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116-587: Created by British born Canadian raised writer and artist John Byrne , the team's leader - Weapon Alpha (later renamed to Guardian ), first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #109. The full team then first appeared in a two-part story in The Uncanny X-Men #120 and 121. Byrne never intended the team to be an ongoing title. He created them "merely to survive a fight with the X-Men" for the purposes of that story. Marvel convinced Byrne to feature them in their own series as

232-553: A Chitauri invasion, but were trapped in space once Captain America activated a force field around Earth. In order to track down Hulk after he escaped from General Reginald Fortean's custody, a depowered Walter Langkowski started the space program's version of Gamma Flight . The original lineup of Alpha Flight would be revived as Canada's top superhero team once more in their post-space program years consisting of Guardian, Aurora, Northstar, Snowbird, Sasquatch, Puck and Marrina. During

348-507: A Canadian superhero team that had been introduced "merely to survive a fight with the X-Men." The series proved initially very popular, with its first issue selling over half a million copies, and the following issues selling between 400,000 and 500,000 issues each month. However, Byrne has said the title "was never much fun" and that he considered the characters two-dimensional. One of Alpha Flight's characters, Northstar , eventually became Marvel's first openly gay superhero. Though Byrne from

464-606: A beach in Ontario with Claire, Vindicator is visited by Wolverine who states that the people in the United States are becoming concerned about the Unity Party's actions. When Wolverine notices that Vindicator calls the rest of Alpha Flight traitors, Wolverine decides to investigate. Wolverine finds Alpha Flight and learns of their revolution against the Unity Party. He agrees to help them take back Canada just as Alpha Strike attacks. During

580-522: A brainwashed Citadel) in order to spread the Unity program and take down Alpha Flight. It is soon discovered that Master of the World is behind the Unity Party, the formation of Alpha Strike and what has happened to Department H as he introduces himself to Kyle Jinadu. Alpha Flight ends up robbing a treasury in order to fund a special tactical training from Taskmaster in an isolated Yukon Territory. While overseeing

696-615: A continuum removed from the Marvel Universe proper, called the New Universe . In 1987, the New Universe line saw a revamp under new Editor-in-Chief Tom DeFalco , and Byrne took over writing and art breakdowns on the line's flagship title, Star Brand (renamed The Star Brand during Byrne's term on the book). Byrne's run started with issue #11 and continued until the series' cancellation eight issues later upon Marvel's discontinuation of

812-617: A fan-fiction comic book exploring how he would've continued the story of the X-Men after " The Dark Phoenix Saga ". The series, written and pencilled by Byrne and published on his website, has 32 issues as of December 2022. Over the years, Byrne has gained a reputation as a controversial figure within the community of comic book pros and fans. He has himself noted that "as the people who have figured me out have said, I just don't suffer fools gladly." Gail Simone , who worked with Byrne on The All New Atom in 2006, described Byrne as "very opinionated;

928-409: A feature some of these have in common is to have characters who actually age during the course of the series, which is uncommon for characters in ongoing comics. In early 2003, Byrne spent ten weeks as a guest penciler on the syndicated newspaper strip Funky Winkerbean . Byrne did this as a favor for Winkerbean' s creator, Tom Batiuk , who was recovering from foot surgery. He would later become

1044-443: A lot of artists are opinionated, and I'm okay with that. Actually, I think John Byrne is brilliant and his forceful personality is part of that." In 1981, Jack Kirby began speaking publicly about his belief that he had been deprived of fair credit and money while creating the majority of Marvel's top characters. Byrne wrote an editorial declaring himself "proud" to be a "company man", and arguing that all creators should "live within

1160-467: A love-hate relationship with her artist/writer by criticizing his storylines, drawing style, character development, etc. Byrne left the book after writing and drawing the first eight issues. Byrne was asked for input on writer Dwayne McDuffie 's She-Hulk: Ceremony limited series, and according to Byrne, most of his objections to the story and notations of errors were ignored, and his editor, Bobbie Chase , "was rewriting my stuff to bring it into line with"

1276-623: A number of changes during his tenure: The Thing was temporarily replaced as a member of the quartet by the She-Hulk , while the Thing had adventures in his own comic (#1–22 also written by Byrne), and the Thing's longtime girlfriend Alicia Masters left him for his teammate the Human Torch ; the Invisible Girl was developed into the most powerful member with the heightened control of her refined powers and

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1392-592: A pornographic video with Superman. Erik Larsen created a villain in the 1990s for his Savage Dragon and the Freak Force series, Johnny Redbeard / the Creator, who is a parody of Byrne; a massive cranium with atrophied appendages, he can bestow superpowers indiscriminately. Madison Jeffries Madison Jeffries is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics . The character

1508-659: A return as a guest inker on Adventures of Superman Annual #2 (cover) and Superman #50 in 1990. He would return doing a Superman Elseworlds story as a writer and artist in Action Comics Annual #6 in 1994. In 2004 Superman: True Brit , an Elseworlds story, was a collaboration with former Monty Python member John Cleese and Kim Johnson, with art by Byrne and inker Mark Farmer. Byrne returned to draw Superman in Action Comics #827–835, working with writer Gail Simone , from 2005 to 2006. Byrne spent about two years on

