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Fantastic Four (1961) #287-295
Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne, Vol. 8
John Byrne's FF endeavors end in era-transcending odysseys when the World's Greatest Super-Team ventures into the Negative Zone, a remade past and a future sculpted around the FF itself Plus, the death, life and rebirth (not necessarily in that order) of Doctor Doom Guest-starring Nick Fury, the Avengers and the Beyonder Collects Fantastic Four #287-295
216 pages, Paperback
First published January 2, 2007
5 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
John Byrne
2,956 books363 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
December 3, 2018
I've always felt a lot of nostalgia for John Byrne's 1980s Fantastic Four run, but upon rereading the entire run a lot of flaws have become known to me.
When reading individual issues, the quality seems outstanding. Crazy science fiction scenarios, utilizing Reed Richard's super genius well, and so many imaginative superhero adventures from the cosmic stakes of Galactus and the Skrulls to the epic battles with Dr. Doom. Yet, as the series continues it seems increasingly apparent that Byrne had no master plan with these story arcs and was just making it up as it goes along. Which can be fine. But when reading all of them in a row the stories don't feel as solid.
Like, the Baxter Building is destroyed. Then what? They just slum it in the Avengers mansion and it's never resolved. Thing is replaced by She-Hulk, and it's cool, but then we are supposed to forget about Ben Grimm? Worst of all is the final storyline, when Byrne leaves in the middle and Ordway--though a great artist in his own right--has to fill in. Perhaps there are behind-the-scenes reason for that (isn't Byrne famously 'difficult' to work with?) but in all honesty I cannot leave too good a review.
The art and story-telling are generally excellent, of course, from a time when I believe Marvel was at their peak. For nostalgia's sake, again, this has been a very enjoyable ride. Just, tragically, not quite as good as you may have remembered...
When reading individual issues, the quality seems outstanding. Crazy science fiction scenarios, utilizing Reed Richard's super genius well, and so many imaginative superhero adventures from the cosmic stakes of Galactus and the Skrulls to the epic battles with Dr. Doom. Yet, as the series continues it seems increasingly apparent that Byrne had no master plan with these story arcs and was just making it up as it goes along. Which can be fine. But when reading all of them in a row the stories don't feel as solid.
Like, the Baxter Building is destroyed. Then what? They just slum it in the Avengers mansion and it's never resolved. Thing is replaced by She-Hulk, and it's cool, but then we are supposed to forget about Ben Grimm? Worst of all is the final storyline, when Byrne leaves in the middle and Ordway--though a great artist in his own right--has to fill in. Perhaps there are behind-the-scenes reason for that (isn't Byrne famously 'difficult' to work with?) but in all honesty I cannot leave too good a review.
The art and story-telling are generally excellent, of course, from a time when I believe Marvel was at their peak. For nostalgia's sake, again, this has been a very enjoyable ride. Just, tragically, not quite as good as you may have remembered...
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July 20, 2015And that's the end of Byrne's run on Fantastic Four, I guess. Bit of a bummer he fades away without flourish, and there's nary a mention of his leaving or any fanfare in neither the Fantastic Forum or Marvel Bullpens in the issues. Oddly enough the final story in here, where Byrne is mostly absent, is my favorite in this collection.
The Doom story was enjoyable, and I've had the one where he "battles" the Beyonder for decades. The Negative Zone story was abrupt but fine. The 1936 story was abrupt, screwy, incredibly rushed and a disappointing fizzle, but what're you gonna do. But the last story, in which the FF enter a black dome and are transported to a city where time is moving at an accelerated rate, was "Fantastic." The way their histories were passed on from generation to generation and worshiped as gods reminded me o f Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, worth seeing if you ever get the chance. I first thought this story was going to be a ripoff of Annihilus' wall of energy plot from awhile ago, but it stood on its own as the kind of Fantastic Four story I like: weird, sciency, and pop-philosophical. There's no question my favorite stories in Byrne's run were the ones where the FF were voyaging in the Negative Zone, and I wish they'd spend more time in that setting.
Also of note in this "collection*" was a pretty riveting letters page where readers tried to explain how the Invisible Woman could see when she turned herself Invisible, thus altering the angle of light on molecules.
BUT WAIT! BECAUSE YOU DEMAND IT!** I will continue my Self-indulgent Summer by reading MORE FANTASTIC FOUR COMICS!!! Let's see if the next creative team on the World's Greatest Comic Magazine continue the trend of:
-having characters say "ohmygosh"
-having Reed and Sue call each other "my darling," and Alicia call Johnny/Thing "my beloved"
-have everybody mention how great it is Alicia can get around and all, even though SHE'S BLIND!!!
