Review: John Byrne Fantastic Four Artist Select HC
Have you ever noticed that when you “get into” something, that era becomes the best of all time and the baseline in your personal perception. The Dolphins teams of Marino and co. are the best, for many, Spider-Man has sucked since Jazzy John Romita left and Jim Lee’s X-Men is the best run. Thing is, the ’72 Dolphins were unbeaten and Marino never won a Superbowl; after Romita we had Sal Busema, John Romita JR and not forgetting Todd McFarlane and Erik Larsen, and of course, before Lee, there was John Byrne.
Now, you may know the story; Byrne was working on some low selling Marvel books, waiting for Dave Cockrum to leave the Uncanny X-Men, which was becoming quite a big deal. Byrne finally got his chance and pretty much ripped it up, along with Chris Claremont. Between the pair, they delivered probably some of most well known books ever, with The Dark Phoenix Saga and Days of Future Past to name a couple. But things weren’t all rosy at Greymalkin Avenue; Byrne wanted more control of the characters. This led to a split of the creative team, with Byrne getting his wish to become a writer/artist on the first family of Marvel; the Fantastic Four. What followed was a run that was steeped in quality writing and art as Byrne looked to take the Four back to the Lee and Kirby standards. Byrne brought back the heavy hitters of Doctor Doom, Terrax and of course Galactus.
This book feels like a bit of step away from the usual format. Normally you get a number of pages from various issues that encapsulate the artist. With Byrne, and with his work on Fantastic Four in particular, you cannot divorce the writing from the art. As such, I am glad that IDW decided to go with full issues. That way the reader can get the full effect of the work. Byrne’s art has a crisp style, that was so familiar to Marvel fans of the time. Sure there are X-Men-isms in some panels and yest there are robots that look like Sentinels. Through it all though, strong storytelling is evident on all the pages. Looking through the book you can see the transitions from X-Men to Fantastic Four, with the underpinnings of what would become Next Men. There is a differential towards the end of book, with inker Al Gordon perhaps being a tad heavy with his inks.
The writing of Byrne is a pretty much a thing (no pun intended) of its time. The drama is overblown, with characters dialogue being over wrought and full of drama, though enjoyable. During the run, Byrne actually takes time from the usual superheroing of new Heralds for Galactus and the third person rantings of Doom, to tackle serious issues like the ramifications of hero worship and the impacts and sorrow of miscarriage. Still, there are fun elements such as Skrull milk to even the feel of the tome!
There was some big noise when the Fantastic Four were put back on Marvel’s solicitation lists. Currently, I am not sure if their return has been the success that fans may have hoped for. So this book could be seen as either a flashback to better days or an examination of what is currently missing from the book. That said, recent issues that have focused on Ben and Alicia hark back to the family feel of the team. Whatever your feelings on the current series, or where your particular version of the “best ever” is, picking up this book will show you everything that is good about this fantastic, four color medium we love so much.
This mammoth 360 page collection is out in shops 30th October.
Writing – 5 Stars
Art – 5 Stars
Overall Stars – 5 Stars
Written by; John Byrne
Art by; John Byrne
Published by; IDWÂ
Author Profile
- I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow
Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network
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