FANTASTIC FOUR #270

"PLANET-FALL"
Writer/Artist: John Byrne | Colorist: Glynis Wein | Letterer: Michael Higgins
Editor in Transit: Bob Budiansky | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: While Johnny and Sue tend to personal matters in New York, Mister Fantastic, She-Hulk, and Wyatt Wingfoot deal with Terminus in Arizona. The gigantic alien discards a scout who was part of his armor, and Reed questions the dying alien. The scout, a brilliant scientist from his own world, reveals that Terminus is a galactic pillager, traveling from planet to planet, enslaving their peoples and stealing their resources.

The alien passes away and Reed quickly jury-rigs the crashed jet in which he and She-Hulk arrived to react with Terminus and send him down to the center of the Earth at unfathomable speed. Though Reed suspects Terminus will return, he makes plans to be ready for him next time.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Alicia Masters visits Johnny at his still-unfurnished loft apartment. (Side-note: Recall that Johnny first found the place in issue 257. Issue 263 declared that four months had passed since #262. Johnny is sure taking his time getting his new house in order!)

THE UNBOXING - JUNE 2016

Crazy how things work out sometimes. Last month I received nothing in the mail, hence no Unboxing for May. But this month, it's a wealth of new trade paperbacks and one long-awaited hardcover, as well!

We'll start with DC, since I have one single item from them this month: the LEGENDS 30th ANNIVERSARY EDITION. LEGENDS is a story I've wanted to read for years. My knowledge of DC history is a little spotty, but I understand this to be the very first crossover in the post-CRISIS ON INFINITE EARTHS DC Universe, and the story by John Ostrander, Len Wein, and John Byrne pits DC's heroes against Darkseid and the forces of Apokolips. I think this will make a nice companion to my collection of Byrne's SUPERMAN: THE MAN OF STEEL trade paperbacks.

Now it's on to Marvel. First up is the AVENGERS EPIC COLLECTION: UNDER SIEGE. I have an old printing of this storyline, but it only contains about half the issues presented in this volume (and it predates Marvel's standard restoration practices, so it's pretty ugly to boot). Unless I'm mistaken, thanks to this book I now own the entirety of Roger Stern's classic AVENGERS run. I look forward to reading the whole thing sometime soon.

ROBOTECH: FROM THE STARS

Though originally published under the simple title of ROBOTECH, this mini-series was retroactively named FROM THE STARS with the release of the trade paperback edition.

"PROMISE" | "FROM THE STARS" | "CALL TO DUTY" | "THE PROGRAM"
"CONFLICT OF INTEREST" | "THE GATHERING STORM" | "COMMITMENT"
Story: Tommy Yune | Script: Jay Faerber
Art: Long Vo, Charles Park & Saka of UDON* | Letterer: Jenna Garcia
Assistant Editor: Kristy Quinn | Editor: Ben Abernathy
Special Thanks to: Tom Bateman, Erik Ko, and Sandra Hofman

Wildstorm's inaugural ROBOTECH mini-series, masterminded by the franchise's creative director, Tommy Yune of Harmony Gold, functions as a prequel to the 1985 animated series, filling in a great deal of backstory for one of the show's major characters and his world.

The story begins in the year 2015, not long after the conclusion of ROBOTECH's first segment, "The Macross Saga". Captain Rick Hunter, Veritech fighter squadron leader, takes some time to reminisce about his late friend, mentor, and surrogate "big brother", Roy Fokker. We then jump back in time to the year 1999 as Roy leaves the flying circus run by Rick's father to enlist in the armed forces as a pilot in the ongoing global war. Six months later, Roy witnesses the arrival of a UFO on Earth in the South Pacific.

There's another time jump and six years later, in 2005, Roy returns to the circus but is quickly convinced by his former commanding officer, Admiral Hayes, to come back to the service as a test pilot. Roy arrives on Macross Island, where the UFO crashed, to find the new United Earth Government developing all manner of hi-tech vehicles and equipment. Under the command of a former mercenary named T.R. Edwards, Roy becomes the lead test pilot for Project: Valkyrie.

FANTASTIC FOUR #269

"SKYFALL"
Writer/Artist: John Byrne | Colorist: Glynis Wein | Letterer: Diana Albers
Editor: Bob Budiansky | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter
Science Advisor: Larry Niven

The Plot: Wyatt Wingfoot, one-time ally of the Fantastic Four, is out on an ATV near his Indian reservation when a red energy beam shoots down from the sky, slicing a path through the ground nearby. Later, in New York, the FF receive a call from Wyatt explaining the situation just as a similar beam strikes New Jersey. After a short call from the president, Mister Fantastic and She-Hulk depart to rendezvous with Wyatt.

As they cross the U.S., they see that several such beams have struck the country in bizarre patterns. They reach their destination and are nearly knocked out of the sky by a crashing spaceship. Upon landing, Reed and She-Hulk meet up with Wyatt and some of his tribe. Reed programs satellite imagery of the markings left by the beams into his universal translator and learns that they spell out a message: “I claim this world – Terminus.” Then, on cue, the gigantic crashed spacecraft opens up and an enormous armored being emerges.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Wyatt is about to become the new chief of his tribe. As he mulls this over, he finds himself thinking about the adventures he shared in the past with the Fantastic Four.

