Today, we look at your picks for #6-4 of the greatest Fantastic Four stories ever told!
As always, you voted, I counted the votes and now we count them down, four at a time. If I don’t add a date for the series, it means it is the original volume of whatever series I’m talking about.
6. Fantastic Four #261-262 “The Trial of Reed Richards”
After Fantastic Four #243-244 (which you’ll see below on the countdown) came out, writer Chris Claremont took issue with the story. He was mostly irked at the idea that he had to kill off Jean Grey because she had destroyed a planet as Dark Phoenix but now a dude whose WHOLE PURPOSE was to destroy planets was being saved like it was no big deal.
So in “Uncanny X-Men” #167 (by Chris Claremont, Paul Smith and Bob Wiacek), Lilandra of the Shi’ar Empire finds out what happened and calls out the Fantastic Four over it. John Byrne saw that and he was not pleased. No one asked him if it was okay for the Fantastic Four to appear in Uncanny X-Men (this was back in the days when you typically had to seek permission to use characters from other books. Which is still probably roughly still something that you have to do, but it was a bigger deal back then when there were less crossover of characters) and not only that, but they had his characters essentially told that there was something wrong with his previous plot! He complained to Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter who told Byrne just to do a response if he wanted to.
This led to Fantastic Four #262, which is famous for the fact that it guest-starred the writer and artist of the issue, John Byrne. It was part of “Assistant Editor’s Month, where each title did something slightly weird under the idea that the assistant editors were in charge for a month while the main editors were at the San Diego Comic Con. Byrne was brought from his home due to his status in the Marvel Universe as the official writer/artist of the licensed Fantastic Four comic book, and was asked to report on the events from a cosmic courtroom where Reed Richards was on trial for his role in sparing the life of Galactus in an earlier Fantastic Four storyline.
Abandoning his whole non-interference pledge, Uatu actually served as Reed’s defense attorney in the trial (Uatu won through the use of Eternity to show everyone that Galactus served a natural purpose in the universe).
Byrne even stood in for the fans when he asked why Uatu wasn’t constrained by his oath, but Sue Richards explained that it was just too important of an event for him to stay silent.
5. Fantastic Four #39-41 “The Battle of the Baxter Building”
What’s really fascinating looking back at this classic era of Fantastic Four stories is how they just went in and out of storylines without every really closing or starting a story cleanly. Fantastic Four #38 saw the Fantastic Four defeated by the Frightful Four and their powers taken away from them. They then had to team up with Daredevil to fight their way through their own headquarters, as Doctor Doom had taken control of the Baxter Building.
In the final battle, after Reed found a way to bring everyone else’s powers back, he finally had to do the same to Ben Grimm, who was loving the loss of his powers and the fact that he was finally human again. However, only the Thing could stop Doctor Doom. Check out this awesome sequence by Jack Kirby, Stan Lee and Vince Coletta…
Wow. This then leads into an epic fight between the hero and villain that shows the Thing’s strongest ability – the ability to persevere!
Stunning ending.
4. Fantastic Four #242-244 “Beginnings and Endings”
This storyline opened up with the return of erstwhile herald of Galactus, Terrax, to Earth and he has used the Power Cosmic to levitate the entire island of Manhattan into orbit of Earth and only Terrax’s power is keeping oxygen pumping to the island.
He came to the Fantastic Four with an offer – destroy Galactus or he’ll destroy Manhattan.
The Fantastic Four obviously are not down on murdering Galactus, but must play along, and in Fantastic Four #243 (by John Byrne), they confront Galactus. Reed tries to reason with him but then Terrax shows up.
Galactus deals with Terrax quickly (stripping the herald of the Power Cosmic), so you’d think the problem would be resolved, right?
Except Galactus is now so drained of power that he determines he must feed on Earth. The Fantastic Four (well, just Reed, Ben and Johnny) are resolved not to let that happen, but they’re greatly outclassed, until some other folks show up.
When Terrax levitated Manhattan into space, he overlooked the fact that that little island also happens to house a whole pile of superheroes, so the Avengers (or however many Avengers who were on Manhattan at the time) show up to fight Galactus along with the FF.
And then, to REALLY help things along, Doctor Strange shows up to lend a hand, and that leads directly into the stunning full-page splash of Galactus…falling!
Totally badass.
However, in the aftermath of Galactus’ defeat, Reed shocks everyone by revealing that they actually have to SAVE Galactus’ life!
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