1624-421: A secret government experiment. Byrne said, "I thought I would see what I could do with superheroes in the 'real world' " and "[e]xplore the impact their existence would have." Byrne's other Dark Horse titles were Babe , and Danger Unlimited , an all-age readers book about a team of heroes in the future fighting an alien occupation of Earth. The Next Men lasted until issue 30 in 1994, when Byrne ended

1740-417: A series of trade paperbacks that collected the first series. The original storyline that had a cliffhanger ending in 1995 was continued. In later years, Byrne has worked on titles for Marvel, DC, and other publishers, including the 1992 prestige format graphic novel Green Lantern: Ganthet's Tale with science fiction author Larry Niven at DC. In 1989, Byrne wrote Batman #433–435 (May–July 1989) and in

1856-453: A series tied to the crossover storyline Fear Itself , with the newly alive team to be joined by Puck. Alpha Flight provides rescue efforts for the victims of a tsunami unleashed by Attuma in the form of Nerkodd: Breaker of Oceans. As Sasquatch, Shaman, and Vindicator help save victims of the water itself, Guardian saves a news crew when their helicopter is shot down by Nerkodd. As Marrina Smallwood and Aurora also arrive to help fight Nerkodd,

1972-663: A short story called Dark Asylum' ... which languished in a flat file somewhere until it was used as filler in Giant-Size Dracula #5 [(June 1975)], long after the first Rog story." The story was plotted by Tony Isabella and written by David Anthony Kraft . After the Rog-2000 story, Byrne went on to work on the Charlton books Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch , Space: 1999 , and Emergency! , and co-created with writer Joe Gill

2088-576: A temporal anomaly into the past, where they established over the next two-thousand years the Intergalactic Empire of Wakanda, named after their homeland. During the " Civil War II " storyline, it is revealed that the Alpha Flight Space Program is overseen by its Board of Governors which consists of representatives of the different nations of Earth and other planets that share the Alpha Flight Space Program's interests. Known members of

2204-657: A two-page story by writer Al Hewetson in Skywald Publications ' black-and-white horror magazine Nightmare #20 (Aug. 1974). He then began freelancing for Charlton Comics , making his color-comics debut with the E-Man backup feature " Rog-2000 ", starring a robot character he'd created in the mid-1970s that colleagues Roger Stern and Bob Layton named and began using for spot illustrations in their fanzine CPL ( Contemporary Pictorial Literature ). A Rog-2000 story written by Stern, with art by Byrne and Layton, had gotten

2320-420: A way to capitalize on Byrne's soaring popularity with comics fans at the time, but he never found them to have compelling stories or backgrounds and left the title after writing and pencilling the first 28 issues. The series continued until 1994, lasting 130 issues as well as annuals and miniseries. There have been three short-lived revivals since then, most recently an eight-issue limited series in 2011–12, after

2436-449: A wealthy business owner in addition to a scientific genius with a deadly vendetta against the superhero. Byrne did away with the childhood/teenage career as Superboy ; in his revamped history, Clark Kent does not put on a costume and become a super-hero until adulthood. This approach to Kent's path to becoming Superman was later used in the TV series Lois & Clark and Smallville , and in

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2552-550: A young Jean Grey . In the Ultimate Marvel reality, Alpha Flight debuted in Ultimate X-Men #94 with Vindicator (formally Col. John Wraith of Weapon X ), Shaman ( John Proudstar ), Jubilee , Sunfire , Sasquatch ( Rahne Sinclair ), Snowbird ( Danielle Moonstar ), and Aurora . The team ambushes the X-Men in the middle of a friendly baseball game. All of its members appear to use godlike powers; they easily defeat

2668-455: A young man, Madison Jeffries volunteered to enlist as a soldier in Vietnam alongside his younger brother Lionel . After Madison left the military, he met a man named Roger Bochs at a clinic for physically disabled persons. The two became friends, and Madison used his mutant powers to help Bochs create his Box robot. They were recruited into the new Alpha Flight program under Department H . When

2784-672: Is anathema to him". The origin and early career of Byrne's version of Superman debuted in the six-issue miniseries The Man of Steel (July–Sept. 1986), the first issue of which was marketed with two different covers illustrated by Byrne, the first use of variant covers by the American comics industry. DC Executive Editor Dick Giordano had been looking for a writer to restart the Superman continuity from scratch, and began talking with Byrne in May 1985 to discuss what Byrne would do with Superman if offered

2900-511: Is depicted as having the ability to reshape plastic, metal, and glass to any desired shape. He also possesses the technopathic ability to mentally communicate with A.I. , such as machines and robots. Additionally, Madison Jeffries is the brother of Scramble . The character first appeared in Alpha Flight #16 (Nov. 1984), and was created by John Byrne . He also appears as an NPC in the video game Marvel Heroes , voiced by Richard Epcar . As

3016-539: Is flying through a series of mountains, he is attacked by Alpha Flight after Northstar and Aurora mistake him for a training robot built by Guardian. After the real drone appears, Sasquatch and Guardian make some hasty apologies before Iron Man continues on his mission. Later in the issue, Alpha Flight aids Iron Man in a battle against the Living Laser . A zombified version of Alpha Flight (consisting of Guardian, Northstar, Aurora, Sasquatch, Puck, and Snowbird) appeared in

