BYRNE, JOHN 77
a time-displaced team and featuring art by Arrowsmith ’s Carlos Pacheco. During this
period, he also wrote I r o n M a n and created Th e Th underbolts , a team of reformed super
villains.
In 2001, Busiek returned to DC to create Th e Power Company , a team of heroes for
hire. Two years later, he reunited with Pérez for the inter-company crossover miniseries
JLA/Avengers. Following an eight issue run on JLA the next year, Busiek signed an
exclusive contract with DC in 2005.
Th at year, he began writing S u p e r m a n and occasionally Action Comics , initially in an
eight-issue arc co-written with Geoff Johns. In 2006, he launched a new version of the
undersea hero in Sword of Aquaman. In 2008, he reunited with Th underbolts collabo-
rators Mark Bagley and Fabian Nicieza for Trinity , a 52-issue weekly series starring the
company’s signature characters Superman, Batman , and Wonder Woman.
Anthony Strand
BYRNE, JOHN (1950–). Born in the United Kingdom and raised in Canada before
immigrating to the United States, artist and writer John Byrne has wielded consider-
able infl uence over American comic books, having contributed to virtually every major
title involving superheroes during a career that has spanned four decades. Byrne broke
into mainstream comics doing art for his “Rog-2000” back-up in E-Man (1975) and
Doomsday +1 (1975–79) for Charlton Comics Group. Shortly thereafter, Marvel
Comics recruited him to take on art chores for Marvel Premiere (1975), Th e Cham-
pions (1977–78), and Marvel Team-Up (1977–79). On Iron Fist (1975–77) Byrne fi rst
paired with writer Chris Claremont , and the two would go on to produce one of
the most highly regarded collaborations in modern mainstream comics for their run
on X-Men (1977–81). Byrne co-plotted storylines such as “Dark Phoenix Saga” and
“Days of Future Past,” and created the Canadian super-heroes of Alpha Flight. Th e
foundation for the X-Men’s decades-long domination of the comics’ sales charts began
on their watch.
Although Byrne has created his share of characters, including Next Men , Danger
Unlimited , and Babe (all produced under Dark Horse Comics’ Legends imprint in the
early 1990s), his stated preference is to work with well-established concepts, demon-
strating a particularly affi nity for Jack Kirby creations. For example, Byrne presided as
writer and artist over a fi ve-year tenure on Fantastic Four (1981–86) that revitalized
“Th e World’s Greatest Comics Magazine” (including graduating the Invisible Girl to the
Invisible Woman). Byrne also worked on Kirby co-creations such as Captain America
and Th e Avengers for Marvel, and the Demon and the New Gods for DC Comics.
Byrne’s ability to take familiar characters and reinvigorate them led to the highest-
profi le work of his career. In 1986 he led the reboot of the industry’s central comic
book superhero when DC recruited him to revamp Superman. Beginning in the Man
of Steel miniseries and then continuing on into the regular monthly Superman titles,
Byrne made several lasting alterations to Superman’s origin and presided over the
character’s 50th anniversary celebration in 1988. A Byrne illustration even made the
