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Cover: Paul Ryan

Fantastic Four #391

Name: Fantastic Four #391
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Aug 1994 · Marvel · 1.50 USD; 2.05 CAD

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“If Death Be Our Destiny--!”

★ 1st appearance — Vibraxas★ 1st appearance — Devlor

About this Issue

Fantastic Four #391 (August 1994) serves as the crucial seeding issue for the Fantastic Force spin-off series launched just three months later, delivering the first visual appearances of Vibraxas — a Wakandan vibration-powered mutate created by Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan — and the shadowy debut of the Inhuman Devlor, two characters who would anchor that new team. Beyond its character-introduction duties, the issue is a deliberate act of franchise mythology-building: its cover is a direct homage to Jack Kirby's legendary Fantastic Four #49, and the interior stages an alternate-reality remix of the team's first Galactus encounter (FF #48–50), using the divergent Earth-944 timeline to examine how a single changed variable — Reed Richards retrieving the Ultimate Nullifier instead of Johnny Storm — produces an entirely different and catastrophic outcome. That structural choice makes the issue a notable, if mid-tier, entry in Marvel's 1990s interest in alternate-reality storytelling.

In "If Death Be Our Destiny--!", the Fantastic Four face their most legendary trial yet: reliving their first, fateful battle with Galactus—without Reed Richards to lead them. Written by Paul Ryan and Tom DeFalco, with art by Ryan and inks by Dan Bulanadi, this 1994 classic puts the team’s courage and unity to the ultimate test. The cover by Paul Ryan captures the intensity of the moment in bold, striking detail.

writer, artist Paul Ryan · writer Tom DeFalco · inker Dan Bulanadi · colorist John Kalisz · letterer Steve Dutro · cover Paul Ryan

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (NM) $3

CGC 9.8 · 39 in census $63

CGC 9.6 · 18 in census $39

CGC 9.4 · 13 in census $22

CGC 9.2 · 3 in census $22*

CGC 9.0 · 4 in census $21*

CGC 8.5 · 3 in census $20

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CGC 8.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 7.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 7.0 · 2 in census $20*

CGC 6.5 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 · 1 in census $20*

CGC 5.5 · 1 in census $20*

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FN $5.98 Signed $26.46 FN · Newsstand $30.98 NM $40 FANTASTIC FOUR ORIGINAL SERIES #391 GALACTUS * ANT-MAN MARVEL 1994 NICE!!! $4.49 Fantastic Four comics select an issue $7.19

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History

The issue was produced by the title's then-current creative engine of writer-plotter Tom DeFalco and writer-artist Paul Ryan, with inks by Danny Bulanadi, colors by John Kalisz, and letters by Steve Dutro — a stable team that steered the book through much of the early-to-mid 1990s under DeFalco's concurrent tenure as Marvel Editor-in-Chief. The story falls at part five of a six-part arc titled 'If Death Be Our Destiny,' a deliberately escalating sequence designed to clear the deck for the eventual dissolution of the Fantastic Four team and the creation of Fantastic Force, which launched in November 1994. Paul Ryan's cover homage to Kirby's FF #49 was a purposeful nostalgic callback that reinforced the issue's thematic concern with how the team's foundational Galactus battle might have gone differently.

Trivia · 8 facts

First appearance of Vibraxas (N'Kano), a Wakandan youth whose body was mutated by an unstable vibranium experiment called the Vibrasurge project, granting him the ability to generate and control vibratory force; created by Tom DeFalco and Paul Ryan.
First appearance (in shadow, unidentified) of Devlor, a mutant Inhuman capable of shifting between human and large bestial forms after undergoing Terrigenesis; his full reveal and naming occurs in the following issue, Fantastic Four #392.
Both Vibraxas and Devlor go on to become founding members of Fantastic Force, a Black Panther-funded spin-off team that launched in November 1994 and ran for 18 issues.
The main story is part five of a six-part arc ('If Death Be Our Destiny') set partly on alternate-reality Earth-944, where the Fantastic Four's original Galactus battle played out differently: that world's Watcher sent Mister Fantastic — rather than the Human Torch — to Galactus's worldship to retrieve the Ultimate Nullifier.
Paul Ryan's cover is an intentional homage to Jack Kirby's cover of Fantastic Four #49 (1966), one of the most recognizable images from the original Galactus trilogy.
The figure posing as the Watcher throughout this story arc is later revealed (in Fantastic Four #398) to be Aron the Rogue Watcher in disguise.
The issue is collected in Marvel's Epic Collection Vol. 23: Nobody Gets Out Alive (2022), which gathers Fantastic Four #377–392 and related material.
Script and plot by Tom DeFalco; plot also credited to Paul Ryan; pencils by Paul Ryan; inks by Danny Bulanadi; colors by John Kalisz; letters by Steve Dutro; published cover-dated August 1994 (on-sale June 1994).