3132-444: Is informed by Agent Jeff Brown that the concussions he had when he played football will cause him to act less human when he changes back into Sasquatch. Jeff also tells Walter that he will soon achieve Unity. Meanwhile, Marrina pretends to give in to the Unity treatment so that she can break free. Shaman manages to knock out Jeff and frees Walter, while Guardian frees Snowbird. Northstar and Puck manage to find Marrina, who has knocked out

3248-503: Is notable for featuring the first gay superhero. While there, he published his first comic book, ACA Comix #1, featuring "The Death's Head Knight". Byrne left the college in 1973 without graduating. Before finding success with comic books, Byrne spent three years designing billboards for an advertisement company. He broke into comics with a "Fan Art Gallery" piece in Marvel's promotional publication FOOM in early 1974 and by illustrating

3364-456: Is pressed into their first battle with Egghead 's incarnation of the Emissaries of Evil (consisting of Rhino , Solarr , Eel , Porcupine , Power Man and Swordsman ). Egghead threatens the United States from Canadian soil with a nuclear missile . Smart Alec disables the missile's guidance system, but Egghead triggers the detonation sequence. Smart Alec panics leading to St. Elmo transforming

3480-580: Is shown that six weeks ago, Guardian and Vindicator were unable to regain custody of their child Claire. In the present, Marrina is dehydrated, Sasquatch's gamma energy is drained enough for him to revert to his human form of Walter Langkowski, and Aurora and Snowbird are taken down as well. While bringing Guardian to the Box Units for imprisonment, Vindicator is ambushed by Puck . After knocking out Vindicator, Puck tells Guardian that he had just returned to life after his fight with Ba'al. At Parliament Hill, Walter

3596-544: Is to Claremont and Byrne what the ' Galactus Trilogy ' is to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. It is a landmark in Marvel history, showcasing its creators' work at the height of their abilities." Byrne has repeatedly compared his working relationship with Claremont to Gilbert and Sullivan , and has said that they were "almost constantly at war over who the characters were." Byrne created the characters Alpha Flight , Proteus , and Kitty Pryde /Shadowcat during his run on The X-Men . A new Brotherhood of Evil Mutants, led by Mystique ,

Alpha Flight - Misplaced Pages Continue

3712-525: Is unmasked, that Superman would vibrate his face via his super speed in order to blur his image to photographers, and having Kent keep a weight training set around to explain how the human and presumably weaker Kent could have a frame as massive as Superman's. Byrne described Superman as becoming a "Super Republican ", seeking to incorporate renewed interest in American patriotism during the presidency of Ronald Reagan . Byrne's Superman felt that his deepest roots were on Earth and that his home planet of "Krypton

3828-873: The " Age of Apocalypse " reality, Madison Jeffries joined Apocalypse's cause and was a member of the Brotherhood of Chaos, an elite religious group affiliated with the Church of the Madri. In the " Age of X-Man " reality, Madison Jeffries is the History Instructor of the 10th Year class within the Summers Institute Of Higher Learning, located in Winchester, New York. In the " House of M " reality, Madison Jeffries had also been forced by Weapon X to create weapons that would be used on his fellow mutants. In

3944-591: The Ultimates , as Vindicator sees the latter as loyal only to America and Alpha Flight to the world. They are defeated by Colossus 's team of X-Men who were also being powered by Banshee. Alpha Flight was featured in the different " What If? " stories: Alpha Flight appeared in the X-Men episode entitled: ‘Repo Men’, consisting of Vindicator , Puck , Snowbird , Shaman , Northstar , Aurora , Sasquatch and Dr. Heather Hudson . They are tasked to bring back Wolverine into

4060-553: The Vietnam War (while maintaining a Southeast Asia setting), and linking Wong-Chu , the man who captured Tony Stark, to the Mandarin. In the early 1990s, Byrne began creating a series of original, creator-owned works for publisher Dark Horse Comics . This was during a general trend in the industry for established creators working for Marvel and DC to bring their original works to other publishers or create their own companies to publish

4176-615: The limited series The Man of Steel , the first issue of which featured the comics' first variant cover . Coming into the comics profession as a penciller , inker , letterer , and writer on his earliest work, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, for story arcs including " Dark Phoenix Saga " and " Days of Future Past ", and co-creating characters such as Kitty Pryde , Emma Frost , Sabretooth , Shadow King , and Rachel Summers . Byrne launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four , also serving as penciler and inker, and included She-Hulk onto

4292-564: The post-apocalyptic science-fiction series Doomsday + 1 . Byrne additionally drew a cover for the supernatural anthology The Many Ghosts of Doctor Graves #54 (Dec. 1975). Byrne said he broke into Marvel comics after writer Chris Claremont ...saw [his Charlton] work and began agitating for [him] to draw something he had written. When [artist] Pat Broderick missed a deadline on the ' Iron Fist ' series in Marvel Premiere , [production manager] John Verpoorten fired him and offered

