I think a stroke is a good analogy, in that one side of him stopped working. Another metaphor is that in the 1980s he had to write with one hand tied behind his back.

Englehart's best 1970s comics felt real and exciting because they changed with the real world. His Captain America referred to then-current events and people, his Dr Strange kept evolving and changing, and even his Hulk stories conspicuously referred to the current date.


But in the 1980s it was understood that you don't refer to current events or dates too closely. He confirmed that to me via email. In my opinion Marvel policy tied his stories in a strait jacket.  They could  no longer be as free, relevant, changing, or as fun. In my opinion.

I loved it. To be fair, that is partly because I see the FF as a single continuous story. I care about these characters as friends. Byrne tried to reboot them and it felt like somebody had turned my friends into zombies. But Englehart's run just felt so right.

The stainless one only had twelve issues that were not mired in editorial interference, and those were superb in my opinion. As standalone issues they were wonderful: they include one of my favourite annuals (20), an issue where the Thing finally beats the Hulk (320), an issue where all cosmic truth is explained (319), and more. But even better to me was that he moved the story forwards. When Jack Kirby left the book Reed and Sue were trying to set up a separate home, Johnny was maturing fast, and Crystal saved the day every issue. We then had twenty years when nothing really moved forwards, then Englehart came and carried on where Kirby left off. I'm not pretending that Englehart was as good as Kirby, but I had been waiting for this for so long!!!

I think he made some mistakes of course - especially in not having a plan for what Reed and Sue would do when they left. That oversight turned out to be fatal. Fans and editors panicked, progress was banned, and the rest is history. But I suppose it would have been very hard to get right. Kirby gave us a model for how to get it right in his classic run: he had three sub-teams with there concurrent storylines. I wish Englehart had done that with the Ben team and then crossing back and forth to the Reed-Sue-Franklin team. But maybe only Kirby could have pulled that off. Still, we were going somewhere at last.

Lately I've even come to appreciate the "John Harkness" phase as well. Oh boy was that ever prophetic! 

A superb run, in my opinion. I prefer it to Byrne's run for several reasons, and I did enjoy Byrne's run. Of course, I also prefer Moench's run to Byrne's, and that is a controversial view.