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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 12, 2020 23:19:54 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #282"Inwards to Infinity!"Cover Date: Sept, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Psycho Man Special Guests: Franklin Richards, Edwin Jarvis, The Beyonder, Vinnie Corbo, & Toots/(The Following Appear in Dream Form Only) Power Pack (Gee, Lightspeed, Mass Master, & Energizer), Kofi Whitemane, & Jakal Official Plot:This story continues from Secret Wars II #2.. Franklin Richards is having a dream where he is in the ruins of New York City, and his parents are nowhere to be found. As he heads toward the river side he witnesses as an alien ship is shot out of the sky and crash lands to the ground. From the wreckage emerges one of the Snarks which tries to kill him. The frightened boy is saved by some mysterious super-powered beings who carry him to safety to a forest. There he comes across an injured humanoid with the head of a horse. He helps the alien up and helps it along to the side of a cliff where he sees his saviors: The Power Pack. Their leader Alex tells Franklin that they are friend and that they can help him. As they are being strafed by alien ships Alex reaches out telling Franklin that he has to come and find them. As alien ray blasts strike where they are standing Franklin wakes up as he falls out of bed and realizes it was all a dream. Getting dressed, Franklin rushes to the lab within Avengers Mansion to tell his parents about the dream he has had. There Reed Richards is putting together the finishing touches on a new Reducto-Craft while in the presence of the Human Torch and She-Hulk. Reed explains that the being responsible for sending the Hate-Monger against Sue was likely their old foe Psycho-Man[1], however he wonders if they should be focusing their time on trying to learn what the Beyonder is up to. Sue walks in on them, having overheard everything and demands that they go after the Psycho-Man. When Reed insists that they go after Psycho-Man, Reed stresses his feelings that they need to focus on the Beyonder. Sue is upset, and tells Reed that the Avengers, or some other group of heroes can deal with the Beyonder, that she wants to go after the Psycho-Man. Before she can explain, Franklin rushes in and tries to tell his father about the dream he had. This pushes Sue to the brink of her patience, angered by the fact that her needs are being put on the side-lines once again she orders Franklin to go back to bed. Jarvis, overhearing them, takes the young Richards boy back to his room. Sue stresses that she is sick of having her needs taking a back-seat to whatever menace Reed deems more important. She explains that when the Psycho-Man and his minion warped her into Malice[2][3] they not only made her evil, but violated her down to her very soul and she wants to pay them back for what they had done. When Reed finally realizes that Sue wants vengeance against those who raped her very being he agrees to follow his wifes wishes and travel into the Microverse to seek out the Psycho-Man. Before loading up into the Reducto-Car, Johnny pulls Reed aside and expresses his worry about Sue and wonders if her mental state has been effected since she had her miscarriage[4]. Reed points out that while Sue is distressed this is different from when she lost their second child and suggests that they should all support Sue to the end with this current concern. They all get into the Reducto-Car and Reed activates it's control. Soon they shirnk in size and end up in the Microverse however, the transport is rough and the energies they travel through force them to land on a planetoid. As they disembark from their Reducto-Car, Johnny pulls Reed aside once again as he notices that Reed is concerned. Reed agrees and tells Johnny that he is still worried about the Beyonder and what he is doing at this very moment. As the Fantastic Four explore their surroundings, the Beyonder is currently in the company of a mobster who has called him Frank, having dinner at a fancy restaurant. The man tells the Beyonder not to worry he'll show him how to become a real winner[5]. As they begin exploring the area, Reed Richards explains to She-Hulk that they have learned a lot about the Microverse since they originally traveled to it [6], and that it is not a microscopic world, but another universe that can only be accessed by shrinking to the smallest possible size in their dimension. Johnny flames on and flies ahead to scout the area, however he is soon captured by a giant pair of tweezers and placed in a strange canister. However, before he can be sealed inside he manages to send off a Fantastic Four signal flare alerting the others. As Sue, Reed, and She-Hulk rush to Johnny's aid, they too are soon encased in similar cylinders. They soon find that they are prisoners of the gigantic form of the foe they came to hunt down: The Psycho-Man! This story is continued next issue... Brodie's View:While I can happily state that there will be no more issues from the actual SECRET WARS II series for me to review for the rest of this run (Yay!!!), the shadow of The Beyonder and the events of SWII will hang over a good chunk of the issues we have left to review, so, mixed news for me to deliver to start things off. Actually, the FF issues that the Beyonder appears in, including this one, are far superior to the actual SWII issues (and I can say the same is true for the X-MEN, NEW MUTANTS, and INCREDIBLE HULK SECRET WARS II crossover issues as well), so, as I stated in the last review, you're kind of better off just reading those instead of the actual series. For example, the Beyonder only appears in this issue for a panel, as he's being wined and dined by a mobster that wants to use the still naive God for his own small minded purposes. He is also referred to briefly by Reed Richards, who wishes to observe and talk to the Beyonder after their brief meeting in SWII #2 (in other words, the last review), but Susan Richards quickly shuts that down, as she's on a mission of Vengeance against The Psycho Man, but we'll get back to that in a second. I will say that we get another crossover of sorts for the first fourth of this issue, and it's a pretty intense dream that has young Franklin Richards walking through the wreckage of a destroyed New York City. However, it doesn't seem that the Psycho Man or his Hate Monger are responsible for this, but rather the lizard like aliens that are main foes for our "Guest Stars" in this issue, the group of super powered children known as Power Pack. Franklin is dreaming of them, their villains, and some of their supporting cast because he will soon become involved with them as an unofficial fifth member of the group for a time. I was a big Power Pack fan as a kid, so, getting to see them depicted about as well as they could possibly be thanks to that kick ass John Byrne art was pretty awesome for eight year old me. Of course, the next issue is going to be nostalgically memorable for a very different reason, but I'll get to that in the next review. After Franklin wakes up, we finally get to the main part of our story, which is the FF trying to decide whether to pursue the Beyonder or the Psycho Man, with a very pissed off Susan Richards basically forcing Reed to take the second option, as the machinations of the Psycho Man forced her to see a side of her self that she never thought existed....and made her wear leather S&M gear, but then again, that might be a tool for spicing up the Richards' love life down the line. Once Reed agrees to go after the Psycho Man, the team prepare to go into the Microverse after him, in a vehicle that Reed designed for just such a purpose, and shrink down they do. However, upon getting to the Microverse, the 3 FF members who have been there before notice that it looks different than it did the last time they were there. Before they can explore further, however, they are all captured in glass cases, and are shown to be at the mercy of the very man they had been after....The Psycho Man, who looks absolutely huge compared to them. See, this whole Hate Monger thing was merely a trap to lure the Fantastic Four into the Psycho Man's domain, so, he can do exactly what he does at the end of this issue....and the next one. I will say that these next two issues are going to be very pivotal for Susan, as once again she's going to deal with doubts and fears that the Psycho Man is going to amplify greatly to torture her, and torture her he most certainly will. In the next issue, we will see some pretty crazy stuff; stuff that kind of traumatized eight year old me in a way few comic book stories have been able to before or since. Plus, no Beyonder for a few....win/win. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 17, 2020 23:21:53 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #283"Torment"Cover Date: Oct, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Psycho Man Special Guests: Daldo & Greeb/(In Hallucination Form Only) The Thing, Undead Franklin Storm, & Undead Mary Storm Official Plot:The Invisible Girl is plunging into a pit of fire screaming before she is pulled out out of danger by Mister Fantastic -- who appears incredibly old. He is there with the Thing (who has a human face) and an incredibly young Human Torch. The strict and stern Richards chastises his group for acting out of turn and the continue on to a fortress that Johnny has spotted up ahead. As they reach the fortress, a massive cannon fires a ball of energy at Johnny. Reed orders Sue to use her powers to deflect the blast, but she is too late. The energy ball strikes Johnny and he falls to the ground, his flame sputtering out. Sue rushes to his side, but she is too late, Johnny is dead. Furious that his little buddy is dead, the Thing charges toward the fortress. As he crosses the moat of green water, he realizes too late that the liquid is actually acid. As it begins to eat away at his body, Reed tells Sue to try and save his mind. But Sue is too shocked to do anything and the Thing dies. Reed berates her for not acting fast enough, costing them the lives of Johnny and Ben in the process. The more Reed berates his wife, the older he appears to get and the younger she becomes. By the time Sue musters up the power to create a bridge across the acid, she is a prepubescent girl and Reed is a very elderly man. As they approach the fortress, Sue notices a deadly spike trap and tries to warn Reed of it. Reed ignores her pleas to listen, and walks right into the trap and is killed. Now a little girl, Sue breaks down into tears over the loss of Reed as well. suddenly she is called by her parents and rushes to their side, only to be horrified by the fact that they are nothing but undead skeletons. When they touch her, she screams.... .... And as it turns out this is all an illusion cast into her mind by the Psycho-Man who holds the Fantastic Four prisoner. As Johnny yells at the Psycho-Man to stop, Reed points out that while they are trapped in these specially constructed cylinders there is nothing they can do. The Psycho-Man --- towering over his foes -- gloats about how he had been monitoring the Fantastic Four the whole time and knew about Sue's desire to get revenge against him for raping her mind. He then set up a device that caused their Reducto-Craft that caused them to shrink even smaller once they got to the Microverse, allowing him to capture them so easily. With his plan a success, the Psycho-Men then decides to enjoy his victory by torturing Sue further by twisting her emotions. Elsewhere in a dungeon the She-Hulk is being held prisoner. Coming to she demands to be freed. One of her guards obliges her by opening her cell door. But when he says "boo!" to her, She-Hulk becomes instantly frightened and crumples to the floor in fear. Back in the Psycho-Man's lab, Reed deduces that air must somehow get into their containers, and allows his body to become as lax as possible so it flows out of the opening below. Having deduced the Psycho-Man's deception, Reed rushes his foe and wraps his body around Psycho-Man's head. As Reed applies pressure, their foe activates his control box causing Sue great pain. Suddenly, Psycho-Man's head pops off like a cork from a champagne bottle, revealing their foe was actually using a massive mechanical body to trick them. Reed quickly explains how the Psycho-Man deceived them, when suddenly Sue realizes that She-Hulk is not among them and wonders where she is. Deep below their feet, Jennifer is being forced to lug loads of ore in a filthy mine. Brodie's View:Back in the mid 1980's, we had a Woolworth's Department store in our mall, and connected to that Woolworth's was a little restaurant called Harvest House Junior's. I can still remember sitting in the restaurant with my mom, reading this issue after just buying it, and being f***ing TRAUMATIZED by the beginning part of it. We basically get the reverse of the beginning of the last issue, as both issues begin with a dream sequence of sorts. However, unlike the last issue, which is a slightly scary, but cool dream (of Franklin's), this "dream sequence," which in reality is a hallucination meant to torture Sue Richards, is more of a nightmare plucked from Sue's subconscious feelings about certain people and things. It kind of redoes the ending to the last issue as well, however, instead of the current FF, we get an idealized FF that arrives in the Microverse. Once again, this is Susan's take on the other members of this FF, as well as herself, so, Reed Richards, while older than Susan in the "real world," is quite a bit older than her here, and getting older by the panel (and on the flip side of things, Susan appears to be getting younger). In addition, this "Reed" amplifies the whole "Ha, ha, silly female!" attitude Reed used to take with Susan in the earlier days of the book to a massive degree, as this Reed seems downright cruel to his wife, constantly chastising her for her mistakes. Johnny Storm, on the other hand, resembles way more the "Kid" brother he was at the beginning of the FF's existence, while Ben Grimm, even with being The Thing, retains his human face. Anyways, the "Uncle and Nephew" of the team try to do what they would normally do in the situation, but both end up dying (in Ben's case, quite horribly), as Sue is too slow to take the steps necessary to save their lives, which is pounded into her head both by Reed and the two deceased (right before they die) themselves. Finally, Reed and Sue make it over a river of acid to what appears to be the Psycho Man's base, but Reed is killed by the base's defense systems, which squashes Reed flat. The now childish Susan doesn't have time to recover from this, as she is approached by what appears to be her parents, but are really undead skeletons posing as her parents. They grab her, and she screams....only to find herself in the Psycho Man's lab, being tormented by the being that had already been behind the psychic "rape" of Susan a few issues ago. We see that Reed and Johnny are the Psycho Man's prisoners as well (and we'll get to Jen in a second), but all are helpless against the emotion warping villain, who tortures Sue some more while he gloats about his Master Plan being a success. However, this is allowing Reed to figure out what the Real Deal behind all of this is, and he ends up relaxing his stretchy powers to the point where he literally flows out of the Psycho Man's glass tubes, and attacks the Psycho Man, popping the head off of what is revealed to be the PM's robotic body, revealing the real Psycho Man underneath. That pretty much ends the main part of the Psycho Man's plot, but we still have more to this story before it's finished. See, Jennifer, who the Psycho Man obviously didn't give a crap about, as she hadn't been on the FF team that defeated him in the past, was exposed to the PM's fear ray, but instead sent to be a prisoner of the mines run by the Psycho Man's underlings. We see Jen try to break free from the cell she awoke in, but instantly cowering down once one of the guards buck up to her. They decide to put her to work in the mines, and in the very last page of the issue, we see her pulling a large bucket full of rocks through mine tunnels. We'll definitely pick up on this in the next issue, as our multi-issue story involving the Psycho Man comes to a close. However, this story will end with one more major transformation for Susan Richards, as she will strengthen even more in the wake of all that has happened to her over the last several issues (and even the events that had happened before that). In addition to that, we get some pretty kick ass moments involving the She-Hulk, which will also lead to a graphic novel involving John Byrne's favorite big green lady. After that, yet another crossover, but this one involving a storyline (and characters) from Byrne's past, which will lead to the creation of a brand new team. But first, let's see if Jennifer Walters can escape from the Psycho Man's mines. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 20, 2020 0:16:18 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #284"Revolution!"Cover Date: Nov, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Girl/Woman, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Psycho Man & Dutta (Only Appearance of the 2nd) Special Guests: Princess Pearla, Kamar, & Garba Official Plot:Enslaved by the Psycho-Man, the She-Hulk has been forced to toil in the Mines of Nunvidia deep below the Microverse realm of Sub-Atomica. When one of the other slaves kills one of the mine dwelling creatures for food, everyone scrambles toward it to try and get some food. When She-Hulk tries to get some as well she is kicked aside by Dutta, the mine's slave driver. When she begs him for food and water, Dutta obliges by forcing her to drink the muddy water run off from the mine. When Dutta is called away for other concerns, She-Hulk is helped up by Pearla, former queen of the realm. She-Hulk recalls that name from the Fantastic Four's files. When Pearla hears the FF's name she explained that they once helped free her kingdom from the tyranny of Doctor Doom years ago. She-Hulk learns that Pearla took over the kingdom after her father died until one day they were attacked by the Psycho-Man, who used his emotion casting Control Box to take over the kingdom. Apparently immune to the effects of the Control Box, Pearla fled into the once abandoned mines to hide and has remained hidden there since Psycho-Man re-opened them and forced her people to till away for the metal in the mines. When Pearla tries to get She-Hulk to leave, she is too afraid to go thanks to the emotional conditioning done to her by the Psycho-Man. The pair are then caught but Dutta who impales Pearla with his spear. Dutta gloats over She-Hulk's inability to do anything about it. However, Pearla manages to coax Jennifer out of her mental conditioning, and the She-Hulk lays out Dutta with a single punch. Unable to remove the spear for fear Pearla might bleed out, She-Hulk breaks off its shaft and is about to leave when they are suddenly surrounded by guards. Above ground, inside Psycho-Man's lab, the other members of the Fantastic Four are searching their records to try and find what Psycho-Man had done with the She-Hulk. Johnny suddenly informs the others that the Psycho-Man managed to escape the cell they placed him in. Reed begins to blame himself for allowing their foe to leave. Sue tells them that they should split up and find their foe. As Reed searches his sense of doubt begins to increase until the Psycho-Man reveals himself and the fact that he has been using his Control Box on him the whole time. Suddenly, the box slips out of Psycho-Man's hands, by Sue, who reveals that she had been invisibly following her husband after deducing his doubts were caused by their foe. Sue then pins the Psycho-Man with her powers and chastises him for using his device to rape her emotionally, and that she is going to punish him for what he has done. When Psycho-Man asks if she is going to kill him, Sue tells him that she intends to pay him back in kind for what he has done. Elsewhere, Johnny is racing through the facility when suddenly She-Hulk and Pearla come smashing through the door. Their happy reunion is cut short when they suddenly hear a blood curdling scream. When they try to find the source they run into Reed and Sue. Sue informs them that the Psycho-Man has gotten what he deserves and won't threaten anyone again. With Psycho-Man defeated a celebration is had after Pearla is restored to control. When they wonder how she wasn't affected by their enemy's Control Box. Reed finds the solution: the headband that the queen is wearing is made out of a special ore that blocks out the signals from the Control Box. When Pearla explains that it was made from metal that came from the Nunvidia mines, they suddenly realize why the Psycho-Man was so intent on putting people to work in the once abandoned mine. When Pearla thanks the Invisible Girl for her help, Sue tells her that after recent events the Invisible Girl is dead. When Reed asks for her to clarify what she means, she tells them that she will not longer call herself the Invisible Girl, from now on she will be the Invisible Woman. Brodie's View:Sistahs are doing it for themselves in this, the last chapter of this multi-part story involving the Psycho Man, who gets his big payback (sadly Off Camera) before this issue ends. We pick up with She Hulk, who is still under the influence of the Psycho Man's fear ray, and has been put to work by the PM's underlings in the mines underneath what had once been a castle. We know this due to Princess Pearla, who was overthrown by the arrival of the Psycho Man (in his giant robot suit) a while before this story took place. It was obviously the overthrowing of the Nunvidians that gave the Psycho Man the confidence/arrogance he needed to attempted what he attempted on Earth, but barring all that, Pearla had avoided the capture of the rest of the Nunvidian royal family, and had been hiding in the mines, waiting for some sort of salvation to come for her and her people. She finds this is She Hulk, but first must shake Jen of the Psycho Man's influence. This finally happens when Pearla is stabbed in the arm with a spear by one of the PM's guards, who gloats about his find as he lifts the small woman in the air with the other end of the spear. Finally, Jen smashes the heck out of that guard, and with the now wounded Pearla in her arms, wrecks shop on the rest of them as well, smashing her way into the PM's headquarters. Meanwhile, inside the former castle, the rest of the FF try to deal with the fallout from their confrontation with the actual Psycho Man, only to discover that he has somehow escaped. The team splits to try and find him (with the Torch finding She Hulk and Pearla), but Reed is suddenly hit by a wave of doubt of whether or not his plan will work this time. This ends up being the work of the Psycho Man, who steps out of the shadows, gloating about taking down the leader of the FF at least. However, the joke is on him, as Susan Richards snatches his emotion controlling device from him, and does that something horrible to him that we don't see, but we definitely see the reaction of the other FF'ers hearing his scream from afar. This is when Susan and Reed comes back, with Susan stating that the Psycho Man will never bother anyone ever again, which I doubt is true, but still a pretty cool twist to end this story, with Susan fully saving Reed from certain doom, rather than the other way around. We then get the most important part of this issue, as Susan tells the others that this whole ordeal has changed her body and soul, and that she could no longer call herself the Invisible Girl, but rather would be known henceforth as the Invisible Woman (and I will change the character descriptions in the "credits" to reflect this). This was definitely the moment that had been coming since Byrne came on the book, and most definitely since FF #245, and it's pretty clear that Byrne had made Susan earn every bit of that character transformation. However, she's not the only FF'er that will be "maturing" a bit more before Byrne leaves the book, and that will happen in the next issue. I won't go too much into that, as it will be a few reviews before we get there, but I will say that one of the best issues remaining in this run will drop then. First, we're going to go back to another female character Byrne gave a great deal of focus to in this issue, and that's one Jennifer Walters, who will be the focus of a full sized Graphic Novel that I'll be reviewing next. In this story, She Hulk will also undergo some what of a transformation, but we'll also see that Byrne's She Hulk stories tend to go down a lighter path than the ones he would send her down in the main FF book, however, it will have some connections to the FF, which is why I'm including it here. After that, we get a repeat of two connecting Annuals that will both drop in the same day, and then....that really good issue. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 21, 2020 1:33:35 GMT -5
Marvel Graphic Novel #18: The Sensational She-Hulk"The Sensational She-Hulk"Cover Date: Nov, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: She Hulk Villain/s: Sentient Cockroaches & S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent Roger Dooley Special Guests: Wyatt Wingfoot, Reed Richards, Bruce Banner (In Flashback Form Only), Will Campbell (Alive in Flashback; Dead When We See Him in the Story), S.H.I.E.L.D (Nick Fury, Dum-Dum Duggan, & Various Other SHIELD agents) Official Plot:During a night out on the town with her boyfriend Wyatt Wingfoot, She-Hulk is captured by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents using Mandroid Armor to make sure she won't become the type of menace as her more famous and violent cousin. The pair are taken to the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier, and after a humiliating search ordered by a male agent, Agent Dooley, she and Wyatt are imprisoned in a pressure cell designed to contain her She-Hulk form. S.H.I.E.L.D. has reckoned without her ability to change back into her normal, much smaller, Jennifer Walters form, and by transforming into that form she slips through the cell bars while Wyatt bears the extra weight pressure and frees them. S.H.I.E.L.D.'s plan continues to go wrong when the Helicarrier is menaced by a horde of sentient roaches that are able to take over the bodies of human hosts. The Helicarrier goes down in the mayhem and in keeping the whole thing from blowing sky high, She-Hulk is exposed to a heavy dose of radiation that prevents her from changing into her alter-ego Jennifer Walters ever again. Brodie's View:I think Byrne felt bad kicking the shit out of She-Hulk over the last few issues of the FANTASTIC FOUR comic (including last issue's cover, which is literally Jen getting kicked in the head), or at the very least, didn't feel bad about it because he knew this was coming. Either way, Jen gets a Mostly FF free side adventure in the lovely Marvel Graphic Novel format. This means bigger pages and glossier paper, which allows Byrne to draw huge action scenes that might not be able to be conveyed properly in a typical comic book format....as well as Jen showing as much cleavage and skin as Marvel would allow. Looking back, this almost seems to be an audition for a solo She-Hulk series written and drawn by Byrne, which he would eventually get down the line (and it was pretty awesome at times), as Byrne delivers a slam bang story for Ms. Walters. To make a long story short (too late), someone high up in SHIELD decides to capture Jen, as they fear she might one day lose control and become a destructive force like her cousin, Bruce Banner (The Hulk, as if you didn't know that already), who appears in a brief flashback, had recently become once again. Why they couldn't just keep tabs on her, I don't know, but anyways, they descend on Jen, who is on a date with her recent love interest, Wyatt Wingfoot, and after a bit of a tussle, they capture Jen, Wyatt, and a bunch of other people. One of which turns out to be not what they seem, but I'll get to all that in a second ( ). They are all beamed aboard a SHIELD helicarrier, where Jen tries to use the craziness of their capture as an opportunity to try and escape. One of the people with her, who appears to be an old homeless man, breaks off from the group, who are eventually whittled down to just Jen and Wyatt, who are then also captured. This leads to our first example of Byrne putting Jen through some Elvira-esque moments in order to show what a great body Jen has, as one of the SHIELD agents, a real piece of work named Dooley forces Jen to strip down in front of the other agents. Dum Dum Duggan comes in for a brief reprieve, but he is relieved of his duty, and Dooley once again subjects Jen to uncomfortable tests.....done to her in the buff. That's okay, he gets his, as afterwards, as he's coming out of a room, he's attacked by the previously thought homeless man, who is actually just a shell for intelligent COCKROACHES that have bonded together to take over and control human bodies (double ). The roaches go into Dooley, taking him over and turning a dickhead character into an actual threat. Meanwhile, Jen has been brought back to a waiting cell, which has been built to contain the She-Hulk. However, they don't factor on Jen being able to transform back into her Jennifer Walters form, which she does and escapes. This leads to our big climax, where after being chased by SHIELD agents, Jen (now back as She-Hulk) must end up teaming up to stop the cockroach controlled Dooley from destroying the helicarrier. This eventually leads to Jen destroying the Dooley shell, but not soon enough to keep the carrier from crashing (but after all the live people had escaped). Jen winds up getting out as well, but is told by a scientist that she must go back into the wreckage to shut down the reactor that was powering it before it explodes. She does, and does wind up shutting down the reactor, but not before she is swarmed by the army of cockroaches and completely covered. Hmmmm, now that I think about it, maybe she was better off getting the shit kicked out of her. I f***ing HATE roaches. Anyways, it turns out that radiation she was exposed to in the reactor prevents her from transforming back into Jennifer Walters (which doesn't last obviously), which she completely No Sells in a priceless page of panels (where we get our only actual FF member involvement, as Reed gives Jen the "Bad News"). All in all, a pretty fun story with a crazy one off "villain/s." As I stated earlier, this story seemed like a setup for a series, as well as a big action movie made all the better by Byrne's art. Good stuff. It's not included in the trades I've been getting these reviews from, but it's worth seeking out on its own merits. In the next review....well, the next two reviews, which will drop at the same time, will be a repeat of two connecting Annuals (the FF & the Mighty Avengers) that I covered a while back as part of a trade paperback. I will, however, chime in a little bit in the second review. After that, we get another SECRET WARS II crossover issue, but definitely the best of the three that we get in the FANTASTIC FOUR series. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 21, 2020 18:30:34 GMT -5