4408-486: The prestige format graphic novel , Superman: The Earth Stealers and three separate four-issue miniseries: The World of Krypton , The World of Metropolis , and The World of Smallville . He supplied the cover art for the March 14, 1988, issue of Time magazine and an interior spread featuring Superman, where his pencils were inked by Ordway. After his initial run on the Superman titles from 1986 to 1988, Byrne would make

4524-549: The " Fall of X " relaunch, the human members of Alpha Flight (Guardian, Snowbird, Shaman, and Puck) are ordered by Department H to hunt down mutants after the anti-mutant organization Orchis manipulates the Canadian government including Department H director Erika Doiran into declaring Canadian mutants like Argent threats to the country. The team's actions puts them at odds with their former mutant members Northstar and Aurora, who are joined by Aurora's lover and Wolverine's son Fang and

4640-422: The 2005 novel It's Superman by Tom De Haven . In the Superman mythos, Byrne wrote Clark Kent as having a more aggressive and extroverted personality than previously depicted, comparing him to Jimmy Breslin , and even making him a top high-school football player. Byrne came up with explanations for how Superman's disguise works, such as the public simply does not realize that he has a secret identity since he

4756-703: The Alpha Flight Low-Orbit Space Station. Its members include Captain Marvel , Abigail Brand , Aurora , Puck and Sasquatch . The first wing of the Triskelion is where the ground crew of the Alpha Flight space program resides. Black Panther also sent a group of Alpha Flight explorers to search for the origin of the Mena Ngai. While exploring the Vega System, the explorers' travels took them through

Alpha Flight - Misplaced Pages Continue

4872-528: The Alpha Flight Space Program's Board of Governors are Black Panther of Wakanda , Henry Peter Gyrich of the United States, Philippe Beaulieu of Canada (revealed to be a revived Master of the World in disguise), Mentor of the Shi'ar , Bar-Konn of the Kree , an unnamed Rigellian ambassador, and an unnamed Kronan ambassador. During the " Secret Empire " crossover, Alpha Flight assisted Captain Marvel with protecting Earth from

4988-411: The Alpha Flight team. John Byrne (comics) John Lindley Byrne ( / b ɜːr n / ; born July 6, 1950) is a British-born American comic book writer of superhero comics . Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on many major superheroes; with noted work on Marvel Comics 's X-Men and Fantastic Four . Byrne also facilitated the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics 's Superman franchise with

5104-462: The Canadian government cut Department H's funding, Madison left the organization completely and found employment digging ditches. After Alpha Flight returned to Canada, Roger Bochs recruited Madison to rebuild his damaged Box robot, to seek revenge against Omega Flight. Madison Jeffries later appears as a member of the Utopians alongside Elixir , Karma , Masque , Random , and Tabitha Smith . In

5220-666: The Canadian government were: Heather MacNeil is married to James Hudson. After Guardian's apparent death in Alpha Flight #12, she becomes the leader of the team. Later, she utilizes a replica of his battle suit and costume and takes the codename of Vindicator then Guardian. Alpha Flight continued for 130 issues, and introduced dozens of characters and villains (the most prominent of which were Talisman , Madison Jeffries , Box , Diamond Lil , Wild Child , Persuasion , and Witchfire ). Limited-Series (1991) This limited series, published from July to October of 1991, reprints Alpha Flight (Volume 1) #97-#100. In 1997, Marvel relaunched

5336-592: The Demon , a five-issue arc of JLA Classified . He penciled an issue of Hawkman (vol. 4) #26 in May 2004. Superman: True Brit was a collaboration with former Monty Python member John Cleese and Kim Johnson, with art by Byrne and inker Mark Farmer . Byrne returned to draw Superman in Action Comics #827–835, working with writer Gail Simone , from 2005 to 2006. Afterward, Simone and Byrne reteamed to launch The All-New Atom series in 2006, with Byrne pencilling

5452-654: The Marvel/DC intercompany crossover Darkseid vs. Galactus : The Hunger , which also featured the Jack Kirby creations the Silver Surfer and the New Gods . In 1996, another Marvel/DC intercompany crossover - Batman / Captain America , one shot homage to Golden Age versions of both heroes. He wrote and drew another of DC's signature series, the long-running Wonder Woman , from 1995 to 1998. During that time, he elevated

5568-406: The New Universe line. In 1989, after leaving Superman , Byrne returned to work on a number of titles for Marvel Comics. His work on West Coast Avengers (issues #42–57, soon renamed Avengers West Coast ) was contingent on his being allowed to do what he called "my Vision story". The Vision was a long-standing Marvel superhero and member of The Avengers , an android originally created by

5684-568: The Rings , and Star Trek: The Original Series as his greatest influences. Despite drawing comics as a youth, Byrne intended to have a career as a commercial artist . In 1970, Byrne enrolled at the Alberta College of Art and Design in Calgary . He created the superhero parody Gay Guy for the college newspaper, which poked fun at the campus stereotype of homosexuality among art students. Gay Guy

