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Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 3

by John Byrne & Roger Stern

(Art by John Byrne, Joe Sinnott and Ron Wilson)

The Fantastic Four set off between dimensions to explore the Negative Zone but unbeknownst to them the villain Annihilus passed them in the opposite direction and plans to destroy both realities, plans only the FF and the Avengers combined can stop.

I'm usually a fan of John Byrne's writing and art, particularly his runs on X-Men and on Superman, so I was surprised to find myself really disliking most of this book.  At first I thought that it might just be because I'm not a fan of the Fantastic Four (all except Sue annoy me) but when the writing switched to Roger Stern for the Avengers-focused issue here, I immediately began enjoy it far more.  That could still be because of my dislike of the FF, but the Avengers of this era aren't exactly among my favourites either (the Monica Rambeau Captain Marvel, Starfox, She-Hulk etc.), so I really do think it was down to Stern's tighter plotting and better eye for the balance between words and pictures.

The latter part of the book, once the FF are out of the Negative Zone, was a bit better but it still didn't feel like Byrne's best work.  Not least because the final story arc is about a town being poisoned by milk from cows who are actually hypnotised Skrulls.  No, really, that's what it's about.

2 out of 5

Fear Itself

by Ed Brubaker & Matt Fraction

(Art by Scott Eaton, Mark Morales, Stuart Immonen and Wade von Grawbadger)

When Sin, daughter of the Red Skull, unearths an ancient hammer she releases the Serpent, the Asgardian god of fear and brother of Odin.  The Serpent unleashes the Worthy, heroes and villains possessed by malevolent entities and wielding Asgardian hammers, with the task of seeding fear across the face of the Earth.  When Odin and the Asgardians abandon Earth, only the Avengers stand in the Serpent's path.

Big event storylines are all too common in comics nowadays, more or less coming around every year, and this is one of the less well-regarded Marvel ones.  I had been intrigued by it before reading because I have a life-long love of Norse mythology and thought that maybe this would explore some more of that.  Sadly, it doesn't and instead opts for a fairly generic new super-powerful entity about to destroy the world.  Similarly, I was intrigued by the idea of the Worthy and was excited to see how being possessed by Asgardian hammers plays with powerhouse characters like the Juggernaut, the Hulk and the Thing.  Unfortunately, it seems like much of the stuff featuring the Worthy has been reserved for the inevitable spin-off comics instead, with them being fairly minor players in this, the main storyline.

What I did like was how the, admittedly cliched, last stand plays out.  There's a moment when the Avengers pretty clearly realised they're outmatched and can't win but, led by Captain America, take their stand nonetheless.  On the subject of Cap, one of my two favourite moments in the entire book was seeing him righteously giving a piece of his mind to Odin, who ends up genuinely flustered to be getting a dressing-down from a mortal.  The other favourite moment is a very similar scene between Iron Man and Odin, but where Tony Stark's characteristic irreverence is in play instead.

This isn't a dreadful book, but it is definitely lesser than the sum of its parts.

3 out of 5