FANTASTIC FOUR #276

"SUFFER A WITCH TO LIVE..."
Script & Pencils: John Byrne | Colors: Glynis Wein | Letters: John Workman
Editing: Michael Carlin | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
And introducing the inking wizardry of: Jerry Ordway!!!

The Plot: While the Human Torch reflects on his love life and She-Hulk works out under the watch of Wyatt Wingfoot, Reed and Sue Richards, in their secret identities of Reed and Sue Benjamin, host a housewarming party in Belle Porte, Connecticut. But the party is watched from across the street by nosey neighbor Alma Chalmers and an exorcist named Elspeth Cromwell.

After the party ends, Cromwell attacks the Richardses, who she and Alma believe to be demons in human form. She summons the undead Knights of Hades to battle Reed and Sue, causing Franklin to awaken and come downstairs in fear. When he arrives, Cromwell realizes he was injured falling out of bed, and with the spillage of innocent blood, the demons are joined by their master, Mephisto.

In Manhattan, in Greenwich Village, Doctor Strange senses the breach between dimensions and departs for Belle Porte to investigate.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Johnny reflects that he is in love with Alicia.

Meanwhile, She-Hulk tests her strength on the Thing’s workout gear and finds herself able to lift 75 tons, besting her previous record of 70. Wyatt says that Reed believes she could eventually reach the Hulk’s strength level, but She-Hulk is unsure she ever wants to get to that goal.

The Richardses' party is attended by their neighbors, a collection of famous comic strip characters including (but not limited to) Hi and Lois, Blondie and Dagwood, the Lockhorns, and more.

Sue recalls that she found Franklin alone and behaving strangely in one of Reed’s labs in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #260.

Reed’s arm is broken by one of the demons unleashed by Cromwell. (Remember, this story takes place prior to the final scene of issue 275, which depicted Reed with his arm in a sling.)

My Thoughts: It’s almost twenty issues now since Byrne decided to set up Reed and Sue with secret identities in Connecticut, but he really hasn’t done anything with that status quo since. Here, finally, we get a story involving the Richardses’ suburban life, and while part one isn’t great, it’s certainly decent. The question is, given the insanity that’s been unleashed just outside their home, will these events blow their secret and force them to move back to New York? If so, this seems a waste of a very long-running and otherwise pointless sub-plot, but I guess we’ll find out next time.

The main thing to discuss this issue is the artwork, as Jerry Ordway joins the creative team as Byrne’s inker, following a couple guest-inking jobs by Al Gordon. While I didn’t necessarily dislike Gordon’s work, as I noted last time he seemed to have too light a touch for Byrne’s pencils. Ordway complements Byrne a bit better, though I’m not certain he’s a perfect match just yet either. His lines aren’t as light as Gordon’s, but they are mostly not heavy enough for Byrne’s pencils, either. He has about twenty issues to get used to Byrne, though, so the jury is out on him for now.

Also on the artistic front, I need to address something which has been bugging me for a while, but which I haven’t really pointed out: for some time now, Byrne has been using photographs of Manhattan in the backgrounds of scenes set above the city. He doesn’t do it all the time, but it’s definitely too often not to notice, and it’s kind of jarring. This sort of thing is fine once in a while as an experiment, but in this case, one can’t help feeling Byrne is doing it simply to cut some corners and save time, and it just looks ugly.