{"id":11628,"date":"2007-07-28T11:29:44","date_gmt":"2007-07-28T18:29:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2007\/07\/28\/bt07-more-fantastic.html"},"modified":"2007-07-28T11:29:44","modified_gmt":"2007-07-28T18:29:44","slug":"bt07_more_fantastic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/28\/bt07_more_fantastic.html","title":{"rendered":"BT07 &#8211; More Fantastic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div class=\"img-shadow-right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0785121900?&#038;tag=davedoesthebl-20\" target=\"_blank\" alt=\"Click here to go to Amazon\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0785121900.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0785121900?&#038;tag=davedoesthebl-20\"><strong><em>Fantastic Four Visionaries &#8211; John Byrne<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, Vol. 6&nbsp;<\/i>(Marvel) [collects #276-284, Thing #23, SW II #2)]<br \/> <em>w\/a.&nbsp;John Byrne<\/em>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td> <strong>Writing<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"100\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Fair (3 stars of 5)\" height=\"19\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg\" width=\"57\" \/><\/td>\n<td> New reader?<\/td>\n<td width=\"100\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Good (4 stars out of 5)\" height=\"18\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg\" width=\"78\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td> <strong>Art<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"100\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Faboo (5 stars out of 5)\" height=\"20\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars5.jpg\" width=\"97\" \/><\/td>\n<td> Non-comics reader?<\/td>\n<td width=\"90\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Awful (1 star out of 5)\" height=\"19\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars1.jpg\" width=\"20\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>John Byrne&#8217;s run on FF was both one of the longest in the title&#8217;s history and one of the best.&nbsp; Byrne&#8217;s art is a personal favorite of mine (and he&#8217;s at one of the tops of his form in this period); his writing always swings at the fence (with admittedly mixed results), while usually offering some sort of imaginative tie to the past.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In this volume, we get the Mephisto, the Psycho-Man, the &#8220;end&#8221; of the &#8220;Invisible Girl,&#8221; lots of Franklin Richards scary-psi-power stuff, the controversial revisit of Dr Doom&#8217;s history, Johnny&#8217;s mullet, and the gorgeous She-Hulk standing in for a &#8220;Hey, you stole my girlfriend, Match Head&#8221; Thing.&nbsp; Not the best of the Byrne era, but always a fun read.<\/p>\n<hr width=\"75%\" \/>\n<p><div class=\"img-shadow-right\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/0785127356?&#038;tag=davedoesthebl-20\" target=\"_blank\" alt=\"Click here to go to Amazon\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.amazon.com\/images\/P\/0785127356.01._SCMZZZZZZZ_.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<p><i><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/0785127356?&#038;tag=davedoesthebl-20\"><strong><em>Fantastic Four Visionaries &#8211; John Byrne<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, Vol. 7&nbsp;<\/i>(DC) [collects #285-286, Annual #19, Avenger #263, Annual #14, X-Factor #1]<br \/> <em>w\/a. John Byrne et al.<\/em><\/p>\n<table border=\"0\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td> <strong>Writing<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"100\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Fair (3 stars of 5)\" height=\"19\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg\" width=\"57\" \/><\/td>\n<td> New reader?<\/td>\n<td width=\"100\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Poor (2 stars out of 5)\" height=\"21\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars2.jpg\" width=\"40\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td> <strong>Art<\/strong><\/td>\n<td width=\"100\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Fair (3 stars of 5)\" height=\"19\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg\" width=\"57\" \/><\/td>\n<td> Non-comics reader?<\/td>\n<td width=\"90\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Awful (1 star out of 5)\" height=\"19\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars1.jpg\" width=\"20\" \/><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>This is &#8230; an odd volume.<\/p>\n<p>We get <em>FF Annual <\/em>#19, an odd historical homage and tie-in to the <em>Avengers Annual <\/em>#14 (to the point of sharing several pages of pencils) with a long-forgotten and annoying Skrull plotline.&nbsp; FF 285 has the anticlimactic &#8220;Johnny quits because a fanboy burned himself&#8221; tale &#8230; and then we hop over to Avengers #263 (which has nothing to do with Byrne or the FF) that segues to FF #286 (which does) that seuges to X-Factor #1 (which doesn&#8217;t again).&nbsp; Yes, that&#8217;s two whole issues (plus an Annual) of FF, and about half the book involving Byrne.<\/p>\n<p>What was the title again?<\/p>\n<p>Worst (or best, depending on your perspective), that whole final fandango involves the crazy &#8220;No, Jean Gray wasn&#8217;t the Phoenix and she&#8217;s back now at the bottom of Jamaica Bay&#8221; plot, which led to the insanity that was the original impetus behind X-Factor (&#8220;We&#8217;ll gather mutants to safety by pretending to be a mutant hunting and capture company&#8221;).