Reprints Fantastic Four #251-257, Fantastic Four Annual #17, Avengers #233 and Thing #2
Written by John Byrne and Roger Stern.
Penciled by John Byrne and Ron Wilson.
Inked by John Byrne and Joe Sinnott.
Note from your trusted Bronze Age Reprint Reviewer:
60 years ago today, Fantastic Four #1 was published. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby collaborated on the creation of the FF and it lead to the creation of the Marvel Universe. Today's review is dedicated to Lee and Kirby and I will be posting reviews of Fantastic Four reprints and FF-related reprints through the end of this month. Thanks for stopping by!
Summary:
The Fantastic Four's leader Reed Richards has decided it's time for the team to once again explore the Negative Zone. He's designed a new vehicle that will safely take them through that dimension.
They encounter many different alien life forms in the Negative Zone, some friendly, some hostile.
Unfortunately, the moment the FF leaves their dimension, Annihilus, the greatest menace of the Negative Zone, arrives in the Baxter Building! He terrorizes Reed and Sue's son Franklin and the Thing's girlfriend Alicia Masters.
Annihilus also creates a null field that surrounds the Baxter Building and keeps growing, threatening to destroy the universe. The Avengers notice this and try to shut down the null field. The Vision attempts to phase into the field and collapses inside it.
When the Fantastic Four tries to return home, they're shocked to discover that their Negative Zone portal is closed off! Even if they're able to get back to New York, it'll take the combined might of the Fantastic Four and the Avengers to stop Annihilus and save the universe!
But that's not all!
Ben Grimm flashes back to the days before he became the Thing to remember the first woman he ever loved.
Galactus, the devourer of worlds, is dying and needs to consume a planet in order to survive, so he sets his sights on the Skrull's home planet!
Finally, the Human Torch's friend Sharon Selleck gets stuck in a small town and is attacked by the town's residents, who turn into monsters. Sharon is able to contact the FF, who arrive to rescue Sharon and investigate the monsters. Reed is shocked to learn that the monsters are connected to some of the Fantastic Four's oldest enemies!
Review:
Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 3 gives us 243 pages of one of the 20th century's greatest comic creators at the height of his powers!
Story:
The bulk of this book reprints the six-part "Into The Negative Zone" story that ran in FF#251-256 and crossed-over into Avengers #233. Byrne always understood that the Fantastic Four's primary mission was scientific exploration and the team does lots of exploring in these stories. In fact, these stories reminded me of the original Star Trek series.
The FF encounters lots of hostility in the Negative Zone, but sometimes Byrne shows that even superheroes can make mistakes when they interfere in alien societies they don't fully understand.
Byrne shares co-plotting credits with scripter Roger Stern in the story from Avengers #233, which crossed over with the Fantastic Four series. Stern's era helming the Avengers is one of my favorite eras of the team and it makes sense that "Earth's Mightiest Heroes" would investigate the disturbance in the Baxter Building with the FF being absent. What's interesting about the cross-over is that we get to see the end of the battle with Annihilus told twice, once from the perspective of the Avengers and a second time through the eyes of the Fantastic Four.
While they're in the Negative Zone, Annihilus is in the Baxter Building torturing Alicia and Franklin. Annihilus is just about as evil as villains come in these stories. He's dying and shows that he's willing to take the whole universe with him, since he blames Earth for his impending death.
The Negative Zone saga concludes with the Fantastic Four uniforms changing colors. This was a gutsy move at the time, since it pre-dates Spider-Man's costume change by several months. They would keep these uniforms for more than a hundred issues.
After the Negative Zone stories, Byrne gives us several more shorter tales. We get an untold tale (from Thing #2) about Ben Grimm's first love, before he was transformed into the Thing. It's a good story and it's a retcon that adds depth to Ben's character.
The Galactus story shows that the "devourer of worlds" is truly above good and evil. Byrne gets that Galactus is a force of nature and shouldn't be written as "just another villain."
The final story, from Fantastic Four Annual #19, has long been one of my favorite FF stories. It's a great "done in one" tale that ties in to one of the Fantastic Four's earliest adventures.
If there's anything to criticize here, it's the treatment of Alicia. In recent years, we've heard about the "Women In Refrigerators" trope in comics. The wives and girlfriends of superheroes are often killed or nearly killed so a male hero can experience "growth." I think in this case, Byrne was demonstrating Anihilus' cruelty, but it's my least favorite aspect of the book.
All in all, Byrne, with a little help from Stern, tells great stories full of action, drama and character development in Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 3.
Art:
Byrne pencils and inks 8 of the 10 issues reprinted here. He gives us lots of amazing looking worlds in the Negative Zone and also pencils plenty of great fight scenes. I've always loved this great two-page spread ever since I first saw it in Fantastic Four #256:
The artistic high point is the portion that reprints Fantastic Four #252. This was the first "widescreen" comic book ever published and it had to be turned on its side to be read. Byrne makes the most of this wider canvas and the art still looks amazing 38 years after its original publication. Here are some widescreen pages from that story:
The Avengers story features breakdowns by Byrne with finishes by Joe Sinnott. They previously collaborated on FF art several years earlier and this story gives us nice art that shows off the talents of both artists.
In addition to great depictions of the FF and their foes, Byrne gives us a brief cameo of Daredevil that makes you wish he'd drawn the character more often during the Bronze Age.
She-Hulk later became a character identified with Byrne, when he added her to the FF and when he wrote and drew her solo series. Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 3 includes an early Byrne depiction of the character.
Byrne even sneaks in an appearance by Al Capp's Lil' Abner!:
How does it look?:
Here are two pages scanned from Fantastic Four #257:
Looks great to me. I don't notice any weird re-coloring.
Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 3 features beautiful art and great stories from a creator who loved and understood the Fantastic Four as well as any creator who told their stories since Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.
J.A. Morris' Rating:
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