Fantastic Four #232 (July 1981)

In honor of the release of Fantastic Four: First Steps (Great film, by the way), I thought I'd take a look at a comic book starring Marvel's First Family. Now, I wondered what comic I should look at this week. First steps clearly drew from the Stan Lee/Jack Kirby era (which makes sense, as it was the foundation for the Marvel Universe as we know it today), but I decided to go in a bit of a different direction. I love 80s comics, so...why not look at something from the John Byrne era? 

This comic was the first issue of his run on the run. Well, kind of. You see, he had actually joined the book with issue #209 (August 1979), his role being pencil breakdowns for Joe Sinnott to make into finished art. The first FF comic he wrote was actually a promotional comic starring the FF for Coca-Cola. They didn't like the comic as they felt it was too violent, so it got made into issues #220-221 (July-August 1980). It wouldn't be until this comic that he fully took over as writer, penciller, and inker. Originally, it was planned for Byrne to write with Bill Sienkiewicz doing the art, but the latter would go and do Moon Knight instead, and the rest is history. 

Byrne was just what the book needed at the time, as Fantastic Four was struggling in the early 80s. His work and imagination helped revitalize the book, as he wanted to show what made the FF great in the first place. Byrne's run would see the FF go through changes, like She-Hulk joining up in place of Thing for a while, Alicia Masters leaving Ben for Johnny Storm, and the group would even get a new headquarters. He left the book after five years, claiming that he grew tired of "office politics" and he found the book "no longer fun" to work on. But that would be in the future. For now, let's look at the proper start of John Byrne's run, Fantastic Four #232!

The cover is a John Byrne and Terry Austin piece. It's really cool. It depicts what looks like a giant Diablo trying to make the FF into the victims of a ritualistic sacrifice. It's a really cool creepy cover, got me wondering how the First Family of Superheroes are going to get out of this.

"Back to the Basics!" 
Writer: John Byrne
Penciler: John Byrne
Inker: John Byrne
Colorist: Glynis Wein
Letterer: Jim Novak
Editor: Jim Salicrup
Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The story begins with Diablo, the mad alchemist, doing what he does best: Mad alchemist stuff. He's created small effigies of the FF, and it's not because he wants to enter the action figure-making business. A shame really, as I think he could make a legit mint. Worked for Todd MacFarlane. 

Now, this is the FF's book, right? So, what are they up to? Well, let's first check in on the team's powerhouse: Susan Storm, the Invisible Girl. Yeah, she hasn't become the Invisible Woman quite yet. That's a ways off. She's getting her hair done. It's the 80s, after all. It is then that a being made of rocks attacks, demanding the head of Sue Storm. Naturally, Sue is not interested in just letting this wannabe Ben Grimm get it, so she goes invisible to try an avoid the beast. she wants her FF flare to call for help, but the rock creature blasts dirt all over the room. The dirt sticks to Sue, threatening to suffocate her.

"Aw God! It's in my mouth! Tastes like donkey poo!" 

Elsewhere, Ben Grimm and Alicia Masters are leaving a Broadway show. They both were moved to tears by it. Ben notices that it's raining...on him.

Only you, Ben. The rain then solidifies into a bubble.

"Doc says I'm not supposed to be in wet clothes!"

Ben tries to fight his way out, but the bubble is stubborn. He also has another problem: He didn't get a chance to take a breath before he got trapped. And now he's running low on air. 

So, considering that we're just about to see Ben Grimm friggin' die, let's look in on Johnny Storm, shall we? The second Human Torch is flying over Central Park, because he has a bit of a meeting of his own: a redhead named Frankie Raye. The two are having some issues in their relationship, but that ends up tabled when a wind monster attacks the Four's resident firebrand.

When Red Tornado wants his money, he's going to get his money.

Ten minutes earlier, Reed Richards was doing what he does best: working in his lab in the Baxter Building. He's looking into some strange energy fluxes in the city at the moment (presumably thanks to Diablo), when he notices that it's gotten rather warm in the room. 

He goes to open a window when the reason for the heat reveals itself: an angry fire monster.

"Oh dear, Johnny's on a bender again."

The fight causes the temperature of the Baxter Building to increase, making the lab get hotter and hotter. Soon, Reed may melt from it. The fire monster blabs that his comrades are taking out his teammates. Reed manages to escape by leaping out of the Baxter Building in the form of a ball. He then stretches out into a sail-like form and glides to Central Park. It'll be a good place to deal with the fire monster. It's a big space, and the damp leaves on the trees will reduce the potential firestorm. It's here he meets up with Frankie Raye, who tells him about the wind monster attacking Johnny.