Tune in next week, true believer, to see if my head's turned to mud yet! 'Nuff said!
*I read the individual issues, not a TPB, hence the quotes. -ED.
**Actually I don't think anybody's read a single one of these reviews
The Doom story was enjoyable, and I've had the one where he "battles" the Beyonder for decades. The Negative Zone story was abrupt but fine. The 1936 story was abrupt, screwy, incredibly rushed and a disappointing fizzle, but what're you gonna do. But the last story, in which the FF enter a black dome and are transported to a city where time is moving at an accelerated rate, was "Fantastic." The way their histories were passed on from generation to generation and worshiped as gods reminded me o f Mr. Burns, a Post-Electric Play, worth seeing if you ever get the chance. I first thought this story was going to be a ripoff of Annihilus' wall of energy plot from awhile ago, but it stood on its own as the kind of Fantastic Four story I like: weird, sciency, and pop-philosophical. There's no question my favorite stories in Byrne's run were the ones where the FF were voyaging in the Negative Zone, and I wish they'd spend more time in that setting.
Also of note in this "collection*" was a pretty riveting letters page where readers tried to explain how the Invisible Woman could see when she turned herself Invisible, thus altering the angle of light on molecules.
BUT WAIT! BECAUSE YOU DEMAND IT!** I will continue my Self-indulgent Summer by reading MORE FANTASTIC FOUR COMICS!!! Let's see if the next creative team on the World's Greatest Comic Magazine continue the trend of:
-having characters say "ohmygosh"
-having Reed and Sue call each other "my darling," and Alicia call Johnny/Thing "my beloved"
-have everybody mention how great it is Alicia can get around and all, even though SHE'S BLIND!!!
Tune in next week, true believer, to see if my head's turned to mud yet! 'Nuff said!
*I read the individual issues, not a TPB, hence the quotes. -ED.
**Actually I don't think anybody's read a single one of these reviews
March 12, 2025
John Byrne's final issues on the FF aren't what I would call the high points of his run, but they are still pretty solid. The art is great, and there are some fun ideas. What a transformative run!
August 30, 2017
Tragically, Byrne wraps up his multi-year run with a whimper. But it's not surprising as this book has been in the dumps for years. This run has three two-issue stores and one three issue story.
287 & 288 are basically continuity repair to explain why Dr Doom was in Secret Wars despite having (physically) died in Fantastic Four. It's a mix of recapitulating stories we've read before, the always dumb Beyonder (who is drawn incredibly poorly in his big splash entrance), some exceedingly obvious twists involving Doom taking over the body of some random dude and some exceedingly sexist writing of Sue, Jen and the Wasp. Just dull and bad but at least we get Dr. Doom back at the end.
289 & 290 are an utter mess. 289 opens with a visit to an under-construction replacement Baxter Building but the FF are suddenly teleported away by SHIELD to meet with Nick Fury. In the mean time there's some utterly random tie-in junk with the Basilisk that comes out of an old issue of Marvel Two-in-One and leads into an issue of Captain America! On the SHIELD Space Station all the characters act even dumber than usual and we end up in the Negative Zone for some reason. 290 has some mildly fun sci-fi goofiness with Blastar & Annihilus but it ends with an utterly ridiculous, unbelievable and weightless death of Reed Richards.
291 & 292 undo the "tragic" death of Reed almost immediately. But first we zip back to to 1936 so Nick Fury can kill Hitler but then everybody wakes up and Reed's back to life. If I try to explain more my brain will melt. Also there is a racist caricature of a jazz musician.
293, 294 and 295 are the highlight of this batch. 293 has one of my favorite covers of this era and the story is very good, too. A city gets covered in a bubble that warps time so a second on the outside is a month on the inside. It's a hoary sci-fi concept (and one Jonathan Hickman did a few years back using the Maker aka Ultimate Reed Richards in his run on Ultimates) but one that's very fun and done in a mostly interesting way. By the time the FF end up in the bubble, so much time has past that they are worshiped as lost gods. In 294, Byrne is off the art but the story progresses nicely. In 295, he's off the book entirely but it's wrapped up perfectly well.
Honestly, Byrne was on the FF for too long so it's probably for the best he got canned for writing Superman for DC. I haven't read what comes next but it would have to be pretty bad to be worse than late period Byrne FF. But Marvel put out lots of real crap during this era so we shall see.
