Before that he also drew a couple of team-up tales, one with the Human Torch and Spider-Man, for Marvel Team-Up, and one of the Thing and the Thing, which he also wrote, for Marvel Two-in-One. It takes a special kind of moron to decide that the only way he’s ever going to figure out whether he likes the Fantastic Four (or not) is to read 1,000+ pages of it. Mighty Marvel sprang from this motherlode and just look at the familiar names that first appeared here - the Skrulls, Prince Namor, the diabolical Doctor Doom! However, the layouts could have used some more background attention and the entire book reminded me of how bad four color comics were visually.

Superman, Byrne takes to opportunity to use the alien to propose his own sci-fi theories about the source Superman‘s powers, which he would officially incorporate into his Man of Steel relaunch as “self-telekinesis. However, in the right hands, continuity can add a certain amount of depth and complexity to a work – creating the sense that the tapestry is expanding and growing, that the themes and characters have been developing all along.John Byrne speaks for himself in my regard because of work like this, if you want to see Ben "Thing" Grimm give cheesy one liners in spiffy artwork form, and read some good stories too, give this a try and see what I mean.

Later on, forced to elaborate, he explains, “It was no more cold-blooded than any scientific procedure, Ben. Les fantastiques de la grande époque, ma préférée comme celle de beaucoup d'adolescents dans les années 80, celle de John Byrne ! Sometimes, this revisionism is not for the best – with the author making suspect observations to validate past plot points. Because if like me, way back in the day, you were able to pick up some issues of Fantastic Four but not all - if you missed an issue here or there - you can now have a complete collection. On the run, Reed and Sue Richards, AKA Mister Fantastic and the Invisible Woman, find themselves in even more trouble when they stop in a small town with a terrible secret!Yes, there are some new ones in here but they are all one issue threats or complications rather than real entries into the rogues gallery, while he mined a lot out of the classic villains. At one point, in another pulpy homage, Ben Grimm even shows up as “Idaho Smith”– presumably because George Lucas would sue if he referred to a certain archeologist by name. They are all survivors of a private space-shot that went horribly wrong when Cosmic Rays penetrated their ship’s inadequate shielding and mutated them all. For, as the big brain of the Fantastic Four will find out, solving everything carries with it a great cost, and one that is perhaps too much to pay.