5800-578: The Spheres and Angel vs Frankenstein II in 2008, 2009 and 2010 respectively. In 2011, he worked on Jurassic Park : The Devils in the Desert , and Cold War (The Michael Swann Dossier) . He revived his Next Men series in 2010–2011, with the sequel series Aftermath . Other work for IDW includes the 2012 miniseries Trio and the 2013 miniseries The High Ways and Doomsday.1 . In 2018, Byrne began X-Men Elsewhen ,

5916-473: The Superman titles before leaving. His dissatisfaction stemmed from his perception that there was a lack of "conscious support" for him at DC. Furthering the rift between the company and the artist was the fact that the version of Superman which DC licensed for merchandising was contrary to Byrne's representation in the comic books. In 1986, Marvel began publication of a new line of superhero titles created by then-Editor-in-Chief Jim Shooter , which took place in

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6032-528: The United States, leaving their bodies in the Yukon Territory. The Alpha Flight title was relaunched as Omega Flight in April, 2007 as a five-issue mini-series. The new series was written by Michael Avon Oeming and drawn by Scott Kolins . The current roster includes Beta Ray Bill , U.S. Agent , Arachne , Talisman , and Michael Pointer in a suit that looks like Guardian's uniform. Sasquatch appears as

6148-596: The World, but Vindicator flies away with Claire. Afterward, Alpha Flight celebrates after the Unity Party is abolished. Alpha Flight later aids Red Hulk when the Mayan Gods appear on Earth. The battle results with Aurora, Sasquatch, and Snowbird in a coma, but they recover. A different version of Alpha Flight debuted as part of the All-New, All-Different Marvel event. This version is a space program that becomes Earth's line of defense from extraterrestrial threats and resides in

6264-558: The X-Men ( The Uncanny X-Men #109). The initial makeup of (Alpha Flight) was drawn from all corners of Canada and included: According to Byrne, both Guardian and Snowbird were "fan characters", created before he became professionally involved in comics, and he created all the remaining members while working on X-Men #120, specifically designing them to be balanced with the X-Men in power. The first ( Alpha Flight ) comic book series started in 1983 which ran until 1994. Promoted from Beta Flight despite Department H being closed down by

6380-545: The X-Men and kidnap Northstar . It is later revealed by Wolverine, who apparently has a history with them, that they used a drug called " Banshee " to enhance their abilities, making them more powerful than normal mutants. Vindicator claims that Alpha Flight is the first internationally sanctioned mutant team made powerful enough to take on any "considerable" threats such as the Liberators , the Brotherhood of Mutant Supremacy , and

6496-462: The attention of Charlton Comics editor Nicola Cuti , who extended Byrne an invitation. Written by Cuti, "Rog-2000" became one of several alternating backup features in the Charlton Comics superhero series E-Man , starting with the eight-page "That Was No Lady" in issue #6 (Jan. 1975). While that was Byrne's first published color-comics work, "My first professional comic book sale was to Marvel,

6612-425: The beginning intended the character to be gay, Northstar's homosexuality was only hinted at during Byrne's tenure on the series. In 1983 Byrne co-wrote and penciled issues 1 and 2 of The Further Adventures of Indiana Jones , a two-part story arc titled "The Ikons of Ikammanen". The story involves archaeologist Edith Dunne, a former student-turned-enemy of Jones. Byrne wrote the first issue and Dennis O'Neil wrote

6728-423: The book for 25 issues, Byrne told editor Terry Kavanagh that he was starting to feel constrained on the book and thought having a different artist might inspire him to a fresh approach. Kavanagh suggested newcomer Jae Lee , and Byrne continued strictly as the writer of the book up through issue #32. Byrne later said he has great fondness for the title character and was unhappy that circumstances forced him to leave

6844-490: The book to [Byrne]. ... [Byrne] turned around the first script in time to meet the deadline, and so started getting more work from Marvel, until [he] was able to leave Charlton and focus entirely on the Marvel stuff." Byrne soon went on to draw series including The Champions (#12–15, 17 1977–78) and Marvel Team-Up (#53–55, 59–70, 75, 79, 100). Byrne first drew the X-Men in Marvel Team-Up #53. For many issues, he

6960-446: The book. It was with very few exceptions, difficult, for me, anyway, to tell in the actual gestation of the book where one of us left off and the other began – because it involved one of us coming up with an idea and bouncing it off the other ..." The "Dark Phoenix Saga" in 1980 is one of the most notable stories in the title's history. Comics writers and historians Roy Thomas and Peter Sanderson observed that "'The Dark Phoenix Saga'

7076-423: The character mulled running for the office of President of the United States . Byrne's post- X-Men body of work at Marvel includes his five-year run on Fantastic Four (#232–295, July 1981 – October 1986), which is generally considered a "second golden age" for the title. Byrne said his goal was to "turn the clock back ... get back and see fresh what it was that made the book great at its inception". He made

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7192-423: The character of " Number One ") started in March 2009; the final chapter of his Romulans story, a four-issue miniseries, Star Trek: Leonard McCoy , Frontier Doctor , set before Star Trek: The Motion Picture , and the second Assignment: Earth series. His work on Angel included Angel: Blood and Trenches (set during World War I); an Angel vs Frankenstein one-shot; and an Andy Hallett tribute, Angel: Music of