287 & 288 are basically continuity repair to explain why Dr Doom was in Secret Wars despite having (physically) died in Fantastic Four. It's a mix of recapitulating stories we've read before, the always dumb Beyonder (who is drawn incredibly poorly in his big splash entrance), some exceedingly obvious twists involving Doom taking over the body of some random dude and some exceedingly sexist writing of Sue, Jen and the Wasp. Just dull and bad but at least we get Dr. Doom back at the end.
289 & 290 are an utter mess. 289 opens with a visit to an under-construction replacement Baxter Building but the FF are suddenly teleported away by SHIELD to meet with Nick Fury. In the mean time there's some utterly random tie-in junk with the Basilisk that comes out of an old issue of Marvel Two-in-One and leads into an issue of Captain America! On the SHIELD Space Station all the characters act even dumber than usual and we end up in the Negative Zone for some reason. 290 has some mildly fun sci-fi goofiness with Blastar & Annihilus but it ends with an utterly ridiculous, unbelievable and weightless death of Reed Richards.
291 & 292 undo the "tragic" death of Reed almost immediately. But first we zip back to to 1936 so Nick Fury can kill Hitler but then everybody wakes up and Reed's back to life. If I try to explain more my brain will melt. Also there is a racist caricature of a jazz musician.
293, 294 and 295 are the highlight of this batch. 293 has one of my favorite covers of this era and the story is very good, too. A city gets covered in a bubble that warps time so a second on the outside is a month on the inside. It's a hoary sci-fi concept (and one Jonathan Hickman did a few years back using the Maker aka Ultimate Reed Richards in his run on Ultimates) but one that's very fun and done in a mostly interesting way. By the time the FF end up in the bubble, so much time has past that they are worshiped as lost gods. In 294, Byrne is off the art but the story progresses nicely. In 295, he's off the book entirely but it's wrapped up perfectly well.
Honestly, Byrne was on the FF for too long so it's probably for the best he got canned for writing Superman for DC. I haven't read what comes next but it would have to be pretty bad to be worse than late period Byrne FF. But Marvel put out lots of real crap during this era so we shall see.
January 19, 2021
Chegamos ao fim do Byrnezão da massa no Quarteto.
E é uma despedida com aquele gostinho de "podia ter sido melhor."
As histórias que ele começou, não terminaram; o edifício Baxter continua destruído, o Coisa continua sumido, o Johnalícia tá ainda mais chato do que eu lembrava, o Nathaniel nunca mais apareceu, ninguém dá bola pro Franklin, e ninguém sabe porque o Wyatt tá por ali - além de dar uns pegas na Mulher-Hulk -; a única história que é "fechada" - num uso muito livre da palavra - é a função do Doutor Destino e do Kristoff, com um "Beyonder Ex Machina" dos mais xexelentos. Depois ainda tem uma "viagem no tempo" para um futuro em que o Quarteto é idolatrado que de é tão meia boca que a boca tá meio vazia.
A minha impressão é que havia um plano, provavelmente envolvendo coisas cósmicas, mas a Marvel entrou nessas de "cósmico não vende" e cortou os naipes do Byrne; ele empurrou com a barriga até fechar o contrato e ficou essa porcaria aí mesmo e azar.
Honestamente, até o volume 4 é essencial para quem gosta do Quarteto e divertido para quem gosta de quadrinhos de super-heróis; se forçar a barra dá pra ir até o 6 - o empoderamento da Sue Richards -, mas daí pra frente não precisa.
Como eu sempre digo, ninguém é gênio o tempo inteiro.
E é uma despedida com aquele gostinho de "podia ter sido melhor."
As histórias que ele começou, não terminaram; o edifício Baxter continua destruído, o Coisa continua sumido, o Johnalícia tá ainda mais chato do que eu lembrava, o Nathaniel nunca mais apareceu, ninguém dá bola pro Franklin, e ninguém sabe porque o Wyatt tá por ali - além de dar uns pegas na Mulher-Hulk -; a única história que é "fechada" - num uso muito livre da palavra - é a função do Doutor Destino e do Kristoff, com um "Beyonder Ex Machina" dos mais xexelentos. Depois ainda tem uma "viagem no tempo" para um futuro em que o Quarteto é idolatrado que de é tão meia boca que a boca tá meio vazia.
A minha impressão é que havia um plano, provavelmente envolvendo coisas cósmicas, mas a Marvel entrou nessas de "cósmico não vende" e cortou os naipes do Byrne; ele empurrou com a barriga até fechar o contrato e ficou essa porcaria aí mesmo e azar.
