“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 213

28 Saturday Mar 2026

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

Tags

1979, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 213, galactus, John Byrne, marv wolfman, Marvel, Marvel comics, Sphinx, Terrax

Fantastic Four 213
“In Final Battle!”
Published September 1979
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: John Byrne
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Ben Sean
Editor: Wolfman
Cover:Byrne and Sinnott

Synopsis

Aboard Galactus’s ship, Reed, Ben and Johnny confront Terrax, who wants his revenge after being humiliated by the team on his home planet. Ben, under the effects of the Skrull aging ray, is overcome, and Johnny defeats Terrax by freezing him in liquid oxygen. Meanwhile, Galactus battles, and defeats, the Sphinx for the rights to the Earth. In punishment, Galactus send the Sphinx to his past to re-live his long life again. Galactus can now consume the Earth, but is confronted by Reed, who again wields a version of the Ultimate Nullifier, this one of his own making. Galactus cannot read his mind, and so can’t tell if Reed is bluffing and so leaves Earth. Reed reveals was a fake nullifier, and the Watcher blocked Galactus’s mental probe of Reed. The issue ends with Reed collapsing from the aging ray, leaving the Torch alone.

What’s going on here?

As promised in the last issue, we finally get the big confrontation between Galactus and the Sphinx we’ve been headed toward for many months, and in truth, it’s a bit of a dud. I’ll get into particulars below, but broadly, it didn’t feel big enough to justify the build up. Galactus takes care of the Sphinx without too much effort, and the fight serves both to marginalize the Sphinx as a cosmic baddie and reinforce Galactus as someone you definitely don’t want to mess with.

The John Byrne/ Joe Sinnott art team does another solid job, and it’s very clear Byrne draws the best Galactus, bar none.

What I liked

The conclusion of the Sphinx / Galactus fight had some cool moments, like this:

Unfortunately, that great panel is just one third of a page. In a just world, it would have been a double-page splash (we got one last issue) but it seems there was so much story to cram into this comic that Byrne was tight on space.

This was also impressive:

I like how the Sphinx literally shrinks before Galactus.

And I enjoyed this sequence where Johnny calls the Watcher on his non-interference bullshit:

What I didn’t like

I’ve said this before, but my preferred version of Galactus is one who uses his power from an Olympian remove. He should be above the fray, god-like, dispatching his minions to fight on his behalf or zapping enemies with his eye beams. I don’t even think he should touch the ground, but should hover above it. So I’m always disappointed when writers pull him into physical confrontations, and this one was just silly.

Galactus in a fist fight? It’s … unbecoming.

There was also some weird stuff between Galactus and the Sphinx, which suggested they have fought before. Is this a possible reference to the time loop Galactus condemns him too? That seems too subtle and intricate for Wolfman. (This is another cool sequence from Byrne and Sinnott).

Reed’s Ultimate Nullifier gambit was also a big disappointment. For the last few issues we’ve been promised he has a secret means of defeating Galactus. But it turns out it’s just the same way he defeated Galactus the first time he came to Earth, only dumber. Also, how is Galactus supposed to recognize Reed’s new Ultimate Nullifier when it looks nothing like the device from issue 50.

After Ben is defeated by Terrax, Reed orders Herbie to fly him home. To New York. From Egypt. More than 5,600 miles, dangling from the air. And since I’m pretty sure that little robot can’t fly as fast as a commercial airline, that must have taken a very long time.

Lastly, I’m not sure this was intentional or not, but Galactus really can’t accuse the Sphinx of speaking in riddles. That’s his whole schtick!

Anything else?

It’s that time of year when the networks rolled out their Saturday morning cartoon lineup. Here are CBS’s and ABC’s (I think NBC’s was in the last issue):

Overall

A fairly predictable disappointment

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 212

23 Monday Mar 2026

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

1979, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 212, galactus, John Byrne, marv wolfman, Marvel, Marvel comics, Skrulls, Sphinx, Terrax

Fantastic Four 212
“The Battle of the Titans!”
Published August 1979
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: John Byrne
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: John Costanza
Colors: Carl Gafford
Editor: Wolfman
Cover: Walter Simonson

Synopsis

Galactus, Terrax and the Fantastic Four head to Earth to stop the Sphinx. Once there, the Invisible Girl falls unconscious as the Skrull’s aging ray takes effect. The rest of the FF track the Sphinx to Egypt (naturally), where he announces his plans to remake the world. Terrax attacks the Sphinx and is quickly defeated. Galactus then arrives and while he and the Sphinx prepare to do battle for the right to Earth, Terrax launches an attack on the FF.

What’s going on here?

This is a table-setting issue, laying the ground up the next and (one hopes) final chapter in a very long story arc that began way back in issue 204. After maneuvering the chess pieces around for nearly a year, Wolfman seems to have what he wants: Galactus vs. the Sphinx for the Earth, with the FF helpless as they succumbs to the Skrull’s aging ray. It took a lot to get us here and it remains to be seen if Wolfman can stick the landing.