7308-545: The end of his time at Marvel, Byrne was hired by DC Comics to revamp its flagship character Superman . This was part of a company-wide restructuring of the history of the DC Universe and all of its characters following the limited series Crisis on Infinite Earths . Byrne's reworking of Superman in particular gained widespread media coverage outside the comic book industry, including articles in Time and The New York Times . At

7424-551: The ensuing fight, Alpha Flight managed to capture Persuasion as she is a component for a cure that would be used against the Unity Process. Alpha Flight, Wolverine, and Taskmaster are then prepared to take Canada back as Master of the World comes out of hiding. Master of the World begins his attack on Parliament Hill with Agent Jeff Brown and Claire Hudson present in his spaceship. He even manages to kill Gary Cody, his purpose served. Guardian continues to fight Vindicator as she orders

7540-461: The female reporter that Guardian saved comments to the television viewers on why Northstar isn't with the team. After providing rescue efforts for victims of the disaster, Guardian ejects Nerkodd from the country by dumping him off the coast of Cape Race. Once Nerkodd is defeated and repelled, Alpha Flight returns to their headquarters and are betrayed by Gary Cody and his newly elected Unity Party. To make things worse, Vindicator has sided with him. It

7656-458: The final person to draw Funky Winkerbean , taking over illustration duties from artist Chuck Ayers for the strip's concluding week, ending on December 31, 2022. Most of his work in the first decade of the new millennium was for DC Comics : JLA (issues #94–99 in 2004, co-writing and illustrating the "Tenth Circle" story arc, reuniting with his Uncanny X-Men writer Chris Claremont and with Jerry Ordway as inker), Doom Patrol , Blood of

7772-488: The first issue of Marvel Zombies: Dead Days , attacking the X-Men at the Xavier Institute for Gifted Youngsters, and killing Professor X in the process. They are later killed by Magneto , who uses his powers to make various metallic objects pierce their brains. In Old Man Logan vol. 2 #17, Logan is shown a vision of the dead Alpha Flight (consisting of Guardian, Northstar, Aurora, Sasquatch, Puck and Snowbird) by

7888-556: The first three issues. For publisher IDW, Byrne worked on the superhero series FX #1–6, written by Wayne Osborne, starting with the March 2008 issue. His other projects for the publisher include stories for the Star Trek and Angel franchises. Byrne's Star Trek work included the final issue of the miniseries Star Trek: Alien Spotlight (February 2008); Star Trek: Assignment: Earth #1–5; Star Trek: Romulans #1–2, Star Trek: Crew (a Christopher Pike -era comic book focusing on

8004-480: The following year produced a 3-D graphic novel with 3-D effects by Ray Zone . He returned to the X-Men franchise at Marvel from 1991 to 1992, succeeding longtime writer Chris Claremont, who left after 17 years working on the various X-Men related titles. Byrne's return as the new writer was brief, as he only scripted Uncanny X-Men issues #281–285 and 288 with artist Whilce Portacio , and X-Men issues #4–5 with artist Jim Lee . In 1995, Byrne wrote and drew

8120-463: The formation of a revolution against the Unity Party, Guardian, Sasquatch, and Shaman hatch a desperate and dangerous plan that involves the bad personality of Aurora. Aurora's personality begins to cause her to become unstable to herself and Alpha Flight. Meanwhile, Master of the World explains his history involving the Plodex to Claire. Alpha Flight manages to rescue Kyle Jinadu and encounter Wolverine. At

8236-519: The grave after Amatsu-Mikaboshi 's victory in the death realms. The group bands together to fight the Great Beasts. Amatsu-Mikaboshi impales the Great Beasts. The resurrected members of Alpha Flight remain among the living after the defeat of Amatsu-Mikaboshi. At the same time, Puck appears in the "Wolverine Goes to Hell" storyline in Wolverine (2010), beginning in issue #2. In 2011, the team appeared in

8352-543: The group's recruiter and leader. Since the mini-series, the team disbanded. Beta Ray Bill exited; U.S. Agent joined Hank Pym 's new Avengers team; Pointer, now calling himself Omega, joined Norman Osborn's Dark X-Men ; and Julia Carpenter became the new Madame Web . In the 2010 storyline the Chaos War , the four mainstay surviving members of Alpha Flight (Snowbird, Aurora, Northstar and Sasquatch) are reunited with Guardian, Vindicator, Shaman and Marrina Smallwood returning from

8468-401: The guards and scientists present. After Alpha Flight escaped, they learned that Gary Cody and his Unity Party are a group of fascists. Northstar abducts a Department H operative and uses aerial torture in order to learn where Department H took Kyle Jinadu. After reclaiming her daughter Claire from her cousin, Vindicator assembles Alpha Strike (consisting of Persuasion , Ranark, a Wendigo , and

8584-424: The hardcover, black and white 'Annuals' that were being published over there at the time, and soon after found a copy of an Australian reprint called Super Comics that featured a story each of Superboy , Johnny Quick and Batman . The Batman story hooked me for life. A couple of years later my family emigrated to Canada (for the second time, no less!) and I discovered the vast array of American comics available at

