Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 1

Fantastic Four Visionaries

by John Byrne

Collects Fantastic Four (1961) #232-240.

It was the world's greatest comic magazine. Again. Not since the days of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the trailblazers of the very mythology known as the Marvel Universe, had someone so perfectly captured the intense mood, cosmic style and classic sense of adventure of Marvel's first family of heroes - the Fantastic Four. Writer. Penciler. Inker. Visionary. John Byrne took these characters, whose powers resulted from each of them being bathed in cosmic rays during a flight into space, and launched them into realms where few creators before this had dared to go... Byrne reminded us all there was a family at the heart of this team of adventurers.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Marvel, Superheroes, Comic Book, Graphic Novels Comics, Fiction

225 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 2001

About the author

Librarian 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.

Reviews

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne, Vol. 1 collects issues 232-240 of the Fantastic Four. John Byrne writes and draws every issue.

In this volume, The Fantastic Four battle Diablo, Ego the Living PLanet, Doctor Doom, Spinnerette(?), and some demons. Torch clears a dead man's name to protect his mother. Frankie Raye's origin is revealed, the Thing's Aunt Petunia shows up, and the Inhumans relocate to the mysterious blue area of the moon.

Byrne's run begins here. For me, the best parts were Ego the Living Planet and Terror in a Tiny Town, when the Fantastic Four live in a tiny world created by the Puppet Master and Doctor Doom. Byrne's art was a big deal back in the day, and it should have been since it's like Kirby meets Neal Adams. The writing feels like a more mature version of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby's epic run on the Fantastic Four.

While these aren't the best Fantastic Four stories I've read by any means, Byrne is just getting his feet wet and big things are on the horizon. 3.5 out of 5 stars.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

John Byrne's run on Fantastic Four has always been celebrated as THE Fantastic Four run. That's why I was so surprised when this started off so boring. The stories are packed with so much exposition and dialogue. There's no real villains for a lot of the stories. It does pick up in the second half once Dr. Doom finally shows up. The story with Ego the Living Planet was pretty good as well. And then we end on the story where the Inhumans move Attilan from the Himalayas to the blue area of the moon. Byrne takes a lot on with the book, writing, drawing and inking the book himself.

[Nicolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first couple of issues were rough, adding the intense verbiage, which seemed a waste of panel space, given that the author is a skilled visual storyteller. Still, everything improved once it had its first FF and Dr. Doom toss up. Nothing like an excellent issue centered around its arch nemesis to turn everything around. The author never looked back once he got his bearings, and this was the true start of a seminal run on Fantastic Four.

[James Hold · Rating 2 out of 5]

FANTASTIC FOUR VISIONARIES, VOL 1 by John Byrne, reprinting FF 232 to 240.

John Byrne is a terrific artist. Which is a good thing as he's a lousy writer. In fact even the art here is not up to his usual standards. It often looks rushed and scratchy. Jack Kirby left the comic after issues 102. It fell into the hands of a lot of hacks. Then Byrne took over. I think he wanted to get it back to its original concepts. And the concepts are there. Only as most writers know, a concept needs to be developed into a plot and a plot needs to be fleshed out with descriptions and dialogue. It's here where Byrne falls short.

Jack Kirby suggested a lot of concepts and plot ideas for FF. Eventually they gave him co-plotter credit. When he went to DC he took over all writing as well where he proved, like Byrne does here, you actually need to 'write' to make a story. Wild concepts and partially developed plots are only a jumping off point.

Byrne does flesh his plots out with dialogue. Constant, endless dialogue. Constant, endless, monotonous dialogue to a point where you'd like to take Mr Man-Plastic by the neck and tell him to STFU. (Mr Man-Plastic, BTW, was the name Nelson Bridwell gave him in the INFERIOR 5 comic because 'I'm so much like Plastic Man.' INFERIOR 5 was a satire comic mostly spoofing Marvel but other comics as well. Marvel later came up with NOT BRAND ECCH. Marvel...the House of Ideas...Yeah, right.) Byrne also seems primarily interested in throwing in changes for change sake; whether they make sense or are necessary is purely academic. For instance, he returns the Thing back to his original lump of mud appearance. I imagine it was hard for a one-man-show to draw and ink all those little rocky shapes and this save him time so he could do more preachy dialogue.

There are more volumes in this series but I'm going to skip them.

