My Fantastic Four-ay: Part Ten.

[NOTE: examination of John Byrne’s past work is meant solely in a critical and historical context, and is not meant as a condoning of any specific statements he has made or creative choices he has taken.]

So we’re still going to be talking about Fantastic Four #296, the triple-or-so-sized anniversary issue of the title. Last time I didn’t get much farther than the cover, and this time…well, the aheader I am, the behinder I get, because I was Googling around and discovered some heretofore unknown to me information. And it’s information I should have realized was out there.

As previously discussed, John Byrne’s departure from the series was very sudden and apparently unexpected, as it appears a combination of office politics and burnout (so to speak) on creating the stories themselves is what caused him to self-remove from those chores. However, it didn’t dawn on me that maybe he let slip some of his intended plans for future stories here and there, like in the Amazing Heroes Preview Special an’ such.

And in fact, he did briefly chat ahout said comics there, but he talked about the same things in greater length in Marvel Age #37.

As I said, I happened to be Googling around and caught someone referencing this very issue of Marvel Age, noting that Byrne revealed his own plans for the upcoming anniversary issue. Thus, did I seek out this sacred tome (i.e. asked a pal for a copy) and dug into the long-hidden secrets of this lost comic.

Or maybe not so lost. We’ll see.

A production note: my source on these pages was relatively low resolution, so I doubled the size, just in case you were wondering why everything’s so fuzzy and pixelated. By which I mean these scans, not me.

This is all from an article entitled “Marvel 25th Anniversary,” written by Kurt Busiek, which surprised me just a tad. Within, creators are asked what they’ve got planned for their books for The Big Occasion, and that includes a certain Mr. Byrne, who has plans for #296, big plans indeed, oh yes.

Now it doesn’t specify in the article whether the “guest list” means surprise character cameos in the story, or guest artists helping to fill out this monster of a book. Regardless, let’s see what the story will entail.

No, Byrne didn’t just invent Ultimate Comics. Basically what he’s saying (as he explains more in the bit I trimmed off) is that the 20th anniversary book was more a standalone adventure, concerned primarily with itself, while this 25th anniversary book would contain more “fannish” callbacks and references. Like, for example, an autographed photo of the Infant Terrible on an endtable, you know, like that.

Now here’s where it gets interesting. Byrne’s story is called “Return to Monster Island,” in which we go back to the Mole Man’s hangout from that very first Fantastic Four adventure in 1961. And what’s interesting about that is what does in fact happen in the published, Byrne-free #296, plotted by the then editor-in-chief of Marvel, Big Jim Shooter, with the scripting credited to the FF’s co-creator Stan Lee.

The noted retelling of the origin also happens in the published #296, but it appears as a reminiscence of the Thing’s. Also, the visit to Central City does not appear.

Now this sounds interesting, and probably would have made for a fascinating visual, with seawater just pouring into a giant open wound in the Earth. But again, not in the published comic, as when the FF reaches Monster Island, it is still intact.

That would have been a wild twist on that ancient detail, which…you know, why not? It’s not like all those giant diamonds played too heavily in any future plot points, beyond maybe emphasizing their literally-blinding brilliance. This gives them some measure of purpose, and their transformative powers sets up what is the likely resolution to a certain in-story problem:

First, yes, in the printed #296 the Thing had also come to Monster Island to hang out with other monsters, but at this point he just looked like the normal orange rocky monster he always was. (Only decked out in a jumpsuit and googles just like his new best pal, the Mole Man.)

In Byrne’s version, it seems pretty clear that the solution to the Thing’s new drastic, presumably physical, changes, would be exposure to that diamond goo. It would turn him to his “true self,” which wold mean (in the uninteresting resolution) regaining his human form as Ben Grimm, or (in the more compelling, psychological twist) becoming his true form as the real Thing, the blue-eyed idol of millions. That would certainly say a lot about what the Thing thought of himself, and, done right, couild have been a swell reveal.

In the published follow-up issues, the She-Hulk situation isn’t really addressed right away, as we’re more focused on the Thing’s mental state and his depression over The State of Stuff. It does come to a head with She-Hulk and the Thing having bit of a tussle in #299, but clearly circumstances at this point have departed from Byrne’s plans.

…or have we, as the published #300 does in fact have a marriage, between Johnny Storm and the Thing’s former girlfriend, Alicia Masters (or is it? More on that later!). Byrne’s comment on “whether those will come to pass” leaves it perhaps open to some kind of avoiding the marriage in his version of #300, but that’s hard to say. (That comment also refers to his tease of maybe finishing the long-uncompleted “Last Galactus Story,” which…well, it’s not too late!)

It’s kind of a no-brainer that going back to the setting of the very first Fantastic Four adventure could be the basis of a Special Anniversary Issue. As such, it makes sense that Shooter would stick with that basic outline for the story. (Plus, “Return to Monster Island” is blurbed at the end of #295.) It makes a very FF-kind of sense that the Thing, feeling alienated and alone, would go to Monster Island to be with other “monsters” like him. I’m sure Byrne had run all his plans for the issue, and once Byrne left, the idea was “well, let’s just kinda stick with what he was planning.” He probably should have had some kind of notation on the main page, at the very least as “inspiration.”

Maybe Jack Kirby, too, but at least get gets a mention in the afterword Stan supposedly wrote in the back of the comic. Ah well.

It was strange to see this alternate take on what the anniversary issue could have been, even if it wasn’t, at least on the most basic level, all that different from what we actually got. And what we actually got…will be discussed in the next installment! Finally!
 
 

Special thanks for the production assistance from Bully, the Little Fantastic Bull!