FANTASTIC FOUR #293-295 (1986): Goodbye, John Byrne

John Byrne gets writer/penciler credit for #293, in #294 he’s a “plotter” (with Roger Stern, and art by Jerry Ordway) and by #295 he’s gone for good, replaced by Stern/Ordway.

Now, Stern is a great writer–but Byrne’s Fantastic Four run is legendary.  An impossible act to top.

The West Coast Avengers are still looking for The Thing, who ran away when he got mutated at the end of Thing #36, and She-Hulk is with them.  Instead of finding Thing they find a giant, black dome.  John Byrne always liked domes.  He also likes domes that do weird things when you try to touch them.

The rest of the FF come to help with the investigation and they find…

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A futuristic city that worships them.

Perhaps Byrne planned it so that his last story would be hand off, and would feature a town that worships the “classic” Fantastic Four and can’t imagine them being any other way–to return them to status quo for the next creator.

With the new creative team comes….A new FantastiCar!

Thing is still not with the group at the end of this, though. That comes next issue.

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