FANTASTIC FOUR #240

"EXODUS"
Words and Pictures: John Byrne | Letters: Jim Novak | Colors: Glynis Wein
Editor: Jim Salicrup | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: The mutant Quicksilver arrives at the Baxter Building, and after a brief misunderstanding skirmish, informs the Fantastic Four that the Inhumans need help: they are assaulted from without by the sinister Enclave, while inside their hidden city of Attilan, a plague has infected them and led to the deaths of numerous Inhumans. The FF readily agree to assist, and Quicksilver summons the teleporting Inhuman dog, Lockjaw, to bring them all to Attilan.

There, the heroes find that the war is over, ended by the sacrifice of the Inhumans’s insane enemy, Maximus. But he plague remains. Reed determines it’s caused by exposure to the ever-increasing volume of pollutants in the Earth’s atmosphere and declares that the Inhumans must move. When he learns that Attilan has been moved before, Reed suggests that it be transported again, to the Blue Area of the Moon. The Inhumans agree and, after the FF assist in prepping the city and plotting a course, Inhuman king Black Bolt transports Attilan to its new home.

Later, in the aftermath of the move, Inhuman princess Crystal, wife of Quicksilver, gives birth to a daughter.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: It's winter in New York as the story starts, and Christmas is around the corner, evidenced by the Thing attempting to hide the gifts he's purchased for young Franklin. As he looks for a hiding place, Ben muses that it's almost as if Franklin can read his mind sometimes.

During the skirmish with Quicksilver, Frankie is surprisingly callous when she nearly takes the mutant intruder’s life.

Johnny is surprised to learn his former girlfriend Crystal is pregnant, and Frankie realizes he's not entirely over the Inhuman princess. Later, when the Fantastic Four depart with Quicksilver and Lockjaw, Reed orders Frankie to remain behind as her training is not complete. Once the team is gone, Frankie pines for the cosmic adventure she’d expected when she joined the FF.

The war between the Inhumans and Enclave is described by Quicksilver to the FF, then ended off-panel, Maximus having sacrificed himself while Quicksilver was on his way to New York. Curiously there are no footnotes to any of this, but they're clearly references to some other story. Some quick research on my part reveals that this all went down in AVENGERS ANNUAL #12.

Reed determines that the “plague” affecting the Inhumans is the same vulnerability to pollutants which afflicted Crystal some time earlier, during her period as a member of the Fantastic Four. Again, there is no footnote.

There is, however, a reference when Medusa describes the prior movement of Attilan, which occurred in WHAT IF…? #30. (A canonical story happened in an issue of WHAT IF…??)

We’re also reminded that the Blue Area of the Moon, inhabited by the Watcher, first appeared in FF #13, and that Phoenix of the X-Men perished there in X-MEN 137.

As Attilan cruises out of the Earth’s atmosphere, it is tracked by SHIELD’s orbiting satellite; however SHIELD’s attention is drawn from the flying city to a “power-pocket strong enough to vaporize the whole hemisphere,” a seed to be followed up next issue. As was the custom of the time, SHIELD is stated here to stand for “Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage-Law-Enforcement Division”.

When Quicksilver’s and Crystal’s daughter, soon to be named Luna, is born, Reed reveals that somehow Quicksilver’s mutant gene and Crystal’s Inhuman gene canceled each other out and the girl is an ordinary human.

Is It Clobberin' Time? At last! When Quicksilver invades the Baxter Building, Ben is quick to unleash clobberin’ time upon him.

My Thoughts: This is probably about as close to a “quiet issue” as John Byrne ever gets. He's on the record — and I agree with him to an extent — as believing that every issue should contain at least some action, because since “every issue is someone’s first,” if a person picked up a quiet issue as their inaugural exposure to a title, they might be bored and not return.

So we get a brief fight between the FF and Quicksilver to lead things off, before moving into a much less action-oriented tale. It's really just concerned with following up a previous Inhumans adventure and moving them to a new location. I'm not sure why Byrne decided Attilan should reside on the Moon rather than in the Himalayas, but the Inhumans in the Blue Area was their status quo when I first encountered the characters and for many years after, so having them anyplace else feels wrong to me, even though they initially debuted as Earth-dwellers.

Other things to like about this one: Frankie’s casual attitude toward killing an intruder, which follows up from a scene in which she attacked Wendy’s abusive father last issue. True, she's only using her power on those she believes deserve it, but nonetheless this set-up for her willingness to take a life, along with her above-mentioned yearning for cosmic adventure, will pay off in a big purple way just a few issues from now.

And the other bit that I really like here is Byrne’s treatment of the Thing: he reminds us that Ben is an ex-astronaut, and has him use those skills to plot Attilan’s course to the Moon. Ben is always the de facto pilot for the FF, but it's rare that his intelligence is played up beyond that. He's generally depicted as a savant behind the stick of pretty much any flying craft, but with that natural skill comes a great deal of education as well. Remember, he attended college with Reed and Doctor Doom, became a fighter jock and then a test pilot afterward, and eventually joined the space program. He's no dummy, and it's nice to see his intelligence played up now and then.