Marvel; May 1983
Cover by John Byrne

Title: “The Minds of Mantracora”
Synopsis: Continuing their exploration of the Negative Zone, the Fantastic Four encounter a people subjugated by an alien posing as their ruler.

Writer: John Byrne
Penciler: Byrne
Inker: Byrne

Review: This multipart Negative Zone arc continues to give John Byrne the writer a chance to shine. Like earlier installments, this first half of a two-parter is tightly plotted and offers excellent world building in a short number of pages. But, as usual, the story really shines because of Byrne’s strong characterization. Things aren’t as good for Byrne the artist, who continues to experiment with a straight-to-inking technique. The results look increasingly rough, and there are even a few panels where the underlying art is a little off.

Grade: A-

Cool factor: The Invisible Girl sends the rest of the team away so she and Mr. Fantastic can sneak a quickie. This scene – which would actually turn out to be a major plot development in a later story arc – was quite shocking to this reviewer when this issue first hit the stands.

Character quotable: “I’d sure like ta know what yer usin’ as a scale of what’s odd an’ what ain’t.” – The Thing (after all his years as Mr. Fantastic’s buddy, you’d think he’d know there was a “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy in place on that one)

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