Fantastic Four Annual #19"Summons From the Stars"Cover Date: Nov, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Featured Character(s): The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Human Torch, The Invisible Woman, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Zabyk, Mym, and various other Skrulls Guest Stars: The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, & The Black Knight), Edwin Jarvis, "Alicia Masters" (Secretly a Skrull), Prince Dezan, "Infant Terrible" (Secretly a Skrull), Louie, and the NYPD (Officer Riddley) Official Plot:An alien ship crash lands into the waters outside of New York City, its sole occupant emerges on the New York City docks and approaches a homeless man. The man is frightened by the alien's space-suit and he flees. When a car almost runs over the alien, a force field protects it, damaging the car and sending the occupant fleeing for help. Suddenly the police arrive and when they order the alien to stand down, it uses its powers to uproot the ground and then create a massive green robot. When one of the officers shoots at the robot, it multiplies every time a bullet hits it. One of the officers on the scene recognizes the way the robot looks and orders the other officers to stand down while he places a call to the only people who cal help... The phone call reaches Avengers Mansion where the Fantastic Four have been staying since the destruction of their headquarters. When the call is answered by Jarvis, the Fantasti-Flare is shot into the night sky. Not far away, Johnny Storm is on his date with Alicia Masters and he is trying to muster up the courage to ask her to marry him when suddenly he is informed of the flare by one of the staff. With no other choice, Johnny flames on and flies toward Avengers Mansion. On the way he runs into the rest of the team and he is filled in on what's going on along the way to the docks. When the Fantastic Four arrives, Reed approaches the alien along, gently talking to it. When the alien being calls up an image of Reed in his old costume, it confirms Reed's suspicions. The alien unmasks revealing itself as the creature the FF once called the Infant Terrible. When they ask the alien what it is doing back on Earth, it calls up images that show the Skrulls coming to their world to try and exploit the reality altering powers of his race. Unfamiliar with war, the aliens use their powers to amuse themselves, angering the Skrulls. The Skrulls then began to lay waste to the planet. The Infant Terrible's family then spirited him away in a ship to Earth to get the help of the Fantastic Four. Reed tells the group that the Infant Terrible's homeworld is located in the Andromeda galaxy home of the once great Skrull empire. Reed explains that the Skrulls have been in a state of civil war ever since Galactus consumed the Skrull throne world. Agreeing to help, the Fantastic Four recover the alien's ship to go into space. Light years away, an obese Skrull woman with aspirations to rule the empire asks her minions what is taking so long to finish he plan to destroy the Fantastic Four. When they detect the alien ship approaching she orders her men to get into place. They rush outside using their shapeshifting powers to disguise themselves as members of the Infant Terrible's race. When the ship lands, the "parents" of the Infant Terrible inform the Fantastic Four that they are to meet with the council elders. When Reed suddenly disagrees and tries to rush the aliens, they blow their cover and blast "Reed", who turns out to be a Skrull as well. As the Fantastic Four battle the Skrulls outside, the real Reed Richards -- inside the phony Infant Terrible's armor -- gets the drop on the Skrulls corpulent leader. Reed explains that he easily deduced the ruse and then hypnotized the Skrull leading them into the trap to assume his form so they could spring a trap of their own. Defeated, the female Skrull tells Reed that their race is doomed as well. Investigating this, the Fantastic Four take their Skrull attackers prisoner and commander a ship. They take it out to a long abandoned Skrull satellite that was once used to power the Super-Skrull. Forcing their way inside the satellite the find a dying Skrull named Myrn who tells them his colleage Zabyk intends to detonate a Hyper-Wave Bomb to decimate the Skrull empire. Needing to stop this weapon, the Fantastic Four rip their way into the next room where they cross paths with the Avengers. Almost coming to blows out of suspicion of a Skrull trick, the two groups confirm their identities and a fight is avoided. Suddenly, Zabyk contacts them, telling them that they are too late to stop him from activating the Hyper-Wave Bomb. Zabyk explains that the bomb will strip the Skrulls of their ability to shape-shift, only he will retain that ability thanks to the protective suit of armor he is wearing. When Captain Marvel tries to intervene by passing through the computers electronically, she is called back by Captain America. With no opposition to stop him Zabyk activates the Hyper-Wave Bomb goes off, it causes all the Skrulls gathered to begin to glow and revert to human form. To his horror Zabyk realizes his armor was not enough to keep out the energies of the bomb, trapping him inside his specially constructed suit. With the conflict over, the Skrulls gathered are left to wonder where their society will go next. Soon the Fantastic Four are flying back home, where Reed expresses his hopes can finally become a race of peace. Brodie's View:One of my "Dream Runs," as far as comic reviewing goes, is the John Byrne run on Fantastic Four, as it's my second favorite 80's run for Marvel (the Chris Claremont X-Men is first). So, I'm pretty thrilled to at least be reviewing a small part of it here, as it's the second half of interconnecting stories concerning the remains of the Skrull empire. However, this story takes a different route getting there than the Avengers did, but the end result is the same. In short, a Skrull who has changed his appearance to resemble an alien the FF encountered earlier in their superhero careers shows up on Earth, trying to find the Fantastic Four. However, as we soon see, it's a trick, as this alien was meant to lure the FF to Skrull space, thinking they were helping the alien's race out from a Skrull invasion, only to be captured themselves by another wannabe ruler of the warring factions left in the wake of Galactus destroying the Skrull's homeworld. This all doesn't come to pass, though, as Reed Richards, being the brilliant dude he is, figures out the scam, and out scams the scammers by hypnotizing the Skrull posing as the alien to trade places with him. The Fantastic Four make quick work of the Skrulls who were meant to capture/kill them, and they end up boarding a nearby Skrull ship, where they end up encountering the Avengers, who as we saw in the last issue, were in the midst of trying to stop a Skrull that had gone insane from detonating a bomb that would end up basically nullifying the rest of the Skrull race. Of course, as we saw in that last issue, this all backfires, and it causes all the Skrulls to be caught in whatever form they were in when the bomb went off. However, we end on kind of a hopeful note, as the (seemingly) peace loving Prince Dezan, who had been exiled from his people due to his pacifist beliefs, ends up trying to take charge of his people, hopefully leading them into an era of peace. Needless to say, that doesn't really happen, as it isn't too long before the Skrulls regain their shape shifting abilities, and turn their attention back to Earth, wanting revenge for all the slights they feel they've suffered at the hands of the superhero populace. This would all lead to the SECRET INVASION crossover, which would take place in the late 2000's. Going back to 1985, though, we would see the Fantastic Four undergo some changes themselves in the coming years, as She Hulk would eventually return to the Mighty Avengers, and The Thing (who had essentially left the team at the end of the first SECRET WARS crossover) would return to take his spot back. As for the Avengers, well, we have one more issue to deal with in this trade, and it'll be trying to tie up all the loose ends left over from the various things that happened throughout this storyline. In the next review, we will see that take place, and, oh yeah, we get yet another SECRET WARS II crossover, as The Beyonder tries to answer for what he did to Nebula and her gang back in #260. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 21, 2020 18:35:58 GMT -5
Avengers Annual #14"Fifth Column"Cover Date: Nov, 1985 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Byrne Featured Character(s): The (East Coast) Avengers (Captain America, Captain Marvel II, Hercules, Starfox, The Wasp, & The Black Knight Villain/s: Zabyk, Mym, and various other Skrulls Guest Stars: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Human Torch, The Invisible Woman, & She Hulk), Firelord, Skrulls (Skrull Imperial Starfleet, Prince Dezan / "Dutch," Major Syrro, Raksor, Floyd Donahue, Zedrao, Rocco, Louie, Eddie, & Baryn (dies)) Official Plot:In search of Nebula, the Avengers and the Skrulls visit the planet Kral, on which Skrulls have taken the form of 1930s American gangsters, where they encounter Prince Dezan, the late Skrull emperor's brother, until recently an imprisoned exile. He has been freed for his knowledge of those who now menace the Skrulls, his one-time fellow rebels, Zabyk and Myrn, who intend to unleash a powerful secret weapon, the hyperwave bomb. The Avengers ultimately join forces with the Fantastic Four, also on Kral on a separate mission, but neither group can prevent Zabyk from firing the dreaded weapon. To everyone's surprise, however, the bomb affects only the Skrulls, robbing them all of their shapechanging powers. Brodie's View:This is the first half of a two part story told from two different perspectives, and with two different teams playing protagonists. This is the first half, which continues with storylines that had been going through the main Avengers book. The second half will concern the team that plays Guest Star(s) in this issue, The Fantastic Four. Of course, both stories end up in the same place; ground zero for a major change where it concerns the Skrull race. Left scrambling after Galactus ate their homeworld, the Skrulls have devolved into warring factions, each trying to take command over what remains of the Skrull race. Of course, as we see in this issue, not all of the Skrulls wish for endless battle, though. The Avengers, accompanied by the Skrulls they were allied with during the conflict with Nebula, end up visiting a planet that had been transformed into an intergalactic version of the night club from Casablanca, complete with one of the Skrulls playing the part of Rick from that movie (or basically Humphrey Bogart from that movie....Awesome!). In fact, all of the Skrulls on that world have changes their appearances to look like gangsters, molls, and anything else from that era. Not a major part of the plot, but awesome none the less. No, the main plot is kind of a play on The Man In The Iron Mask, or The Skrull in the Iron Mask, as a former price has been locked away for years, living in exile from the Skrull empire. However, this prince is the key to a plot undertaken by former friends, who have developed a bomb that will "permanently alter" the rest of the Skrulls. The Prince ends up aiding the Avengers, who are eventually joined by The Fantastic Four (after both teams are convinced that the other aren't Skrulls) in trying to stop one of the now insane Skrulls from detonating that bomb. However, they are too late, and the end result of the bomb's detonation is that all the Skrulls are stuck in the forms there were in when the bomb went off (for example, all the Casablanca Skrulls are now stuck in those forms), which essentially negates their shape changing abilities. Of course, that process somehow wears off, as by the 90's, the Skrulls are back and badder than ever....well, except for the ones that were good before that, such as the Prince (which is why he was exiled in the first place). All in all, a pretty fun Annual, with some KICK ASS art work from the great John Byrne. That will continue in the next review, as Byrne, who was the writer/artist of the Fantastic Four at the time, pretty much tells the same story from the FF's perspective. Hell, even the covers of both of these Annuals are shown from the perspectives of each respective team. Important? Not really, but pretty damn cool none the less. GRADE: A- KEITH'S VIEW 2020: It hasn't been too horribly long since I did these reviews, so, I'll be brief. This is yet another connecting story between Byrne and AVENGERS writer Roger Stern (who is also the writer that will replace Byrne, at least long enough to finish a story he started, when he decides to leave the FANTASTIC FOUR series (as well as Marvel for a couple of years). It ties in more to what was going on in the AVENGERS series than it does on Byrne side of things, so, I think I'll let my statements above stand as far as all that goes. Still, pretty cool to see two writers writing their own ends of what amounts to one story. In the next review, we'll be getting to that GREAT issue I've been talking about over the last few reviews, and after that....we get one more major crossover before we reach the final stretch of this run.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 22, 2020 23:06:16 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #285"Hero"Cover Date: Dec, 1985 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: None Special Guests: The Beyonder, "Alicia Masters"/Lyja the Skrull, Edwin Jarvis, The Wasp, & Hercules/(Only Appearance of the Following) Thomas H. Hanson (Dies), Dr. Janet Darling, Joss Kinkaid, Ms. Welsh, Bob Hanson, Sheila Hanson, Don, Campbell, & Cooley Official Plot:Dr. Janet Darling has to finish writing up a report about Thomas Hanson, a 13 year old boy who recently died of third degree burns. Looking at the fact sheet in her typewriter, Darling rips it out and decides that there is more to the story that has to be told... Thomas Hanson an introverted young man who was obsessed with his hero the Human Torch. One day, his fellow student trades the latest article on the Torch to Thomas in exchange for his lunch money for a month and doing his math home work and book reports until Christmas. Hanson agrees and is given the magazine, running late for class the boy begins trying to secretly read the magazine in English class while his teacher Ms. Walsh is reading the works of Robert Frost. She confiscates the magazine and asks him to see her after class. Walsh learns about the boys hero worship and suggests that he try to live in the real world, and to teach him a lesson takes the magazine away and throws it out. As Thomas walks home his classmate trips him up and reminds him that he still has to pay up his lunch money every day and do his assignments. Returning home, the young boy finds that his parents are going to be away all night on business but takes delight in the fact that that evenings episode of "Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous" features the Human Torch. Tommy decides to try and call his idol, and surprisingly manages to get through to Avengers Mansion. When the phone is answered by the Avenger's butler Jarvis, Jarvis informs Tommy that the Torch is away on a mission with the rest of the Fantastic Four. Tommy tells Jarvis to leave a message for the Torch that Tommy Hanson called and that he only wanted Johnny to know his name. Falling asleep on the living room floor, Tommy is woken up by the sound Joss Kincaid working on a new radio control jet that runs of a special jet fuel that he had cobbled together himself. When Joss's beeper goes off, he asks Tommy to put away the fuel while he calls his office but warns the boy to be careful because the stuff is so flammable he suggests that it might turn him into the Human Torch. While Joss was merely joking, the boy looks ominously at the can of experimental fuel. One month later, the Human Torch arrives at the former site of the Baxter Building where Reed Richards is overseeing the construction of their new headquarters which will prove to be bigger and more technologically advanced than their original. While Reed explains the advantages their new base will have, he cannot help but bring up his growing concerns over the Beyonder being active on Earth. When Dr. Darling arrives looking for Johnny, she almost tumbles down into the foundation, but is saved by Johnny. She explains that she has a young boy in her burn ward whom has been under her care over the past month who has not long to live and has asked to meet his idol the Human Torch. Johnny, sympathetic about he boys mortality, agrees to accompany her, but exercises