X-Men Elsewhen By John Byrne

[Nicoclaws]

Here you go, then. That's the first hit when Googling "john byrne transphobia", but there are plenty of others to choose from.

If Byrne's work means a lot to you, obviously you're not obliged to do anything in response to that information. My disappointment in Byrne as a person hasn't stopped Northstar from being my favorite character. (Funnily enough, I wouldn't know enough about Byrne's views to be disappointed in him if I hadn't liked the character enough to do in-depth research on his origins.)

But you'd be wrong about Byrne being a long-time ally. His views on gay men have certainly progressed since the days when he disparaged another artist's work by describing the men he drew as "queer and slimy"; he ripped John McCain a new one over his stance on DADT almost a decade ago, and that was heartening to see. He's also said he doesn't feel his treatment of Aurora was respectful or accurate given what he knows now about DID. But those were a long time coming, and progress on those fronts doesn't excuse willful ignorance and bigotry on others.

Ouch.
I was gonna say that the comics looked fun and the drawing were amazing but now I certainly don't want to read it.
Let's hope his views changed a bit. It apparently did for other issues so at least he is not impervious to change.

[Matt Rat]

I've known about Byrne's views for years and it's never affected my enjoyment of his work. The only time I didn't enjoy Byrne was when he worked on Spider-Man with Mackie, and he wasn't so hot on Chapter One by himself either.

It's not a big deal. Separate art from artist.

[Nicoclaws]

I won't but you do you.

[Uncanny X-Man]

I figured I'd find a thread for this somewhere...might as well update it.

It appears Byrne is retiring Elsewhen. He posted the last couple of pages in August, telling readers what they could have expected from further instalments. It seems we missed out on a potential multiverse vs Mephisto storyline, with Doom using Nightcrawler's powers to travel across dimensions recruiting versions of himself to storm Mephisto's realm and rescue his mother.

Thanks for posting this, now I can finally get around to reading Elsewhen as I decided early on that I was gonna wait for it to be concluded as I didn't know how often it was going to come out, etc. so it was just easier to wait. I understand it ended mid-story, which is not ideal, although I guess getting an X-Men comicbook completely for free from an industry legend AT ALL is enough of a gift.

I will say though, as I've been looking at the pages Byrne has drawn over these past few years... his art is mind-bogglingly gorgeous. So many artists get worse with age as they start cutting corners and making their pages more and more simple, but the level of detail, the backgrounds, facial expressions and masterclass-level storytelling JB is showing is unbelievable and easily on par with his 80s stuff. If he was paid for it, paired with a top colourist and published tomorrow it would easily be one of the best-looking books on the stands. Such a shame that to this day Byrne and Marvel still can't work out their differences, whatever they may be.

[Matt Rat]

I won't but you do you.

Your loss mate.