Issue(s): Fantastic Four #234, Fantastic Four #235
Published Date: Sep-Oct 81
Title: "The man with the power!" / "Four against Ego!"
Credits:
John Byrne - Writer
John Byrne - Penciler
John Byrne - Inker

Review/plot:
The first part of this two issue arc is more of a classic sci-fi story than a Fantastic Four plot. It follows the life of a mild-mannered man...

...who doesn't know that he has vast reality-manipulation powers due to his participation as a soldier in radiation testing many years ago. When he sees something that doesn't seem right to him, or when he particularly wants something, reality just changes to accommodate.

Since he's not a particularly ambitious or evil person, nothing really good or bad ever happens to him, so he just lives his life this way. When the world starts falling apart...

...he simply corrects it.

The second issue deals with why the world is falling apart. It's because Ego the Living Planet has arrived...

...and his proximity to the Earth was causing massive havoc. The FF don't know why the world stops falling apart, but they head off to Ego to investigate him. Ego has gained control of the thrusters that Galactus installed on him, and now he's tracing after Galactus for revenge. The trail has led him to Earth.

The biggest problem with Ego is that while he's an awesome visual and an awesome concept...

...unless he's fighting something as big as he is, like Galactus, you're basically stuck drawing shots of his opponents walking around on his surface and fighting the old "anti-body" cliches. That's what Byrne is forced to do here.

The art is great, of course, but it's a little bit of a let down. The Thing manages to carry a bomb to Ego's core...

...and when it detonates Ego is seemingly dispersed, with little bits of him burning into the sun.

Meanwhile, Frankie Raye discovers a shocking secret about herself, but we don't get to learn what it is yet.

Byrne has a really good handle on Reed. The FF are looking upon Galactus thrusters and Reed starts analyzing them. The Thing says "Geez! Can't you just say 'wow' like the rest of us, big brain?" and Reed says "This is no time for your peculiar sense of humor, Ben." which is just a really great line of dialogue that says a lot about Reed.

Quality Rating: B

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: The FF are left near Mercury, and it's said that it will take them a few days to get home.

References:

• Ego fought Galactus twice before, in Thor #160-161 and Thor #225-228.
  
• Galactus last came to Earth in Fantastic Four #213.

Cross-over: N/A

Continuity Implant? N

Reprinted In: N/A

The title to #234 refers to the classic 1956 science fiction novel by Frank Robinson(also made into a movie in 1968).

In an interview for the first issue of Amazing Heroes, Byrne called Gerry Conway's origin for Ego both "silly" and "very bad". He also stated that the Impossible Man's kids and Quicksilver & Crystal's kid would be born in a special double-birth issue, that the "real" Tomazooma would be seen in Wyatt Wingfoot's return, and(most significantly) that "[Sue]'s not going to turn into the Invisible Woman".