his discretion to not use his flame powers in proximity of the burn ward. Arriving at the hospital, Johnny meets with the severely burned Tommy Hanson who is in the company of his parents. Fading fast, Tommy tells the Torch that he did it to be just like him. As the boy slips away, Johnny is mortified by what he was told and repeats the boy's dying words to everyone gathered. Johnny is slapped across the face by Tommy's mother and the Hanson parents blame the hero for their sons death, Mr. Hanson going so far as attempting to use his influence to ruin the Human Torch's reputation. Led out of the hospital, Johnny, filled with remorse and sorry is about to Flame On and fly away when he realizes that he cannot and calls for a taxi. At the home of Alicia Masters, Alicia shows off her sculpture of the She-Hulk she recently done for She-Hulk and Sue. She-Hulk is impressed and asks Alicia to make one of her human form now that she can no longer change back to her Jennifer Walters persona[1]. When Johnny enters the room, he tells Sue, Alicia and She-Hulk that he is quitting his career as the Human Torch. The others are shocked and listen as Johnny explains what happened. Despite their efforts to convince him to not give up his career, Johnny cannot be budged on the issue. Suddenly, the Beyonder appears, and despite She-Hulk's attempt to stop him he teleports the Torch away. The Beyonder has decided to show the Torch a reason never to give up on his career as a super-hero. He takes him back in time and shows him Tommy Hanson's life. Showing Johnny the lonely boy's life and explaining that he should not blame himself for Tommy's passing as through his hero worship of the Torch Tommy truly lived. These words manage to convince Johnny not to give up his career. .... Finishing her report, Dr. Darling turns it over to her superior who finds the story odd but entertaining. When he asks questions about who the Beyonder is, she explains that Johnny declined to explain who he was. When asked what final words she has on the case, Janet can recall a quote by F. Scott Fitzgerald: "Show me a hero, and I'll write you a tragedy." Secret Wars II continues in Secret Wars II #6... Brodie's View:So, smack in the middle of the last two reviews' connecting Annuals and the next multi issue crossover sits this issue, which is definitely the best issue of the She-Hulk era of John Byrne's FF run. It in itself is also a crossover, and I'll get to all of that in a second, but even taking all of that away one is left with a very powerful story. Whereas the last few issues have put Susan Richards in focus, this issue very much puts her brother, Johnny Storm, in focus, as he grows up a bit from the events of this story. However, before we get to him and the normal going ons in this comic, we see from the outside as a nurse that will later be fully introduced as Dr. Janet Darling fills out the medical report for a young boy we meet in flashback form; Tommy Hanson, a lonely boy who is obsessed with the Human Torch. We see that he is a latch key kid that is bullied at school for his sensitive nature, and taken advantage of due to his hero worship of the Torch. Finally, while taking care of himself at home, he goes up on the roof of the building he lives with to see a hippie-ish looking guy flying a remote control jet using a highly potent jet fuel he mixed together. Before leaving, he makes the statement to Tommy that he'd better not mess with that jet fuel or he would end up like the Human Torch. We leave on this ominous image, as it has already happened by the time the rest of the story takes place, to follow Dr. Darling coming to the early version of what would become the FF's new Four Freedoms Plaza headquarters. Once there, she convinces Johnny to come back with her to the hospital she works at, as a young boy who is dying wishes to meet the Human Torch. However, once there, Johnny hears the young boy, a completely bandaged up Tommy Hanson, speak his last words, that he had burned himself to be like the Torch, before he dies. This sends Johnny spiraling down into a pit of despair, as he had never even considered how his actions were perceived by people in the real world, let alone children like Tommy that looked up to him as a hero. He almost contemplates leaving the FF before he is visited by the Beyonder, who shows him that while, yes, Tommy died trying to be like the Torch, the Torch had given him every reason to live up until that moment. This gives the Torch peace, and allows him to resume being a superhero, but obviously with a little more maturity in the wake of this story. I would say, as great as this story is, the only thing that keeps me from giving it an "A+" rating is the usage of the Beyonder, as he really wasn't necessary. I guess the original version of this story had Dr. Darling playing the role the Beyonder played in this story, but the need of another SECRET WARS II crossover story caused Byrne to change that character. Upset by that, Byrne even offered to redraw the story with Darling taking the place of the Beyonder for free, but he was never taken up on that offer. I guess the real problem I have with the Beyonder being in this story is the problem I have with the Beyonder during the SWII era period; how inconsistently the Beyonder is written as being throughout the entire series/crossover issues. I mean, it's hard to believe that the same Beyonder that visits Johnny Storm in this issue is the same one that just wipes out the entire New Mutants a month or so down the line from this. I think Jim Shooter needed to sit down with all the writers involved in this crossover and plan out how the Beyonder would act throughout it, as it seems like all the various writers had their own vision of what the Beyonder was and just went with that. Bitching aside, this is a fantastic story that is definitely worth checking out for those that haven't. Powerful stuff. Anyways, our next few reviews will take us through a crossover of a different sort, as a blast from Byrne's past will be returning throughout the course of this storyline, and that character's return will lead to....a brand new superhero group, or maybe I should say the re-unification of an old team, but under a brand new name. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Nov 23, 2020 23:54:23 GMT -5
The Avengers #263"What Lurks Below?"Cover Date: Jan, 1986 Writer: Roger Stern Artist: John Buscema Feature Characters: The Avengers (The Wasp, Captain America, Captain Marvel II, The Black Knight, Hercules, & Namor--the Sub Mariner) Villain/s: The Enclave (Morlak, Professor Shinski, & Zota), Scourge, The Melter, & Keegan (The Last Two Die) Special Guests: The National Security Council, Raymond Sikorsky, The NYPD (Ted), The FBI (Derek Freeman--1st Appearance of, Nelson, Carter, & other Agents), the NYFD, & Jean Grey/Adam Warlock & Her---in Recap Form Only Official Plot:Morlak, Shinski and Zota of the Enclave are attempting to leave New York City aboard a private plane at JFK Airport hoping to keep a low profile and not be arrested. However, this proves to be a faint hope as the NYPD has tracked them down and are racing toward the runway. The Enclave scientists attempt to make a daring getaway, however, they end up crashing their plane into Jamaica Bay while avoiding an oncoming 747 airliner. Before the police can go into the water and capture the wanted scientists the water is rocked by a powerful energy pulse. Meanwhile, at Avengers Mansion, Captain America, Wasp, and Black Knight are present as Cap attempts to explain to their government liaison Raymond Sikorsky that they are accepting the Sub-Mariner as a member of the team. As the Wasp and Cap convince Sikorsky that Namor is a worthy member of the team and gets an update on restoring their security clearance, the Black Knight cannot help but marvel at the Wasp in action and wonders if she would be interested in dating him. Elsewhere in the mansion, Hercules and Captain Marvel show the Sub-Mariner to his quarters. When Namor takes a detour into Hercules's room, the prince of Atlantis marvels at the layout and tries to talk the Greek god into giving up his room. Weary at breaking up yet another fight in the mansion, Captain Marvel decides to leave the men to sort it out on their own. Spending her time thinking about her position with the Avengers and the Sub-Mariners' recent admission into the group, Captain Marvel comes to terms with the fact that she just doesn't trust Namor. Before she can ponder this further, she notices the energy pulse from Jamaica Bay and decides to go and investigate. Arriving on the scene she meets with FBI Agent Derek Freeman who fills her in on the situation. He goes on to explain that while they recovered the Enclave members whatever they were carrying was lost in the water and that he had sent down a team of divers to recover it. When they are suddenly forced back up to the surface, Monica decides to investigate herself. Changing into her energy form she goes down deep into the water and finds some strange cocoon on the floor of the bay, however when she attempts to approach it a telepathic voice tells her to keep away and forces her to revert back to her human form. Needing air, Monica is forced to return to the surface and almost drowns in the process. Meanwhile, at the secret hideout of the Melter, the longtime Avengers foe is monitoring the Avengers as one of their Quinjets leaves the mansion. Intending to use his new melting device to destroy the Avengers headquarters he begins preparing with his minion Keegan. When he opens his locker and finds the real Keegan tied up inside, the Melter only has time enough to turn and take a shot through the stomach, killing him instantly making him yet another victim of the vigilante known as Scourge. Captain America, Black Knight, Wasp, Hercules, and Sub-Mariner arrive at the scene at Jamaica Bay and Captain Marvel provides them with a sketch of what she saw under the water. What she draws reminds Captain America of the cocoons that Adam Warlock and his mate Her would use to protect themselves, leaving them to realize that the Enclave may have created another artificial being. Seeing this as a threat, Namor brashly dives into the water only to find himself forced back like everyone else who has attempted to get close to the cocoon. Namor is reamed out by the Wasp for his lack of teamwork. While Captain Marvel is sent to question Professor Shinski, the other Avengers attempt to approach the cocoon as a team. While they attempt to fight the force inside the cocoon trying to keep them away, Monica learns that whatever is down at the bottom of Jamaica Bay is not something created by the Enclave. While back below the bay, the Avengers soon notice what they thought was a cocoon was really just silt and dirt from the water below. When Hercules attempts to push through again, the Wasp realizes that the thing inside the "cocoon" is afraid and tells him to stand down. She attempts to communicate with it and tells them that they are trying to help. With this realization, the being inside the cocoon relents and when all the silt washes away, they find that it is a metal cylinder of some kind. Taking the cylinder back to Avengers Mansion, they attempt to learn what it is, however, all they can figure is that it is some kind of stasis device and that there is something alive inside. Checking with NASA and various intelligence agencies turn up no further answers and the Avengers are ultimately called back to Jamaica Bay to assist with the clean-up operation and have to leave the mystery for later. After the Avengers leave, the cylinder briefly becomes transparent, revealing the body of Jean Grey inside. She sends out a telepathic call out to Scott Summers before lapsing into unconsciousness again. This story is continued in Fantastic Four #286.... Brodie's View:As promised, we begin our next (and last) multi-title crossover here, and we begin in it in the AVENGERS series in classic fashion, as the writer and art team are none other than the great Roger Stern and John Buscema respectively. I will say that Stern does a great job disguising what the mystery at the bottom of Jamaica Bay is, as we originally see the group of scientists known as the Enclave trying to take off out of New York on a plane, only for the plane to mysteriously crash in said Bay in an explosion of energy. We cut to Avengers Mansion, as we see then Avengers leader The Wasp and Captain America trying to argue to the Powers that Be about their recent decision to make long time Anti-Hero/Villain, Namor, a member of the team. To make things worse, even though the two Avengers are able to convince the U.S. Government to give the ruler of Atlantis a chance, the inner thoughts of the other Avengers reveal that none of the other members like/trust Namor either, which means that the Sub Mariner definitely has a steep hill to climb in order to earn his place as a REAL Avenger. He will eventually, but it is interesting to see the conflict between team members about this sudden unwanted addition. We also see a side scheme that goes horribly wrong, as The Melter attempts to try some GRAND attack against the team, only to find out that his henchman has been killed and replaced by Scourge (who we'll see one more time during this run), who then kills the Melter. Justice is Served! Of course, being that Scourge was a reoccurring villain/anti-hero for the Captain America book, and being that Cap is an Avenger, the fact that Scourge's exploits are being presented here is less strange than his killings (as awesome as they usually are) happening in other books. Regardless, it's pretty awesome to see Scourge pop up here, even if only briefly. With all that aside, and I will say Stern does a great job with the side plots and inner character conflicts here, the Avengers finally are Assembled to deal with the mysterious energy force coming from Jamaica Bay. For the longest time, they think that this is due to the work of the Enclave, as the strange cocoon Captain Marvel discovers (while searching underwater in her energy form) resembles the strange alien cocoons that produced Adam Warlock and Her. The rest of the team try to reach the cocoon, only to be repelled by the same energy that destroyed the Enclave's plane at the beginning of the story. Meanwhile, Captain Marvel peaks in on one of the Enclave scientists in the hospital, who reveals that the cocoon is not their doing, which brings the team back to square one, as far as figuring out what it is and who could be inside. Finally, with force not working, the Wasp tries to communicate with the being inside the cocoon telepathically, as the figure seems to be mind blasting them with defensive thoughts whenever they come near to the cocoon. This ends up working, and the cocoon blasts off the organic material that had been growing around it to reveal just a plain capsule. Now seemingly harmless, the team take it back to the Mansion for further study. However, once they leave the capsule alone, we, the audience briefly see that the being inside the capsule is....Jean Grey. ( ) Now, for those who are long time readers of these reviews know by now, while I was happy they brought Jean back, I thought bringing her back was one of the biggest mistakes Marvel ever made, as it would eventually lead to superhero deaths being made pretty much meaningless by both major comic companies. Once again, though, I said this over and over again during my UNCANNY X-MEN reviews during the same story time period, so, I won't beat a dead horse too badly here. In the next issue, this story will continue in the actual FASNTASTIC FOUR comic, which means, yes, John Byrne is going to draw some X-MEN related stuff (well, other than Wolverine and the Skrulls posing as the X-Men in FF #249/50) for the first time in quite some time. YAY!!!! GRADE: A-
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,455
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Nov 24, 2020 2:20:09 GMT -5
I wonder how this story would have went if Marvel had went with the original plan of Dazzler being the female member of X-Factor?
