I'll kick it off with my review of the new John Byrne book that landed in book and comic shops everywhere this past Tuesday.
I'll link to my Substack, which is where I originally posted, but I'll also cut and paste the text here.
https://misterkeith.substack.com/p/x-me ... ctions-and
X-MEN: ELSEWHEN VOLUME 1 by JOHN BYRNE
Before I get into my criticisms, let me be clear: X-MEN: ELSEWHEN VOLUME 1 is very good, and I recommend it. I do have some problems with it that I will get into later. For those who do not know the history of this graphic novel (the first of 3) let me try to give you a short version.“It’s been a journey! I’ve had more fun with this than just about anything else I have worked on in fifty-plus years in the Biz.”
—John Byrne, from the Introduction
John Byrne is indisputably one of the G.O.A.T.s of the Bronze Age of comics. To understand X-MEN: ELSEWHEN, you need only know two things: John Byrne was one of the defining creative forces behind the All-New, All-Different X-Men, and he left the title before many of his long-term plans could be realized. ELSEWHEN is his chance to revisit that moment, 45 years later, and show us what might have happened if he had stayed. ELSEWHEN is John Byrne going back to that pivotal moment of Jean Grey’s death at the end of X-MEN 137 and picking up in an alternate storyline in which Jean survived. And he has about 30+ issues that he has written and penciled that are now being published officially for the first time.
Notably, the book is not being published by Marvel Comics proper, it is being published by the Marvel Arts imprint of Abrams Comicarts. Abrams deserves particular praise for a gorgeous hardcover design that does the material justice. Ian Chalgren is credited for the book design, and I want to give him a shoutout for his work. I want to also compliment their choice of paper. This is basically the perfect paper for a comic book/graphic novel to be printed on. So many times they are printed these days on glossy cover stock paper and it makes the colors appear overly garish. This paper is a high-quality matte finish stock that is heavier than newsprint but still lighter than cover stock and is ever so slightly off-white just enough to help soften the color.
For the most part, I loved this book. It reads so much like an old bronze age comic book in terms of dialogue. The narrative captions have a lighter touch than Byrne has tended to use in his professional work for a long time and I appreciated it. There’s an increasing tongue-in-cheek quality to it that reminds me of the 1960s John Broome FLASH writing. At times I could almost hear in my mind’s ear William Dozier reciting the lines like he would during the BATMAN (1966) tv show. In some of Byrne’s later professional work, I have found his authorial voice increasingly intrusive. Long stretches of exposition can sometimes feel more like Byrne explaining a position than characters speaking naturally. Fortunately, I noticed very little of that here. His writing stays mostly on point. The only issue I would say I have is a few rather jarring jumps from one place or time to another. With a proper editor I am sure those sorts of things would have been addressed and worked out. However, since this is a previously completed fanfic (fan fiction) work; meaning it was done on its own just for enjoyment rather than as a work undertaken for pay, that means those sorts of things will find their way into it. And honestly, I’m here for it because those minor flaws are reflective of art for art’s sake on his part. It feels fully his own and done for himself and not a paycheck and I swear you can feel the energy and the fun he is having.
Byrne is a master at narrative visual storytelling, and it shows in how he structures the pages and flows the action. It is a joy to see him playing with the toys in the sandbox from that time before the past 40 years of oppressive continuity in the Marvel universe. Reading this era means X-Men facing Magneto before he evolved into the anti-hero Holocaust survivor, Wolverine before we knew his long-convoluted history, and the Fantastic Four and the Avengers still in their classic versions.
The main gripe I have with this book is the inking and the colors. The inks are inconsistent and sometimes straight up amateurish looking. And as one who was weaned on Byrne’s original X-MEN run I am spoiled by memories of Terry Austin’s inks and just kind of wish they could have engaged him to ink these books. Or as a second choice, Josef Rubenstein, who mastered inking Byrne on his CAPTAIN AMERICA run around that same time. As soon as this book was announced, Rubenstein was on social media making it known that he would love to do the inks if they didn’t already have someone. The inker they chose was unfamiliar to me, and paired with the often-muddy colors, the results were disappointing. The inking problem is even more noticeable by the inclusion of a single page where Walt Simonson inks and a double page spread inked by veteran inker Scott Williams. Had Scott Williams inked every page I don’t know that I would have had anything negative to say about the art. It reinforces how good inks versus meh inks can positively or negatively impact the reading experience.
The color work is credited to 4 different colorists so I wouldn’t know who to blame for the bad colors. Overall, the color art spans the gamut from competent to GAME OF THRONES: THE LONG NIGHT level of dark and muddy. On the plus side, Byrne’s storytelling is so strong that even saying that I still loved it.
What ELSEWHEN ultimately offers is a glimpse into the road not taken. Readers familiar only with Claremont’s post-137 X-MEN may find some of Byrne’s creative choices surprising, but thankfully the characters all feel authentic to that era. In many ways, the book reveals not only where Byrne viewed these characters differently, but also where his influence on the original run may have been stronger than many readers realized. For example, Byrne spends a lot of time within this story giving us ample opportunity to see Kitty Pryde figuring out her powers. We got a little bit of that in the original comics but not much especially after Byrne left.
No character illustrates that difference better than Magneto. Over the past forty-plus years, Magneto has evolved from a straightforward supervillain into one of Marvel’s most nuanced characters—a sometime ally, teacher, and even leader of the X-Men. Claremont, after Byrne’s departure, continually deepened Magneto’s psychology, motivations, and history. Byrne’s interpretation is notably different. To him, Magneto is fundamentally a villain: intelligent, powerful, and dangerous, but a villain nonetheless. Reading ELSEWHEN, one gets the sense that if Byrne had remained on the title, Magneto’s path might have looked very different from the one readers ultimately received.
Byrne’s handling of the Phoenix Force after its separation from Jean Grey is equally intriguing and, dare I say, more compelling than much of what eventually emerged in mainstream Marvel continuity. It is one of the book’s strongest hooks, and it left me eagerly anticipating Volume 2.
One last thing to note, Byrne is of the generation of creators who always tries to keep the characters they work with established as happening in the “now” and not in the past. You know, to avoid awkwardness in having a Reed Richards who served in WW2 but is obviously no older than 40-45 in 2026. And he does the same here with a throwaway line of dialogue comparing Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters with Harry Potter and Hogwarts. At the time period that these comics should be taking place, Harry Potter is still a good 10 to 15 years away from even existing. And I mention this because if he is going to move this timeline up to the modern day then computer technology and especially cellphone technology should be an active part of the plotting and storytelling. But as I’m reading it I was not noticing any technological updates or anyone sitting around scrolling on their phones. So, it’s just inconsistent but not a deal-breaker.
In the end, this is a grand What If? story that I thoroughly enjoyed. The characters feel exactly right, and both the individual stories and the larger narrative arc are compelling.
Scott Williams’ original inks over John Byrne’s pencils. The best page in the book.