The art in this issue is unremarkable. There are a few panels that have Byrne’s signature elements, but it’s much more by-the-book than last issue. Maybe he got a talking-to.

He does deliver an impressive double-page splash which also seems like an exercise in illustrating one-point perspective:

Perhaps the most significant aspect of this comic is the cover, which marks Walt Simonson’s Fantastic Four debut. At this point Simonson was an established creator with runs on comics like Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica, but he was still a few years from his legendary run on Thor which established him a comics superstar. Simonson, of course, would go on to have his own, too-brief run on the FF as writer and illustrator for 20 issues from 1989 to 1991. I consider it one of the top 5 FF runs of all time.

While I am a huge Simonson fan, I have to say this cover is not exactly his best work. Ben, particularly, is hard to look at. But it has his signature dinosaur signature, which is something.

What I liked

It took a while, but the Skrull aging ray finally is having a serious impact on the FF, as Sue approaches death. Johnny explains that there’s a history of early death in their family, which was brought up a few issues ago. This sequence is appropriately grave and ratchets up the stakes for the team.

I also liked the reappearance of the Skrull from issue 204, who seems to have spent the previous week as a computer.

And I liked how Terrax is again reprimanded by Galactus in a great Byrne panel:

What I didn’t like

A big chunk of this issue is taken up by recaps and flashbacks. The first four pages are devoted to explaining the last eight issues, which makes for a very dull start to the comic. There’s so much to recap Wolfman drags in the Watcher for the sequence:

We also get a lengthy flashback explaining how the Sphinx became suicidal, which involves the intervention of a character called Sayge. Sayge apparently has been around for a while, first appearing in the mid-60s as a Dr. Strange character, but here their appearance feels utterly unnecessary and just drags out the Sphinx’s mostly uninteresting origin story.

Anything else?

These look cool:

Overall

Nothing to get excited about

“The World’s Greatest Comic Magazine!” Fantastic Four No. 211

15 Sunday Mar 2026

Posted by percivalhenry in The World's Greatest Comic Magazine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

1979, Fantastic Four, Fantastic Four 211, galactus, Joe Sinnott, John Byrne, marv wolfman, Marvel comics, Terrax

Fantastic Four 211
“If This Be Terrax!”
Published July 1979
Writer: Marv Wolfman
Pencils: John Byrne
Inks: Joe Sinnott
Letters: Joseph Rosen
Colors: Ben Sean
Editor: Wolfman
Cover: Byrne and Sinnott

Synopsis

As part of their bargain with Galactus, the Fantastic Four are transported to an alien world, where they are to locate a new herald. They are captured by stone-based robots and summoned to the throne room of the local warlord, Tyros the Terrible, and after besting him in battle, it is revealed he is to be the new herald. Galactus transforms him in Terrax the Tamer, imbuing with potent earth-based powers, and, with the FF, departs for Earth to battle the Sphinx.

What’s going on here?

This is the best FF issue in quite some time, and not coincidentally, it’s the one that most feels like a John Byrne comic. Despite Marv Wolfman being credited with the writing, it would not have felt out of place during Byrne’s later run when he wrote and plotted the stories. I have no way of knowing how much of this story was Byrne’s vs. Wolfman’s but if I were to bet, I’d say it was mostly Byrne.

Much of the story involves Galactus’s transformation of Tyros into Terrax, and Byrne takes his time demonstrating both the power of Galactus and then Terrax.

I’ve always liked Terrax as a villain, in part because he featured prominently in Fantastic Four 260, my first FF issue and (I still maintain) one of the best single FF issues ever. It makes sense that he is a Byrne creation, since he contains so many traits Byrne loves in his bad guys: pomposity, arrogance and cosmic power.

What I liked

This issue spells out why Galactus chose Tyros to make into his herald: His powers are earth based, following a roster of heralds with similar, element based powers, which I’m guessing was a coincidence up to this point: the Silver Surfer (water), Airwalker (air, duh) and Firelord (also duh). And since the morality of other heralds got in the way of their service, this time Galactus deliberately chose an amoral asshole.

I’ve groused about how the effects of the Skrull’s aging ray, which is suppossed to rapidly age and kill Reed, Sue and Ben, have been more or less ignored by Wolfman since they were zapped in issue 206. But here, Byrne visibly ages Reed and Sue without calling attention to it. In fact, the only reference to their altered appearance comes from Tyros, who objects to Sue’s wrinkles (although he will still ad her to his harem):

I also liked how Ben points out that a life of servitude to Galactus is what Tyros deserves after subjugating his own people.

And lastly, there are some just great Byrne panels and sequences throughout, like this

and this:

and this:

What I didn’t like

Not much. As I said, this is a really good comic and I’m just picking nits here. I thought this was an oddly formal turn of phrase from Johnny:

I also thought is was strange that the aliens on this planet initially communicate telepathically — which makes sense because they don’t speak English! —then just start speaking English after a few page: