FANTASTIC FOUR #260

"WHEN TITANS CLASH!"
Story and Art: John Byrne | Letters: Jim Novak | Colors: Glynis Wein
Editor: Bob Budiansky | Titan: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Prince Namor of Atlantis flies over the sea near Northern Canada, but some force drains his strength and he plummets into the water. Meanwhile, in New York, the Human Torch and the Thing battle Tyros the Terrible. The Invisible Girl soon joins the conflict as well, but Tyros’s enhanced stamina proves a match for the full trio.

Doctor Doom observes the fight from his airship overhead and eventually realizes Mister Fantastic is not coming to his teammates’ aid. Doom descends to the battlesite below and orders Tyros to halt his assault -- but Tyros attacks Doom instead, fusing his armor and rendering him immobile. As Doom struggles to figure a way out of this predicament, the Silver Surfer descends from the sky and engages Tyros. Using his full power against the Surfer burns Tyros out, disintegrating him. Even as that happens, Tyros and the Surfer collide with Doom, apparently killing him.

Later, Sue returns to the Baxter Building with the Silver Surfer and leaves him in the medical room while she searches the FF’s headquarters for Reed. She finds no sign of him, but before she can continue her investigation, Namor arrives, pleading for her aid.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Obviously Reed is still missing, as noted above, and the rest of his teammates become aware of that this issue.

Namor is investigating the Canadian sea following the arrival of a group of barbarians in Atlantis who informed him of some terrible goings-on up north.

Tyros refuses to end his attack on the Fantastic Four, citing their betrayal of him in FF #242 – 244 as the reason he must finish them.

We’re reminded that the Silver Surfer came to New York to investigate a “matter transferal beam” he saw headed there last issue. There is no further mention of the beam in this chapter.

Though it goes unsaid here, we see a strong hint that Doctor Doom swapped his consciousness with that of an innocent bystander after his armor was fused. Thus the bystander perishes in Doom’s body and Doom lives on in his. Spider-Man’s Aunt May puts in a guest appearance as one of the crowd observing the fight when the transfer happens.

Tyros/Terrax dies this issue, a fate Byrne intended to be permanent (we see his body disintegrate and we’re told that “…the mortal form of the creature called Tyros boils away”). But Fabian Nicieza and Mark Bagley would resurrect him seven years later in NEW WARRIORS #1.

We’re told to follow Namor and Sue into the pages of ALPHA FLIGHT #4, now on sale, so we’ll do just that this Wednesday.

Is It Clobberin' Time? Most assuredly.

The Quotable Doom: “Ignorant alien savage! I am Doom! This is my plan! My victory! Without the degradation of Reed Richards it would mean nothing!”

My Thoughts: Every so often, John Byrne’s stories are prone to little lapses in logic, or perhaps in characterization, which leave a reader scratching his head. Most frequently in my experience, this is done to separate members of a group (or keep them separated for an artificially prolonged period of time).

The most famous of these in my mind is the run of X-MEN issues Byrne co-plotted with Chris Claremont. I absolutely love that run, so I can overlook this flaw, but the fact remains that there’s a bit where the X-Men return home from a long-running “world tour” and settle back into their mansion without attempting to contact anyone who might conveniently inform them that a couple of friends they believe dead are, in fact, alive. This is all done in the interest of advancing a sub-plot focused on Phoenix, leading up to “The Dark Phoenix Saga”.

Here, we have something similar to that. In the aftermath of a tremendous battle which saw the demise of Doctor Doom and a ton of property damage, a battle which saw the Silver Surfer seriously injured and for which Reed Richards never arrived despite two FF emergency flares being fired in the process, Sue takes the Surfer back to the Baxter Building by herself. She even notes that she “…wish(es) Johnny and Ben hadn’t gone off to take care of their own affairs.”

This is clearly done to get Sue alone for the arrival of Namor, so she can accompany him into ALPHA FLIGHT #4 without the rest of the team tagging along. But can anyone actually imagine a situation where Johnny and Ben would go off on dates or to decorate Johnny’s apartment or whatever else, rather than return to headquarters with Sue and make sure Reed is okay first?

Nonetheless, besides that weird little mischaracterization of one half of the FF, this is mostly a very strong “all-action” issue. I have a bit of a quibble with the Silver Surfer dropping from the sky to serve as nothing more than a deus ex machina to finish Tyros where the FF have failed, but the fight is so well choreographed that I can't complain too much.

This issue gives us a slam-bang, knock-down battle featuring the death of a major villain and the apparent death of another, and it’s all beautifully drawn. At this point, despite the fact that he’s writing, drawing, and inking both FANTASTIC FOUR and ALPHA FLIGHT simultaneously, any complaints I previously had about Byrne’s artwork have evaporated. Somehow he’s producing some of his best work since he started on this series (save for the lack of backgrounds, of course).