BRONZE AGE MINUTE: Fantastic Four #245

Marvel; August 1982
Cover by John Byrne

Title: “Childhood’s End”
Synopsis: The Invisible Girl returns home to find the Fantastic Four defeated by a golden-haired man – a strangely familiar golden-haired man.

Writer: John Byrne
Penciler: Byrne
Inker: Byrne

Review: No creator did more to move the Invisible Girl from sidekick to A-lister than John Byrne. That evolution really begins here, with a solo tale that paints Sue Richards as both superheroine and modern superwoman, one capable of juggling the demands of being a wife, mother, super teammate and media star. Elements of this story tread familiar ground for Byrne – Sue’s solo battle is reminiscent of Kitty Pryde’s encounter with the N’Garai demon in X-Men #143, and the whole infinite power/psychic dampers bit is shades of the Phoenix saga. But the sum of these familiar parts is another enjoyable whole.

Grade: A

Cool factor: The Invisible Girl begins her journey to become the Invisible Woman.

Character quotable: “Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, we did not lose our human foibles when we gained our powers.” – Susan Richards, the Invisible Girl

A word from the writer/artist: “I’m trying to give her a little more sense of herself without turning her into a libber. She’s not going to turn into the Invisible Woman. I’m trying to work within the established boundaries of the character.” – John Byrne, in Amazing Heroes #1, June 1981. (Kind of funny how that turned out, no?)

Back to previous page