Fantastic Four 209
“Trapped in the Sargasso of Space!”
Published May 1979
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: John Byrne
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letter: Tom Orzechowski
Colors: Glynis Wein
Editor: Wolfman
Cover: Keith Pollard and Sinnott

Synopsis

The Fantastic Four head off into space in search of Galactus — whom they hope to recruit to battle the Sphinx — accompanied by the robot H.E.R.B.I.E. (hereafter just “Herbie”). They find themselves in a junkyard of abandoned spaceships where they get encounter a dying alien police officer and escaped criminals. The FF defeat the criminals, keep therefrom stealing their Xandarian spaceship, and continue on to finding Galactus.

What’s going on here?

This is issue of notable firsts. Most prominent is the FF debut of John Byrne, who will go on to become one of the Fantastic Four’s most significant creators. This, however, is Byrne’s first stint on the FF, where he will last about a dozen issues, and worked only as a penciler. At this point he was juggling penciling duties on the FF, X-Men and Avengers, which is a lot of characters to draw (!) and had no time for inks. Byrne would rejoin the book with issue 232 as writer, penciler and inker, and launch the legendary five-year run that made me fall in love with comics in general and the FF in particular. In truth, I never gave this first run much thought; considering it an odd footnote in Byrne’s career, a prelude before the big show. What little of it I had seen didn’t appear particularly Byrne-like, as he seemed overshadowed by Joe Sinnott’s inks and he was following Marv Wolfman’s lackluster plots.

So it was a pleasant surprise to realize there is plenty of quality Byrne to be found in this issue, and while Sinnott’s inks can obscure Byrne’s unique pencils, they don’t erase it. Here are some solid examples of his distinct, fluid style that would not look out of place in Byrne’s subsequent run:

This issue also marks, for better and probably worse, the comics debut of Herbie. Herbie at this point had been featured as the fourth member of the FF (replacing the Human Torch) on the 1978 version of the Fantastic Four’s Saturday morning cartoon show, leading to an urban myth that the network was afraid children would light themselves on fire in imitation of the Torch. The truth was less interesting: Marvel had previously sold the rights to the Torch for a planned movie, and so he couldn’t he used in this show (the movie never happened). Herbie was apparently the idea of Stan Lee, who was inspired by R2-D2, and it was designed by Jack Kirby.

In the comic, the FF tackles the rumors head on, acknowledging the TV cartoon but providing an alternate explanation:

For the record, I’ve always disliked Herbie, and filed him alongside the Impossible Man as gimmick designed to provoke cheap laughs. So I was pleased to see Wolfman poke fun of the concept, and he drops some hints that Herbie may have a darker side. One can hope.

Lastly, this marks the FF debut of letterer Tom Orzechowski. Best known for his work on the X-Men (and in fact, any X-book written by Chris Claremont) Orzechowski has had a long and distinguished career, which you can read more about here.

What I liked

Wolfman’s strength is interpersonal relationships, and this was a nice scene between Sue and Johnny:

What I didn’t like

Pretty much everything else in this issue seemed poorly thought out. As Reed makes clear, the Earth is in imminent danger, they need to recruit Galactus, and yet the FF are engaged in what the kids today would call a side-quest that is confusing and has no real purpose. We never learn why all these space ships are marooned, we never learn what these space criminals did, and we don’t really know what will become of them. It feels like Wolfman is stalling for time before getting to Galactus, but it’s really unclear why.

Here’s another silly element that goes unexplained: Why is there breathable air in space (and even if the team can breath, wouldn’t they surely die in seconds from the extreme cold)?

Another thing that bugs me: Wolfman makes Ankara the destination for the dying space cop, perhaps forgetting Ankara is the capital of Turkey. Like his use of “suzerain” last issue, it seems like Wolfman chooses words based on their sound and associations without considering what they actually mean.

And I didn’t much like this “one to grow on” moment at the end. It felt like a throwback to Stan’s ham-handed endings during the FF’s early years. Note the hint about Herbie.

Lastly, the cover made no sense. It seems pretty clear that Pollard was given just a rough idea of what the story was about without ever seeing an actual plot.

Anything else?

Some cool looking ads. Seems weird to see ads for Superman-related stuff in a Marvel comic but I guess a buck’s a buck.

Overall

An unsatisfying comic saved by Byrne’s art