Byrne does the Superman - Fantastic Four # 249

Man, that Byrne dude was a great comic book creator! In the Eighties he really was at the top of his game. In the second year of his tenure on the "Fantastic Four", he proved that he can also tell a great Superman tale.

Looks like Byrne's warm up for Superman

"Fantastic Four" #249 (cover date December 1982) "Man and Super-Man" starts out in deep space with Gladiator chasing

Skrull spaceship. Gladiator is a well known member of the Shiar imperial guard who possesses very Superman-like powers but a very non-Superman-like mohawk.

Another day in the Marvel Universe

The story continues with a typical day for the FF on Earth. Ben Grimm, the Thing, saves a girl on a wild horse (by grabbing the horse on the belly and lifting in the air nonetheless). But no rest for our ever-lovin' blue-eyed Thing.

Soon as the job was done, the Fantastic Four emergency flare adorns the sky and Ben runs for it.

On the way to the Baxter Building Ben encounters Gladiator standing on a bunch of cars in the middle of traffic. This is the comic book version of saying "Dude! I wanna fight ya!", so the Thing complies and a battle ensues. Gladiator is quick to put the kibosh on the Thing first throwing a car on him and then punching our hero through a good dozen of parked cars. Since Ben is now completely wasted and the Gladiator is out of adversaries, he hurls Grimm's lifeless body to the Baxter Building throwing him right though the wall into the only room with the remaining Fantastic Four.

This is the comic book version of saying "Dude! I wanna fight ya!"

Okay, in times gone by a silk glove to the face is a sufficient challenge for a duel. This being a superhero comic, it has to be more extreme. The FF get poised to battle the alien.

Now we get to the more weird part: before the FF can pursue Gladiator, he lifts! The! Whole! Baxter Building! (By the way a sky-scraper).

Blow Job

Now for some reason Johnny Storm aka "Human Torch" believes, he is capable of stopping the alien powerhouse by surrounding him with ridiculously small bars of flame. This does not stop Gladdy. He punches the bejeesus out of Johnny hurling him high above the city. Still not taken aback enough, Johnny launches a full scale flame assault on Gladiator, which proves to be futile. Gladiator simply blows out Johnny Storms flame with his super breath (I wonder what it smells like).

Now it's time for Reed gadget time! With his universal translator Reed makes an attempt at communication. This confuses our alien antagonist and he takes the fight to the next level taking out Reed and Sue.

Once done, he turns around and he is confronted with what appears to be the X-Men. Except that they talk really weird...

The stage is set for issue 250!

Art and Story

John Byrne is a master of the medium. Admittedly he is not revolutionary or visionary, but he is dependable, proficient and very competent. His story telling is clear, his renditions cool and appealing.

That is not enough: when he was at the top of his game, Byrne could tell interesting stories with the characters without them being off character.

Byrne at his best!

Wikipedia:

More on Gladiator

More on John Byrne

John Byrne's website: Byrnerobotics

Marin Balabanov's personal website: MarinComics (German)

Disclaimer: All characters are property of their respective copyright holders. This blog post is purely for review purposes and does not infringe on the rights of others.

So please don't sue me!