Fantastic Four #272
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeFantastic Four #272 marks the first appearance of Nathaniel Richards — Reed Richards's long-lost time-traveling father — a character whose introduction quietly restructured decades of Marvel continuity. By planting Nathaniel on an alternate Earth designated Earth-6311, John Byrne simultaneously laid the genealogical groundwork connecting Kang the Conqueror and Rama-Tut back to the Richards family tree, a payoff that rippled through Roger Stern's concurrent Avengers work and continued to reverberate through Marvel storytelling into the 2020s. The issue also exemplifies Byrne's defining approach to the title during his celebrated run: grounding the FF's cosmic adventures in deeply personal, family-driven stakes rather than spectacle alone. As a result, what reads on its cover as a pulpy Wild West adventure turns out to be one of the most consequential pieces of world-building in the team's Silver and Copper Age history.
In "Cowboys and Idioms," the Fantastic Four ride into an Old West alternate universe in search of Reed's long-lost father, only to find a frontier brimming with anachronistic technology and a mysterious leader whose identity defies expectations. Written and drawn by John Byrne, with colors by Glynis Wein and letters by Ken Bruzenak, this 1984 adventure blends Western grit with sci-fi wonder, all framed by Byrne’s dynamic cover art.
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By November 1984, Byrne was roughly three years into the solo writer-artist tenure on Fantastic Four — beginning with issue #232 in July 1981 — that critics and historians would later call a second golden age for the title, a period when Byrne explicitly set out to recapture the family-centric science-fiction energy of the original Lee-Kirby issues. Issue #272 falls near the midpoint of that run, published under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter with Michael Carlin and Michael Higgins handling editorial duties on the title. Byrne handled every creative role on the issue — writing, penciling, inking, and cover art — with Glynis Oliver Wein on colors and Ken Bruzenak on lettering. The Nathaniel Richards story was also, by multiple accounts, coordinated informally with Roger Stern, who was preparing to confirm the same Nathaniel-to-Kang lineage in Avengers #269 the following year — a characteristically subtle cross-title continuity handshake that Byrne and Stern favored throughout this period.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance (cameo) of Nathaniel Richards, the time-traveling scientist father of Reed Richards, who had become stranded on the parallel world Earth-6311 after a failed attempt to travel into the future sent him sideways into an alternate time stream.
- Also the first appearance of Cassandra Richards (Nathaniel's wife on Earth-6311), the Warlord, and several other Earth-6311 characters including Arthur Richards (Nathaniel's son in that reality).
- The issue is titled 'Cowboys and Idioms' and sends the Fantastic Four and supporting character Wyatt Wingfoot into a parallel Earth whose aesthetic blends the American Old West with advanced science fiction technology — laser-armed 'cowboys' and flying metal steeds.
- The parallel universe the team visits (Earth-6311) is later confirmed to be the same reality that spawned Rama-Tut, setting up the genealogical chain connecting Nathaniel Richards's descendants to Kang the Conqueror — a plot thread Byrne seeded here for Roger Stern to pick up in Avengers #269 (1985).
- She-Hulk (Jennifer Walters) is part of the Fantastic Four roster in this issue, having joined the team in Fantastic Four #265; Ben Grimm is absent because he remained on Battleworld following Marvel Super Heroes Secret Wars.
- The creative team was: writer/penciler/inker/cover John Byrne; colorist Glynis Oliver Wein; letterer Ken Bruzenak; editors Michael Carlin and Michael Higgins, under editor-in-chief Jim Shooter.
- The issue is dedicated to the late Sol Brodsky, a longtime Marvel production man and editor.
- Reed's overprotectiveness of Sue throughout the issue is directly rooted in the miscarriage of their second child depicted in Fantastic Four #267 — a continuity thread Byrne wove consistently across his run to give the team's adventures emotional weight.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Los 4 Fantásticos #47 (1986), Die Fantastischen Vier #17 (1987), Marvel Superheltene #6/1988 (1987), Nova #122 (1988), Grandes Heróis Marvel #25 (1989), Fantastici Quattro #44 (1991), Fantastic Four Visionaries: John Byrne #5 (2006), Fantastic Four by John Byrne Omnibus #2 (2013), Marvel Masterworks: The Fantastic Four #25 (2023), El Asombroso Hombre Araña Presenta #264, Marvel #8/1988, Marvel Superheltene #16, Marvels universum #12/1988
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