Reed engages the wind monster, and the fire monster catches up with him. However, the fire monster backs off when Johnny Storm tries to engage it, saying it's forbidden to battle their analogues. The fire monster tries to flee, but Johnny is in...hot pursuit.

Yeah, sorry. This gives Reed a brainwave. 

He pretends to flee, the wind monster chasing him. Back at the hairstylist, Sue is able to free herself from her dirt prison with her forcefields. She then also gets the idea to use her forcefields as a form of quick transport. Meanwhile, the drowning Ben Grimm spots a sporting goods store. He realizes they may have scuba tanks. Summoning the last of his great strength, he heads inside. Luckily, one of the employees has a filled scuba tank ready to go. 

To her horror, Patty realized the tank was filled with laughing gas.

The water monster then covers the employee in its element. Sue Storm-Richards to the rescue! She uses her forcefields to contain the water monster, allowing Ben to fight the Earth monster. He shatters the monster with one Mighty Punch. However, like the T-1000, shattering the earth monster doesn't kill it.

Reed arrives, air monster right behind him. He spots Sue outside of the sporting goods store, deducing that she lured the earth monster there for Ben to deal with. He spies a nearby generator, and picks up a couple of live wires, as he has a plan to deal with the water monster. Don't worry, folks. He's wearing unstable molecule gloves. They're good for this.

He has Sue snare the air monster in a forcefield.

"This will make a wonderful decoration, darling."

He then uses some electrical wires from a water generator on the water monster. The electricity causes the monster's watery body to undergo electrolysis, splitting it up into its component gases: hydrogen and oxygen. Science wins again!

This also allows Reed to confirm that Diablo was the man behind these critters. Ben defeats the earth monster by blasting it with water from a broken pipe, causing it to "melt" into mud. Finally, the air monster. Reed has Sue compress the monster with her forcefield. It's difficult, but the lady pulls it off. The increased pressure of the forcefield caused the air monster to condensate into water. Three monsters down one left to go: the fire monster. And they have no idea where it is. Johnny pursued it, but they have no idea where they went off to.

I don't think they'd be that hard to find. 

I've heard of a firefight, but this is ridiculous!

The fire monster, being literally made of fire, is able to bring the heat better than Johnny could. However, our man has one trick in his bag that could help: his Nova Blast. Basically, Johnny released his flames in one massive burst of power. Think of it like a pro wrestler's finishing move.

Johnny Storm was banned from eating beans forever.

The blast consumes all the oxygen in the immediate area, snuffing the fire monster out. However, this also knocks Johnny's powers out of commission for a bit. He ends up falling into the river, but he's able to signal a nearby tugboat. 

Reed explains to Sue and Ben that this is clearly the work of Diablo. Ben finds that ridiculous as he seemingly died during the events of Fantastic Four #193-194 (April-June 1978). Reed points out that Diablo has escaped death before. Reed then makes a call to someone he knows can help. 

That night, Diablo tries to sneak out of town, when he's caught by Reed. Diablo points out that the scientist can't connect him to the attacks by the elemental monsters. Reed admits that's true, but he's done some checking. As it turns out, a group of statues representing the classical four Greek elements had been stolen from various museums...and Diablo has them in a nice little customized suitcase. Diablo wants to know how Reed found him. Well, he called in one of his Illuminati buddies.

"That'll be $50, Reed."

Yup, ol' Doc Strange himself. Yeah, the Illuminati wasn't established yet, but I can imagine that this was the reason that Reed was able to contact Strange so quickly.

I enjoyed this comic. It's a simple story, but it lives up to the title. This is really a jumping on point for new readers, and something probably done by Byrne himself to introduce himself to the readers before he gets truly comfortable with the characters and stretches his muscles. The idea of the Fantastic Four reflecting the four classical Greek elements is not a new one. Heck, I know of one pastiche of the FF that was explicit about it. And it's not hard to see why. Another thing I liked about this story was that the heroes used some brains to win the day out. I do wish the statue thefts were more set up at the beginning, but otherwise that, this was a fun story. Byrne himself also turns in some strong enjoyable artwork for this. 

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2009 trade paperback Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne Vol. 1. Thanks for reading this blog entry! if you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! See you next time!