The End of the Affair
X-Men: The Hidden Years #1 (December 1999)
Writer: John Byrne
Penciller: John Byrne
Inker: Tom Palmer
Colorist: Gregory Wright
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Nearly four years ago I promised there would be a part two to essay #4, "My First Comic Book Love." At last, here it is.
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If there was one constant through my entire first decade of comics fandom, it was complete adoration for the work of John Byrne.
From Avengers Westcoast to Namor the Sub-Mariner to Sensational She-Hulk to Next Men to Danger Unlimited to Babe to Wonder Woman to New Gods I followed him everywhere. It didn't matter what it was, if it had John Byrne's name on it, it was an automatic buy.
But if I was being honest with myself, my ardor for his work was diminishing with each successive project in the mid-to-late 1990s. The first thing I noticed was his writing becoming more formulaic, but I still enjoyed his artwork. With 1998's Spider-Man: Chapter One, an ill-concieved attempt to reimagine Spider-Man's origin, even that changed. Even if I'd liked the concept, Byrne's art was disappointing. While it had flashes of his old brilliance, on the whole it was the first time I didn't like what I was looking at.
So I didn't dig Chapter One, but at the time I took it as the equivalent of a favorite band making an album you can't connect with. It's a bummer but you hold out hope for the next one. The next one was a relaunch of the Amazing Spider-Man title along with writer Howard Mackie, the first issue of which was cover-dated January 1999. I was dismayed to find that my reaction to Byrne's art had not only not improved, it had gotten worse.
But as we know, hope springs eternal, especically when it comes to something or someone you love. So when it was announced that Byrne's next project would involve the X-Men, I got excited. And I thought the premise was intriguing. X-Men: The Hidden Years would explore the gap in time between the last original story about the first five X-Men and the debut of the all-new, all-different team in Giant-Size X-Men #1.
I should have been cautious. Not just becuase of my feelings about his last few projects, but because Byrne's X-Men dealings in the 1990s had left a lot to be desired. In 1991 when Chris Claremont left the X-Men titles Byrne was tapped to take over as co-plotter and scripter. In an interview with Wizard, he admitted he had accepted the job for the money, hadn't kept up with the characters, didn't like the current status quo, and wanted to kill 85% of existing mutants. No surprise that his tenure - which Byrne had declared "a big deal for the comics industry," only lasted seven issues.
A few years later in another Wizard interview he diminished Claremont's part in their beloved collaboration, claiming that he was responisble for 85% (there's that percentage again) of the stories between Uncanny X-Men #120 and #144. Of couse this just so happens to be the most beloved and influential series of X-Men stories of all time (the introductions of Kitty Pryde and Dazzler, "The Dark Phoenix Saga," "Days of Future Past").
So you might guess where this is going. I didn't enjoy X-Men: The Hidden Years at all. But such was the amount of goodwill I extended to Byrne that at first I blamed inker Tom Palmer, who has a tendency to impose his own style with his inks. But upon further reflection I realized the trend that was happening with me my feelings about Byrne's work. The thrill was gone.
It wasn't just me. It's become popular to wonder what happened to Byrne's artwork. The YouTube channel ComicTropes, for example, has an episode in which they pinpoint the exact issue where Byrne lost his mojo (Fantastic Four #267). Now I disagree that it happened so early, but it shows you I wasn't the only one who felt Byrne was steadily declining. Looking at it now I'd say that late 1990s Byrne was, from a technical standpoint (perspective, layout, storytelling, anatomy), still pretty solid. But I think he started to take too many shortcuts in terms of backgrounds, facical exprssions, and finishing. I also think that Byrne's style was espeically ill-suited to the garish state of comic book coloring in the late 1990s as it made the transition to computer separations.
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Byrne also made himself increasingly hard to love. In interviews, he was a humble-bragger before the term had been invented. For example, talking about Next Men, he said, "I'm now the same age that Stan Lee was when he created the Fantastic Four [41]; I figure I have to create the 'Fantastic Four' if I'm going to be anything more than a footnote in the history of the comic-book industry."
He also had a history of trolling his fellow professionals. After publically disparaging Kurt Busiek's acclaimed Untold Tales of Spider-Man, Byrne told an interviewer "Well, every once in awhile I'll discover somebody whose buttons are particularly easy to push - and I'll do it, 'cause I'm that kinda guy."
He also - as evidenced by his views on the current X-Men - was becoming increasingly uninterested in keeping up with the times. When discussing Spider-Man: Chapter One and Hidden Years he said he liked working on "stuff that's taking place in the Marvel Universe that I knew." At other times he made clear his desire to reset both the Marvel and DC universes back to the status quos they had in the mid-1970s.
And so my favorite comic book creator tumbled off the pedastal.
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Fittingly, my disillusionment with John Byrne coincided with the end of my comic collecting career. Just as my hobby had begun at the dawn of the 1990s (also with the X-Men, you might remember) it ended at the close of the decade. I won't go into the reasons here - you'll have to wait for the conclusion for that - but I will reveal something that's probably not surprising: My love of comics would eventually return in full force.
My regard for John Byrne, however, would not. During the '00s Byrne entered a journeyman period. X-Men: The Hidden Years was prematurely cancelled in 2001 with issue #22. It would be Byrne's last major work for Marvel. He headed over to DC where he spent seven years working on largely low profile projects. His next home was IDW, where he briefly revived Next Men, tried out a couple of other creator-owned concepts, and then settled into doing licensed books (Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Star Trek). Since 2019 he has been writing and drawing an unathorized X-Men comic called Elsewhen, which picks up the story after his departure from Uncanny X-Men. Byrne releases Elsewhen for free on his website.
Speaking of that, since 2004 Byrne's Internet home has been Byrne Robotics, a combination information clearinghouse and message board. Here Byrne holds court with his devoted fans, some of whom pay for a membership to the site. Byrne had previosuly used the limited media outlets available to him to say controversial things, but the Internet brought it to another level. I won't list any of the many examples of reprehensible things he has said in this forum; you can Google them if you're really curious.
Suffice to say that my feelings for John Byrne shifted from mere disappointment to anathema. As with so many other problematic creative people, I'm left with the question of what to do about his past work. What I've found is that there's no blanket rule that can be applied, and that the only way to know if your personal knowledge of an artist is going to ruin your perception of their work is to try it and see.
I will say this: I'm in no hurry to find out.
Sources
Brick, Scott. "Byrne's Returns [sic] to the X-men with an Eye on 'Hidden Years'." Wizard #97 (September 1999)
Cunningham, Brian. "Next!" Wizard #28 (December 1993).
Darnall, Steve. "Spotlight on John Byrne." Hero Illustrated #14 (August 1994)
"Did John Byrne's Art Ever Drop Off?" ComicsTropes. Nov 22, 2023. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAyS_q0BqhQ
O'Neill, Patrick Daniel. "John Byrne: Back to the X-House" Wizard #3 (November 1991).
O'Neill, Patrick Daniel. "John Byrne II: Mutants Aren't Everything." Wizard #4 (December 1991).
Russo, Tom. "The Wizard Q & A: John Byrne." Wizard #83 (July 1998)
Shutt, Craig. "Taking Aim: Wizard Visits John Byrne." Wizard #47 (July 1995).
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