[David Dalton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this collection. John Byrne has indeed captured the look and feel of the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four stories of the 60's and early 70's. Thanks to Comixology Unlimited I have access to Vols II and III of the John Byrne Visionaries collections. Lots of FF action ahead for me.

[Marcelo Soares · Rating 5 out of 5]

A grande fase do Quarteto Fantástico começa aqui.
Byrnezão da massa escreve, desenha, arte-finaliza e faz um cafuné no leitor.
Já começa com o Diablo mandando elementais atacarem o Quarteto, depois temos o Doutor Destino e o Mestre dos Bonecos, logo em seguida Ego - o Planeta de Cavanha - ataca a Terra, a origem da Frankie Rae é desvendada - em um clima muito anos 60 -, temos um nova tentativa de curar o Coisa - não foi o momento mais brilhante do Reed - e terminamos com o dia em que Attilan - a cidade secreta inumana - se muda pra Lua. É bastante coisa, né?
Além de tudo isso, o que eu acho muito importante destacar é como isso acontece: em edições únicas, exceto a historia do Doutor Destino e o Mestre dos Bonecos, todas as tramas são de uma edição. Há uma ou outra pista na edição anterior e a questão se desenvolve na próxima e segue o baile; não precisa de 22 edições sem ninguém pegar numa espada pra ser diferentão. Aqui é gibizeira raiz.
Outro ponto muito legal é o pequeno personagem, algumas boas histórias focam num personagem periférico, mas tão bem desenvolvido em meia dúzia de páginas que parece o protagonista do título; Skip Collins, o cara que não faz ideia do que tá acontecendo; Wendy, a menininha que tem um lugar favorito muito especial; cara até a tia Petúnia aparece.
A tia Petúnia.
Pensem no oposto da tia May.
O Byrne tem uma pegada orgânica no título, as coisas se encaixam sem fazer força, tem uns ex machina pelo meio? Tem, é verdade, e mesmo assim a coisa funciona e se encaixa e segue embora numa espécie de visita guiada ao universo Marvel, passando por Nova Iorque, Latvéria, Attilan, cidades em miniatura e é melhor não pensar por onde eles entraram no Ego.

[Fernando Gálvez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pesar de que me gustan los personajes no soy un seguidor de los Cuatro Fantásticos. Le quise dar una oportunidad al trabajo de John Byrne y debo decir que el tiempo le ha hecho bien. Este tomo cuenta con los primeros nueve números (232 al 240) de la que es considerada una de las etapas más importantes para la Primera Familia de Marvel.

John Byrne mantiene la calidad narrativa habitual de proyectos anteriores y desarrolla toda una labor de cariño por los Cuatro Fantásticos. Todos los números son historias unitarias donde destaca la interacción familiar y algunas historias potencia más a un personaje que a otro pero deja claro que tiene sus favoritos.

[Aggelos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Byrne really knew how to draw a spash page!

I am a big fan of the Four so, it was about time I dive into their "second-best" run, that of John Byrne. Enjoyed the stories, especially Ego and Terror in a Tiny Town. The only downside is the exposition and the dated narrative captions, but the art totally makes up for it. Usually Reed is my favorite but Byrne writes him as an exposition machine, so I didn't care much for him. For good Reed stories Waid is still my top writer!

[Wes Benchoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

Solid art and some pretty good individual issues slowed down by waaaaaaaaaaay too much dialogue, thought balloons, captions, unnecessary poetics, and just way too many words. And this is coming from someone who loves Claremont.

Byrne is a creator I always appreciate, but at least in the early issues of this run he's not really playing to his strengths.

[Alex Sarll]

More soothing eighties Marvel, this time from John Byrne back when he was good – or in this case, becoming good. The first couple of issues are wobbly, smothered in caption boxes with purple prose only a step up from Stan Lee's; even the figures and faces aren't quite right yet (though there's one amusing and almost certainly unintentional rejoinder to later complaints about sexualised depictions of female superheroes, on a page where Reed Richards' buns have been depicted in waaaaay more detail than Sue's figure – and he even has the weirdly distorted spine to match, though that is at least specific to his powers). As for the idea of Johnny Storm playing detective, and indeed being quite good at it...well. But over the course of this, Byrne is restating what the World's Greatest Superteam mean, as far as he's concerned – and while I'm not an expert on their history, I think stating some of it for the first time. Sue in particular is learning new uses for her powers, far beyond invisibility, and if some of it didn't stick (scooting along on a force-slide, Iceman-style), her use of force field bubbles has been a key part of her repertoire since. Even starting by a confrontation with the alchemist Diablo, one of their ropier rogues, enables Byrne to suggest alchemical correspondences for the team themselves (and also has a wonderfully bathetic moment where the villain's landlady interrupts his monologue).