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 2, 2020 19:41:09 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #286"Like a Phoenix!"Cover Date: Jan, 1986 Writer: John Byrne & Chris Claremont Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: None Special Guests: (Actually Appears in Issue): Jean Grey, The Avengers (Captain America & Hercules) & Edwin Jarvis/(Appears in Recap Form Only): X-Men (Cyclops, Banshee, Colossus, Marvel Girl, Nightcrawler, Storm, Wolverine, The Angel, Iceman, & Professor X), The Avengers (The Beast, The Black Knight, Captain Marvel, Sub-Mariner, & The Wasp), The Phoenix Force, Dr. Corbeau, Stephen Lang, Sentinels Mk III, & X-Sentinels Official Plot:Story continued from last issue and Avengers #263 The Fantastic Four are returning from their mission in space, and the team spends some time relaxing on the trip home. When they request permission to land at JFK airport, they are denied due to a clean-up operation involving the Avengers and are requested to land at La Guardia instead. When they finally arrive home at their temporary headquarters, Avengers Mansion,[1] they find Captain America and Hercules waiting for them. Cap explains to Mr. Fantastic about the strange object they recovered from the bottom of Jamaica Bay earlier that day[2] and how it has a living creature inside. When Reed decides to check it out for himself, he places a hand on it but some force attacks him and throws him back. Reed's fall is cushioned by a forcefield projected by the Invisible Woman. On Reed's direction, Sue uses her powers to make the capsule turn invisible, revealing the unconscious body of Jean Grey inside. However, due to the brevity of their glimpse of the woman inside the capsule, nobody present can identify her. After discussing who the woman could be, the Human Torch and She-Hulk decide to go and reunite with their loved ones leaving Reed and Captain America to try and solve the mystery. Things being to get strange when suddenly objects begin levitating all over the Mansion, waking Sue from her sleep and startling a fatigued Reed Richards and Captain America after they have spent eight hours working on trying to open the capsule. To their surprise, the woman inside the capsule finally breaks free. Jean, still thinking that she is a prisoner of Stephen Lang and his X-Sentinels[3] believes that Reed, Sue, Cap and Hercules are more Sentinel constructs of heroes and attempts to attack them. When Sue restrains Jean with a forcefield, both Cap and Reed realize that who she is, and that as Marvel Girl she was a member of the X-Men who has been missing for many months. Telling Sue to lower her forcefield, Reed asks the confused Marvel Girl to explain what happened to her. Jean recalls how she and her fellow X-Men were captured by Sentinels built by Stephen Lang and his anti-mutant operation Project: Armageddon[4] and forced to fight X-Sentinels, robotic version of the original X-Men.[5] While she remembers that they beat Lang and his creations, she doesn't recall what happened afterward. When she suggests they contact the X-Men and find out, they tell her the grim news that the X-Men are considered outlaws and have associated themselves with Magneto.[6] This horrifies Jean and she asks to be taken to her parents instead. When Reed doesn't think that is a good idea, Jean begins to have a mental breakdown. Sue, being able to relate to Marvel Girl's grief[7] convinces Reed and the others to allow Jean at least that. While Reed, Sue, and Hercules take Jean there, Cap elects to stay behind and do some research in the Avengers' databanks to see if he can find out what happened to Jean. Arriving at the Grey home, Jean finds that her parents aren't there and, after Hercules unthinkingly smashes through the front door, they investigate and find a holomatrix globe of Jean.[8] As Jean reaches out for the globe, back at Avengers Mansion, Captain America watches a report filed by his old teammate (and Jean's fellow original X-Man) the Beast to learn what happened to Jean Grey. He explains that after the mission in space, Jean was reincarnated as the Phoenix[9] was corrupted into becoming the Dark Phoenix[10] and died on the moon.[11] This leaves Captain America and the Avengers' butler Jarvis to wonder who exactly is the woman the Avengers pulled out of Jamaica Bay. Back at the Grey home, Jean grabs the globe and suddenly her mind is flooded with memories of the rescue mission from Lang's space station. The others witness the memories unfold around them, but are unable to interact with the images. Jean recalls how she sent her fellow X-Men into the radiation shielding area of the shuttle after having cribbed all the space flight knowledge she could from Peter Corbeau so she could land the shuttle. As she flew the space shuttle through a radiation storm, the radiation slowly killing her, Jean was confronted by the Phoenix Force and how, in order to save her life and those of her friends she agreed to allow the Phoenix Force to take her shape and form and pose in her identity. As Jean begins to struggle with the influx of memories, Reed deduces that while the Phoenix took Jean's place it must have placed her in stasis until her body healed from its exposure to cosmic radiation. Captain America arrives on the scene and corroborates this theory by confirming everything Jean experienced with the Beast's story. They all come to the conclusion that it was ultimately Jean's humanity that helped put a stop to the Dark Phoenix. With the mystery of her miraculous resurrection explained, Jean wonders what she will do with her life next. The next day, after Jean relates the story to a astonished Jarvis, Reed and Sue begin to wonder how they can help Jean get her life back together. While they still think the current team of X-Men are out of bounds, Reed realizes that there is someone else he could call on Jean's behalf.... This story is continued in X-Factor #1.... Brodie's View:We return back to the book we're actually covering for this run for the middle part of a three part story depicting the formation of the group that would be known as X-Factor. Most of that build will be shown in the next review, but a good portion of the Pre-build was depicted in the AVENGERS issue I covered in the last review and this one, which reunites John Byrne, at least in a small part, with his partner in crime during the late 1970's/very early 1980's, Chris Claremont. Of course, being that this a team up between Byrne and Claremont, the purpose of this team up is trying to perform one of the biggest retcons Marvel had attempted up this point, the return of Jean Grey, who had supposedly died (as Dark Phoenix) in UNCANNY X-MEN #137. However, this story, while touching on Jean supposed self sacrifice on the moon, actually deals with the events that led up to all that, and more specifically focuses on the events of UNCANNY X-MEN #100/101, showing things that we both saw and had never seen up to that point. I'm getting ahead of myself, though, as the first part of this issue depicts the FF returning from space after their adventures that we saw in the most recent Annual (which had crossed over with the most recent AVENGERS Annual), and after arriving back at Avengers Mansion (where the team had been staying since their former headquarters was shot into space by the brainwashed Kristoff Vernard in FF #278), they become involved with the Avengers and the recent strange cocoon they had found at the bottom of Jamaica Bay. Much like what initially happened when the Avengers had approached said cocoon, Reed Richards is knocked back by some sort of force within the cocoon, and decides that he and the other Avengers present (Captain America and Hercules) will stand watch over the cocoon until it hatches. This doesn't take too long, as soon the cocoon does indeed crack open to reveal Jean Grey (looking much like she had in UNCANNY #100), who attacks the various people there with her telekenetic powers, as she thinks they're Avenger and Fantastic Four versions of the X-Sentinels she and the All New X-Men had fought in UNCANNY #100. Eventually, the heroes are able to convince Jean that they are the real deal, and after traveling to Jean's home, where she finds the holographic life force thing the Shi'ar had given the Grey family at what everyone had believed to be the funeral of Jean Grey back in UNCANNY #138. It's then that we finally see "the Truth" of what had happened to Jean Grey at the end of UNCANNY #100, as dying from the radiation she had been exposed to trying to pilot a damaged ship back into Earth's atmosphere, she was approached by the Phoenix Force. It's here that the retcon happens, as it's revealed that the Phoenix Force merely pretended to be Jean Grey, as it wanted to experience human life, while the real Jean Grey recovered in a cocoon in the bottom of Jamaica Bay (where the ship had crash landed). With this all settled, we end with the heroes trying to figure out what to do with Jean, as the X-Men had kind of gone rogue (in the other hero's eyes) by teaming up with their oldest enemy, Magneto. This leads Reed to make a phone call that will lead in to our next review, but I must say that I LOVED seeing Byrne and Claremont work together, even if just for a small bit, again, as they really did make one of the best writer/artist combos since Stan and Jack. The retcon stuff, while I wasn't a fan of it as a whole, was pulled off about as well as it could have been here, as both Byrne and Claremont bust their ass to try and make all of this plausible. However, as we'll see in the next review, while that did wonders for the "career" of Jean Grey, it didn't do so well with the perception of another character linked to Jean. Of course, all of that would take certain characters on paths that I doubt were originally intended for them, but that all plays out in the X-Books. We'll delve into a bit of that in the next review, and then we'll return to wrap up the last leg of John Byrne's truly FANTASTIC run on the FF series....and we'll do it with only a few minor crossovers. Yay! GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 2, 2020 19:42:51 GMT -5
I wonder how this story would have went if Marvel had went with the original plan of Dazzler being the female member of X-Factor? It would have been interesting and different, but unfortunately I think it would have ended up similarly to the NWO, had Sting or anyone else but Hogan been the "Third Man." As much as I hated how they got there, Jean really was the only logical choice to help complete X-Factor.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 4, 2020 2:30:04 GMT -5
X-Factor #1"Third Genesis"Cover Date: Feb, 1986 Writer: Bob Layton Artist: Jackson Guice Feature Characters: X-Factor (Cyclops. Marvel Girl, The Angel, The Beast, & Iceman---All Join and Create Team) & Rusty Collins (1st Appearance---Joins Team as Trainee) Villain/s: None Special Guests: (Actually Appears in Issue): Reed Richards, Madelyne Pryor, Nathan Summers, Candy Southern, Cameron Hodge, Emma la Porte (1st Appearances of the Last Two), Unnamed maintenance workers, Chief Jack Fisher & other naval soldiers, Irv, Eliot & employees at Harras, Anderson & Brown, Dean Hauser & Harvard University students, Several rent-a-cop guards & Unnamed New Yorkers /(Appears in Recap Form Only): X-Men (Cyclops, Banshee, Colossus, Phoenix, Nightcrawler, Storm, & Wolverine) & The Avengers (The Black Knight, Captain America, Sub-Mariner, Hercules & The Wasp) Official Plot:Anchorage, Alaska: Scott Summers is outside chopping wood with his optic blasts when he's asked to come inside by his wife Madeyline Pryor so that he can watch their son Nathan while she runs some errands. However, upon entering their family home, Scott is distracted by a television report about the possible Mutant Menace and the government considering the idea of making all mutants register. When Maddie notices this she becomes angry and berates her husband for worrying over mutants and reminds him that he is no longer an X-Man[1] and that he should be focusing more on his family than on the fates of mutant kind. That night when she notices Scott standing outside on the balcony brooding again, Madelyine goes out and apologizes for snapping at him earlier. She expresses her frustrations at the problems their marriage has been having, especially in light of the fact that Scott wasn't there when she gave birth to Nathan.[2] When she asks Scott if their troubles have anything to do with Jean Grey, when he says yes she says no more and grimly returns to bed. The next day in the New Mexico rockies, Angel, Iceman and Beast are preparing to move on with their lives after the disbanding of the Defenders.[3] With Hank accepting a position at Empire State University and Bobby accepting a job at a new accounting firm it looks like Warren and Candy are going to be left alone, despite Warren's attempts to get his friends to stay and try a new super-hero team, and possibly going back to their roots as X-Men and try to improve human/mutant relations. After saving some construction workers fixing Warren's home, Beast and Iceman pay their leave. No sooner have they left then there is a call on the phone for Warren, on the other end of the line is something that Warren finds almost impossible to believe. With no time to explain things to Candy, Warren flies off on a direct line to New York City. While in San Diego, a Navy ship pulls ashore and Chief Fisher decides to take one of his young crew members, Rusty Collins out on the town and teach the underage young man what it's like to be a man. While out drinking, Fisher introduces Rusty to a "friend" of his, Emma La Porte, a prostitute who takes Rusty out into the alley for a "good time", when she tries to make out with him, his mutant pyrotechnics powers suddenly kick in and accidentally flare out of control, horribly burning La Porte. Horrified by what he has done, Rusty flees off into the night. When Angel arrives in New York, he meets with Mr. Fantastic of the Fantastic Four. In his urgency he reveals his wings and almost gets whacked with a can tossed by a mutant hater but is pulled out of the situation by Mr. Fantastic. Taken back to Avengers Mansion, [4] and taking Angel to the lab below, he warns Warren to take it slow when meeting Jean again after so many years. Back in San Diego, the military has managed to capture Rusty Collins and contain him. As he is being led into a prisoner truck, Fisher tries to rush the boy. As the guilt ridden Collins is being led into the truck, Fisher tells the boy that Emma was horribly burned and could possibly die and vows to get revenge against him for his actions, cursing him for being a mutant freak. While back in New York City, in his hotel room at the Waldorf, Warren mulls over the fact that Jean wants to reunite with all her old X-Men allies and considers getting into contact with Scott and telling her about Jean's miraculous return. Finally, he decides that he has no other choice and calls Scott. When Scott answers the phone the news of Jeans survival totally shatters his world and he decides that he has to go to New York. When he tells Madelyne and that it's important that he goes, she tells him that if he leaves to never come back. Scott tells her he has no choice and leaves his crying wife behind. Days later when Scott arrives in New York, he finds that Warren has hired security at his hotel room to insure that thy have the utmost privacy. When he meets Jean for the first time, Jean is happy to see him and shows a great deal of affection. When Scott attempts to tell her that he is married, he breaks down into tears and tries to get it out when Warren walks in on them, quieting any explanations that Scott could possible give her. Warren and Jean then explain the facts of Jean's resurrection: How when the X-Men were fleeing Stephen Lang's space station, Jean had been replaced by the powerful Phoenix Force which took her form and masqueraded as her,[5] and that it was the Phoenix Force who became Dark Phoenix and in the end sacrificed herself out of love for Scott.[6] Jean goes on to explain how she was placed in stasis on the floor of Jamaica Bay until her body was discovered by the Avengers[7] and revived by Reed Richards of the Fantastic Four.