John Byrne is the first comics artist I ever started to follow. I read all of his major works and I’ve enjoyed most of them. I haven’t been following him in the last 2-3 years, there’s just too much new stuff to read.
The fact that I know much about his work definitely decreased my enjoyment of this volume of Modern Masters. I really knew much of what he discussed about his work, and even some of his personal opinions about the comics industry and other people.
I don’t care about what people perceive him as, I don’t know if it’s true, and even if it is I just like to read his comics. This volume is still very well done, but the interviewer obviously tried to get some spark (not necessarily controversy) from Byrne, because that’s what he’s most known for these days. So there’s not as much history about his past work as I would have liked (but he had such a long career, it was have taken 2-3 volumes to cover it all).
But let’s forget about that for a second and let me discuss some of his work.
I recently re-read his run on X-Men with Claremont, and it is really a classic run. His pencils and the plot he contributed definitely created some incredible stories. But it isn’t my favorite work of his. I think his Fantastic Four really accomplished a higher level of quality. Not all of his run was great, but it was a long run, so it’s inevitable.
Moving on to his Superman, that’s the Superman I know about. I didn’t read any pre-crisis Superman, so this is really the definitive Superman in comics for me. They were fun stories that defined a modern version of Superman, as well as some important relationships.
The first run by Byrne I ever read was West Coast Avengers, so that run will always have a special place in my memory. It really was full of events for Scarlet Witch especially, I really had a great time. Too bad it didn’t last too long.
There were a couple of time travel stories he did for DC that I really liked. Those were some of the first time travel stories I ever read, and I was a sci-fi geek since then. Omac was one of them, I was blown away by the time travel paradox. GL: Ganthet’s Tale was another story, though it was co-written with Larry Niven. Just great sci-fi stories.
Time travel would once again play a big role in what is probably my favorite Byrne series: Next Men. I must have read this series 10 times in 2 years, I bought all the TPBs (didn’t read it until it was almost over) and I kept waiting for him to continue it. That was probably my first exposure to more mature superhero comics (I had read Vertigo/indy comics, but not “adult” superhero), but it was also a cool sci-fi story, or at least it was hinted at. Unfortunately we never got to see that part paid off. I hope he’ll be able to finish this series at IDW now.
I also got all his other Dark Horse comics. Babe was an interesting concept, but I was happy with the 2 minis. Danger Unlimited was also interesting, though probably a bit too similar to FF. Still I would have liked to see that continue.
After his Dark Horse years he continued to work for DC (Wonder Woman, 4th World etc…) and Marvel (Spider-Man, Spider-Woman, X-Men Hidden Years), but the only project that I really loved was Generations. I thought the concept was a brilliant idea, seeing the DC characters age in real time from the year they were introduced.
One of the things I hated most about superhero comics was the status quo. No matter what happened to them, sooner or later they would revert back to status quo. Of course there are some things that changed, but they were very few and far between each other.
In Generations they would grow old, get married and have kids and grand kids. There would be really tragic events that would affect them forever, real deaths too. I was just thrilled to read their entire life go by in a few issues of comics. Of course by the last page Byrne still managed to restore the “status quo”, but we already got so many great stories.
The art style was also well thought out. Each story would reflect the art style of that era, from Golden Age, to Silver Age, to Bronze Age and the modern age. Their costumes would also reflect that, as well as the story itself obviously. Each story was self-contained, but the character arcs would develop among all issues.
The second Generations mini was very much like the first one, it just tried to show us even more characters, and filling in some of the gaps from the first mini.
The third mini changed the format, so I didn’t think it was as good. It just felt like a normal superhero story. Unfortunately this mini might have damaged the Generations brand, so that Byrne didn’t do any more stories. I actually wouldn’t mind an ongoing Generations series, there are so many years to cover still, and so many characters to deal with. I think Byrne could pull that off, effectively creating his version of the DCU.
At this point there are 2 series I would love for him to do: Generations and Next Men. Hopefully IDW will allow him to finish Next Men, while DC could just give him one ongoing Generations series, something any reader could pick up and enjoy every month (unlike their current incomprehensible series).