted, plotted and rendered in the Merry Marvel Way, but what really sets it apart is the humanity of the characters.

For every encounter with Dragon Man there’s an everyday occurrence which results in drama. Reed and Sue’s courtship, with the added interference of Namor is handled beautifully, one of the many themes that still impacts on the present day comics. The wedding issue, perfectly balanced with a super-human threat, the mundane and the absurd amalgamated into intense drama.

After the wedding and Sue’s announcement of her pregnancy we see Reed obsessing over Sue’s safety, taking her out of the team for the sake of their unborn child, ultimately showing Reed’s and the teams desperate struggle in the Negative Zone due to the possibility of a birth defect.

Compellingly human reactions regardless of the science-fiction cause.

We see the team move house, suffer financial instability, jape and joke at each others expense and even go their separate ways under the stress of it all, only to realise that their bonds as a family unit are stronger than the petty niggles that they see in the others. Real life, I’ve been through this and I’m sure you have too.

This is as much soap-opera as super-heroics.

One of my favourite moments, which is really just an off-hand comment by Reed, is when Ben is expressing his inability to understand even the most basic scientific principle, Reed remarks “You’re not fooling anyone Ben, remember I went to college with you and I know you’ve got a Degree.”

Compare Fantastic Four to other team books at the time. You'll see Super-Buddies working together flawlessly, slapping each other on the back and complementing their team-mates brilliance after defeating villain of the month. Those other books were often well structured, with solid art, but had essentially stagnated. They were offering nothing new and their sales had been stable but small. Of particular note in this area, albeit a few years earlier, is Challengers of the Unknown. A pleasurable read and Kirby's prototype Fantastic Four, but lacking the sharp and well paced dialogue of Stan Lee, it just doesn't quite hit the mark, as evidenced by it's patchy publication history.

Stan and Jack's precision character building is a staple of modern comics, often attempted but rarely achieved with the same level of success. But with so many other things, what was once the exception has now become the rule. It would be easy to see these comics as dated, because they are. They are undoubtedly a product of their time, but that is what makes them timeless, it was the sixties, every concept was given room to breathe, it was a time when innovation and experimentation was encouraged and when the first issue was published Stan and Jack had nothing to lose, the company was practically dead. Things turned around though.

The Heroic Age returns to modern Marvel, taking inspiration from the groundbreaking stories written nearly half a century ago by Stan, Jack, Steve and friends. The house style created by a select few, still having an impact on one of, if not the most influential publisher of comics today.

And The Fantastic Four is the book that started it all. Get the collected editions if you don’t already have them, and if you do own them, read them again. You’ll see the past, the present and I’m hopeful that they usher in a very bright future.

Mad Thinker Reads....The Fantastic Four by Stan Lee & Jack Kirby.

MT