John Byrne Week: The Revenge

The long-running feud that John Byrne had (and by accounts, still does) with Chris Claremont is well known. While it was presumably over creative differences a large part of the conflict certainly has to do with their respective egos. Byrne long felt that he could do just as well as, if not better than his team-mate while on their X-Men run. From things I read in the 80's it appears that John and Chris could barely tolerate one another going back even further, even to the Iron Fist title.

Often, it was observed that John needed to put up or shut up, and quit writing checks with his mouth that his ass can't cash. Well, the funny thing was...John Byrne took that check all the way to the bank and cashed it in full. His work on Fantastic Four and Iron Man is classic and let's not forget his wildly successful Superman reboot. Not too many people can say those runs were anything but brilliant and so far removed from the scripting disasters that are Blood of the Demon and Doom Patrol it's like another person wrote them.

One of the things Byrne was known for in the feuding and the fighting was sending little digs at his former partner, Chris Claremont. The most well-known way Byrne did this was through the infamous sight gags regarding Dr. Doom. If Claremont featured Doom in a story, Byrne would soon present a scene where the one, true Doom would admonish and destroy the malfunctioning robot that acted without permission by attacking the X-Men (or wherever else Claremont would use him). Real subtle, eh?

One of the other ways Byrne would strike out at Claremont (and others) showed up in Fantastic Four v1 #240 (March 1982). In the story, the Fantastic Four assist the Inhumans in moving Attilan to the Blue Area of the moon. The foundations of Attilan are shattered by Black Bolt so the city, borne-aloft by anti-gravity generators, can drift into space to settle in its new home.

It's a fun tale and a dramatic, if cramped, scene eclipsed by text boxes. One box in particular seems directly intended for Claremont.



Take a look.



"We're not going to insult your intelligence by placing a sound-effect in this panel."

Now what the heck is that about? Well, let me tell you.

When X-Men v1 #119 (March 1979) was published Marvel, Claremont, Byrne and the rest of the creative team were in top form and X-Men was the hottest selling title in years. However, Byrne was starting to make noise in print letting the fans know about his dissatisfaction with the status quo and his title-partner, Chris Claremont.

Claremont had written into the script of X-Men #119 a sound effect to compliment the explosion of a volcano in the X-Men/Moses Magnum story set in Japan. This really ticked Byrne off and he complained mightily about it and Claremont to any trade magazine that would give him the space. To be fair, I think the f/x was unnecessary and distracts from the art and dramatic moment, but Byrne didn't have to be such a jerk about it, either. This is probably the first sign I can recall seeing showing the rift between the two creators. It's naive to think that the members of a creative team gets along all the time but I do expect them to play nice in public.



By the time X-Men #119 rolled around Byrne was clearly chafing at the creative bit and he was anxious to move on to other projects. Still, holding a three year grudge is pretty immature and unprofessional on his part.

It's ironic that the Fantastic Four scene Byrne used to critique Claremont suffers from poor layout and is cluttered by intrusive text boxes.

I couldn't find any images of John Byrne looking apologetic but I did find this picture of his head exploding, possibly from his ego inflating beyond the capacity of his skull to hold it in check.

I think the f/x of this explosion is 'fwoomf!', which I imagine is very similar to the sound of his foot firmly wedging itself into his own mouth.


Previous Byrne posts
John Byrne Week is coming! Maybe...
The John Byrne no one remembers
FF #253 and the Curling iron From Space
Why secret identities don't work