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!

Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10

Reprints Avengers 89-100
Written by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams.
Penciled by Neal Adams, Sal Buscema, John Buscema and Barry Windsor-Smith.
Inked by Sam Grainger, Sal Buscema, George Roussos, Tom Palmer, Neal Adams, Alan Weiss, Tom Sutton, Joe Sinnott, Syd Shores and Barry Windsor-Smith.

Summary:
The Avengers battle aliens, gods and Inhumans in a star-spanning epic of the Bronze Age!

On the planet Hala, the villainous Ronan The Accuser takes power over his people, the Kree, and forcibly overthrows its proper ruler, the Intelligence Supreme. Ronan's first act is to activate Sentry 459, a giant robot.

Ronan dispatches the Sentry to Earth to kill the Kree Captain Mar-Vell, AKA the superhero Captain Marvel. Thankfully, the Avengers are protecting Mar-Vell. Vision, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch battle the Sentry, but the robot captures Mar-Vell and teleports him away from the Avengers.

Avengers Wasp and Yellowjacket are conducting research in the Arctic Circle, near Alaska. They notice a strange tropical island among all the ice. When Yellowjacket investigates this, he's shot with some sort of ray. It's the work of Ronan, who has set up a base on the island.  Fearing that her husband has been killed, Wasp contacts her fellow Avenger Goliath, who in turn calls the rest of the team to the Arctic. 

The Avengers learn that Ronan blasted Yellowjacket with an Evo-Ray, which causes Pym to de-evolve into a brutal, savage caveman. Ronan intends to de-evolve all life on Earth, which will make it easier for the Kree to conquer or destroy the planet.

During the battle, Ronan receives an emergency transmission from outer space. The Skrull Empire, eternal foes of the Kree, have launched an all out war against Ronan's people. Ronan flees Earth to join the battle. The Kree-Skrull War has begun! The Avengers find themselves caught in the middle of two alien races who are determined to slaughter each other.

The Avengers decide to keep Ronan's actions on Earth secret from public knowledge, believing that it would cause panic and paranoia. When the Kree activities are uncovered, the Avengers are in hot water for keeping secrets. A sense of dread about alien invasions takes over the public consensus. Captain Mar-Vell is suspected of being part of the Kree invasion. This leads to the formation of the Commission on Alien Activities, headed by H. Warren Craddock.

Mar-Vell wants to turn himself in to the commission, believing it will calm the anti-alien sentiments and take heat off the Avengers. His friend Carol Danvers disagrees and takes Captain Marvel to a farm owned by her friends in Upstate New York. Mar-Vell's friend Rick Jones has a vision that Captain Marvel will be attacked when he arrives at the farm. Rick and Mar-Vell have a unique connection (Rick used to "swap atoms" with Mar-Vell, so the Kree captain could appear on Earth), and he fears his friend is in grave danger.

Craddock calls the Avengers into a hearing, where they are made to look like traitors. Original members of the Avengers Thor, Iron Man and Captain America are embarrassed by this development. They tell Wanda, Pietro, Vision and Goliath that they have disgraced the Avengers and the team is dissolved!

Shortly after this, Vision arrives at the mansion. The android is near death. After Ant-Man saves Vision, he tells the Avengers that he, Scarlet Witch, and Quicksilver were attacked by three cows who turned into members of the Fantastic Four in Upstate New York.

But this version of the FF have different powers than Vision expected. The heroes decide to investigate these strange cows.

The Avengers battle the Thing, Human Torch and Mr. Fantastic. After a brief fight, the heroes learn that their opponents are actually Skrulls. They also discover that the Cap, Iron Man and Thor who dissolved the Avengers were also Skrulls.

Captain Marvel, Quicksilver, and Wanda have been captured by Super-Skrull, who possesses all the powers of the Fantastic Four. Super-Skrull takes the heroes to the Skrull homeworld in the Andromeda Galaxy, hoping to regain the favor of Skrull Emperor Dorrek.

When he arrives at the emperor's throne room, Super-Skrull is promptly stunned and imprisoned.

Emperor Dorrek forces Captain Marvel to construct an Omni-Wave Projector. Such a device could wipe out the Kree. Mar-Vell is forced to construct the projector when Dorrek threatens to kill Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver.

Back on Earth, H. Warren Craddock has decided to arrest the Avengers. He sends a brigade of Mandroids to the Avengers' mansion. Mandroids all wear weaponized armor created by Iron Man's alter ego Tony Stark. Iron Man's unexpected knowledge of the Mandroid armor helps the Avengers win the day.

The Avengers then blast off into space, determined to save their friends and battle Skrull and Kree alike.

In the middle of all this, Rick Jones is captured by the Kree, taken to Hala and brought before Ronan. He taunts Rick and mocks Earthlings as primitive creatures who are beneath his contempt. However, Ronan tells Jones that Earth is important strategically, since it is the exact midpoint between the Kree and Skrull homeworlds. Due to its location, the Kree will either conquer Earth...or destroy it!

At the same time, the Avengers capture a Skrull spaceship and defeat the crew. The Vision interrogates one of the Skrulls, demanding to know the whereabouts of Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver. Vision gets carried away, beating the Skrull within an inch of his life. The Avengers intervene and save the Skrull's life. He tells the heroes that Earth is doomed, since a Skrull ship is headed towards Earth. The ship is carrying a nuclear warhead powerful enough to wipe out all of humankind.

Rick is imprisoned with Intelligence Supreme. The fallen Kree leader tells Rick that he has an important role to play in the war and zaps Rick with a bolt of energy. This gives Rick the power of the entire human race. Intelligence Supreme suggests that Jones' memories of reading comic books from the 1940s could help him bring peace between the Skrulls, Kree and Earth.