THE SUMMER OF ROBOTECH

Once upon a time, I was a ROBOTECH fanatic -- though not so long ago as you might think. Even though I was a child of the eighties, I missed ROBOTECH the first time around, when it debuted in 1985. It wasn't until thirteen years later, in 1998, that I tried the show out when it joined the Toonami lineup on Cartoon Network. I fell for it hard, and within a year or two I'd picked up and read all the novels and many of the comic books, which stretched back to the mid-eighties across multiple licensees.

Mostly, this ROBOTECH "expanded universe" was consistent across all platforms, notwithstanding some awful deviations by Antarctic Press's comics in 1998 or so. But when Wildstorm acquired the license in 2002, it was decided by ROBOTECH licensor Harmony Gold to reboot the franchise, and the company's creative director, Tommy Yune, took on this duty.

In 2002, I was a bit miffed to learn that all the stuff I'd just finished reading "didn't count" anymore, but it didn't take too long to buy into Yune's new vision for ROBOTECH. In truth, he kept a lot of what had come before while dumping some of the more questionable aspects presented by previous writers. I eventually came to really enjoy Wildstorm's ROBOTECH comics, and was disappointed when the license lapsed into inactivity only a couple years after the relaunch.

CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE

"IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT" | "YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU" | "LOST HORIZON"
"A HOLE IN THE HEAD" | "POCKETFUL OF MIRACLES" | "IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE"
Storytellers: Jeph Loeb & Tim Sale | Colors: Dave Stewart
Lettering: Comicraft's Richard Starkings | Design: Comicraft's John Roshell
Production: Idette Winecoor | Consulting Editor: Richard Starkings
Assistant Editor: Jon Moisan | Editor: Mark Paniccia | Editor-in-Chief: Axel Alonso
Chief Creative Officer: Joe Quesada | Publisher: Dan Buckley
Executive Producer: Alan Fine | Captain America created by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby

Last year I wrote about the original three Marvel "color" series from Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale -- DAREDEVIL: YELLOW, SPIDER-MAN: BLUE, and HULK: GRAY. I've loved the first two of those since their original releases circa 2003 and they're still very special to me, while GRAY has always left me a little cold. Unfortunately, CAPTAIN AMERICA: WHITE falls closer to the GRAY end of the spectrum than the YELLOW or BLUE end.

WHITE, which originally received a #0 issue back in 2008, finally saw the remainder of its installments published in 2015. Considering the circumstances, it's a remarkably consistent read; I can only assume the script was written entirely in advance. Where the previous three "color" books featured the title characters mourning the losses of the great loves of their lives, WHITE is about Captain America, recently awakened in the modern day, recalling his relationship with his partner and best friend, "Bucky" Barnes.

The story, set in World War II, follows Cap and Bucky on a mission to Europe as they meet up with Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos, then head into Paris to investigate the Red Skull's presence there. In France, the group teams up with a resistance fighter named Maryline, a.k.a. the Gypsy, and her band. Cap stops the Red Skull from destroying the Eiffel Tower and killing Bucky, then the Americans leave Paris to continue their war while the Gypsy and her people remain behind to carry on their own battle.

FANTASTIC FOUR ANNUAL #18

"SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW!"
Plot: John Byrne | Script: Mark Gruenwald | Pencils: Mark Bright
Inks: Mike Gustovich |Letters: Phil Felix | Colors: Petra Scotese
Editor: Michael Carlin | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Ten lunar orbits ago on the Moon, while the X-Men fought for the life of Phoenix, observers from the Kree and Skrull empires began their own private war in the Moon’s Blue Area. Eventually the Watcher pulled them to his home to receive communications from their respective leaders, the Kree Supreme Intelligence and the Kree Empress R’Klll. The leaders ordered Bel-Dann the Kree and Raksor the Skrull to continue their war as proxies of their entire empires. The winner would determine the victor of the eons-long conflict between the Kree and the Skrulls.

In the present, the Fantastic Four arrive on the Moon for the wedding of Black Bolt and Medusa of the Inhumans. But the ceremony is interrupted as the battles between Bel-Dann and Raksor begin to damage the foundations of the Inhuman city, Attilan. The FF and Inhuman royal family investigate and battle the warring aliens, who escape.

Later, Mister Fantastic hatches a plan to overcome the aliens, whose fighting has gotten dangerously close to Attilan’s nuclear power plant. He and Black Bolt enlist the Watcher’s aid and then confront the aliens again. Bel-Dann and Raksor defeat the Fantastic Four and Inhumans together, and the Watcher decrees that both empires have won, for only by unifying their forces can they ever bring an end to their wars. The Watcher teleports the two aliens back to their empires, then the Inhumans and FF resume celebrating.