With that out of the way, the story can start ramping up, soon settling in as more or less a family soap opera against a background of strange new occurrences, which for me is pretty much where an FF book should sit. Byrne burns (ha!) in one issue brilliant ideas which could easily have yielded much more, like the man with unimaginably potent reality-altering powers, unnoticed by himself or anyone else because he's so fundamentally conventional he uses them to unconsciously tidy the house or stop himself being late for work. Granted, he's slightly squandered by being used as a reset button at story's end – and there's no real follow-up on what the team think upon returning to Earth to find it not devastated after all. But then, comics were more series and less serial then than they've since become (and indeed, would become over the course of this run). That's followed by a run-in with Ego, the Living Planet, whom I've never seen looking quite this unsettlingly organic – making it all the more shame that Byrne would subsequently become such an embarrassment as to be himself equated with Ego, and not without justice, in a fabulously savage Powers crossover issue. Still, this was long before that, and by the extra-length anniversary issue, it's what I think of as classic Byrne (it's all in the eyebrows). Though that story's Truman Show vibe has gained its own extra resonance with time, simply by having Doctor Doom disguise himself under the name Vincent Vaughn. It's also that story which brought home to me for the first time that, for all Doom's story is one of hubris (he was scarred by an experimental mishap because he wouldn't let Reed second-check his calculations)...so is Reed's, because he rushed into space without properly sorting the shielding on the rocket. And at least Doom paid the price himself, whereas with the FF it fell on poor Ben Grimm. And the Thing, who often comes across as an affable grump, can be genuinely scary here, much more the monster he calls himself than he's usually depicted. Equally, Johnny Storm isn't just an airhead – at least one of his 'pranks' is genuinely vicious. They may be a family, but they're really not a healthy one, in any sense. It's still not flawless, by any means - comics of the time, even the good ones, are full of hokey dialogue by modern standards, and sometimes Byrne will be too taken by an idea to really think it through (would it really take Quicksilver a week to get to New York from the Himalayas? I always picture him covering a thousand miles in minutes, rather than per day). But if you're on the right wavelength it's an awful lot of old-fashioned fun.

Special mention, too, for the fabulously stupid idea of having the Human Torch dating a young woman who's terrified of fire. It does get a sensible-ish resolution, but as ridiculous Marvel character dilemmas go, that's hard to beat.

[L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

The comics in this collection were released in the early Eighties but still retain the feel of the Sixties when the F.F. first came out, and I am totally okay with that. Just give me some straight up adventure. Of course the drawback to that is Reed Richards remains an asshat and Sue is still, "Reed, what is that? Reed, what's going on? Reed, mansplain things to me." I do appreciate how in this collection they provide the original release date of each comic. I don't know why that's important to me but it is and I wish other collections would follow suit.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really strong start to this run! This perfectly encapsulates what makes the FF unique. They are not just another super powered crime fighting team. They are explorers and, at times, even investigators. There's many strange science fiction mysteries here that were very interesting. The art was also quite well done, as usual by Byrne.

[Eric Burton · Rating 4 out of 5]

John Byrne manages to bring a similar charm to the Fantastic Four that Lee and Kirby did from the beginning. It's exciting, adventurous, and kept me hooked! As always, I love Byrne's artwork and it still holds up against modern art.

[Jonathan Oehlenschläger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Starten på John Byrnes Fantastic Four-run og aldeles fremragende!

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always had a fondness for The Fantastic Four. American comics were hard to come by as a kid, but I did own a Fantastic Four annual which I read many times. Now, 40-odd years later I really enjoyed this collection of comics from 1981/82. Clever, funny and surprisingly engaging.

[Todd · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a lot of fun. I’m really intrigued to see where Byrne goes next. I can already see some of Byrne’s influence on theFantastic Four stories that I love.

[Tiamatty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Fantastic Four, for much of the '70s and early '80s, were in a bit of a rut. None of the writers and artists assigned really seemed to be able to do much with it that was all that compelling. The characters meandered along, the same as they always had. It was all very ho-hum - always reliably adequate, but seldom truly inspired. But then, John Byrne came in. And right from the start, he breathed new life into the book. His pencils were a big part of it - Byrne's one of the all-time great comic artists, and his work on Fantastic Four had his standard power and expressiveness. But his writing was almost as good. He had a solid grasp on the characters, and he made them felt more distinct, more THEM, than they had in ages. He was clearly having a blast making the book, and that shone through. But just in general, everything simply worked better than it had since Lee and Kirby left it. It was the first time in well over a decade that the book had become a must-read. It was one of Marvel's top books at the time, up with Claremont's Uncanny X-Men and Miller's Daredevil. Byrne made the characters feel more human, more real, without giving anything else up.

The Lee/Kirby run is always going to be held up as the benchmark, but Byrne's run is right up there with it as being one of the definitive Fantastic Four runs.

[Ed · Rating 4 out of 5]

I agree with the consensus that Byrne's Fantastic Four is the best FF since the Kirby/Lee days. But what's really surprising is how strongly he nails it right out of the gate. He's able to echo the feel of Silver Age FF while not writing like Lee or drawing like Kirby. It's quite remarkable.

His emphasis of single issue storylines is refreshing as is his art style (both in layouts and in finishes). Rather than getting into the details of each issue, here's some things that I really liked. I loved the black and white art used for the crime flashbacks in issue 233. I loved the reveal of Ego the Living Planet in issue 234. I loved the way he writes Dr Doom in issue 236. I loved Frankie Raye as a Human Torch. And I loved Young Aunt Petunia.

On the downside, the Kirby/Lee story in 236 is a hot mess. Which isn't surprising as it's a retelling of an old FF story that just reuses Kirby storyboards from the FF cartoon (apparently without Kirby's consent). Issue 237 is a pretty blah alien invasion turns out to be a miscommunication story. And the main plot of issue 239 just makes no goddamned sense whatsoever.

[Printable Tire · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pure comic book perfection. Byrne's run on the Fantastic Four has been called (by Wikipedia, at least) a second golden age for the series, and after reading this collection, it's easy to see why. Byrne brings a great sense of fun and excitement and epic scope to his comic books. Indeed, the conclusions of each issue can be a bit disappointing just because he's jam-packed too much into 22 pages. The plots are novel and sophisticated, and yet there's something so childish and knowingly comic-booky about the dialogue and drama that I really enjoy. It also helps that I'm a fan of Byrne's art, even though everybody seems to share one of five faces.

Highlights: Johnny Storm solving a murder-mystery involving a bionic Hammerhead; Doctor Doom playing the organ by candlelight; an extremely milquetoast pin-up of the Invisible Girl sorting mail; Atilla, home of the Eternals, moving to the Moon; and the Thing's body mutating, I guess because Byrne got sick of drawing all of them blocks!

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I finished collecting the back issues a very long time ago, but I haven't been regularly reading a lot of traditional superhero comics for the past decade or more... this was a bit jarring. I was entertained though. In almost each issue there would be 1 or 2 pages that had ridiculous amounts of dialogue or exposition ("what is this object in my way that I did not notice!... I'm going to stumble over it!" etc)
I noticed the characters slowly coming to life. They all have things I like and dislike about them - Reed can be way too bossy which is kind of makes him my least favorite.
I'll take a little break then continue the run.
Oh yeah the art is pretty great!

[Matej · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the first volume of John Byrne's run of The Fantastic Four from the early 80s that can be enjoyed even if your knowledge of the Fantastic Four is limited.
The story is surprisingly interesting and flows pretty smoothly from issue to issue, even though there are some silly and outdated moments.
The art looks really great, even though it took some time to get used to the coloring after reading more modern comics.
All in all, a great and interesting read.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. This is the beginning of one of the most highly regarded runs on Fantastic Four (for many people, Byrne's run is second only to Stan and Jack's run). As this is the first 8 or 9 issues of his run, Byrne is still getting a feel for the characters. The highlight of the book is the story taking place in "Liddleville". Definitely recommended if you have any interest in the Fantastic Four.

[Troy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had fonder memories of the early days of Byrne's FF run.

What's really hard to believe is that the 20th anniversary of the FF was celebrated as part of the issues that are collected in this book. As opposed to the 50th anniversary that is being celebrated this month. I must be old because a lot more time passed since Byrne left the book that passed between the Lee/Kirby era and the Byrne era.