Honestamente, até o volume 4 é essencial para quem gosta do Quarteto e divertido para quem gosta de quadrinhos de super-heróis; se forçar a barra dá pra ir até o 6 - o empoderamento da Sue Richards -, mas daí pra frente não precisa.
Como eu sempre digo, ninguém é gênio o tempo inteiro.
May 1, 2024
Collecting issues #287-295, Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 8 finally ditches the secondary material that has plagued the last couple of releases and finishes Byrne's run on the book (plus a little more, leaving Roger Stern and Jerry Ordway to finish his last story as he flies off to the Distinguished Competition). The most important thing Byrne does in this run is get Marvel out of a nasty time paradox involving Dr. Doom, but you can feel Byrne's fatigue in the stories following. Negative Zone villains return, yet another man whose wishes come true shows up, and a nostalgia-driven Central City story. It's fine, but I'll take Byrne at his word that it was both getting tired, and suffered from editorial interference (Secret Wars II and the Scourge seem to have plagued the last two collections specifically), or what Byrne called "office politics", which could mean anything. After 8 volumes of Visionaries, half of them a reread (I started reading FF comics mid-way through the run), I find myself judging them relatively harshly. At the time, and probably because the comics that followed weren't great (some might even say they were BAD), it seemed a high point for the book. But the run's quality is more variable than I remembered. We're coming down off the bell curve here.
July 4, 2017
A pesar de que las historias están bien armadas el desgaste de John Byrne es notorio y ya no el mismo ímpetu y corazón que al principio y esto es debido, principalmente, a la sobrecarga de trabajo autoimpuesta por el autor, sus problemas con los editores y a sus negociaciones con la Distinguida Competencia y Superman.
Este último tomo es un cierre correcto para un autor que realizó un trabajo casi completo (historia, guión, dibujos, entintado) en los más de 60 números de Fantastic Four y que no dejó de expresar su amor por los personajes creados por Jack Kirby y Stan Lee.
Este último tomo es un cierre correcto para un autor que realizó un trabajo casi completo (historia, guión, dibujos, entintado) en los más de 60 números de Fantastic Four y que no dejó de expresar su amor por los personajes creados por Jack Kirby y Stan Lee.
December 12, 2020
John Byrne's epic run on Fantastic Four ends with a whimper -- the stories in this final volume all have interesting setups but rushed endings, often ending abruptly with Reed Richards explaining the resolution via bland exposition.
May 17, 2019
The weakest of his run, and its a shame that this is how it ends. However, Byrne doesn't write or draw the last few issues, and the storyline before that is fine, but far from his most inspired.
August 19, 2022
John Byrne delivering another consistent collection of FF stories, shame Ben Grimm never appeared at all in this one mind...not properly, anyway (you'll understand if you've read it before)
October 31, 2015
Legendární run FF Johna Byrna (téměř 100 čísel) dočten... a nechápu proč je legendární. Sem tam se najde dobrý příběh, ale převažuje průměr - podprůměr. Když o tom tak přemýšlí, v druhém omnibusu bylo těch opravdu dobrých setsakra málo. Thinga sice nahradila She-Hulk, ale krom toho že je mlátička zelená a ne oranžová tam žádnej rozdíl není.
Tož co v těhle číslech máme:
Nejprve dojde k "oživení" Doctora Dooma a vysvětlí se, proč vlastně byl v Secret Wars, když byl tou dobou mrtvej. Tak nějak jsem čekal triumfální návrat a ono prd (3*)
Následuje vesmírný dvojpříběh s Blaastarem/Annihilusem, který docela ujde (3*) + další dvě čísla se pak odehrávají v minulosti třicátých let, kdy chce Fury zabít Hitlera (1*). Tady Byrne jako scénárista naprosto selhává. Reed je pár čísel údajně mrtvej a Sue je úplně v pohodě, asi za dvě stránky prohlásí že "Musíme žít dál, Reed by to tak chtěl" a vesele bojuje jako by se nechumelilo. Obecně nějaký vývoj postav za těch necelých 100 čísel vlastně nenastal. Zvlášť Sue neustále trpí (potrat, psychické mučení, smrt manžela) a jedinej výsledek je ten, že si změní jméno z Invisible Girl na Invisible Woman. Wow...
Na závěr tu je příběh o podivné bublině, kde čas plyne mnohem rychleji a FF jsou v ní uctívaní jako bohové. Docela nuda (2*).