[8] With her explanation done, Scott is shaken more than ever before. Jean then begins talking about how she has been doing research on the years she's missed and that Xavier's dream of human/mutant coexistence is at a crisis point and with the X-Men working with Magneto[9] she thinks their focus on the state of things is more important then ever. When Scott tells her that he's retired from the X-Men and doesn't provide an explanation his and Warren's apparent apathy over the situation angers her and she uses her telekinesis to smash open a wall and leave. When Warren tells Scott to accompany him in following her, Scott can't bring himself to do it. When Warren catches up with Jean, he admits that she is right however he tells her that he has gotten an idea. Elsewhere, the Beast is at Empire State University for his interview, only to learn that he has been turned down due to the fact hat he is a mutant. Furious at this racism, Beast strips off his shirt and leaves the building in his own unique way. On his way out he is greeted by Angel who offers him a proposition for a new project. Meanwhile, Bobby Drake slaves over his accounting work when a call comes in from Warren. Changing into Iceman he rushes out of the office eager to return to his adventuring days. A week later when Bobby and Hank arrive at a new complex that Warren has bought by the New York waterfront they are reunited with Jean. After an explanation of what happened to her, they are told that Scott has gone missing for the past few days and Warren sends Hank and Bobby out to find him. They find Scott out by the docks and learn that he has spent the past few days wandering around and finding all their old haunts as teenagers are no longer there. When Scott tries to explain to them the difficulties he's having dealing with Jean's resurrection and how it might impact his marriage to Madelyne, Beast tells Scott that when he tells Jean she is sure to understand. The two men manage to convince Scott to come back with them and hear out Warren's new idea, telling him that it will be great to have the old gang back together again. When all together, they meet with Warren's old school friend, advertising and public relations expert Cameron Hodge to explain their new business model: The group would pose as human mutant hunters called X-Factor who would take on clients to hunt down and capture dangerous mutants. However this would work as a secret front for them to train mutants to control their powers. The group would also operate in their mutant identities as a group of mutants known as the X-Terminators whenever their powers are required up front. While the team is a little put off by the fear mongering ad campaign they decide to give the operation a shot. In San Diego, Rusty Collins has been locked up in a naval prison and to his horror Chief Fisher has been assigned guard duty over the cell block that Rusty is locked up in. When Fisher attempts to shoot Collins in his cell, his powers flare up again, burning the chief's hand and allows Rusty to break out of his cell and escape. Later, when Fisher enters a bar after the ordeal and tells the bartender what happened, the barkeep suggests that he calls X-Factor after seeing their advertisement on TV. In New York, X-Factor gets the call to go to San Diego, and when Jean goes to get Scott, he is less than sure about the idea but she convinces him to go along with it for her. When they arrive in San Diego, they meet up with Fisher at the bar and they have him lead them to the site where the military has already tracked down Rusty. Slipping away, the original X-Men switch into their X-Terminator guises and use their powers to drive the military off and follow Rusty into a cave. There the boy lashes out at them, thinking that they are going to experiment on him. His surging powers cause a cave-in, but the X-Terminators save him and themselves and Cyclops blasts a hole through the roof of the cave. Upon becoming free, Rusty agrees to go with them and when they change back into their X-Factor guises, they give Fisher his bill for $42,000. Fisher balks at the price until they threaten to "release" Rusty once again, and the Naval Chief accepts the bill, which gives X-Factor a good laugh after they leave. With Rusty agreeing to accompany them back to New York for training to control his powers, Angel finds their first mission a success and tells Jean that X-Factor is going to continue to operate. Meanwhile, in far off Alaska, Madelyne Pryor sits at home during the early hours of the morning crying as she looks on at a photo of her husband who had just walked out on her. In the background, the television mutely plays an X-Factor advertisement. Brodie's View:Yo, you're kickin' it with tha X-Factor! (Cue Meh Uncle Kracker song) Actually, I'm going to let you in on a little secret here. As much of a fan of the X-Men as I am, and I'm a pretty big one, I've never been that entertained by the original team. Don't get me wrong. I like them as single characters, and as part of the X-Men in later eras, when the team was basically a giant team split in two halves....while that lasted, but as a team with just the five of them....Meh. That sadly was pretty much true of their time as a team in this book as well. I have the first Marvel Essentials of X-FACTOR, and while I was temped to review it at one point, and still might, I'm not looking forward to it as much as I was the run I'm currently doing (although, even with liking it, I'm glad to be almost over; it's time to write about some other heroes), as I have a feeling I'm going to be handing out more B's and C's than A's, because the original X-Factor series is, other than certain spots, kind of dull. That all being said, I'll try to be as fair to this issue as I can. Poor Bob Layton had a heck of a lot of fallout to try and pick up from. No wonder he left the book only a few issues in. He does an okay job, as does Jackson Guice with the art, but as I said, a lot of fallout to have to piece together. We have the fallout from FF #286, as Reed gets ahold of The Angel (AKA Warren Worthington) to try and deal with the whole Jean Grey returning situation. Of course, we also see Cyclops, who is now constantly fighting with Madelyne Pryor, who had just recently given birth to their son, Nathan, who would go on, of course, to be Cable. Bob tries his best to make Madelyne kind of unlikable here, as I think he was trying to take some of the heat off of Scott Summers for dipping out on his wife and child (he would eventually get the child back, before he was taken into the future by Apocalypse, but that's WAYYYY down the line) to go chase after his first love (and the woman Madelyne looks just like), Jean Grey. Of course, there's a reason for that, and once again, that will be revealed much later as well, but this issue is kind of the beginning of that "heel turn," as Hell Hath No Fury Like a Woman Scorned and all that. Of course, none of this would really make Cyclops any less of an unlikable dick in the fan's eyes for sending Madelyne down that path to begin with, but, once again, that's all a story for another day, as this isn't the run I'm reviewing. Once Warren has reunited Scott and Jean, he is eventually persuaded to bring back Bobby (Iceman) and Hank (The Beast) as well. This is easier than expected due to these character's lack of jobs/shitty jobs in the wake of their time as part of a team being over. Iceman, the Beast, and Angel had been part in the very recently deceased final incarnation of The Defenders (as was Warren's main squeeze, Candy Southern, hence, her role in the events of this issue). We see kind of the fallout of that as well, as Bobby, Hank, Warren, and Candy discuss that team's demise. Eventually, they all get together and decide, with the help of Warren's "friend," Cameron Hodge (I use the quotes because he will prove to be anything but a friend, to both Warren and X-factor), form X-Factor, who pose as mutant hunters. This leads to them acquiring their first mutant, who they pretend to "terminate," but really swoop them away in their real uniforms as the X-Terminators. In other words, they get to profit off of mutant hatred while secretly save the mutants worth saving. They do this with Rusty Collins, a young mutant with the powers to create flame; a power that is out of control. They will eventually do this with other mutants, but, yeah, that was an introduction of the status quo of this new team. Shortly after this, Hank will lose his blue fir and go back to his original Beast incarnation for a time, which made the team even more boring....at least until Angel became Archangel. That picked things up a little bit, but still....Meh for the most part. Anyways, let's get back to the FANTASTIC FOUR series to finish this run up. In the next issue, we check in on the actual Doctor Doom, who has somehow returned to the Latverian Embassy, or has he? The final leg of the Byrne FF run begins. GRADE: B
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,455
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 4, 2020 13:31:57 GMT -5
It was Iceman,Angel and Beast on the revamped NEW Defenders team. A great series that got cancelled cause of X Factor. Sadly the last 2 years of New Defenders was better than X Factor.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 5, 2020 2:50:24 GMT -5
It was Iceman,Angel and Beast on the revamped NEW Defenders team. A great series that got cancelled cause of X Factor. Sadly the last 2 years of New Defenders was better than X Factor. Fair enough. I forgot that Iceman had been part of that group as well, but I was indeed wrong. I changed it in the review. Next one should be up shortly.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 5, 2020 3:42:02 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #287"Prisoner of the Flesh"Cover Date: Feb, 1986 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Invincible Man/Doctor Doom (Posessing the body of Norman McArthur), a Doombot, and Servo-Guards Special Guests: The Wasp, "Alicia Masters"/Lyja the Skrull, Peggy McArthur (1st Appearance of), & Tyros the Tamer (Recap Only) Official Plot:The Wasp checks in on Mister Fantastic who is working away in the Avengers lab, making repairs after their encounter with Marvel Girl earlier. He remarks the entire encounter has got him thinking of his old foe Doctor Doom, who is supposed to be dead. He recalls that after Doom's death, he somehow was present during the Secret Wars that they were all involved in with the Beyonder. Knowing how Doom has countless contingency plans to cheat death, Reed has cobbled together a device that will try to locate him by his brainwaves. He hopes to confirm that Doom actually died during the Fantastic Four's last "official" encounter with him when they battled Tyros. Sue interrupts their conversation to inform them that its time for her and the Wasp to go see Janet's hairdresser, they are also joined by the She-Hulk. While Reed has no interest in hairstyles, he tells the women he will walk them to the mansion foyer on his way to work on the new Fantasticar. As they leave, none are aware that Reed's device has picked up on a mental pattern closely matching that of Doctor Doom. Later, as Sue is getting her hair done by Janet's hairdresser, they are suddenly interrupted by the sound of an explosion from outside. Going to the window they witness someone dressed up as the Invincible Man attacking the Latverian embassy. Sue finds this impossible since the Invincible Man was originally the Super-Skrull. The Wasp rushes out to stop him and is soon joined by Sue and She-Hulk, who quickly subdue him. The man in the Invincible Man costume tells them to stop, explaining that he is an enemy of Doctor Doom and appeals to them for help. When Sue tells the mystery man that Doom is dead, he points up to a nearby window in the embassy where they see what appears to be Doctor Doom standing within. When Sue mentions the possible diplomatic problems of attacking the embassy, the man tells them that Doom kidnapped his wife and child in order to get access to the technology in his invincible suit. Believing in the man's plight, the three women agree to try and help and storm the embassy. Meanwhile, in Queens, an elderly woman named Sara gets a visit from her neighbor Peggy McArthur and her baby. Peggy is frantic as she has been forcibly confined to her home for months. She explains it all started when her husband Norman, went out for groceries. He was caught in the middle of the Fantastic Four's battle with Tyros and Doctor Doom. Afterwards, when her husband returned home he was acting strange and speaking with an accent. He then locked his wife in the house and began working on a suit of armor. When he recently left the house wearing it, Peggy later broke out and came looking for help. As she finishes her story, Peggy catches a news story on the television and is shocked to see her husband attacking the Latverian embassy. At that very moment She-Hulk and the others are smashing through the front door to the embassy and are greeted by a group of Doom's Servo-Guards. As the four combatants fight it out, they notice that the Impossible Man is slipping away, and Sue decides to follow him invisibly. Losing him in one of the hallways, Sue decides to start checking the rooms. Opening one of the doors reveals what appears to be Doctor Doom, who detects her presence. While outside, Peggy and Sarah have come to the embassy determined to find out what is wrong with Norman. Despite Sarah's warnings, Peggy goes inside. Back indoors, Sue battles it out with what she quickly deduces is really a Doombot and destroys the robotic construct. However, the danger is not over as she is blasted from behind by the Invincible Man, who claims that he is really Doctor Doom. When Sue uses her powers to make his mask invisible to confirm this, she sees the fact of Norman McArthur -- someone who she doesn't recognize. As Sue and the Invincible Man battle it out, Peggy and Sarah enter the room. Conflicted about what to do, Peggy decides to help the man who she thinks is her husband and smashes a vase over Sue's head when she has the Invincible Man on the ropes. When Peggy rushes to her "husband" he chastises her and tells her that he is really Doctor Doom. Removing the Invincible Man mask underneath, the man in the suit is also wearing a Doctor Doom mask. Doom explains that during the battle between the Silver Surfer and Tyros, Doom used a technique he learned from the Ovoids to swap minds with Norman McArthur who was spectating the battle from afar. While Doom escaped into Norman's body, Norman was left to be atomized in Doom's body. Although Peggy does not believe this, Doom continues, explaining after he completed the swap he tried to gain access to the embassy but due to his different body and voice the defenses would not allow him to enter, as such he devised this plan to gain access to his American base. Doom then finishes by telling Peggy that he intends to escape his current state and destroy his enemies. On that note, he looks through Sue's belt and recovers the Fantasti-Flare.... Meanwhile, in Central Park, Johnny and Alicia are out on a romantic horse buggy ride, where they talk about their feelings for one another. While she reiterates her past with the Thing, Alicia explains that she loves Johnny more than anyone. Johnny once again tries to muster up the courage to ask Alicia to marry him when suddenly he sees the Fantasti-Flare fire in the sky. Suddenly the groups new signal beeper goes off notifying Johnny that his sister is in trouble. Johnny quickly flames on and flies away. Alicia then ask the buggy driver to take her to the nearest taxi stand, telling him that there is nothing she can do now but pray. Brodie's View:We begin the last leg (and on the last JOHN BYRNE VISIONARIES trade covering this run, which I got 99.9 of the reviews from...the SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK Graphic Novel was the one exception) of John Byrne's Legendary run on Marvel's First Family with the wrap up of a subplot left dangling since FF #260 (while also trying to fix a MAJOR plot hole, but we'll get to that in the next review), where we apparently saw the REAL Doctor Doom meet his death at the hands of Tyros the Tamer (and, to be fair, the Silver Surfer, who was flying the board towards Doom). However, there was an incident that we, as the readers, saw during that issue that our heroes didn't. Right before Doom met his death, he locked eyes with some common guy walking home with groceries, and we get the strong indication (through a priceless interaction with Aunt May) that Doom had somehow possessed the man. In this issue, we get the other side of the story (although, not until about halfway through the issue), as we see that this Doom possessed man, Norman McArthur, went home and kind of terrorized his wife, locking her away and keeping her prisoner while he created devices to try to help him get back into the Latverian Embassy. You see, the Embassy, which has been set to respond to only Doom's voice, can't activate it with his Norman McArthur voice. He ends up dressing up as a former FF villain known as The Invincible Man (which in itself was only a disguise for another villain the last time "the Invincible Man" showed up) and trying to attack the embassy, which just happens to be sitting across from the hair salon where Sue Richards (accompanied by Jen and The Wasp) is getting a new hairdo. Unfortunately, this makes her look even more Karen-ish than the last time she got a more 80's type of hairdo. Anyways, after getting a sob story that this new Invincible Man is merely a poor Latervian citizen whose daughter is being held captive by Doom (and even points out the image of a Doombot standing in the window of the embassy, using it as evidence that Doom had indeed returned), Sue, Jen, and Janet join the secret Doom in invading the embassy. Once inside, and once rid of the security measures Doom would have employed, should someone bust into his embassy (information this "Invincible Man" somehow has insight into), Doom shows his true colors by attacking Sue once she's separated from the other two heroes. Sue, through familiarity with the dialogue between she and this new villain, but when she tries to see through his mask, she only sees the face of Norman), which distracts Sue enough to be clobbered from behind by Norman's wife, who tries to stick up for her husband no matter what. However, it was all for nothing, as Norman reveals himself to be DOOM(!!!), who wants back in his own body and then rid of the Fantastic Four. We see a little bit of dialogue between Johnny Storm and Alicia Masters at the end of the issue where they talk about their relationship in comparison with her relationship with Ben. Of course, it's all horse shit, as "Alicia" is secretly Lyja the Skrull, sent to spy on the FF through Storm (but really falling in love with him....Awwwww), but it gets a few pages, so, I felt it fair to mention it. Anyways, it starts to build towards Johnny proposing to her, which he will eventually do, but he is interrupted by the FF flare. He flies off, unaware that he and Reed are being lured into a trap by one of their oldest (and greatest) enemies....DOOOOOOOM!!!! I would say the only thing I didn't like about the issue is the inking, which I was prepared to really go into a thing about, but then I saw it was a guest spot by an old school inker, Joe Sinnott, and it explained why Byrne's art kind of had a flat, undetailed look to it at times. I know it probably got to be a work overload for him at the end, as he was doing the FF and the INCREDIBLE HULK as well as other things at the end of his first run at Marvel, he passed off his inking to other inkers, hence, the changes in the look of the book over time, but I thought the best inker for John Byrne was.....John Byrne...well, and Terry Austin, of course. Anyways, in the next issue, we'll get the second half of this storyline, which also falls in line with the FF's last SECRET WARS II Crossover, which will actually be put to use to try and fix one of the many major plot holes in the original SECRET WARS, at least as it relates to Doctor Doom. GRADE: A-
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Ultimo Gallos
Grimlock
Dreams SUCK!Nightmares live FOREVER!
Posts: 14,455
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Post by Ultimo Gallos on Dec 5, 2020 10:59:24 GMT -5
It was Iceman,Angel and Beast on the revamped NEW Defenders team. A great series that got cancelled cause of X Factor. Sadly the last 2 years of New Defenders was better than X Factor. Fair enough. I forgot that Iceman had been part of that group as well, but I was indeed wrong. I changed it in the review. Next one should be up shortly. Cool. Defenders was the first series I collected every issue of. Hated when it got cancelled. Assumed it was cause of low sales. Then learned later on nope the title sold well,but they still cancelled it for X Factor.
