John Byrne (comics) - Later Career

Later Career

In later years, Byrne has worked on titles for Marvel, DC, and other publishers, including the 1992 prestige format graphic novel Green Lantern: Ganthet’s Tale with science fiction author Larry Niven at DC. In 1990, Byrne wrote and drew a Batman 3-D graphic novel with 3-D effects by Ray Zone. He returned to the X-Men franchise at Marvel from 1991 to 1992, succeeding longtime writer Chris Claremont, who left after 17 years working on the various X-Men related titles. Byrne's return as the new writer was brief, as he only wrote Uncanny X-Men issues No. 281–285 and 288 with artist Whilce Portacio, and X-Men (vol. 2) issues No. 4–5 with artist Jim Lee.

He wrote and drew another of DC’s signature series, the long-running Wonder Woman, from 1995 to 1998. During that time, he elevated the superheroine to the status of Goddess who then ascended to Mount Olympus as the Goddess of Truth. Byrne then spotlighted supporting characters such as Queen Hippolyta in their own adventures but restored the series' status quo in his last issue. He additionally took over New Gods vol. 4 at the end of 1996, as writer-artist of issues No. 12–15, continuing with it as the series was rebooted with a new No. 1 as Jack Kirby’s Fourth World. That ran 20 issues from 1997 to 1998. During his tenure on the New Gods, Byrne was writer of the four-issue comic book mini-series crossover Genesis, a storyline published weekly by DC Comics in August 1997. The series was drawn by Ron Wagner and Joe Rubinstein. Byrne wrote a Wonder Woman prose novel, Wonder Woman: Gods and Goddesses (1997, Prima Lifestyles, ISBN 0-7615-0483-4).

In the series Spider-Man: Chapter One, Byrne was hired by Marvel Comics to retell some of Spider-Man’s earliest adventures, changing some key aspects. In late 1998, Byrne became writer of the flagship series, The Amazing Spider-Man, at the end of the series with issue No. 440, by which time Marvel had decided to relaunch the book. The "last" issue of The Amazing Spider-Man was No. 441 (November 1998), with Marvel re-initiating the series with a new issue No. 1 (January 1999) with Howard Mackie as writer and Byrne as penciler. Byrne penciled issues No. 1–18 (from 1999 to 2000) and wrote No. 13–14.

Marvel hired Byrne in 1999 for a new Hulk comic book series, with Ron Garney penciling. Byrne wrote the first seven issues, as well as the summer annual.

From 1999 to 2001, Byrne returned to the X-Men once again, as he wrote and drew X-Men: The Hidden Years. The series lasted 22 issues; Byrne explained the title's cancellation to Comic Book Resources in November 2000: "I was officially informed yesterday that, despite the fact that they are still profitable, several 'redundant' X-Titles are being axed." This disagreement factored in his decision to no longer work for Marvel Comics.

Like X-Men: The Hidden Years, some other works of this period involved characters and events in time periods other than the present and, in some cases, considered "skipped over" (Marvel: The Lost Generation), or alternate timelines (DC’s Superman & Batman: Generations); a feature some of these have in common is to have characters who actually age during the course of the series, which is uncommon for characters in ongoing comics.

In early 2003, Byrne spent ten weeks as guest penciler on the syndicated newspaper strip Funky Winkerbean. Byrne did this as a favor for Winkerbean’s creator, Tom Batiuk, who was recovering from foot surgery.

Most of his work in the first decade of the new millennium was for DC Comics: JLA (No. 94–99, the “Tenth Circle” story arc), Doom Patrol, Blood of the Demon, a five-issue arc of JLA Classified. Superman: True Brit was a collaboration with former Monty Python member John Cleese and Kim Johnson, with art by Byrne and inker Mark Farmer Byrne returned to Action Comics for issues No. 827–835 working with writer Gail Simone. Afterward, Simone and Byrne reteamed to launch The All-New Atom series in 2006, with Byrne pencilling the first three issues.

For publisher IDW, Byrne worked on the superhero series FX No. 1–6, written by Wayne Osborne, starting with the March 2008 issue. His other projects for the publisher include stories in the Star Trek universe and the Angel (TV series character) universe.

Byrne's Star Trek work included the final issue of the miniseries Star Trek: Alien Spotlight (February 2008); the self-described "professional fan fiction," Star Trek: Assignment Earth No. 1–5; Star Trek: Romulans No. 1–2, Star Trek: Crew (a Christopher Pike-era comic book focusing on the character of "Number One") started in March 2009; the final chapter of his Romulans story, a four-issue mini-series, Star Trek: Leonard McCoy, Frontier Doctor, set before Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and the second Assignment: Earth series.

His work on Angel included Angel: Blood and Trenches (set during World War I); an Angel vs Frankenstein one-shot; and a Andy Hallett tribute, Angel: Music of the Spheres and Angel vs Frankenstein II in 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively.

In 2011, he worked on Jurassic Park: The Devils in the Desert, and Cold War (The Michael Swann Dossier). He revived his Next Men series in 2010–2011, with a sequel series called Aftermath which started in early 2012, picking up where Next Men ended. Other work for IDW includes a new series titled Trio.