After his phenomenal success with writer Chris Claremont on their “X-Men” run, artist John Byrne seemed to spend the better portion of the 1990s revamping various long-time comic book titles and characters.

At DC, he started Superman over from scratch, keeping numerous traditional tropes from the Man of Steel while changing several aspects of Clark Kent and his alter ego. Byrne revamped the Hulk, created the direction of She-Hulk that has mostly remained in place for decades.

And he had a run on the Fantastic Four that is viewed as restoring the “World’s Greatest Comic Magazine” to the glory days of its creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Marvel has packaged and rereleased Byrne’s run in a series of collections titled “Fantastic Four Visionaries.” The first one introduces Byrne’s full-tilt start as the driving force behind the FF – he was the book’s writer, penciller and inker. 

In Byrne’s hands, the FF returned to a series of epic adventures but just as importantly he revived the family spirit in the book. The second F in FF could easily stand for family. Think, Fantastic Family rather than Fantastic Four.

He established these hallmarks early in his run: He made Diablo an intriguing FF adversary. Byrne helped ring in the FF’s 20th anniversary – truly, the 20th anniversary of the birth of Marvel Comics. He sent the FF into cosmic adventures. He wisely (mostly) avoided dealing with FF arch-nemesis Dr. Doom for the first several issues. He brings the Inhumans back into the FF and Marvel fold in new ways.

Reading “Fantastic Four Visionary 1” is not only a fun stroll down memory lane but an exciting prelude to the once and future issues to come in subsequent “Visionary” collections.