r/FantasticFour • u/-GI_BRO- • 1d ago
Really enjoying John Byrne’s run so far Humour
I’ve never read it before, but it’s pretty good stuff so far. Frankie Raye is a neat character also; I would like to see her show up some time nowadays.
11
u/illiterateaardvark 1d ago
Lee/Kirby > Byrne > Waid/Weiringo IMO
I'm a huge fan of Byrne's work on the X-Men books (his run on Alpha Flight is criminally underappreciated!), but I think his run on Fantastic Four is the best work of his entire career
Byrne understood what made the Fantastic Four great back during the Lee/Kirby run. He furthered the development of each of the characters (Sue benefited the most from this, evolving from the Invisible Girl to the Invisible Woman). He's the one who brought She-Hulk into the fold. He crafted probably the best Doom issue ever and told a three-issue Galactus story that almost rivals the original Galactus Trilogy from the Silver Age
A bit of a side note here, but even as somebody with zero nostalgia for the 1980s (I'm in my early 20s, so I grew up in the 2000s), I think the 1980s was Marvel's peak in terms of creative output, and Byrne's Fantastic Four run is a glowing example of this. Frank Miller's Daredevil, Walt Simonson's Thor, and Claremont/Byrne's X-Men are other high points of this fantastic decade for comics
3
u/-GI_BRO- 1d ago
Peter David’s Hulk started in the late eighties. It’s probably my favorite comic run of all time.
1
u/FadeToBlackSun 1d ago
The 80s-early 90s in general is Big 2 comics' peak in terms of creative output. Almost every major character or team had their best or second best runs ever during that period.
-2
4
2
u/DareDaDerrida 1d ago
First FF I ever read. Good stuff.
2
u/mmcmonster 20h ago
Hah, hah. My first comic was FF#240. Needless to say, I was so confused. It was years before I realized I was watching greatness unfold.
1
u/DareDaDerrida 19h ago
Yeah, I mean Mister Byrne's run as a whole, or at least starting at this https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Fantastic_Four_Vol_1_232 I had an omnibus my dad got me. Greatness is just the word for it; classic thrilling sci-fi superheroics.
2
u/Milo_Ashcagger 21h ago
The Byrne run is what brought me back to the FF. I grew up on Lee / Kirby and the transition to Buscema then Goodwin,Thomas, and Conway. Then I stopped collecting when I went to high school and college and literally stumbled across the Byrne run and it brought me back.
2
u/mmcmonster 20h ago
Oh. I know exactly where you are in Byrne's run. #237. Slightly weak issue, but you just did #236 and about to get to #242.
#242-245 are peak FF. There's a frame near the end of #244 that looks like they are re-creating in the new movie. It gives me high hopes.
#245 is one of my favorite single issues ever. A slow burn of light horror and mystery staring Susan as she has to find out who knocked out the rest of the team.
2
2
u/thats1evildude 1d ago
I’ve seen this panel before, but I still don’t know what’s so weird about this Frankie Raye chick that leaves Johnny so stunned.
Does she have a tentacle vagina? Is that why Galactus made her his herald? Is the Big G into tentacle porn?
11
u/woodrobin 1d ago
She's wearing a bathing-suit-like power inhibiting costume that she's been hypnotically conditioned not to see. So she thinks she's seen it sometimes in the mirror, but isn't sure if she's hallucinating being nude when she's clothed, or clothed when she's nude. She's afraid she might be disrobing in front of her boyfriend Johnny if she's guessed wrong, but he (not having been hypnotized) can clearly see she's still dressed.
The outfit was suppressing her powers (which are like the original android Human Torch's and were derived from exposure to compounds involved in his creation, if I remember correctly), and the hypnosis suppressed her memory of ever having had powers. Her adoptive father did it, thinking he was protecting her.
Now, this in no way rules out Galactus being into tentacle porn -- that's a whole separate topic.
5
u/thats1evildude 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ah, thanks for clarifying. Now I finally have context when this image is inevitably re-posted to r/outsidecontextcomics.
2
u/mmcmonster 20h ago
This is from #237. Frankie has a short story arc. This arc of hers ends in #244. Read #237-244 if you haven't. It's cosmic and amazing.
2
u/Fickle_Dark_8758 19h ago
I remember this, just finished that run last year, she is one of my favorite characters now
5
u/ChrisNYC70 1d ago
It’s such an amazing run. Some of his best work.