FANTASTIC FOUR #267

"A SMALL LOSS"
Writer-Artist: John Byrne | Colorist: Glynis Wein | Letterer: Michael Higgins
Editor: Bob Budiansky | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Walter Langowski convinces Reed that only Doctor Otto Octavius’s knowledge can save Sue and her unborn child. Reed heads for the South Brooklyn Psychiatric Facility and appeals to Octavius’s humanity. In a moment of docility, Octavius agrees to help.

However, en route back to the hospital, Octavius catches sight of one of the Daily Bugle’s anti-Spider-Man billboards. The image of his hated enemy sends him into a psychotic frenzy and he mentally summons his mechanical arms from lockdown nearby. Doctor Octopus battles Mister Fantastic over Manhattan, but Reed manages to shut the arms down. This time appealing to Octopus’s pride, Reed convinces him again to aid Sue. They return to the hospital together, but are too late. Sue is alive, but the baby has perished.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: She-Hulk notes that she joined the Fantastic Four in search of respect, after having been considered a joke by the public at large even during her time as an Avenger. She also recalls her past life as “a hotshot lady lawyer in California,” and reminds readers that the Richardses’ unborn child was conceived in the Negative Zone circa issues 251 – 256.

Bruce Banner recaps Doctor Octopus’s origin for Reed (and the readers):

There’s a continuity flub to be found here, though Byrne was likely not responsible. Reed recalls that Doctor Octopus was “recently captured again” and is being held at the South Brooklyn Psychiatric Facility. Last issue, She-Hulk indicated that it was still the same day as Sue’s collapse, and this issue picks up exactly where the last one left off.

Thing is, when Sue was rushed to the hospital earlier this very same day, Reed, Johnny, and She-Hulk had just returned from the Secret Wars. And in the final issue of SECRET WARS, all the various supervillains – including Doc Ock – are flying through space under the guidance of Molecule Man, bound for Earth. SECRET WARS 12 hadn’t yet been published at this point, however – it was still nearly a year away – and so Byrne perhaps assumed that the Beyonder would have simply returned the villains to the spots from whence he’d plucked them when the series began.

(Later in this run, Byrne will have to jump through a few hoops to explain how Doctor Doom – believed dead by the FF and known to readers to be inhabiting the body of a random civilian, his actual physical form destroyed – appeared in SECRET WARS as well.)

My Thoughts: Due to somewhat similar powers, Mister Fantastic versus Doctor Octopus is a pretty cool idea for a fight, and certainly not something a regular reader of FANTASTIC FOUR might expect. Byrne handles their confrontation well, in a nicely drawn six-page sequence.

But even accounting for this unlikely matchup, the thing for which this issue is best known is Sue’s miscarriage. In retrospect it seems obvious Byrne would find some way out of actually having her deliver the child. He’s on record as disliking Franklin Richards and as being a strong proponent of illusory change over actual shakeups to a status quo. True, we’ve just seen She-Hulk join the FF, but even that is more of a change to the window dressing – There are still four members of the Fantastic Four and one of them is still super-strong. She just happens to be a green woman instead of an orange rock-monster.

Somehow, though I knew Byrne’s intention going in here and I was fully aware of how the story would end, even as I read the issue in an encore performance after having taken it in once before, I still found myself almost wondering if Reed and Octavius would make it back to the hospital in time to save the baby. Hope springs eternal, I guess. I have similar feelings about certain movies and TV shows I’ve seen many times before; I know how things will end, but some weird irrational part of me hopes that this time it’ll be different.*

But it’s not. Sue miscarries as always, and the issue’s sobering final page still hits like a ton of bricks. And note the added tragedy of the doctor's report – this happened over a half hour earlier. For all we know, Sue lost the baby before Reed even picked Octavius up at the psychiatric facility.

When Byrne wants to, he can hit the hard emotions just as well as the best comic book writers, and this is definitely such a case.

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* Maybe not the best example, but literally every time I watch STAR WARS: REVENGE OF THE SITH, there's some little part of me that hopes this time, Anakin won't lop off Mace Windu's hands and Palpatine will be stopped before he can execute the Jedi and seize power.