What will Rick Jones do with his newfound powers? Can Rick and the Avengers possibly save Earth from two alien races bent on its destruction?

After the war, the Avengers have little time to relax. A man who calls himself Mr. Talon is stirring up crowds of people, encouraging them to commit acts of mass violence.

When the Avengers arrive to quell the violent mobs, Thor recognizes Talon as Ares, Greek God Of War! Thankfully, Hercules has returned to the Avengers' ranks. But Hercules is suffering from amnesia.

While the Avengers are probing Hercules' mind at their mansion headquarters, the heroes are attacked by two Olympian Warriors named Bia and Kratos. They capture Hercules and take him to Mount Olympus.

Ares has also gone to Mount Olympus where he's joined by the Enchantress, one of the Avengers' oldest foes. The Avengers call every hero who has ever served as an Avenger to Olympus. They will need everyone they can get if they hope to rescue Hercules and defeat Ares. 

Review:
At this point, it's hard to say anything new about the Kree-Skrull War. I'd put off reviewing it, focusing on less-famous storylines. But the recent release of Captain America: Civil War got me thinking it was time to review this volume of Marvel Masterworks. 

Story:
Roy Thomas is credited as writer, but in his introduction, he gives Neal Adams co-plotting credit.  In any case, this is a great story that deserves its "classic" status.

There's lots of drama, action and character development.

Ronan's threat to de-evolve Earth feels like a legit "end of the world" scenario. The Avengers are under siege from the Skrulls, Kree, Ares, the Enchantress and their own government for the entire book!

Of course great superhero stories require great villains, and Ronan The Accuser certainly fits the bill. The Skrull's Emperor Dorrek is also as evil as they come. The Super-Skrull is a minor player in this book, but he's always been one of my favorite villains. As far as I'm concerned, any story can be improved by the presence of Super-Skrull!

But it's a tribute to Thomas and Adams' storytelling that not every alien here is evil. The Intelligence Supreme helps Rick Jones and Skrull Princess Annelle begs her father not to go to war.

While readers of this story know Earth won't be destroyed, Thomas' script keeps adding layers of tension to the story. These tales also give us early indications that the Vision and Scarlet Witch would eventually become romantically involved.

Thomas' script is full of pop culture references. The characters mention Joe Cocker, Crosby, Stills & Nash (the names of three ants who help Ant-Man!), and the silent movie Metropolis. This helps lighten the mood, so that the story isn't all doom, gloom and paranoia.

The Commission on Alien Activities is an obvious allegory for Red Scare-era investigatory entities such as the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Internal Securities Subcommittee.  H. Warren Craddock's behavior resembles the actions of Sen. Joseph McCarthy. This will seem obvious to any student of history, but such allegories didn't appear very often in comic books of the early 1970s.  Roy Thomas deserves kudos to adding Craddock's committee to the story, it adds a bit of realism to the story.

Making Rick Jones the hero of the story is also a nice touch. Rick served as sidekick to Hulk, Captain America, Mar-Vell and the Avengers during the 1960s and early 70s. Jones always wanted to be a superhero and in this story he gets to save three planets from destruction.

If there's anything to criticize about the Kree-Skrull War, it's that the Inhumans portion of this story doesn't add a whole lot. Most Bronze Age Inhumans stories involve Maximus seizing control (or at least attempting to seize control) of Attilan. This one is no exception.  

The Ares story that follows is a comparably weak follow-up. It's not bad, but any story that followed the Kree-Skrull War was guaranteed to be a bit of a let down.

Art:
The first four issues reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10 feature pencils by Sal Buscema embellished by three inkers (including himself). Sal does a fine job drawing aliens, fight scenes and cavemen. I love Sal's depiction of the helicopter crash in these images:

Neal Adams (pencils) and Tom Palmer (inks) take over the art duties after Sal and this is some of their finest work. Ant-Man's journey into the Vision is one of the most memorable stories of the Bronze Age and that's because Adams and Palmer make the Vision's insides look like something out of a sci-fi movie (it's an homage to films like Journey To The Center Of The Earth and Fantastic Voyage). Here are two gorgeous pages from "Journey To The Center Of An Android":

I also love this Triton splash page from Adams and Palmer:

Great stuff.

Sal's brother John Buscema succeeds Adams and finishes the Kree-Skrull War, with Palmer staying on as inker. It's too bad Adams couldn't finish this saga, but "Big John" and Palmer were always great together. Here's a nice example of their work in this book:

Barry Windsor-Smith provided pencils on the Ares story. He's a great artist, but I've never been crazy about his art in superhero stories. But Windsor-Smith provides some good art here, even if his work (like the story he penciled) is a bit of a step down from the previous tale. I've always liked this splash page he drew that features the Black Knight. 

Extras:
Roy Thomas wrote a new introduction where he discusses the creative process behind these issues. Walt Simonson and Tom Palmer created some new Kree-Skrull War pages that were published in a 1983 reprint of the storyline and their work is reprinted here. The book also contains several pages of Adams' original artwork.

How Does It Look?:
I have never owned any of the original issues that are reprinted in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10. However, I found a scan of the splash page for Avengers #92 posted on one of my favorite blogs, Diversions Of The Groovy Kind. Below you'll see that page paired up with the splash page as it looks in this book:

Left: Original page from Avengers #89;
Right: How it appears in Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10.

It looks pretty good to me. I don't notice any strange re-coloring.

Rating:
Marvel Masterworks: Avengers Volume 10 contains a story that lives up to its hype 45 years after it was first published. When it comes to creators, it doesn't get much better than scripts by Roy Thomas combined with art of Adams, Windsor-Smith, Palmer and the Buscema Brothers.

J.A. Morris' rating:

4 Sals!