Byrne off Action Comics

[Uncle Mxy]

Unfortunately John Byrne's star has sunk.  At one time he was gold in the comics industry.  Now quite the contrary.
Personally I think Action has improved a bit of late, but I think it seemed disconnected from the rest of the Superman books.

Disconnected in this case was a very good thing.

I just don't get this at all.  As a casual "browse through a few comics before I buy my TPB of choice" reader, Action's biggest problem seemed to be that it was caught up in crossover hell and other people's plots (for good or ill).  Are you possibly referring to the "retro" art?

[JulianPerez]

If we all think John Byrne is a waste of time and effort, then why do we talk about him so much?

Well, this phenomenon isn't that uncommon. Go to any political blog that is right of center, and you'll find Clinton mentioned more times than the National Review, and any left of center blog you'll find Bush Jr. mentioned more times than Noam Chomsky.

I think I can identify why Byrne is rather disliked.

1) First and foremost, he revised Superman. This one ought to be obvious. Now, it isn't the fact the revision itself happened (because revisions always happen and usually make the character stronger), but how conceptually divorced, emotionally barren and clueless his was, created by a man that was egotistical enough to want to leave his mark on comics history, but lacks the talent to do so. In the words of Nightwing: "they eliminated all that Weisenger stuff...for this?"

2) He's an artist who is a poor writer at best, who is given writing gigs because of his art. This is offensive in and of itself (don't you hate those beautiful guys at bookstores sipping coffee that women assume are intelligent because they're goateed and good looking?) but is doubly offensive because it personifies the style over substance approach that defines not just the modern age of comics, but most entertainment period in the 21st Century.

3) Most of us here are fans of comics history, and Byrne is destructive to comics history with totally off the wall annoying concepts (Scarlet Witch as center of the Marvel Universe? Galactus, instead of being a character with personality, is really "a force of nature?" The Metal Men aren't really made of the metal THEY TAKE THE NAME OF AND HAVE ALL THE PROPERTIES OF? Dr. Octopus and Spider-Man were created in the same accident? Busiek's UNTOLD TALES never happened? An explosion a bajillion years ago is responsible for all human heroism in the DC Universe? Storm and Jean Grey were friends secretly, years before the two characters even met?). For the life of me, I can't think of a single Byrne originated concept that is appropriate to what we know about the character.

4) And, you know what? He ain't that great an artist, either. Ever notice all his women look alike?

Englehart - 30 matches
Bates - 93 matches
Busiek - 26 matches

:love:

Gee, I wonder who could possibly have brought these three up...  :wink:

While I totally agree with every post given in praise of the wonderful Elliot S! Maggin, I think Cary Bates was just as worthy of the two Schwartz writers. What Bates lacked in humor and punchy sarcasm (specialties of Maggin), he made up for in strong central plotting and concept-themed stories centered around a twist at the last page.

[Kuuga]

One thing though in all fairness if DC did not TELL him he was doing a "fill in" run then that really is dirty pool wether it's John Byrne or not. I mean that's kinda like being hired on at a company and then being told you're a temp a day before you're fired.

If DC is conducting business in this fashion then they could do that to anybody including creators that we might enjoy or have wanted to see on the book for ages. Provided that enjoyment of something besides death were ever a priority for the company again.

If you're only gonna have creative teams on just long enough for them to fill a couple of trade paperbacks then you might as well go all the way and just stop the monthly never ending serial all together and let each team do their own vison of the character in a complete story.

might be better in the longrun anyhow because that way if someone wants to do a JLA story using the big 7 that creator isn't stuck because they decided to turn Superman into an electrocuted Smurf over in his title.

[Super Monkey]

Final word here, I do feel bad for the writer though, she was the one who created the infamous WIF site, so she gets brownie points for that one from me. She also isn't bitter at all, unlike you know who.

And, you know Cary Bates rules, and let's start a thread about him and his stories, and forget this one.

It's closed