John Byrne Speaking With Marvel Again

[Cat]

I do NOT want him back at Marvel. His work now is terrible, and he was never a very good writer. Leave him, Marvel. You're better off without his subpar material.

[origami]

Purely on his output as a comicbook writer-artist:
1) John Byrne in his prime is absolutely great.
2) John Bryne past his prime is painful to read. The last two series he did for Marvel that I have read, X-Men: The Hidden Years and Marvel: The Lost Generation, are mediocre at best.

If he does go back to Marvel, the question is, which Byrne will be showing up?
Coasting on nostalgia can only go so far.

[Username taken]

Ooff..John Byrne used to be one of my favorite creators but his recent work has been quite poor.

I’m not sure what he’s bringing to the table.

[Carabas]

Skimmed it but I don't think he was malicious in any form.

But now we've seen a "third" setting on the dial. People like Bruce Jenner who are loudly and proudly "transgender".* And who want to be identified as that. Which seems to me to defeat the whole point.

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* Tho he's not, is he? Last I heard, he still hasn't finished the process, which makes him a man in a dress, not a woman. Is there any news on this?

How's this for you?
Also, you don't need to be actively malicious to be a colossal bigot.

[leokearon]

Given most of his work post F4 work like WCA and Spider-man were awful, I am not massively excited with this news.

[JKtheMac]

I love how his year 2000 quote was so off the mark. Accusing a company that was desperately cost cutting to avoid obliteration and that is generally considered a case study in how to avoid bankruptcy as needlessly cutting ‘profitable’ books. Shows how out of touch he was even then.

[Bl00dwerK]

Give him the X-Men. Nobody else knows what the **** to do with 'em.

[leokearon]

Give him the X-Men. Nobody else knows what the **** to do with 'em.

Given that the X-men recycle the same ideas over and over again, Byrne would fit right in

[Prof. Warren]

Purely on his output as a comicbook writer-artist:
1) John Byrne in his prime is absolutely great.
2) John Bryne past his prime is painful to read. The last two series he did for Marvel that I have read, X-Men: The Hidden Years and Marvel: The Lost Generation, are mediocre at best.

1) Yeah, Byrne in his prime is untouchable. Any character he touched then, he left an indelible mark on. Some of the best runs ever.
2) "Mediocre at best" is putting it kindly. Don't forget the Spider-Man work he did in the late '90s. Chapter One is just...godawful.

If he does go back to Marvel, the question is, which Byrne will be showing up?
Coasting on nostalgia can only go so far.

I don't think there's any way that Byrne comes back to do a series in current continuity, so I'm not too worried about which Byrne would be showing up.

Anything he might do would surely be some kind of alternate universe thing, in its own pocket continuity.

I highly doubt even that will happen but who knows? It's interesting that Byrne and Marvel are communicating in any way but it doesn't mean that new work from him under the Marvel banner will result from it. I'm thinking some new variant covers might be as far as it goes.

I will say this - given how atrocious the latter day Frank Miller DC stuff has been, Byrne couldn't possibly do worse coming back to Marvel.

It'll never be like the old days but there might be some glimmer of the old magic.

Give him the X-Men. Nobody else knows what the **** to do with 'em.

Well, it's funny then for a property no one knows what to do with that people somehow keep writing X-books that people enjoy.

Not every title might be a winner but Red, Blue, the current Astonishing, and solo titles like X-23 and Old Man Logan meet my definition of solid X-books.

[mugiwara]

Given that the X-men recycle the same ideas over and over again, Byrne would fit right in

Quoted for truth.

[mugiwara]

Given that the X-men recycle the same ideas over and over again, Byrne would fit right in

Quoted for truth.

[beetee]

Are we looking at a potential "Roseanne" situation here? Former Giant returns to old company with a promise to be a better person.... shoots off their mouth on the internet.... everyone is shocked.... shocked.....

[leokearon]

Are we looking at a potential "Roseanne" situation here? Former Giant returns to old company with a promise to be a better person.... shoots off their mouth on the internet.... everyone is shocked.... shocked.....

I doubt it, the way I see it, Byrne is thinking of returning because the people who "wronged" him are no longer or so high-up that they won't be involved in anything he does

[Valamist]

Hmm... this is rather conflicting stuff. On the one hand, I think he is a great writer. I mean, my favourite character She-Hulk would not be who she is today without him reinventing her. That said, his comments on Trans people are really disgusting. I would like to think his grown up a bit since then...

[Anduinel]

Ooff..John Byrne used to be one of my favorite creators but his recent work has been quite poor.

I’m not sure what he’s bringing to the table.

Besides another PR disaster in the making, you mean? Even aside from his bigoted commentary, as others have mentioned, Byrne's output over the past decade - from DC to IDW to private commissions - has not been that great. This looks like it'll be, at best, an "X-Men Forever" situation - a few rounds of disposable nostalgia that'll sink out of sight with the next news cycle. At worst, it'll be a garbage fire that won't surprise anyone.