Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four Annual

I realized today that I was referring to an old rating scale, without the updates I’d been making to it.  So I’ve changed my “Sucked” score for Bendis’ Brilliant to the existing “Stupid” rating.  Stupid works just as well for it.

Fantastic Four Annual 17

This comes in the middle of John Byrne’s run on FF, but I’m reading it first because I had the annuals sorted first.  I’ll pop it into its proper chronological place after this.  

What a breath of fresh air after Stan Lee.  It’s so less frenetic!  I don’t feel like there’s someone screaming, “GO GO GO!!!!!!” at me the entire time.

Pausing while I look up the Skrull Kill Krew...Ah, okay.  This story continues the tale of the forgotten Skrulls-turned-into-cows from way back in FF 3.  Their ‘milk’ ended up infecting those who imbibed it, and the FF show up to save the day.  It sounded familiar, because I thought the Skrull Kill Krew were those SkrullCows.  Turns out the Kill Krew ate those cows.  Curiosity satisfied.  

John Byrne is one of the pencillers who epitomizes 80’s comic art to me.  His work is wonderful, a perfect blend of a distinguishable style and traditional superhero forms.  

“Skrull milk.”  Ew.  

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Fine

Fantastic Four Annual 1998

Don’t know why I would have bought this random annual; I’m pretty sure I wasn’t reading FF in 1998.  Still, it’s a solid creative team, Karl Kesel and Stuart Immonen.  And the story is surprisingly meta - The Thing is transported to a world where the Marvel heroes have aged in real our-world time.  So for the Fantastic Four, thirty-seven years have passed since they first gained their powers.  Their kids are grown up, they’ve retired, everything.  While to ‘our’ Ben Grimm, about ten years have passed since he developed his rocky exterior.  

It’s a fun acknowledgement of how no one acknowledges the passage of time in comics.  Everything in the past usually happened, “a couple of years ago,” or “a few months since that time when…”  John Byrne does something similar with his Generations miniseries with Batman and Superman.

Otherwise, this is a straightforward Elseworlds story (to refer to DC again).  Nothing special, but the wink to the audience is enough to carry it through.

I respect Sue Storm's decision in the matter.

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Fine

Fantastic Four 218

A random issue before we get to John Byrne’s writing debut.  He does the art here, but Bill Mantlo gets the story credit.  A stand-alone story where Spider-Man save the FF from the latest incarnation of the Frightful Four.  (Electro’s replaced Medusa.  And by the way, how did everyone conveniently forget about her criminal behavior the instant the other Inhumans showed up in Stan Lee’s run?  She literally went from Johnny Storm kidnapper to Inhuman royal family member in the span of an issue, and no one bats an eye.)

Regret buying? No

Would buy again? No

Would read again? No

Rating: Fine