Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 3

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! 

Can the Fantastic Four save Sharon and defeat the monsters?

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.  

The story from Thing #2 features pencils from Ron Wilson inked by Byrne. Wilson always provided nice Marvel house style art and Byrne's inks over Wilson helps makes this story feel more connected to the stories that ran in the FF's series.

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:

And here's how the same pages look in Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 3:

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:

4 Sals!

Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans

Reprints Fantastic Four (1961) #164-176
Written by Roy Thomas and Bill Mantlo.
Penciled by George Perez, Rich Buckler, John Buscema.
Inked by Joe Sinnott, Vince Colletta

A man calling himself the Crusader shows up in New York, invades a bank and attacks Calvin McClary, the bank's owner. Luckily, the Human Torch is nearby and intervenes. Crusader defeats the Torch and gets away. This menace is armed with Quantum Bands that give Crusader super-strength that make him very dangerous. Johnny will need his Fantastic Four teammates if he wants to stop the Crusader.

We learn that Crusader's real name is Robert Grayson and that used to fight crime under the name Marvel Boy. His father Horace was an atomic scientist who fled the Earth to Uranus in the 1950s.  Horace Grayson needed money to fund his Uranus project and McClary wouldn't loan it to him. This resulted in the deaths of many Uranians, and the Crusader has come to New York to avenge them. This leads the madman to attack banks all over the city. 

Later, the FF are flying over the Midwest when they encounter the Hulk! They battle the Green Goliath and the Invisible Girl eventually subdues him using her force field. The Hulk is turned over to the military. Reed makes a deal with Col. Sellers of the Air Force: If he's able to cure Bruce Banner of his Hulk transformations, Banner will go free and work with Richards.
 

The Thing doesn't like the way the Hulk is being treated by the military. Ben looks at Hulk and sees that they are both "monsters" who are unjustly feared by the powers that be.

Reed uses a device on the Hulk that he hopes will turn him back to Bruce Banner. The device is successful, but Col. Sellers suddenly reneges on their deal and imprisons Banner. When Ben sees this, he decides to free Banner, who turns back into the Hulk. The Thing teams up with Hulk and only the Fantastic Four can stop them.

They battle all over the city of St. Louis. Suddenly, Ben has a change of heart and attacks the Hulk. But in the middle of the fight, the Thing changes back to his human form! He's plain old, human Ben Grimm once again. 

Since Ben is no longer the Thing, the FF need a new member. They hire Power Man, also known as "Luke Cage, hero for hire".

Ben's happiness at regaining his human form is short lived. No one recognizes him on the streets of New York, and talk shows that wanted to interview the Thing are no longer interested in booking him. Plus, Ben feels like a loser knowing that he's been replaced by Power Man. Grimm is further incensed because Reed is paying Cage for his services.

In the middle of these changes, the Fantastic Four are notified of a series of bank robberies. They learn it's the work of Thor's old foe the Wrecker. He possesses a mystically powered crowbar and proves to be a tough enemy. Power Man gets a chance to prove that he belongs on the team when he goes toe-to-toe with Wrecker.

Following that battle, Cage is having a conversation with Sue and Alicia Masters and Franklin. Power Man suddenly attacks them, but Invisible Girl's force holds him back and subdues Luke until her teammates arrive. Power Man steals their Fantasticar and escapes. The Fantastic Four know that Cage must be under some sort of mind-control and wonder who the real villain is. 

Reed knows that they will need all the help they can get to stop Power Man. He also sympathizes with his old friend and builds Ben a "Thing suit." It's an exoskeleton that will allow him to become the Thing again, while staying human. The suit enables Ben to rejoin the Fantastic Four.

Ben tries on his "Thing suit" for the first time.

The FF tracks down Power Man. The heroes learn that Cage is being controlled by their old enemy the Puppet Master! 

After that conflict, a spaceship lands in Central Park.  A golden gorilla emerges from the ship and grows into a giant. The Fantastic Four battle the gorilla and are able to capture him using Sue's force field (which also returns him to normal height). To their surprise, this gorilla can speak and tells them why he has come to Earth. He says his name is Gorr and he came to Earth to seek their help against Galactus, devourer of worlds!

Gorr had been sent to Earth by the god-like being who calls himself the High Evolutionary, who has created a Counter Earth nearly identical to our planet. The High Evolutionary asks the FF to help them find another planet that Galactus can feed on in order to spare Counter Earth. Will the Fantastic Four succeed in finding another planet? Or is Counter Earth doomed? Before it's all said and done, the High Evolutionary must engage Galactus in direct combat.

When the FF directly confronts Galactus, it will have a long-lasting impact on Ben Grimm.

Finally, when the Fantastic Four return to Earth, they are accompanied by the shape-shifter from planet Poppup known as the Impossible Man. The alien finds himself alone in New York City. The Impossible Man eventually ends up visiting 575 Madison Avenue, which houses the offices of Marvel Comics! Impossible Man demands that Marvel create a comic book that features him as the star. When they refuse, he attacks Marvel with extreme prejudice!

