Fantastic Four #254
Published and © by Marvel, May 1983
Title: “The Minds of Mantracora”
Synopsis: Continuing their exploration of the Negative Zone, the FF encounter a people subjugated by an alien posing as their ruler.
Writer: John Byrne
Artist: Byrne
Review: This multipart Negative Zone arc continues to give John Byrne the writer a chance to shine. Like earlier installments, this first half of a two-parter is tightly plotted and offers excellent world building in a short number of pages. But, as usual, the story really shines because of Byrne’s strong characterization. Things aren’t as good for Byrne the artist, who continues to experiment with a straight-to-inking technique. The results look increasingly rough, and there are even a few panels where the underlying art is a little off (i.e., the machinery on Page 12).
Grade: A-
Cool factor: The Invisible Girl sends the rest of the team away so she and Mr. Fantastic can sneak a quickie. This scene – which would actually turn out to be a major plot development in a later story arc – was quite shocking to Little Me when this issue first hit the stands.
Collector’s note: According to the Grand Comics Database, there is a 75¢ Canadian variant of this issue. … According to MyComicShop.com, there is also a Mark Jewelers variant.
Character quotable: “I’d sure like ta know what yer usin’ as a scale of what’s odd an’ what ain’t.” – The Thing (After all his years as Mr. Fantastic’s buddy, you’d think he’d know there was a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in place on that one.)
Editor’s note: This review was originally published by Comics Bronze Age on Nov. 26, 2009.