[Shannon Appelcline · Rating 4 out of 5]

Varied writing. Some of Byrne’s stories are of little interest, but there are also a few great ones here, like the triple-sized Doom story, the reveal of Frankie Raye, and the Inhumans moving to the moon. I was frankly surprised by the quality of a lot of these stories, especially given the time period.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Collecting issues #232-240, Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 1 shows just how much Byrne owed to the original Jack Kirby-Stan Lee run. He was, in many ways, reinterpreting it for a new audience, and turning the book into a hit again. The hit of MY generation, actually. But I started on it late (She-Hulk was on the team), so this is new to me. Well, almost new. Byrne was repeating memes, yes - the classic beats are almost synchronized issue to issue, as I'm finding reading the original run concurrently with this one - but he was also making big moves (like moving the Inhumans to the Moon) that then became FF/Marvel history I took for granted by the time I came to American comics. I don't think the storytelling is as sharp as it would become - there's an overreliance on narration and exposition that sticks with Byrne through the 80s, but here you sometimes feel like it's replacing missing pages. In this batch of issues, you get Ego the Living Planet, the Puppet Master, Frankie Raye as a possible fifth member, Aunt Petunia, a H.E.R.B.I.E. of sorts (Reed invents the Furby, I'm not kidding), a new look for the Thing (I hate it), and, of course, Doctor Doom. But like the OF run and like Ryan North's current series, Byrne is really playing in the realm of the Twilight Zone/Outer Limits, making me think that playing the FF as standard superheroes is a mistake lesser runs have made.

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of Fantastic Four issues 232-240 written and drawn by John Byrne. Mr Fantastic, the leader and brainiac, has stretchy limbs. His wife, Invisible Girl can turn invisible at will and use protective force fields. Human Torch can fly and control flames. The Thing is like The Hulk so relies on brute strength “It’s clobbering time!”, and also has to live with the fact he is the only member whose normal appearance was changed.

The writing often makes sure you understand what’s going on, no matter how forced the dialogue is. “Something struck my foot, hurling me off balance! … I’m falling towards that crude mechanism hidden in the shadows!”

Often, the stories didn’t appeal to me, and there’s some strange ones here, e.g. a battle against a “living planet”, or their minds being transported to a miniature world created by the Puppet Master and Doctor Doom.

[Gar Berner · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the interesting things that I noticed from this volume is how Byrne's depiction of the team evolved. At first, it was very reminiscent of the Lee/Kirby dynamic where Reed is the overbearing patriarch of the foursome but Sue's agency gradually grows from being the 'weak link' to one of the most powerful member. Ben Grimm's overall character design started off with very strange proportions and away from the Marvel 'house style' before settling into what fans see as the Thing becomes currently.

All in all, this collection is an upward trajectory in quality and looking forward to (re)reading Volume 2 of this satisfying series.

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maybe I don't have my history right. I thought John Byrne was a legendary mainstream comics figure on the strength of (1) helping reboot the X-Men, (2) his Fantastic Four run, and (3) his Superman run.

So I was expecting a lot of homeruns here. But these stories are mostly fine. There are some bright moments, but I can't say these FF comics really stand out for me. I'm getting it jumbled up with the JMS FF I read around the same time.

And I think the Inhumans stuff was probably more interesting than the Frankie Raye stuff, but it's clear that Byrne disagrees.

[Frédéric · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I'm committing a sacrilege, since Byrne's run is supposed to be seminal for the FF, but I must admit I was bored half the time with this first. It's undoubtedly linked to too much exposition weighed down by heavy, overly descriptive dialogue. Just like the good old days!
But that's not all... most of the plots aren't very captivating - apart from those with Ego, Doom and the Inhumans - often a bit limp and with no real antagonist.

A warm-up for Byrne? Also note that he does everything but colour, which must be taxing.

[Jefferson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A clear case of the right creator on the right book at the right time. John Byrne's work on Fantastic Four made it the definitive '80s superhero comic book, and paved the way for later headline grabbers like Alan Moore's Watchmen and Frank Miller's Dark Knight. But unlike Moore and Miller, Byrne stays within the conventions of the genre -- he doesn't feel the need to make the material more "adult" by making everything dark and horrible, and the work is all the better for it.