Review:
While this isn't exactly "classic"material, Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans is mostly fun from beginning to end. But I have some problems with these tales.

Story:
Roy Thomas writes some very entertaining stories in this tpb. It opens with the Crusader story, which features the FF against a very powerful being who has been tragically driven insane. The Hulk battle is pretty good too. It makes sense that the Thing would feel sympathy for his fellow "monster."

The FF battle the Hulk & Thing on the St. Louis arch!

But after that, I'm not crazy some of what Thomas does.  Ben is returned to his human form, something he'd wanted for (at that point) 167 issues. But almost immediately after his transformation, Grimm starts whining about how he's no longer a celebrity. Is it believable that Ben would feel left out when it was time for his teammates to go into battle? Sure, but we should have gotten at least one issue's worth of pages that show Grimm enjoying the return to his normal old self.

Ben cries in his beer.

Power Man, hired to replace the Thing,  is well-written here. Cage tries to balance his enthusiasm with being in the FF with respecting Ben's feelings. It's also good that Thomas doesn't try to overload Cage's dialogue with "urban" idioms, a mistake made by lots of 70s writers.

Gorr's first appearance is ridiculous, but I mean that in a good way. What's not to like about a giant, talking, alien, intelligent golden gorilla?! Thomas gives us a nice tribute to King King and other giant monster movies. There are even references to the 1976 Kong remake. The Thing jokes that "Dino de Laurentiis could save a fortune if he just had a Polaroid".

The Galactus story is pretty good. Thomas demonstrates that Galactus simply hungers and wants to consume the energies of Counter Earth simply because he needs to. But I was a bit disappointed in the battle between the Big G and High Evolutionary. It's teased as an epic clash, but Galactus needs only 9 panels over a page and a half to easily defeat the High Evolutionary.  

The Impossible Man & the FF crash-land in Central Park.

Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans concludes on a funny note, with the Impossible Man paying a visit to Marvel Comics. I always liked things like this when I was a kid and still enjoy them today. It's entertaining to see Thomas, George Perez, Jack Kirby and Stan Lee depicted as comic book characters.

There's one more problem with this book. It ends with a cliffhanger. The Impossible Man story was followed by a two-parter that featured the Frightful Four. If you want to read what happens next, it's been reprinted in tpb called Fantastic Four Visionaries - George Perez, Vol. 2 (maybe I'll review that book here someday). 

Art:
The art contained in this tpb is excellent. George Perez draws the first 4 issues reprinted here and also the last story in the book.  Most of Perez' art is beautifully inked by Joe Sinnott, who inks the other pencilers as well. Look at this gorgeous two-page spread from Perez and Sinnott:

Great stuff.

John Buscema was, of course, a legendary artist and one of the best of the Bronze Age. This isn't his best art, but it's still good. Rich Buckler pencils the rest of the book and his art is also excellent. These stories were published during a time when Marvel wanted Buckler to deliberately imitate the art of Jack Kirby. But that's not his fault, and Buckler and Sinnott make a great art team. Here's an example of their work:

Power Man decks the Wrecker, while Ben struggles with life without super-strength.

How Does It Look:
Below you find the splash page as it originally appeared in Fantastic Four #175:

And here's how it looks in Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans:

And for good measure, here's another original page, scanned from FF #172:

It looks like this in the tpb:

Thank to SuperMegaMonkey for the scans from the old issues.

Extras:
Thomas wrote a column in FF #176 about the making of the story where Impossible Man visited the Marvel offices. That column is reprinted here. The tpb also contains 4 pages of original art.

Fantastic Four: Crusaders & Titans features some outstanding art from Perez, Sinnott and Buckler and some solid stories from Thomas. This tpb is recommended, but Thomas' handling of Ben Grimm in the middle portions and the cliffhanger ending prevent me giving the book a higher rating.

J.A. Morris' rating:

3 Sals.

Nova Classic Vol. 3

Reprints Nova #20-25, Fantastic Four #204-206, 208-214
Written by Marv Wolfman.
Penciled by Carmine Infantino, John Buscema, Keith Pollard, Sal Buscema and John Byrne.
Inked by Dave Hunt, Steve Leialoha, Mike Esposito, Klaus Janson, Joe Sinnott, Bob McLeod and D.Hands.

Summary:
Richard Rider's father Charles is in a tight spot. He recently lost his job and was forced to borrow money from a shady organization called the Inner Circle. Charles turns state's evidence and will testify against the Circle. But he decides to go to the Inner Circle and tell them off first. Richard changes to Nova and follows his father. Unbeknownst to Nova, his younger brother Robert is following him.  Robert has built a Sherlock Holmes robot because he believes Richard is hiding something and has the robot tail his older brother.

The Corruptor returns.

