NS: John Byrne returning to X-Men

[cyberghostface]

John Byrne is returning to the X-Men for a new project called ‘ X-Men: Elsewhen’. Byrne describes it as possibly being his final work.

“The stories begin at a turning point that occurred late in Byrne’s original run. In the comics as published, Jean Grey sacrificed her life to save the universe while fighting off the possession of an entity known as the Dark Phoenix. Then editor-in-chief Jim Shooter ordered Jean be killed, a decision that rubbed the artist as wrongheaded and would lead to his exit a few months later. Byrne’s new stories diverge, with her surviving the experience.”

More info here.

Comments

[thanekos]

This sounded a lot more interesting when it was just something he was doing entirely on his own.

Official publication dulls it into " Sounds like guy's just replaying all his old storytelling tricks without having learned any new ones over the progress of time. Sure, OK. "

(It's probably at least a little more than that, but every review I can immediately find doesn't indicate that.)

[shadowkat]

I thought he was dead. I probably got him confused with well all the others who died recently. I know he did the controversial and iconic Dark Phoenix story - which they tweaked in the animate run of the series. In the Animated, instead of eating the sun of an inhabited galaxy - she swallows the the sun of an uninhabited galaxy. This means she doesn't have to die. But she commits suicide, then the Phoenix and the X-men revive her. They also fixed the dreadful Madelyn Prior storyline - by making her Jean, and Cyclops believes she is Jean. She doesn't take the name Madelyn until after it is revealed she's the clone of Jean Grey. (So they kept the clone bit, just got rid of the whole Maddie as pilot bit, and the whole Scott abandoning his son and Maddie, which is ironically out of character for Scott, and jarring - considering Scott felt he was abandoned by his father and had issues with child abandonment. It would have worked better with just about anyone else.) The animated series seemed intent on fixing some issues, and making others worse.

But in the original comic? Shooter told Byrne that if he had the Phoenix destroy a galaxy - they'd have to kill off the character. Because they would have to be dire consequences for destroying an entire galaxy and innocent lives.

Interestingly enough - this doesn't just happen in comics. In network television series - studio heads and network heads make critical and storyline altering decisions for television series all the time. It's actually another thing that daytime soaps and superhero comic books have in common, that and people coming back from the dead (repeatedly), kids growing up rapidly, people being possessed then redeemed, and there's not a lot a character can't be redeemed from.

[q99]

It was fun when Claremont did it, but I like his works better and he's not nearly as out of practice. Byrne has barely written anything for like a decade.

[mazway_75]

I've read it on his website not bad although a few wild turns (like Magneto's real origin).