Fantastic Four #236
Published and © by Marvel, November 1981
Title: “Terror in a Tiny Town”
Synopsis: The Fantastic Four wake to find themselves living normal lives in a tiny town – at the mercy of Doctor Doom!
Writer: John Byrne
Artist: Byrne
Review: Leave it to longtime Fantastic Four fan John Byrne to deliver a pitch-perfect anniversary issue. Depowered and isolated from the world, Marvel’s first family still finds the moxie to rise up against Doom. Byrne’s storytelling is sure-footed from start to finish, and his art, as usual, is excellent.
•••
Title: “The Challenge of Dr. Doom!”
Synopsis: Holding the Invisible Girl hostage, Doctor Doom sends the FF (minus the Torch, plus Herbie) to steal Blackbeard’s treasure.
Writer: Stan Lee
Penciler: Jack Kirby
Inker: Chic Stone, Dick Ayers, Al Milgrom, Joe Sinnott, George Roussos (as George Bell), Sol Brodsky, Vince Colletta, Frank Giacoia, Pablo Marcos and John Byrne
Review: This “simplified version” of FF #5, cobbled from cartoon storyboards, is a mere shadow of Lee and Kirby’s past greatness.
Grade (for the entire issue): A+
Second opinion: “The backup story by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby is so bad that it’s almost funny. Emphasis on the ‘almost.’ Leave it to Marvel to do something in bad taste to mar an otherwise fantastic issue.” – Comics Coast to Coast #1, 1982 … “One small question remains to be asked: If Doom had the Fantastic Four under his control enough to put this scheme into effect … why didn’t he just shoot them all and be done with it?” – Dwight R. Decker, The Comics Journal #69, December 1981 … “Overall, some may find Byrne’s stories to be overly derivative and regressive, but his plot lines are imaginative and the uncomplicated charm of his version (of the Fantastic Four) possesses a nostalgic and entertaining quality.” – Kevin C. McConnell, The Comics Journal #69, December 1981 … “Outstanding.” – Adrian P. Snowdon, FantaCo’s Chronicles Series Annual #1, 1983 … “Only four issues into his run of the book, and Byrne hit the ground running with a story that not only works as a fantasy adventure, but also displays a deep understanding of the characters themselves, which is what made Byrne’s run on the FF so successful and so deeply satisfying to read.” – Pierre Comtois, “Marvel Comics in the 1980s: An Issue By Issue Field Guide to a Pop Culture Phenomenon,” 2014
Cool factor: The lead story is one of the best of Byrne’s five-year run. It’s also good fun playing who’s who with that wonderful cover.
Not-so-cool factor: Stan Lee is on the cover (upper right corner), but where the heck is Jack Kirby? According to Comic Book Urban Legends Revealed, he was there, but Jim Shooter ordered him removed. (Strained relations with Kirby might also explain why readers get a storyboard redo of FF #5 instead of an honest-to-goodness new story by the OG Fantastic Four creative team.)
Notable: There is also a one-page text feature titled “In Case You Just Joined Us … .”
Collector’s note: According to the Grand Comics Database, there is a 40p British variant of this issue.
Character quotable: “Please, Reed! Must we go through this every time a dangerous task falls to me?” – The Invisible Girl, stepping up
A word from the writer/artist: “I had to do the definitive Fantastic Four story, such that if you’d never even heard of these guys before you could read this issue and come out of it knowing who they are and how they got that way. It also had to be worthy of being a twentieth anniversary issue.” – John Byrne, in Comics Interview #25, 1985
Editor’s note: This review was originally published by Comics Bronze Age on July 17, 2009.
