Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne #4

[Le Messor]

I just got this. It's an old trade, but I got it yesterday (I looked for references to it on the forum, couldn't find them).

I'm posting largely because AF #4 is reprinted in there! I didn't know that, 'til now. It's kind of surreal to me, to read it as a 'Fantastic Four reader'. It's the same... but different. (Actually is different; well, slightly. When the Master's base blows up, in the 'riginal and the AF trade version, we get a two-page spread. Here, it's one page.)

Oh, and also, Marrina's in FF #261. I hadn't known that, either.

- Le Messor
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored."
- Aldous Huxley

[rplass]

Yeah, and in FF #260, there's a bit of a tie-in there at the end with Namor and Sue. That's cool that an entire AF issue would be published in an FF trade. Nice find! Weird about the 2pg spread shrinking to 1pg, how did they do it, letterbox or just turn the page 90deg?

[Le Messor]

You're right about #260; I didn't mention it 'coz I've had it for ages.

There's no dialogue on the page, so they just letterboxed it; took a strip from the middle. It's kind of understandable, since there's another two-page spread earlier in the same issue, and to make them both two-page, they had to basically put a blank page in the AF trade.

Also, Walter shows up in at least two issues of the FF reprinted in FFVJB 4

- Le Messor
"Failed bar exam with relatively high grades."
- from a job application

[rplass]

Yes, Walter shows up in three issues: #'s 266, 267 and 268 as a radiation expert in a lab coat to help the Reeds with Susan's pregnancy.

[Le Messor]

This just in:
FF Visionaries JB #6 contains two AF references (but no appearance by the team / members).
Johnny Storm:
"Yeah... well, shape-changers ain't exactly rare in this universe. There's one in Alpha Flight, I hear tell there's one hangin' 'round with the X-Men..."
(I'm not sure who he meant with the X-Men at that period. Mystique? But she was a villain.)

Reed:
"You see why we really must stay to learn the full extent of his..."
Sue:
"No! No, I don't! I don't care what his intent is! Let the Avengers worry about him! Let Spider-Man and Alpha Flight and the X-Men battle him!"
(Where 'him' = the Beyonder, and r is undefined.)

It's partly stuff like this, where Byrne thinks to put in AF references (admittedly, it was one of the biggest books he was doing at the time, and both also include X-refs) that make me wonder how much he hates them.

- Le Messor
"Fell out of the family tree."
- alleged staff evaluation

[Le Messor]

I thought I'd put it in this thread (has it been mentioned elsewhere?)

Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne #0. I just found out it existed.

It reprints FF #220, which has a cameo by Vindicator (it was written before AF#2). He has a couple of lines, and Reed and Ben talk about him with respect.

Also, the trade opens with a Marvel Team-Up: the one that leads to AF #s 9 and 10, with the Super-Skrull. (That doesn't have any Alpha appearances, it just ties in.)

- Le Messor
"The posperity of a country is in accordance with its treatment of the aged."
- Hasidic saying

[kozzi24]

This just in:
FF Visionaries JB #6 contains two AF references (but no appearance by the team / members).
Johnny Storm:
"Yeah... well, shape-changers ain't exactly rare in this universe. There's one in Alpha Flight, I hear tell there's one hangin' 'round with the X-Men..."
(I'm not sure who he meant with the X-Men at that period. Mystique? But she was a villain.)



- Le Messor
"Fell out of the family tree."
- alleged staff evaluation

"Hanging around" with the X-Men at that time was probably Wolfsbane, but could also have been a reference to how (back then) Rogue took on physical attributes of people whose powers she used.