Fantastic Four #257
Published and © by Marvel, August 1983
Title: “Fragments”
Synopsis: Near death, Galactus devours the Skrull Throne-World. Meanwhile, back on Earth, the FF recover from their Negative Zone adventure.
Writer: John Byrne
Artist: Byrne
Review: Starving and weak, Galactus begins hallucinating and talking to Death. Not a good thing. Nova thinks she’s falling in love with Galactus. Also not a good thing (particularly for the Skrulls!) The members of the Fantastic Four start drifting their separate ways, but not in the cataclysmic, end-of-the-FF way seen in years past. This easily could have been one of those dreaded transitional issues that offers little in the way of real story development. But writer/artist John Byrne delivers a winner here, full of great character interaction and grist for future stories. Well done!
Grade: B+
Second opinion: “Well done.” – Gene Kehoe, It’s a Fanzine #21, November 1983 … “Another jam-packed issue in which Byrne seemed to give readers far more than their money’s worth, even if he prepared the ground for his most spectacular story yet.” – Pierre Comtois, “Marvel Comics in the 1980s: An Issue By Issue Field Guide to a Pop Culture Phenomenon,” 2014
Cool factor: Galactus just ate the Skrull Throne-World, and you’re asking what’s cool about this issue?
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: “The … er ‘rabbit died,’ Ben. Looks like you’re going to be an uncle, again!” – The Invisible Girl. (A confession: At age 13, this reviewer had no idea what “the rabbit died” meant!)
Editor’s note: This review was originally published by Comics Bronze Age on Jan. 7, 2010.
