Immensely great idea; an interesting career collection... Incredibly good, with maybe a few questionable selections. It's a fascinating, 13-issue, 300+ pages paperback overview of Byrne's career at Marvel.
A breakdown of the 13 issues here...
*Giant-Size Dracula #5, 1975- Byrne's very 1st professional sale. It's an 8-page backup story that I really didn't need to see here; Byrne's earliest work is as rough as anybody's. Slightly interesting, at least for curiosity's sake.
*Marvel Premiere #25, 1975- Byrne's 1st work on Iron Fist. I really wish they'd given us Power Man & Iron Fist #50 instead, and began this collection with that. Or maybe just started with the Marvel Team-Up issues.
*Marvel Team-Up #61-62, 1977- Spider-Man teaming up with Human Torch & Ms. Marvel. Byrne's artwork starts to get noticeably better here. These issues are okay, but I definitely would've preferred 2 issues of Avengers West Coast instead, or maybe even 2 issues of Spider-Man Chapter One.
*X-Men #137, 1980- It's the famous finale to Claremont & Byrne's Phoenix storyline. It's not currently listed on the back cover or contents page, but it's definitely included within.
*Captain America #250, 1980- The famous "Cap for President" issue. It's not actually my favorite in Byrne & Stern's 9-issue run, but it's certainly a solid pick.
*Fantastic Four #236, 20th anniversary, 1981- At 40 pages(!), it's easily a decent choice. Still, since it's the only FF issue here, I might've preferred to see issue #238, or issues #259-260, or issues #249-250, etc. Byrne did so many FF issues that it's difficult to pick just one.
*Alpha Flight #12, 1984- A team member gets killed(!). Now *this* is where this volume really starts to get highly interesting to me. It starts on page 166, at about the halfway point. I far prefer this 2nd half to the 1st.
*Avengers Annual #14, 1985- Fantastic Four & Avengers Vs. Skrulls. I guess it's pretty good, but I have absolutely *no* idea why this issue is in this volume. It's not a "key" or stand-out issue in any way as far as I can see. Byrne only does pencil breakdowns here. That's it. Couldn't we get an Avengers West Coast issue here?
*Incredible Hulk #319, 1986- The wedding of Betty & Bruce. I'm a HUGE fan of Byrne's Hulk run, so I'm glad this issue is here. Interestingly, the color reconstruction is high quality but *different* from the color reconstruction in the Incredible Hulk Visionaries - John Byrne paperback. I think I really like the color presentation here more; it's nice to have 2 versions to look at.
*She-Hulk #1, 1989- It's the 1st issue in Byrne's quirky & fun run. Great choice, although my favorite issue is probably #50.
*Namor #1, 1990- Some of my favorite Byrne linework is here, with Bob Wiacek's inks making a great contribution. Glynis Oliver's coloring makes each panel crystal clear.
*X-Men Hidden Years #22, 2001- Somewhat cartoony, visually speaking; I couldn't really get into this series. To date, it's Byrne's last ever work for Marvel.
This is the best, and I believe 1st-ever, Byrne Marvel career overview to date; it's highly recommended! I'm still hoping to see a similar "Marvel Visionaries" Byrne collection someday, which might make a few different selections in regards to content. I'd say I *really* like about half of the material in this volume, with the other half being somewhat above average to just okay. It's still *very* much worth getting in my opinion. Production quality is very high, with super slick paper & high quality color reconstruction. And the current list price is extremely attractive. The biggest misstep here is probably in the current, exceedingly bland cover design. How in the world they couldn't do better is beyond me. Couldn't they use the cover to FF #236? We can only hope that future printings will mercifully correct this.
Anything Goes Trivia
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