Comments on: Byrne/Claremont’s X-Men Were Good

By: Gonger

Gonger — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 16:00:31 +0000

Days of Futures Past is maybe my favorite Claremont-Byrne story, but there are so many high points during the run. And Byrne’s Alpha Flight was incredible.

By: fourth worlder

fourth worlder — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 05:45:22 +0000

X-Men 121 was great, but the issue before it was even better. Has any new team ever had such a gripping introduction as Alpha Flight did in X-Men 120?

Well, yes, now that I think about it.
Just one other group intro compares in my memory – the Inhumans in FF 45.
These are two of my favorite comics all time.

By: Pedro BouÃ§a

Pedro BouÃ§a — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 23:20:13 +0000

>
> The changes to Northstar were editorially mandated,
> not Mantloâ€™s choice. If anything he was more up
> front about Northstarâ€™s sexuality than Byrne had been.
>

I wish that was the only bad thing about Mantlo’s run.
At least that one was easy to retcon (which happened
rather quickly).

What he has done to the other characters was FAR more
destructive on the long run.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro BouÃ§a)

By: MarkAndrew

MarkAndrew — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:38:37 +0000

Anybody else notice how the last couple Dark Phoenix issues are a kind of a mishmash of plot points and concepts from the Lee/Kirby Fantastic Four, specifically FF 44(?)-51? Was that done on purpose?

Dark Phoenix is a lot more thought out and still really good, mind. But I just read both of ‘em this week and it bothered me.

By: Scott MacIver

Scott MacIver — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 19:32:27 +0000

The “Dark Phoenix Saga” is still, in my opinion, the greatest superhero comic ever made.

By: Doug Atkinson

Doug Atkinson — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:46:53 +0000

The changes to Northstar were editorially mandated, not Mantlo’s choice. If anything he was more up front about Northstar’s sexuality than Byrne had been.

By: Philip Ayres

Philip Ayres — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:56:26 +0000

Where’s my Alpha Flight Classic v2 ?

And come to think of it what about a V0 ? X-Men 109,120 & 121, 139 & 140, Machine Man ?? (can’t remember the issues, Marvel two in One 74 & 75 ?? (again can’t remember the issue numbers)

By: avengers63

avengers63 — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 14:24:18 +0000

“If it sucked so badly, why would you continue reading it? Especially since at this late date it really doesnâ€™t matter?”

As a kid, I read most of Byrne’s AF run, but had to stop buying it before his run ended. I bought a full run on eBay pretty cheap because of nostalgia and good memories. I didn’t know about the rest of the run until I read them. I was contunially amazed at the lack of intelligent writing and wondered how it could have lasted past 50 issues.

I finished reading the entire thing because I’m a little anal & a little OCD. I had a financial inventment in the books and felt an obligation to read them at least once, regardless of how painful. Second, I was continually hoping they would get better. Third, I felt the need to finish out the entire run, just to say I had read them all, again regardless of the pain.

“Iâ€™m always astounded people likes the Mantlo AF stories.”

Note that I didn’t say I liked them. I said they were readable. In comparison to the Hudnall garbage (Dream Queen storyline), they’re solid gold. But no, even the Mantlo stuff wasn’t anywhere it should have been. He was a much better writer than that.

By: Pedro BouÃ§a

Pedro BouÃ§a — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 07:17:24 +0000

Bill Mantlo’s Alpha Flight was the single greatest title destruction ever done on comics.

Like a razed serial killer, Mantlo went after every single one Alpha member and did him bizarre changes, taking out anything that was appealing about the character in the process: Puck becomes a long-lived shrunk big guy, Northstar isn’t gay but a (literal) fairy, even dead James Hudson is retroactively made a manipulative bastard, and on and on and on.

Maybe Shooter asked him to do that to get “revenge” on Byrne for jumping out to DC. That’s the only possible explanation I can find for anyone to be so thorough at destroying a (then) best-selling comic.

Best,
Hunter (Pedro BouÃ§a)

By: Apodaca

Apodaca — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 04:22:31 +0000

Namor could work in his own book, but only if it was the last Namor book ever published. It would end with Sue Storm giving birth to the next half-atlantean, half-human.

Actually, it would probably have to be one of the last Marvel books ever published. I don’t think the FF could survive that one. Oh, and did I mention that Atlantis would have staged a full take-over of the United States?

Yeah, okay, so it’s never gonna happen.

By: The Mutt

The Mutt — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 03:47:30 +0000

Alpha Flight should have never got their own book. They should have stayed on permanent “coolest guest star ever” status, like Namor or Hercules.

By: Jack Norris

Jack Norris — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:56:59 +0000

Definitely deserves to be called “old school” or “classic” way more than anything where Mr. frickin’ Sinister or Gambit show their stupidly designed faces, grumble, grumble…

By: Anderson

Anderson — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:53:31 +0000

Ditto. But i think it must have been some editorial decision, since almost every mutant AF member suddenly were not mutants anymore (Northstar as an elf, etc.)

By: Stephane Savoie

Stephane Savoie — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 00:10:50 +0000

I’m always astounded people likes the Mantlo AF stories. Sure, they were fine stories generally, but they were aweful as Alpha Flight stories. Puck as an enchanted ancient tall-guy? Heather becoming Guardian after Byrne did a story about explicitely why she wouldn’t do so? The villains, the new characters… they just didn’t fit the mold, IMO.

By: Bret

Bret — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:34:08 +0000

Completism, curiousity, optimism, to see where it went?
Lots of reasons, even if you disagree with them.

By: acespot

acespot — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 20:59:35 +0000

If it sucked so badly, why would you continue reading it? Especially since at this late date it really doesn’t matter?

By: avengers63

avengers63 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 18:19:08 +0000

John Byrne & Bill Mantlo were the only two writers to ever do a readable Alpha Flight story. I recently finished up reading all the way through the AF series. MAN it sucked!