&nbsp; Both are chapters that I really wish had never happened in the MU &#8230; and now they&#8217;re reprinted for posterity.&nbsp; Feh.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><small><i>(listening to: Barry, John, &#8220;Murder at the Fair&#8221; from <\/i>Living Daylights, The)<\/small><br \/> <small><i>(listening to: Animaniacs, &#8220;The Presidents&#8221; from <\/i>Variety Pack)<\/small><br \/> <small><i>(listening to: Gold, Murray, &#8220;New Adventures&#8221; from <\/i>Doctor Who &#8211; The New Series &#8211; Original Television Soundtrack)<\/small><br \/> <small><i>(listening to: Elfman, Danny, &#8220;Dick Tracy&#8221; from <\/i>Music for a Darkened Theatre)<\/small><br \/> <small><i>(listening to: Bangles, &#8220;Be with You&#8221; from <\/i>Everything)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fantastic Four Visionaries &#8211; John Byrne, Vol. 6&nbsp;(Marvel) [collects #276-284, Thing #23, SW II #2)] w\/a.&nbsp;John Byrne&nbsp; Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? John Byrne&#8217;s run on FF was&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[13,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogathon","category-media-comics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15334,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/25\/bt09-f-is-for-fantastic-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":11628,"position":0},"title":"BT09 &#8211; F is for Fantastic (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-09 11:56am","format":false,"excerpt":"Three different looks at the Fantastic Four. \u00a0\u00a0 Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne, Vol. 8\u00a0(Marvel) [collects #287-295] w\/a. John Byrne, et al.\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? These 1986 (!) tales marked the end of Byrne's era on the FF (Roger Stern and Jerry Ordway slip in toward the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogathon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars4.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7595,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/01\/28\/graphic_novels.html","url_meta":{"origin":11628,"position":1},"title":"Graphic Novels on Parade","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 28-Jan-05 10:46pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Time to catch up on recently read graphic novels (and up to forty words about each) ......","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comics &amp; Comic Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comics &amp; Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9312,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2006\/07\/29\/bt06_three_comi.html","url_meta":{"origin":11628,"position":2},"title":"BT06 &#8211; Three comics TBPs that delight","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 29-Jul-06 10:54am","format":false,"excerpt":"Review code format (ranked 1-5, blah to faboo): [writing \/ art \/ new reader? \/ non-comics reader?] \u00a0 Fables: Arabian Nights (and Days) (Vol 7) (DC\/Vertigo) [4\/4\/3\/4] (collects 42-47) w....","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogathon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7850,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2005\/08\/06\/bt05_what_lurks.html","url_meta":{"origin":11628,"position":3},"title":"BT05 &#8211; What Lurks Behind the Blog!","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 6-Aug-05 11:29am","format":false,"excerpt":"All right, back to the reviews! Katherine's actually being pretty cool about this. Polite. Not interrupting. Bugging her mom to take her out for ice cream. She rocks, too....","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogathon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6908,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/12\/03\/comic_relief_8.html","url_meta":{"origin":11628,"position":4},"title":"Comic relief","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 3-Dec-04 9:50pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A few graphic novels that have been stacking up ... and up to forty words about them. Review code format: [writing (5-1, faboo to mediocre) \/ art (5-1) \/ suitability...","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Comics &amp; Comic Books&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Comics &amp; Comic Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-comics"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":15356,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/25\/bt09-j-is-for-justice-blogathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":11628,"position":5},"title":"BT09 &#8211; J is for Justice (#Blogathon)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sat 25-Jul-09 4:56pm","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 JLA\/Avengers\u00a0(DC) [collects #1-4] w. Kurt Busiek; a.\u00a0George Perez\u00a0 Writing New reader? Art Non-comics reader? \u00a0This book is seventeen kinds of awesome. Decades in the making (mostly due to wrangling between DC and Marvel), Busiek's love for the characters here is matched only by Perez getting the chance to draw\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blogathon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blogathon","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/blogathon"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars5.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11628"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11628\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}