FANTASTIC FOUR #293

"CENTRAL CITY DOES NOT ANSWER!"
Writer/Penciler: John Byrne | Inker: Al Gordon
Letterer: John Workman | Colorist: Glynis Oliver
Editor: Mike Carlin | Editor-in-Chief: Jim Shooter

The Plot: Wyatt Wingfoot receives a call from She-Hulk informing him that Reed Richards’ hometown of Cental City, California has vanished into a giant black dome. Wyatt fetches the rest of the Fantastic Four and they depart for the city.

Meanwhile, She-Hulk and the West Coast Avengers investigate the dome. Iron Man assembles a device which allows him entrance, but when he emerges after less than a second, he claims that he was inside for three weeks. Wonder Man takes Iron Man back to WCA headquarters to recharge, leaving She-Hulk and Tigra behind to watch as the dome begins growing. It quickly swallows She-Hulk.

The FF and Wyatt arrives and Tigra informs them of the situation. Wasting no time, the team enters the dome to find Central City has been built upward into a futuristic metropolis apparently devoid of inhabitants. As they explore, the FF are startled to come across replicas of the Baxter Building and a large statue devoted to them.

Sub-Plots & Continuity Notes: We’re told via dialogue and a footnote that She-Hulk is in California in search of the missing Thing.

The Fantastic Four are still residing in Avengers’ Mansion, where we catch up with them observing Doctor Doom’s ward, Kristoff, who now possesses Doom’s brain rather than his own. Kristoff’s plight and the FF’s sudden departure prompts Sue to consider that no one has been appointed to take care of Franklin if the entire group should perish at once.

She-Hulk offers to free Iron Man from his damaged armor, but the other Avengers are protective of his secret identity, which she doesn’t know. Because, once upon a time, superheroes — including Iron Man — actually had secret identities and they didn’t just share them with every other superhero out there (not to mention the general public) at the drop of a hat.

Johnny insinuates that Wyatt and She-Hulk have fallen in love, though Wyatt's not certain he'd put it that way.

After the group enters the dome, Tigra sees something which freaks her the heck out, but we don't find out what it is in this issue.

My Thoughts: Well, this is, essentially, John Byrne’s final issue of FANTASTIC FOUR. He’s credited with the next installment’s plot and receives special thanks for issue 295 (both of which we’ll cover together next week), but issue 293 is Byrne’s last as writer and penciler.

I wish I could say he went out with a bang, but departing after part one of a multi-chapter arc isn’t really the best way to pack it in. However Byrne maintains he had no real choice. Apparently, thanks to Byrne taking the assignment to reboot Superman over at DC, Jim Shooter quickly began to make his life a living heck, micromanaging and second-guessing every issue (Byrne says Shooter’s interference dates all the way back to FF #286, which was in production when he told Shooter of his Superman assignment).

I don’t know if it’s all true. Byrne certainly seems to have a bit of a persecution complex. But enough creators have tales about butting heads with a vindictive Jim Shooter that I tend to believe Byrne in this instance. Based on stories I’ve heard, Shooter seems just petty enough to behave this way. (Which isn’t to say Byrne isn’t also a petty guy; but Shooter’s pettiness seems to outweigh Byrne’s in this situation.)

At any rate, let’s bid a fond farewell to John Byrne as he leaves FANTASTIC FOUR effective today. At the very least, he goes out on a pretty strong artistic note. I feel like Al Gordon, who I found a bit too scratchy when he first came on board, must have taken some cues from Joe Sinnott's brief time inking Byrne, because suddenly over the past few issues, his work has become much thicker and bolder, and it's far more appealing to my eye.

As noted above, we’ll cover the subsequent two issues next week in order to get a look at the resolution of this set-up, and then a week later I’ve scheduled a brief retrospective on the entirety of Byrne’s run, so stand by for that.