8700-464: The humorous fourth wall-breaking series The Sensational She-Hulk . He also co-created the Marvel characters Scott Lang and James Rhodes . During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited , and was one of the founders of the Legend imprint at Dark Horse Comics . Revisiting X-Men as a writer, Byrne co-created Bishop and Omega Red . Byrne

8816-466: The job. With DC agreeing with 99% of the revision, Byrne was given the go-ahead for what became The Man of Steel . Comics historian Timothy Callahan argued that Superman in modern media has more in common with Byrne's portrayal of the character than those of Cary Bates , Elliot S. Maggin , Dennis O'Neil , Jerry Siegel , and Edmond Hamilton . Brian Cronin of Comic Book Resources suggested that, although Byrne made several changes, Byrne's Superman

8932-407: The major storylines, such as the identity of the younger version of Guardian, unresolved, until Wolverine vol. 2 #142-143, when the plotline was resolved with the return of the real Guardian and the heroic sacrifice of the clone version. In 2004, Marvel started a new volume of Alpha Flight, with the "All-New, All-Different" prefix. The new team recruited by Sasquatch includes: "Waxing Poetic",

9048-609: The missile and the bomb into light. St. Elmo succeeds, but loses himself in the process. Groundhog and Dr. Michael Twoyoungmen scold Hudson for sending the team into battle while so inexperienced, with a near psychotic leader (Weapon X) and someone who folds under pressure. Hudson thus makes plans for a tiered team system, leading to the formation of Alpha, Beta and Gamma Flight. Alpha Flight first appeared in The Uncanny X-Men #120 (April 1979), in which they are sent to follow up on Vindicator's first mission to retrieve Wolverine from

9164-632: The most prolific and influential comic book artists ever, Byrne and his X-Men collaborator Chris Claremont were entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2015. Byrne was born on July 6, 1950 in Walsall , Staffordshire , and raised in West Bromwich , also in Staffordshire, where he lived with his parents, Frank and Nelsie, and his maternal grandmother. He was an only child. His father

9280-419: The new Nemesis , later revealed to be Heather Hudson , with both sides battling each other. Unbeknownst to Department H and the public, the two Alpha Flight factions are secretly working with each other to help smuggle Canadian mutants off-world to Shi'ar space. However, Alpha Flight becomes compromised when Department H deploys Box Sentinels to apprehend Canadian mutants. While Alpha Flight succeeds in sending

9396-405: The new team's version of Sasquatch, without telling the team that it was not Walter Langkowski. Department H also arranged the kidnapping of Diamond Lil, another former Alpha Flight member and Madison Jeffries' wife, when she began to inquire about the location of her husband, with the intent of using her as a test subject for illegal medical experiments. The series ended with issue #20 with most of

9512-762: The refugees to Chandilar with their ruse getting discovered in the process and the cost of Argent getting killed by the Box Sentinels, the remaining human members are arrested by Department H for treason with a comatose Heather Hudson ending up in their medical quarters. Doiran later did a lot of cover-ups during a press conference where she declined to comment on certain questions. Alpha Flight has fought many criminals and malevolent entities. Many were unique to them as they were based in Canada. Notable examples include: In issue #11 of Marvel Adventures Iron Man , Tony Stark travels to Nunavut to try to find his father Howard. As he

9628-456: The request of editor Mark Gruenwald , Byrne wrote and drew a new series in 1989, The Sensational She-Hulk (maintaining the 1985 graphic novel 's title). Gruenwald directed that it be significantly different from the character's previous series, The Savage She-Hulk . Byrne's take was comedic and the She-Hulk, who was aware she was in a comic book, regularly broke the fourth wall , developing

9744-407: The rest of Alpha Strike to free Persuasion and destroy the machine connected to her. Alpha Flight defeats Alpha Strike. Vindicator (still under of Master of the World's mental control) helps Alpha Flight against Master of the World when he attempts to kill Claire. Alpha Flight successfully creates the machine to free the people that Master of the World had under his mental control. They kill Master of

9860-417: The resurrection of the team in the one shot comic Chaos War: Alpha Flight during the Chaos War event. Most team members have distinctly Canadian attributes, such as having Inuit / First Nations or French heritage. Throughout most of its history, the team has worked for Department H , a fictional branch of Canada's Department of National Defence that deals with super-powered villains. Alpha Flight

9976-483: The rules while they're around." Steve Gerber and Kirby lampooned Byrne's position in Destroyer Duck , drawing him as a character called Booster Cogburn, possessing no genitals, a removable spine, and existing only to serve as a cog in the mammoth corporation that owned him. Byrne later made a story in Action Comics #592–593 where Big Barda (who is based on Kirby's wife Roz) is brainwashed and almost forced to make

10092-587: The second six-issue story arc, sees the return of some original team members as both the original versions visited in the past, and temporal copies brought to the present. These members were Guardian, Vindicator, Puck, and Shaman. Sasquatch , Guardian , Vindicator , Shaman , Major Mapleleaf II , and both Pucks are attacked by a new villain, the Collective (inhabiting the body of U.S. postal worker Michael Pointer ), in New Avengers #16. Pointer continues on to