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 6, 2020 2:17:19 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #288"Full Circle"Cover Date: March, 1986 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Doctor Doom (Posessing the body of Norman McArthur), Servo-Guards, Future Doctor Doom, & The Beyonder Special Guests: The Wasp, Peggy McArthur, Sarah/(In Recap Form Only) The Silver Surfer, Tyros the Tamer, The Hulk, Thor, Iron Man II, Captain America, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel II, Wolverine, Doctor Octopus, Klaw, & Cyclops Official Plot:Secret Wars II continues from Uncanny X-Men #203, this story continued from last issue... Tracking his sister Sue's distress signal to the Latverian embassy, the Human Torch easily fights his way past the robots that guard the building. Smashing his way through the front doors, Johnny makes short work of the other guards and almost blasts an old lady named Sarah. Sarah explains that she came to the embassy with her daughter Peggy MacArthur. As it turns out, Peggy's husband Norman had been acting strange of late and began talking in a strange accent. Making Peggy a prisoner in her own home, Norman fashioned a costume based on that of the old Fantastic Four villain the Invincible Man and went into the city to attack the Fantastic Four. When Sarah and Peggy saw news footage of Norman's battle they came to the Latverian embassy where they saw Norman fighting the Invisible Woman. Not wishing to see her husband hurt, Peggy then struck Sue over the head knocking her out. Unmasking the Invincible Man mask Peggy was shocked to see the mask of Doctor Doom underneath instead of that of her husband. Sarah fled and Peggy was captured, Sarah was on her way out when she ran into the Torch. Telling the elderly woman to find safety, Johnny rushes off to find his sister and finds Reed, She-Hulk and the Wasp instead and helps them fight more Doombots. Their reunion is brief when they are suddenly confronted by Doom who fells the four heroes with a sonic blaster device. When the Fantastic Four revive they find themselves bound in specially made cages that counteract their powers. Before the FF, Wasp and Peggy MacArthur, Doom explains that he intends them to witness his greatest triumph before killing them all. Unmasking, Peggy is shocked to see the face of her husband Norman underneath. However, Doom explains that when his body was slain during the clash between the Silver Surfer and Terrax[1] his mind survived when he used a mind swapping trick he learned from the Ovids[2] to transfer his mind into the body of Norman MacArthur. He then bided his time to get his ultimate revenge. He shows them a mystical portal that he has created in which he intends to use the powers of sorcery to do what science could not: restore his original body. Using the his arcane might he calls upon the ultimate power, and much to the surprise to those gathered, succeeds in summoning the Beyonder. However, despite Doom's attempts to subjugate the Beyonder, the One From Beyond -- no longer having patience for humans -- easily defeats him. When Richards protests killing Doom, the Beyonder frees him and asks why. When it's pointed out that the Beyonder does not recognize Doom (As he sees people auras, and since Doom is in a different body, his aura is different), Richards theorizes that Doom acted as though he never met the Beyonder before and that he acted as though he was clashing with the She-Hulk for the first time as well. He theorizes that when the Beyonder originally pulled Dr. Doom to Battleworld for the Secret Wars[3] it was during a period when Doom's body was destroyed. He realizes that the Beyonder must have plucked Dr. Doom from some point in the future after his body was restored. When the Beyonder confirms this, Richards warns him against killing Doom as it would alter history so that Doom was never sent back in time to participate in the Secret War and the possible consequences could destroy all time. When the Beyonder cannot be certain that if he could survive the destruction of all time, he decides to set things right: Using his vast powers, he recreates Doom's original body and reverses Doom's mind swap with MacArthur. With Doom in his proper body, the Beyonder sends him back in time to participate in the Secret War. With the time cycle complete, the Beyonder teleports away. With the threat over, Mr. Fantastic rushes everyone outside of the embassy before Doom is returned to this spot following his defeat at the hands of the Beyonder in the past[4]. Secret Wars II concludes in Secret Wars II #9.... Brodie's View:All right! It's the last SECRET WARS II Crossover issue (although, the Beyonder is briefly referenced next issue, but just in a "Whew, glad THAT'S over." kind of a way), and I love how Byrne just basically uses the Beyonder as a means to an end. That end being mainly to fix the giant plot hole Jim Shooter left in the original SECRET WARS when he had Doom show up fine and dandy after being recently destroyed in FF #260. Reed even kind of mentions this strangeness last issue, but we get that all played out and "fixed" by the Beyonder before this issue is all through. I will say before all that, though, we do get a nice bit of action, as the Torch and Mr. Fantastic invade Castle Doom and join She Hulk and The Wasp in fighting Servo Guards. However, they are soon taken out by the recently (even if he is in another person's body) re-empowered Doctor Doom, who then has the entire team (with The Wasp as a bonus) at his complete mercy, in cells specifically designed to counteract their various powers. Doom explains how he was able to transfer his mind into the body of Norman McArthur in a recap (we get a LOT of recaps in this issue, which I guess was important, but still...it was like damn, someone is stretching this story out as much as one can to just get this Crossover issue shit over with, aren't they? ), and then explains how he is going to use his mystic ability to summon the Ultimate power to get his original body back. Of course, the Ultimate(!!!) power ends up being The Beyonder, who the Norman Doom attacks without even bothering to try to talk to, as he has no idea who the Beyonder even is, and I guess refuses to believe that the Ultimate(!!!!!) power could be a dude that looks like a buff white Michael Jackson circa 1986. That ends up being a bad idea, as the Beyonder uses his power to pimp slap Doom, and is about to do worse when Reed talks him out of it. The Beyonder then yanks Reed's ass from out of the inescapable bubble he had him held captive in to explain more, and this is where we get another huge chunks of recaps to try to explain how Doom could have been in the Secret Wars after being destroyed (while also talking the Beyonder out of destroying Doom, once he realizes that, in essence, this was the dude that jacked his power for a little while near the end of the first SW) while still existing in the Norman McArthur body, just biding his time. Eventually, this all works out to the Beyonder recreating Doom's body as it was at the beginning of SECRET WARS, and then transferring his mind from the Norman body into that body....and then transporting that body to the beginning of the first SECRET WARS, so, he can participate in that event...lol. This leaves Norman McArthur back to normal, and with this task done, the Beyonder splits to meet his "demise" in SECRET WARS II #9. With the heroes all free, Reed explains that by doing what he did, the Beyonder created a Time Loop that would eventually return Doom back to the present time, now with the memories of what had happened in SECRET WARS, and that they'd better split before he does. They leave just as we see Doom starting to re-materialize. In reality, I think there was more to this issue than fixing Jim Shooter's giant plot hole; I think Byrne knew he would be leaving soon by this point, and wanted to try and return certain things to a status quo before he left. I thought, over all, he did a good job, but I could have done without ALL the recaps. Plus, wasn't a fan of the Guest Inker, Joe Sinnott I get that it was cool that he was there, but he did Byrne's art no favors. Anyways, we're back to normal in the next issue, as well as entering the last complete storyline that Byrne would work on for this series. It's going to be a crazy next few issues, though, with some long time villains returning, and a certain villain showing up that no one could possibly expect. GRADE: A-
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 8, 2020 0:53:32 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #289"Rip Wide the Sky!"Cover Date: April, 1986 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Blastaar, Annihilus, Scourge, & The Basilisk (Dies) Special Guests: S.H.I.E.L.D. (Nick Fury) & Danny (1st Appearance of) Official Plot:At the construction site of the Fantastic Four's new headquarters, one of the construction workers falls from the scaffolds and is rescued by Mister Fantastic, while the Invisible Woman and Torch secure the structure and prevent falling girders from harming anyone. The Fantastic Four are more than happy than to deal with more mundane dangers after their final battle with the Beyonder. Reed then takes the team on a tour of their partially completed headquarters. Each of the team recalls how their headquarters blew up after everyone had pretty much moved out of the building anyway. They are taken down to the sub-basement some fifteen stories down. The construction foreman tries to tell them about a wall that keeps crumbling but before he can the Fantastic Four depart after a S.H.I.E.L.D. alarm begins to go off. After the heroes are gone, the villain known as Basilisk bursts through the wall after being trapped for months. He uses his powers to incapacitate the foreman and starts heading above ground so he can plot revenge against the Thing and Spider-Man. When he gets to one of the upper floors, he notes that he is on the same street block as the Fantastic Four's old Baxter Building. However as he tries to make sense of this new structure, the Scourge of the Underworld -- disguised as a construction worker -- sneaks up on Basilisk and shoots him through the chest with a powerful gun, that sends the villain smashing out the window and down into the streets. With his newest target dead, Scourge chants his mantra, "Justice is Served!" Meanwhile, the Fantastic Four are teleported to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters where they meet with Nick Fury who needs them for an important mission. When She-Hulk points out their aircraft carrier was recently destroyed, Fury tells them that they are actually aboard S.H.I.E.L.D.'s space station. He then shows them the reason why he summoned the Fantastic Four: A strange swirling mass of energy that is hovering over the Earth. Reed realizes that this must have been caused when their original headquarters was launched into space and destroyed. In its destruction the Negative Zone portal must have been activated and now there is a tear in reality between the two realms. Soon the Fantastic Four are off in a ship towards the breach. When in its proximity, Reed puts on a special space suit that will protecting him from the destructive forces of the barrier between the positive and negative matter universes so he can scan them and determine how to close the portal before it can rip open any more potentially threatening the destruction of both universes. Reed is unaware that his process is being observed by Blastaar, who has set in motion events to lure his foes into a trap in order to destroy them. Blastaar is mocked by Annihilus, who is somehow still alive after his last encounter with the Fantastic Four. When Annihilus tries to reach out of his cell to grab the Cosmic Control Rod on Blastaar's chest, a defense mechanism shocks his arms, and Blastaar goes back to work. Inside the tear, Reed is protected by a force field and he begins to explore, however he is suddenly caught in a tractor beam that pulls him into the Negative Zone side. His force field protects him for now, but Reed fears that if his suit is breached he will be destroyed if any of his positive matter strikes anything in the Negative Zone. While everyone believes Reed is lost, Sue refuses to believe it and fires the shuttle into the breach. Because they are not wearing protective suits, they pass through the distortion field and are converted into anti-matter so that they are safe when the cross over into the Negative Zone. Aboard a nearby ship, Blastaar has Reed prisoner and threatens to breach his space-suit causing him to explode. But before he can, She-Hulk rips through the hull of the ship and tries to attack. Blastaar blasts her out, but the rest of the Fantastic Four force their way in. Inside the ship, Sue tries to free her husband, but he warns her of the deadly danger touching him will cause and tells her to focus on Blastaar's Cosmic Control Rod. Turning invisible, Sue manages to snatch it off Blastaar's chest. Sue then uses it to deflect Blastaar's attacks and orders him to surrender. Blastaar then tries to trick Sue into believing that the cell holding Annihilus is an atomic disintegration. Sue doesn't fall for it, but Johnny does and grabs it from his sister and tosses it in. Suddenly the wall the cell blasts open and out emerges a revitalized Annihilus. Meanwhile, outside the breach, Nick Fury is informed by his scientists that the catastrophic breach in reality is about to expand. Brodie's View:The last full story arc seen through by John Byrne before he bolts officially to DC starts here, and it starts relatively slow. So slow that the team themselves, while taking a tour through what has been constructed so far of the building that will eventually be come to be known as Four Freedoms Plaza, remark on how slow it's been since the second SECRET WARS ended. However, the slowness doesn't last, as the FF are called away by Nick Fury and SHIELD, and the poor schlub that was giving them the tour is killed by a villain that we haven't seen in a good ten years (up to that point), the Basilisk, who vows revenge on Spider-Man and The Thing for trapping him within the Earth to begin with. However, Basil will never get that revenge, as he is soon taken out by Scourge, who was posing as a construction worker. Awesome(!), and I will say that this is the official Last crossover with any other comic. It's 100% FF from here on out, and it's a good thing, as once they meet up with Fury, he takes them aboard the SHIELD space station (as their heli-carrier was destroyed during the SENSATIONAL SHE-HULK Graphic Novel) where he shows them a giant hole in the sky over Earth. Reed quickly puts together that this hole is a hole leading to the Negative Zone, as the portal, which existed in the FF's former headquarters, the Baxter Building, must have been opened when Kristoff Vernard (who was brainwashed into thinking he was Doctor Doom) shot the building into space and blew it up in FF #278. Anyways, Reed quickly dons a suit, and goes out into space to try and seal the hole before it can expand further; a task he must do quickly, as there are small explosions happening around the rift that could cause it to expand even further. However, once near the rift, Reed is caught by a tractor beam and pulled into the Negative Zone, which actually ends up making him a walking bomb, as he doesn't undergo the preparation to prepare a body made up of matter for entering a zone of pure Anti-Matter. Bad goes to worse, as once Reed is in the Negative Zone, he realizes who exactly it was that has been causing the explosions....Blastaar: THE LIVING BOMB BURST(!!!), who's overjoyed that his little trap snared one of his biggest enemies (of course, not so overjoyed when he finds out that he can do nothing but keep Reed captive due to the whole Matter/Anti-Matter thing). Even more dangerous, though, is a figure we don't really see, as this figure is also Blastaar's prisoner, and wants the Cosmic Control Rod that makes Blastaar even more dangerous than he is normally. Meanwhile, on the other side of the rift, Sue and Nick Fury argue whether or not to try and go in the Negative Zone after Reed, with Sue finally bucking up and hitting the SHIELD craft's accelerator, making the decision for both of them. Once in the Negative Zone, they find Blastaar's ship and invade, fighting Blastaar to somewhat of a stalemate until Sue, while invisible, snatches the Cosmic Control Rod from the Living Bomb Burst. However, Blastaar has a little trick up his sleeve, and fools the Human Torch into throwing the Rod into the cell of his prisoner. Johnny, stupidly, does, and ends up freeing the one Negative Zone entity that may very well be the only one there more powerful and dangerous than Blastaar, ANNIHILUS(!!!), and everyone realizes that the shit is about to hit the fan. Man! Byrne, I think after having to do Crossovers and plot fixes for these last few issues, goes HARD with this last multi-part story right away. I mean, when the part of the issue where Scourge blows someone away is considered the slow half of the issue, that's saying a lot. I love how we're almost kind of ending where we began, villain-wise, as Blastaar was the villain the FF were dealing with waaaaay back at the very beginning (heck, before the official beginning) of this run, discounting the MARVEL TWO IN ONE issue. To add to all this, Annihilus was pretty much the main villain we were dealing with at the halfway point of the run (during the team's multi-issue adventures through the Negative Zone), so, it's almost as if Byrne really did know he was ending his run soon (although, I imagine he would have probably left at #300, had he his full choice in the matter), as he's bringing back villains from such pivotal points in the run for one last big story. Speaking of which, in the next issue.....the FF and SHIELD vs. Blastaar and Annihilus, and I can say that for a few characters, at least for the moment, it would be to the DEATH. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 11, 2020 1:01:28 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #290"Risk"Cover Date: May, 1986 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Blastaar & Annihilus Special Guests: S.H.I.E.L.D. (Nick Fury) & The Baluurians (Number One & Tanjaar---Only Appearances) Official Plot:Annihilus has recovered his Cosmic Control Rod and been restored to full health and now gloats over his defeated foes the Fantastic Four. However his rival Blastaar reminds Annihilus that he is still standing, and claiming Annihilus as his prisoner. Angry at being taunted with his own weapon, Annihilus lashes out at Blastaar. As the two fight it out Sue and She-Hulk revive from their foe's previous attack. Watching the battle unfold, Sue doesn't understand how Annihilus could still be alive. She rushes to her captive husband, who warns her that as long as he is consisted of positive matter touching could cause an explosion that will kill them all. Knowing what his wife is about to ask, Richards recounts their last encounter with Annihilus and how he was sent crashing into the blast area of the Negative Zone and seemingly destroyed. Unable to come up with an answer, Reed tells her that his survival must remain a mystery. As Blastaar loses ground to Annihilus, Sue gets radio contact from S.H.I.E.L.D. With the radio signal weak, Fury boosts it the best he can to tell the Fantastic Four that they are no longer alone, as a swarm of ships surround the one they are battling in. When Blastaar also notices it, he recognizes them as his fleet from the planet Baluur and believes that victory is his. Not willing to surrender, Annihilus uses the ship's on-board weapons to attack the coming armada. As Fury pilots his own ship away from the line of fire, the Baluurian fleet try to make sense of why their leader's ship is attacking them. Aboard the lead ship the captain orders all shields be raised, and he tries to contact Blastaar's vessel. He gets into contact with Annihilus, who warns them that he will destroy them all. As he threatens, Johnny is revived by She-Hulk. The two try to make sense of what is going on, and Johnny comes to the logical conclusion -- attack Annihilus -- and flames on. Meanwhile, She-Hulk pulls off a hunk of the ship to use as a weapon, but she is blasted by Blastaar, who has also recovered from the attacks. With debris about to strike Reed, Sue uses her force-field to deflect it and protect him. Stuck in this vulnerable position, Reed states that the only way he can be safe is if they pilot the ship back through the distortion field. But it is too late as the ship is now being boarded by the Baluurians. In a shocking twist, instead of attacking Annihilus, they incapacitate their leader, Blastaar, with a theta ray. With Blastaar down, the Baluurian commander Tanjaar orders his men to set course to invade the Earth. Johnny is just barely keeping Annihilus at bay when he hears this, allowing their foe to regain his footing and use the Cosmic Control Rod to annihilate the invading party, and blast a hole through the hull of the ship. As Annihilus flees the scene, Reed realizes that he is the only one capable of stopping him, by touching him he could scatter his foes atoms across the Zone. When Sue begs him not to go, he reminds her of how much of a threat Annihilus could be if he reaches Earth. Realizing that he is right, Sue grudgingly allows her husband to follow after Annihilus. As Reed leaves the shuttle, he orders the rest of his team to leave with Nick Fury as he plans on closing the portal to the Negative Zone forever. After boarding the shuttle, Fury tries to give Sue his condolences, but she tells him that she has made peace with the risks they have to take as members of the Fantastic Four. Soon, Fury's ship is rocketing through the distortion field back into the positive matter universe. On their way through they are able to pick up a radio broadcast from Reed being sent out to anyone who can hear him. He narrates his own progress with catching up to Annihilus, sending out a warning to anyone should he fail. As he approaches his foe, Reed tells his wife that he loves her and the radio goes dead. Seconds after the S.H.I.E.L.D. craft passes through the distortion zone there is a massive explosion that seals the rift between universes. Sue has come to believe that her husband is dead, but the others are still optimistic. When they get aboard the S.H.I.E.L.D. space station, Fury orders a full sweep for any sign of Reed in space. Sue doesn't believe it possible, if Reed managed to escape his space suit before the explosion, the vacuum of space would have killed him in minutes. Still, Fury has his men scan for signs of Reed anyway. Other than debris and an apparent weather balloon, there is no trace and Sue tells Fury that it's not use and he can stop looking. Sue tells the group that they have to accept that Reed is dead, but they must go on. It is with this somber statement, that the Fury takes the Fantastic Four back to Earth in his flying car. Along the way, the group comes to terms with Reed's apparent demise, although Sue has trouble thinking of how she will tell Franklin what happened. As they approach New York City, they're all shocked because it looks like they have gone back in time. From Fury's recollection, it looks like they are flying above New York City, circa 1936. Brodie's View:We get the second part of our last fully Byrne run 4 Part story, and, man, if you thought Byrne went hard in the last issue....he goes Balls Deep on this one, delivering tons of action and crazy shit happening all throughout the issue. Of course, we ended the last issue with the FF vs. Blastaar (save for Reed Richards, who is basically a walking bomb due to his Matter form being yanked into an Anti-Matter universe without being properly prepared, physically. Despite all this, the Invisible Woman ended up taking Blastaar's Cosmic Control Rod from him, putting the villain on the ropes. Blastaar, being more clever than he looks, tricks the Human Torch into throwing the rod into a cell containing an even more dangerous villain (especially reunited with HIS Cosmic Control Rod, that Blastaar had stolen from him), Annihilus. That's where we pick up this issue, and all at once, Annihilus and Blastaar start getting into it again, with the FF really helpless to do anything about it (due to She-Hulk and the Torch being down and Reed, as I said before, being a helpless bomb; Sue does try to get a plan from him while the two power mad bad guys are fighting with each other), and when Jen and Johnny do awaken, and start to fight Annihilus, Blastaar then turns on them for damaging his ship. Lol. To add to the mix are some of Blastaar's soldiers, who arrive and immediately turn on Blastaar (as even though he was their leader, they weren't fans) and the others, which then prompts Annihilus to go Maximum Power (to prove that he, and only he, was the DOOM THAT WALKS!!!) against them, seemingly killing a good portion of the squad. Annihilus then ends up breaking out of the ship, trying to fly through the rift into the Matter Universe, and after a WHOLE lot of debate between husband and wife (my only complaint for this issue; I understand the need for this scene, but it goes on WAY too long), Reed flies off after him. The rest of the group end up running back to Nick Fury's SHIELD craft, and Blastaar....I guess he fled somewhere off screen, as he most certainly does return down the line. This leads to the big climax of this issue, which we never actually see, which is Reed vs. Annihilus, however, how it all ends leads everyone aboard the ship to believe that the leader of the FF had perished sealing the Negative Zone rift. Sue, however, is able to take charge, as she figures that it's what he would have wanted (and it was certainly what Byrne had been altering her character to be all along), and it seems that we might end this run with a brand new FF. However, when Nick Fury tries to take them back to New York, they realize that they're in the New York of 1936! ( ) Needless to say, this story isn't near over yet, and we're going to see this unique foursome have a most interesting side turn for the last two parts of this story. One that sends the group up against the most unexpected villain of all....well, then again, maybe expected, as it is 1936 we're talking about here. This was a kick ass issue for the most part, with some CRAZY moments, such as Annihilus wiping out Blastaar's troops like it was nothing. In the next issue, as I've teased, we're going to party like it's 1939....well, 1936. GRADE: A
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Post by BrodietheSlayer on Dec 14, 2020 20:01:45 GMT -5
Fantastic Four #291"The Times They are A'Changing!"Cover Date: June, 1986 Writer: John Byrne Artist: John Byrne Feature Characters: The Fantastic Four (Mr. Fantastic, The Invisible Woman, The Human Torch, & She Hulk) Villain/s: Gangsters Special Guests: S.H.I.E.L.D. (Nick Fury), "Alicia Masters"/Lyja the Skrull, Joseph "Licorice" Calhoun (1st Appearance), & The Thing (In Flashback Form Only) Official Plot:As Nick Fury has been flying them back to Earth following the apparent demise of their leader, the Fantastic Four appear to have been whisked back in time to the year 1936. Unable to reach the SHIELD space station, Fury lands his car in an ally, and confirms his suspicions, Fury has gone back to the days when he was merely a teenager. As they gain their wits, Johnny asks Sue what they should do, appointing her leader now that Reed is apparently dead. Sue points out that anything they might do could alter history and that they shouldn't risk contact with anyone from this era. When they spot a garbage crew coming by to pick up trash, Sue quickly turns the group and Fury's car invisible. When the danger of discover passes, Sue returns everyone to normal. Trying to debate what to do, Fury at least solves the problem with the risk of leaving his car behind: activating a device it quickly re-configures itself to resemble a UPS truck, which closely resembles the vehicles from this era. As they drive through the streets of 1930s New York, they take stock of the fact that not even Captain America, or the original Human Torch exist in this era. Suddenly, they are being chased by the police when they note the lack of an authentic license plate on their truck. Zipping into an alley get away, they are shocked when they reach the other end and have apparently returned to the modern age. With the danger seemingly over, Fury decides they should go to a nearby SHIELD outpost to figure out what was going on. Johnny opts to leave to check on his girlfriend Alicia to make sure she is all right following this strange time warp. When Johnny arrives at her apartment, she has no idea what he is talking about when he flames off and explains what happened. Alicia is confused by what Johnny is saying, but before he can fill her in on what has happened he suddenly finds himself in a warehouse back in 1936 again. Flaming on, Johnny flies above the city, then realizes how out in the open he is and an appearance of a Human Torch this early in history could have grave repercussions. Before anyone can see him, Johnny flames off and sticks to the roofs to get around. Elsewhere, Sue, She-Hulk and Fury also have found themselves pulled back to 1936 with a bang -- as Fury's car crashes into a wall that suddenly appeared before them. The resulting impact only jostles the women, but Fury is knocked out. Realizing that Fury needs a doctor, Sue turns invisible to try find one she can convince to help them. After Sue's gone, Fury's radio communicator kicks in, receiving a clear signal from the SHIELD space station with an urgent message for the Fantastic Four. When She-Hulk answers them, she shocks them by telling them that they are stuck in the year 1936. Elsewhere, the Invisible Woman passes unseen through the streets. With all the differences between this version of New York City, Sue realizes how far back in time they have actually gone. It causes her to think about how great it could be to speak to her parents, or even Reed. The thoughts of her reportedly deceased husband causes memories of their relationship to come flooding back: When she first met Reed when she was 13 years old and he was a college freshman boarding at her aunt's house, Reed's rocket flight which turned them all into the Fantastic Four, and finally her and Reed's wedding. Meanwhile, the crew aboard the SHIELD space station are shocked by She-Hulk's news, as their scanners show that New York is the one of the present not the 1930s. Before they can delve deeper into this mystery, She-Hulk hears a man cry for help and goes to see what the commotion is. She spots an African-American man running for his life by a gang of mobsters chasing him in a car. She-Hulk decides to help him, by grabbing the vehicle and lifting it over her head. Seeing that their car had been stopped by a massive green woman, the mobsters flee in panic. She goes to the aid of the black man and assures him that she means him no harm. He introduces himself as "Licorice" Calhoun. She-Hulk immediately remembers him as a jazz musician whose records her father used to own. Calhoun explains that the men were after him because he has the ability to make his dreams come true. When local mobster Mister Cleveland heard this, he demanded Calhoun use this power to Cleveland's benefit. Not willing to use his powers to help Cleveland win a horse race, Calhoun figured he found an out: Not only allowing the horse Cleveland was betting on to win, but make a total tie race. Realizing the duplicity, Cleveland sent his men to harm Calhoun, leading to She-Hulk's rescue. As Calhoun finishes his story, She-Hulk realizes that Fury has awoken. Nick has flipped on a radio and listens to a BBC report about regarding recent reports of Hitler's assurances that he will remain peaceful to countries neighboring Germany. Fury explains that the time warp must be affecting the entire world now, and that he was actually listening into her conversation with his men aboard the space station. Realizing that he has an opportunity to stop Hitler before the war. As he takes off in his car, She-Hulk tries to stop him but slams into one of Sue's invisible force fields, which the Invisible Woman was able to put up to prevent Jen from trampling him. This allows Fury to get away, and when She-Hulk explains what Nick intends to do, Sue tells them that in order to preserve history the way they remember it, they have no choice but to stop Fury from killing Hitler. Brodie's View:Lol...you can tell that even though it'll be a few months before he officially starts on him, that Byrne clearly has the Man of Steel on his mind with this cover, which is a very faithful homage to ACTION COMICS #1, but with She-Hulk playing the Superman role. It all definitely makes sense, as the last issue left off with the now Reed-less (who had apparently died at the end of last issue, fighting Annihilus) Fantastic Four (plus Nick Fury) coming back to New York City only to realize they had been transported 50 years into the past, so, 1936, which is just around the time two friends from Cleveland were cooking up Superman. Of course, leaving DC's mightiest hero behind, this now Invisible Woman led FF is confused as to what could have happened, as well as, at least on Sue's behalf, dealing with the loss of their leader, and in Sue's case, the love of her life. Nick Fury slides his flying car into an alley, and disguises it as a UPS truck, as it would fit more in with the style of cars of the era. He also makes a half joking comment about going over to Germany and killing Hitler, which the heroes write off at the time, but will become MUCH more important by the end of the issue. Anyways, the time warp they have entered into suddenly ends, and they find themselves in the "Present" again, and Johnny splits off from them to go find his girlfriend, Alicia Masters, or should I say Lyja the Skrull, and he does find her, but soon after, the time reverts back to 1936 again, leaving Johnny in an empty warehouse (as "Alicia" had been living in a converted old factory building). This sudden time reversion ends up affecting the others as well, as they end up crashing Nick's car into a wall that didn't exist in 1986, knocking the SHIELD head unconscious. Soon after, Sue splits off from Jen and Nick to try and get her head straight, as she's torn up about the loss of Reed, and we see her going back through their mutual past together. One can tell Byrne is really exploring the idea of Reed Richards being gone for good, and Sue having to pick up the pieces as leader of the team. Luckily for her as a character, this ends up all being resolved before the end of this storyline, but we would actually get to see a Reed-less FF for a time several years from this, as then writer Tom DeFalco would take both Reed and Doctor Doom off the table for a time. Back to the current story, though, while waiting for the other FF'ers to return, Jen ends up saving a Jazz musician from getting run down by a car driven by mobsters, and this Jazz musician, who ends up being more than he seems, ends up accompanying the team on the mission that follows, as Nick Fury, still discombobulated by the knock to the head, awakens to hear the news on the radio talking about the rise of Hitler in Europe, and ends up leaving the others stranded in New York to try and take out Hitler before WW II can even happen. Of course, as we've seen in other stories, this doesn't end up changing the future exactly, but rather splitting off another time line where Hitler would have been taken out. Then again, if Sue and the other FF'ers have their way, this won't even be a concern, as the issue ends with them vowing to follow Fury to Germany and stop him from killing Hitler ( ). That's where we'll pick up in the next issue, as we'll end off the last full on John Byrne FF story by seeing if the team can stop Nick Fury from taking out Adolph Hitler, or will there be another alternate reality created....or neither. And then....we reach the End of this run. GRADE: A
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