FANTASTIC FOUR #261

"THE SEARCH FOR REED RICHARDS"
Story & Art: John Byrne | Colors: Glynis Wein | Letters: Jim Novak
Editing: Bob Budiansky | Searching: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Namor and Marrina drop Sue off at the Baxter Building and depart. After calling Avengers Mansion and learning Reed had been there, Sue and the Silver Surfer travel to the mansion as well. The Avengers are out, save the Scarlet Witch, who informs them of Reed’s kidnapping. The Surfer uses the Power Cosmic to divine that Reed has been taken out into deep space.

Sue summons Ben and Johnny and together they head for the Moon to enlist the aid of the Watcher. He guides the Fantastic three to a ragtag alien fleet comprised of the survivors of numerous worlds destroyed by Galactus. These aliens plan to execute Reed, but the Watcher convinces them otherwise. As the aliens begin to deliberate over Reed’s ultimate fate, Empress Lilandra of the Shi’ar Empire arrives and declares that Reed must die.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: Namor lays a big wet smooch on Sue before leaving, as a reminder of what she might have had if she had accepted his advances many years ago. A footnote tells us that Sue’s return to New York takes place a few hours following the conclusion of ALPHA FLIGHT #4.

Sue notes that overall, it’s been less than 24 hours since FANTASTIC FOUR #259. She also recalls that Reed never responded to her flare signal during the fight with Tyros.

The Silver Surfer is unable to aid the FF in their search for Reed due to Galactus having confined him to the Earth way back in issue #50.

In further timeline news, Ben states that Sue announced her pregnancy only “a coupla days ago.” That happened in issue 257, within whose pages two days explicitly passed. So Ben’s reference to a couple here is probably a generalization meaning "a few" rather than specifically meaning two days.

As he, Sue, and Johnny head into space, Ben provides a handy recap of the FF’s origins for those who may have joined the series since the last time Byrne covered it, in issue 245.

The Watcher states that his people have allowed him to aid the FF in their search for Reed, as his fate may have much larger repercussions for the universe than anyone realizes.

Johnny compares the vessel on which they find Reed to the ancient colony ship the FF found in the Negative Zone in issue 252.

The aliens intent on executing Reed invoke his sparing of Galactus as the reason for their plot. They also let us know that Galactus killed seven billion Skrulls when he devoured their throneworld. Reed seems conflicted about whether he should be upset over this, outright declaring the Skrulls to be “… the most relentlessly evil race in their galaxy.”

Is It Clobberin' Time? No.

My Thoughts: The little back-and-forth between John Byrne and Chris Claremont continues here. For those keeping track:

• In X-MEN #146 (June 1981) by Claremont, Arcade struck a match on Doctor Doom’s armor.
• In FANTASTIC FOUR #244 (July 1982) by Byrne, Reed Richards saved the life of Galactus.
• In X-MEN #167 (March 1983), Claremont had a furious Lilandra respond to the Galactus situation by beaming a transmission to the FF, declaring that Reed will be held responsible for the next world consumed by Galactus.
• In FANTASTIC FOUR #258 (September 1983), Byrne declared the Doom from the X-MEN issue was a robot and destroyed it on page to make a point that Doom would never allow such a thing to happen.

(Brian Cronin at Comics Should Be Good! has done much more in-depth articles about both these incidents here and here.)

(Also, it's interesting to note that, presumably due to production time to get the issues into print and lead time to create responses, both "inciting incidents" happened first, before either response. Though Byrne had to wait a full two years to address the Doom thing since Doom was trapped in Liddleville for most of that time.)

And here we are. While the Doom incident was perhaps a little petty on Byrne’s part – even if I agree with his sentiment – the Lilandra thing comes off a bit petty on Claremont’s part, at least for me. Byrne was telling his own story, but for some reason Claremont decided Lilandra had to threaten Reed over this act, and according to Byrne, he did so without consulting the FANTASTIC FOUR editorial office first.

I’m on record as disagreeing with the naïveté exhibited by our heroes in saving Galactus. Surely, weighed against the countless billions upon billions of lives he would take in the future, letting him die was the best alternative. It’s the old “kill Hitler as a baby” conundrum (which, coincidentally, Byrne will also visit, in a way, before this run is over).

But I also believe Byrne has the right to tell his story as he will, without interference from the writer of a completely unrelated series. It would be one thing to have Lilandra simply react. That’s to be expected and even applauded in the furtherance of the shared universe. And I'd be fine with her threatening Reed if it was part of a story Claremont and Byrne cooked up together. But to unilaterally insert her into an FF story as more than just an observer – well, that turns this into something Byrne will have to address whether he wants to or not.

But, on the plus side as we’ll next time, Byrne managed to make lemonade out of this one.