It turns out that the leader of the Inner Circle is Nova's old foe, the Corruptor. Nova finds the Inner Circle's hideout and beats them up. When he unmasks one of them, he's shocked to find it's Charles Rider. Robert walks in, sees this, and accuses Nova of attacking Richard. This leads to Nova unmasking and revealing his identity to his family.

Elsewhere, Richard's high school classmate Mike Burley finds an old man who is very sick. When the man is taken to the hospital, the x-ray machine has a surprising impact on him. It restores the superpowers he once wielded as the 1950s hero know as the Comet! He can fly with the speed of a comet and shoot energy blasts from his fingers.

The villain Diamonhead resurfaces in New York. Nova tries to stop him but winds up unconscious.  Comet arrives and helps Nova recover. The older hero will team up with Nova and act as a mentor of sorts to Richard.

Comet helps Nova deal with Diamondhead.

Crimebuster returns, too, and we learn that Comet is his father. Until their reunion, Comet thought his entire family had been killed in a bombing.

After another fight with Diamondhead, Nova is transported to the Xandarian spaceship that gave him his powers. He is the prisoner of Doctor Sun, a brain connected to a computer network, contained in an android body. Doctor Sun believes the Xandarian technology is his key to immortality.

Doctor Sun reflects on his confrontation with Dracula;
Nova goes after Sun.

Unbeknownst to anyone, Nova's old villain the Sphinx is on the spaceship as well. He tells Sun that immortality is a curse and that he, the Sphinx, wants to die. He believes that only the planet Xandar can provide the knowledge that can end his life.

Comet, Crimebuster and Powerhouse (who reluctantly battled Nova in the past) join the others on board the ship. We learn that Powerhouse is a native of Xandar. And Diamondhead has sneaked on the ship too!

But shortly after they begin their journey, they are attacked by a fleet of skrull ships.

In a short time, they will be aided by the Fantastic Four in a war against the Skrull Empire.

Plus, the Sphinx gains the powers of a god and battles Galactus!

Review:
Nova Classic Vol. 3 collects the final six issues of Nova's original solo series and these stories show why the series was cancelled after 25 issues.

Story:
Marv Wolfman doesn't seem to know what to do with this series and tries a different direction every 20 pages or so. He brings in Comet to be a mentor to Nova. Wolfman has Nova unmask in front of his family. Nova becomes part of team fighting in outer space. Unfortunately, none of the "directions" add up to much.

The Champions of Xandar team with the Fantastic Four against Sphinx.

The revelation that Crimebuster is Comet's son feels more random than dramatic. And neither character is developed enough for the reader to care about them very much.

So Nova's series ends with a whimper.

The second half of the book is very good. It focuses on the Fantastic Four rather than Nova. But it features the skrull attack on Xandar, so I guess it makes sense to include it in this tpb.

Prime Thoran shows the FF Xandar's living computer.

All but one of these FF stories was also reprinted in Fantastic Four: In Search Of Galactus, which I reviewed the other day, so I won't go into detail again. Click here for my take on the FF stories.

The Fantastic Four & Herbie battle Terrax.

In any event, the FF portion of the book is better than the Nova stories.

We don't get to see the ending of the Xandar/Skrull war. It didn't end until Rom #24, published about a a year and a half after the last issue reprinted in this tpb. But Marvel doesn't currently own the rights to Rom the Spaceknight, so all we get is a text recap of how the war ended. Talk about an anti-climax!

Art:
Carmine Infantino pencils five of the six Nova stories that are reprinted in this tpb. His art is okay, except for the last issue. Infantino is inked by Klaus Janson in that last issue and their art looks very slapdash and sloppy. They were two of my favorite Bronze Age artists, but they don't make for a good combination in this book.

Nova, Comet & Sphinx defend their ship from a Skrull attack.

John Buscema, who penciled Nova's early issues, draws one issue here and his art is good as usual. He's inked Bob McCleod and Joe Rubinstein and they do a fine job.

The Fantastic Four stories were penciled by Keith Pollard, Sal Buscema and John Byrne with inks by Joe Sinnott. Their art is excellent.

How Does It Look?:
Here's a scan from the last page of Nova #23, borrowed from SuperMegaMonkey:

Here's how the same page looks in Nova Classic Vol. 3:

Extras:
Nova Classic Vol. 3 gives us entries from the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe for Nova, Sphinx, Corruptor, and the Champions of Xandar. It closes with several pages of original art. It also contains a three-page story published in What If #36 where Richard returned to Earth and recaps his battles with the skrulls.

While the first six issues reprinted in Nova Classic Vol. 3 aren't very good, the inclusion of the Fantastic Four stories makes it worth picking up. But if you already own Fantastic Four: In Search Of Galactus, you may not feel the need to get this tpb just for the Nova stories, unless you're a Nova completist. The FF stories bump it up from a 2-Sal review.

J.A. Morris' review:

3 Sals.