Old School Comic Review: John Byrne’s ‘X-Men Elsewhen’

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS! I’ve always been a fan of John Byrne since (as a young lad) I first saw his work on Iron Fist in the mid-1970s. Granted, back then Marvel actually cared about good artwork, but for me Byrne stood out among then-current giants such as Dave Cockrum, John Buscema, Neal Adams, and young George Pérez. Marvel quickly noticed what they had with Byrne, and it wasn’t long before he was doing art for marquee titles such as X-Men, Avengers, and Fantastic Four. In the early 80s, Byrne took complete creative control of the FF and churned out some of the best stories since the Lee-Kirby era (granted, a lot of John’s idea were homages to that era). Still, FF and Avengers already were selling well at that time; X-Men, on the other hand, had been bi-monthly when it relaunched with the international team in Giant-Size X-Men #1. Byrne and writing partner Chris Claremont turned the book around and made it a massive hit. Naturally, the “Dark Phoenix” saga often is heralded as Byrne and Claremont’s finest moment, but it certainly was not without its internal controversy. As it was, Byrne left X-Men shortly after that arc (but not before the spectacular “Days of F...