Rating:  -
In general, writer/artist John Byrne's "re-boot" of the Fantastic Four comic book series with issue #232 is highly enjoyable, though in my opinion the first few issues of his run over-corrected things a bit. In fact, Issue #232 (the first of the nine consecutive issues of the series collected here) reads like an only slightly more sophisticated version of 1961's Fantastic Four #1, which for all its innovations at the time, now basically reads like a children's comic book, albeit a good one.
But things soon pick up with some truly imaginative stories and some complex characterizations. Highlights here include an encounter with Doctor Doom and some very interesting developments with Johnny Storm's girlfriend, Frankie Raye.
"Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Volume 2" is where things really pick up, however. That's where we see that Mr. Byrne apparently didn't hate every component of the series that was added in the years right before he took over. In particular, there's a really terrific Galactus story that makes good use of Galactus' herald Terrax the Tamer, the character created only a couple of years before Mr. Byrne's takeover of the title.
But for now, Mr. Byrne's initial Fantastic Four stories, despite some stumbling out of the gate, do a very good job of getting back to the elements that work best in F.F. stories: wonderment, high adventure, and a sense of family.
Rating:  -
loved the collection, i only wish the printing process had been corrected, there is a rather distracting effect on the pages from the dot coloring that was corrected in subsequent issues. loved the work though.
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This trade paperback collects the most successful reboot of a comics franchise under the contstruction of writer-artist John Bryne. Bryne would later tackle such titles as Superman, the Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Green Lantern and the Amazing Spider-Man, but they all pale besides his work on the Fantastic Four. After Jack Kirby left the title in 1970, Marvel's one time flagship title went through a series of artistic and creative permutations. Many of these were the result of seventies comics "style". It is known that long-time Marvel artist, John Romita, had remarked to Stan Lee that without Jack Kirby, maybe they should not continue publishing the Fantastic Four.
John Bryne comes on the title and in the works collected in this first volume reconnects the FF to their roots. He combines family characterization with high adventure. Bryne also introduces more complex storytelling techniques to his narrative that build on the back to basics approach and have the effect of making the title by tne middle to the end of his run, better than it ever was and has been since his departure.
I thought that his stories might come off as dated or overly contrived but they are actually better than I remember them to be. This first volume only hints at the greatness that was soon to follow.
It is a shame that Bryne's more current work lacks the inspiration of these volumes.
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This first collection of John Byrne's run on "Fantastic Four", comprising issues 232 to 240, starts off that writer/artist's impressive run on that flagship Marvel title.
I can't believe it's been over 20 years since these comics saw light; even when I was younger, I realized that these were the beginnings of something special.
My only complaint is that the print quality is sub-par. Specifically, it's the color. The cover is glorious, yet the inside is pretty sloppy. I glanced at later volumes, and this has been corrected, but for these first issues, it's kinda distracting.
That's it for the negative stuff; this is a great read.
Byrne brought back the humanity to this family that had been missing since the hallowed Lee/Kirby days. At the same time, he revisited the topics and characters that made the FF "The FF".
In these few issues, we get a little Doctor Doom, a "little" Puppet Master, Ego the Living Planet, a story about the Inhumans, a few stand-alone "freak-of-the-week" stories, Baxter building hijinks and The Thing, once again, morphs.
The key to this run's success lies in the fact that John Byrne manages to emphasize each character's personality to create that old sense of "family." Yet, he does so while surrounding those moments with galactic, heroic plots.
That was what was always great about "The World's Greatest Comic Magazine", and that was why it had nearly become so again...
On to Volume 2!
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Byrne's F.F. run was the lynchpin of my childhood comics reading, and his stories are second only to the Lee/Kirby run in their wit, charm, and excitement. A must-read book for any super-hero fan! Excelsior!!!
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