FANTASTIC FOUR #236
(Cover by John Byrne and Terry Austin)
Published and © by Marvel, Nov. 1981
“Terror in a Tiny Town”
Synopsis: The Fantastic Four wake to find themselves living normal lives in a tiny town — at the mercy of Doctor Doom!
Writer: John Byrne
Penciler: Byrne
Inker: Byrne
Review: Leave it to longtime Fantastic Four fan John Byrne to deliver a pitch perfect anniversary issue. Depowered and isolated from the world, Marvel’s first family still finds the moxie to rise up against Doom. Byrne’s storytelling is sure-footed from start to finish, and his art is excellent, as usual.
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“The Challenge of Dr. Doom!”
Synopsis: Holding the Invisible Girl hostage, Doctor Doom sends the FF (minus the Torch, plus Herbie) to steal Blackbeard’s treasure.
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciler: Jack Kirby
Inker: Chic Stone, Dick Ayers, Al Milgrom, Joe Sinnott, George Roussos (as George Bell), Sol Brodsky, Vince Colletta, Frank Giacoia, Pablo Marcos and John Byrne
Review: This “simplified version” of FF #5, cobbled from cartoon storyboards, is a mere shadow of Lee and Kirby’s past greatness.
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Grade (for the whole issue): A+
Second opinion: “A triple-sized extravaganza … 8/10.” — Matt C, Paradox Comics Group.
Cool factor: The lead story is one of the best of Byrne’s five-year run. It’s also good fun playing who’s who with that wonderful cover.
Not-so-cool factor: Stan Lee is on the cover (upper right corner), but where the heck is Jack Kirby? According to Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed, he was there, but Jim Shooter ordered him removed. (Strained relations with Kirby might also explain why readers get a storyboard redo of FF #5 instead of an honest-to-goodness new story by the original Fantastic Four creative team.)
Notable: There is also a one-page text feature titled “In Case You Just Joined Us … .”
Character quotable: “Please, Reed! Must we go through this every time a dangerous task falls to me?” — The Invisible Girl, finally growing a set
A word from the writer/artist/editor/creator: “I had to do the definitive Fantastic Four story, such that if you’d never even heard of these guys before you could read this issue and come out of it knowing who they are and how they got that way. It also had to be worthy of being a twentieth anniversary issue … .” — John Byrne, in Comics Interview #25, 1985.
Collected in:
John Byrne’s run is the only run of the Fantastic Four that I own. I have always been a DC guy and Byrne’s X-Men and Fantastic Four and Miller’s DD is what brought me accross.
Byrne had the ability to write stories that sounded a little more “real and grounded” (if you can use any of those words in regards to the FF) He drew Reed the same way Jack Kirby drew him sans muscles and the interaction between members sounded natural.
All that Byrne goodness just primed me for his taking over Superman in 1986
Byrne understood the FF formula: big adventure + over-sized concepts + a family dynamic other teams just don’t have. People who liked Byrne’s run (or the original Lee/Kirby FFs, for that matter) might want to check out the Millar/Hitch team that’s handling the book right now. They “get it,” too, and I haven’t enjoyed new superhero comics quite so much in years.
I have never been able to read FF after Byrne. I thought DeFalco and Ryan ruined it forever for me.
I did go back and read the Lee/Kirby’s run (through reprints and back issues I found dirt cheap ina used book store 2 decades ago) and could see where Byrne got the seeds for his run.
I will pick up the trade of Millar/Hitch’s run as soon as it is out, but I am really not holding out too much hope.
[...] I’ve still got longboxes that testify to my dedication to owning, say, the entire run of John Byrne’s Fantastic Four. That same inclination seeped into my other media consumption. I follow movie directors to places I [...]
John Byrne’s FF run was just about perfect, and this issue is a great illustration why.
I hadn’t heard that story about Jack Kirby being removed from the cover. Boo on Jim Shooter! Not a very classy gesture toward the man who brought the Marvel Universe to life.
Yeah, Shooter and the Marvel management of the time seem to make a practice of treating Kirby poorly. I think this was during the early stages of the King trying to get his original artwork back from the company.
ANdrew