V omnibusu pak je ještě tuna bonusů a krásně nakreslený "Last Galactus Story", který je ale nedokončený, a tak se mi nechce číst. Je čas si dát od FF pauzu.
Tož co v těhle číslech máme:
Nejprve dojde k "oživení" Doctora Dooma a vysvětlí se, proč vlastně byl v Secret Wars, když byl tou dobou mrtvej. Tak nějak jsem čekal triumfální návrat a ono prd (3*)
Následuje vesmírný dvojpříběh s Blaastarem/Annihilusem, který docela ujde (3*) + další dvě čísla se pak odehrávají v minulosti třicátých let, kdy chce Fury zabít Hitlera (1*). Tady Byrne jako scénárista naprosto selhává. Reed je pár čísel údajně mrtvej a Sue je úplně v pohodě, asi za dvě stránky prohlásí že "Musíme žít dál, Reed by to tak chtěl" a vesele bojuje jako by se nechumelilo. Obecně nějaký vývoj postav za těch necelých 100 čísel vlastně nenastal. Zvlášť Sue neustále trpí (potrat, psychické mučení, smrt manžela) a jedinej výsledek je ten, že si změní jméno z Invisible Girl na Invisible Woman. Wow...
Na závěr tu je příběh o podivné bublině, kde čas plyne mnohem rychleji a FF jsou v ní uctívaní jako bohové. Docela nuda (2*).
V omnibusu pak je ještě tuna bonusů a krásně nakreslený "Last Galactus Story", který je ale nedokončený, a tak se mi nechce číst. Je čas si dát od FF pauzu.
April 24, 2016
The eighth Visionaries volume collecting John Byrne's amazing run on the Fantastic Four contains #287–295 and effectively bring the run to its end. In fact, Byrne's last issue proper is #293, although he is credited as plotter for #294 where Roger Stern takes over the scripting duties and Jerry Ordway the art duties. All in all, it is good that these two final issues closing that particular arc are included in the volume, and Stern does the opening of the arc due justice, in my humble opinion, so the story comes off as smoothly told, despite the creative team changes.
The volume offers stories involving Dr Doom, an attempted invasion from the Negative Zone by the fiendish and explosive Blastaar (not to mention another Negative Zone bad guy), time travelling with Nick Fury and mysterious black barrier/sphere in the desert.
All good fun and bringing a classic run on the FF to an end with style.
The volume offers stories involving Dr Doom, an attempted invasion from the Negative Zone by the fiendish and explosive Blastaar (not to mention another Negative Zone bad guy), time travelling with Nick Fury and mysterious black barrier/sphere in the desert.
All good fun and bringing a classic run on the FF to an end with style.
February 27, 2016
This is the final edition of a good, memorable run by Byrne on the book that once helped define Marvel's greatness. However, you may be forgiven if you don't have this particular one in your collection because it is definitely the low point. Only FF geeks will like this one because the stories aren't independent but tying up loose ends with Secret Wars, fairly lame cross-overs with other books,and rehashing some old stuff. Face it, it was mostly filler with Byrne's usual above average art output. The overall run was remarkable and very readable today--certainly among the best of the entire series including the early days with Lee/Kirby. I like that Byrne truly honored story-tellers before him in both story-telling and artistic style.
February 12, 2015
With Byrne Visionaries Vol. 8, we are back to "normal" FF tales after the distracting detours of the last few volumes (dark phoenix-jean gray, secret wars, THING issues included, Avengers issues & annuals included, etc, etc ) although there is a Beyonder appearance, it ties directly into Doom & The FF, so it seems more like an FF specific tale. The writing & art for the most part are strong, although we do get some wonky patches with the art due to Byrne's rotating cast of inkers.... One rating star deducted for the final 2 stories NOT being Byrne. -- In all, not a bad wrap-up for the legendary Byrne run. I did not honestly expect to go past about Volume 5 with this revisit, archival expedition, but i got on a roll and became heavily addicted. It was so damn enjoyable! Lol.
December 14, 2013
The end of John Byrne's amazing run on FF. The stories with the Beyonder and Annihilus are nice work, the rest is okay, but nothing to write home about. Byrne's best FF stories are the ones told before Secret Wars I.
August 10, 2011
It's a shame it's over, but it's fantastic!
August 15, 2011
Some big space dramas, time travelling, and hero worship are in this volume. Lots of action scenes, not that much character stuff. Ok.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews