Rating:  -
3-1/2 stars. I consider volumes 3, 6 & 7 in this series to be about average to slightly above average in quality. This is the Return of Phoenix/ birth of X-Factor paperback; it's the thinnest edition in this series, yet issue 286 is really good. There are only six issues here, but four are bigger than average, with between 30-42 pages each.
It's content is split evenly, with the Phoenix storyline being in the 2nd part. Since Phoenix, or Jean Grey, is clearly the highlight here, I'll start with that. John Buscema kicks things off in Avengers 263, where that team first discovers the device that contains Jean Grey. Avengers here include: Captain America, Captain Marvel; Wasp; Hercules; Namor & the Black Knight. This leads us to the great FF issue 286, where Byrne is teamed-up again with Terry Austin on inks; a real treat for fans, since we hadn't seen this pairing since their famous X-Men days. Byrne & Austin did an excellent job on this issue- we get Byrne drawing the FF, Avengers & X-Men all together(!). X-Factor #1 is included for the sake of completion, but the highlight here is clearly issue 286. As far as the rest is concerned, issue 285 is a tragic story involving the Human Torch, and the two annuals are an interesting experiment depicting two perspectives to one conflict.
If you're at all interested in the Return of Phoenix, I can't see why you wouldn't want this edition. Unless you're on a very tight budget, that is; this thin paperback costs as much as a thick one(!). (... $24.99 list price... Yikes!)
Included in this volume:
*Annual #19- John Byrne writes & pencils; Joe Sinnot inks
*Avengers Annual #14- Roger Stern writes; John Byrne breakdowns;Kyle Baker finishes
*Issue #285- John Byrne writes & pencils; Al Gordon inks
*Avengers #263- Roger Stern writes; John Buscema breakdowns; Tom Palmer finishes
*Issue #286- John Byrne writes & pencils; Terry Austin inks... my favorite here
*X-Factor #1- Bob Layton writes; Jackson Guice pencils; Layton, Guice & Josef Rubinstein inks
P.S. The Return of Phoenix storyline is also printed in the X-Men: Phoenix Rising TPB. I bought this visionaries volume 7 mainly because I wanted Byrne's complete FF run. So if you're mainly interested in Phoenix & you want to save money, that might be a way to do it. Phoenix Rising has 2 problems though: inferior reproduction in its 1st printing, creating a very dated, dot-matrix look in various flat areas of color throughout. It also didn't include the covers to the 3 issues inside. If you want the *best* printing of the return of Phoenix, this visionaries volume 7 corrects those issues & has more material... but at a higher price. And check out Byrne's X-Men: The Dark Phoenix Saga.
Rating:  -
A highly entertaining part of John Byrne's Fantastic Four run, from influential stories such as the Skrulls losing their shapeshiftin ability, in a crossover with the Avengers in super cheesy fun space adventure:
"I, Zabyk, shall soon unleash upon an unsuspecting galaxy the ower of my hyperwave bomb--the power that will make me Master Of the Universe!"
To poignant tales of a little boy that wants to be The Human Torch, to the recovery of Jean Grey's body deep underwater many years later leading to the formation of X-Factor.
Definitely one volume of the Fantastic Four Visionaires season that is worth reading if you haven't seen these stories before.
Rating: -
Not only is this volume smaller than the previous ones but it also contains an Avengers Annual (OK, it's drawn by Byrne), X-Factor #1, an Avenger tie-in with the resurrection of Phoenix episode of the FF. It's nice to have the storyline continuity but Marvel is too stringy on what the customers expect: the Fantastic Four as seen by Byrne. Only 2 issues and 1 annual of the FF. It's not what I'd call a 'vision'. It's more of a 'peep'.
Rating:  -
OK, I love this series, but really, only TWO issues of Byrne's Fantastic Four proper? I can see reprinting the Avengers issues because they are tied in to the storylines, but reprinting X-Factor #1, which is only loosely linked to the Fantastic Four at all, is a total waste of paper in this volume. It's called "Visionaries - John Byrne," not "and whatever random tie-ins we can stuff into these volumes."
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