10208-434: The second, while Byrne penciled both issues with Terry Austin as the inker. In 1985, after issue #28 of Alpha Flight , Byrne swapped the series with Bill Mantlo , writer of The Incredible Hulk . According to Byrne, he discussed his ideas with editor-in-chief Jim Shooter ahead of time, but once Byrne was on the title, Shooter objected to them. Byrne wrote and drew issues #314–319. The final issue of Byrne's run featured

10324-557: The self-confident assertiveness to use it epitomized by her name change to the Invisible Woman ; and headquarters the Baxter Building was destroyed and replaced with Four Freedoms Plaza . Byrne has cited multiple reasons for leaving the series, including "internal office politics" and that "it simply started to get old". In 1983, while still at the helm of Fantastic Four , Byrne began to write and draw Alpha Flight , starring

10440-402: The series Spider-Man: Chapter One , Byrne retold some of Spider-Man 's earliest adventures, changing some key aspects. In late 1998, Byrne became writer of the flagship series The Amazing Spider-Man at the end of the series with issue #440, by which time Marvel had decided to relaunch the book. The "last" issue of The Amazing Spider-Man was #441 (November 1998), with Marvel re-initiating

10556-471: The series was rebooted with a new #1 as Jack Kirby's Fourth World . That ran 20 issues from 1997 to 1998. During his tenure on the New Gods , Byrne was writer of the four-issue miniseries crossover Genesis , a storyline published weekly by DC Comics in August 1997. The series was drawn by Ron Wagner and Joe Rubinstein . Byrne wrote a Wonder Woman prose novel, Wonder Woman: Gods and Goddesses (1997). In

10672-446: The series with a new volume 2, issue #1 (Jan. 1999) with Howard Mackie as writer and Byrne on pencils. Byrne penciled issues #1–18 (from 1999 to 2000) and wrote #13–14. In 1999, Byrne, working with artist Ron Garney , wrote the first seven issues of a new Hulk series, as well as the summer annual . From 1999 to 2001, Byrne returned to the X-Men to write and draw X-Men: The Hidden Years which ran for 22 issues. Byrne explained

10788-400: The series with different characters. The new additions to the roster included: Returning members were Vindicator (Heather Hudson, with a new costume and new geothermal powers), a de-aged Guardian (who turned out to be a clone of the original James Hudson, set at age 19), and Puck . Sunfire was also briefly a member while looking for a cure to a crippling illness. The focus of this series

10904-676: The series, The X-Men was promoted from a bimonthly to a monthly publication schedule as sales steadily increased—a trend that continued long after Byrne left. In the late 1970s, while serving as the regular penciller of X-Men , Byrne began penciling another superhero team title, The Avengers . Working for the most part with writer David Michelinie , he drew issues #164–166 and 181–191. Byrne and Michelinie co-created Scott Lang in Avengers #181 (March 1979). Byrne's nine-issue run of Captain America , issues #247–255 (July 1980 – March 1981), with writer Roger Stern , included issue #250, in which

11020-456: The series, intending to return "in no more than six months." Byrne says he "did not count on...the virtual collapse of the whole comic book industry, which seemed to occur at just the time I put Next Men on the shelf...In the present, very depressed marketplace, I don't feel Next Men would have much chance, so I leave the book hibernating until such time as the market improves." IDW Publishing revived John Byrne's Next Men in 2010 following

11136-542: The series. Byrne took over writing Iron Man for issues #258–277 (July 1990-Feb. 1992), drawn by John Romita Jr. and later by Paul Ryan . Byrne launched a second " Armor Wars " story arc, restored the Mandarin as a major Iron Man nemesis, and featured the 1950s " pre-superhero Marvel " monster Fin Fang Foom . During the course of his run, Byrne became the first writer to retcon Iron Man's origin, removing explicit ties to

11252-583: The story in Ceremony . Upon complaining to DeFalco, Byrne says he was fired from his series. He later returned to write and draw issues #31–50 under new editor Renée Witterstaetter . Byrne started a new series, Namor, the Sub-Mariner in April 1990. Byrne's take on the undersea antihero Namor cast him as the head of a surface company, Oracle, Inc., in order to help keep the ocean unpolluted, and had Namor involved in corporate intrigue. After writing and drawing

11368-489: The super-heroine to the status of a goddess who then ascended to Mount Olympus as the Goddess of Truth, and created Cassie Sandsmark , the new Wonder Girl . Byrne then spotlighted supporting characters such as Queen Hippolyta in their own adventures but restored the series' status quo in his last issue. He additionally took over New Gods vol. 4 at the end of 1996, as writer-artist of issues #12–15, continuing with it as

11484-551: The team while writing a solo series for The Thing . While working on X-Men , he created the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight , and later wrote and drew their own series. Moving to DC, Byrne established the modern origin for Superman in The Man of Steel before writing and drawing two monthly titles and various miniseries for the character. Byrne then returned to Marvel, introducing the Great Lakes Avengers , and wrote and drew

11600-689: The time, Byrne said, "I'm taking Superman back to the basics ... It's basically Siegel and Shuster 's Superman meets the Fleischer Superman in 1986." Byrne significantly reduced Superman's powers (though he was still one of the most powerful beings on Earth), eliminated the Fortress of Solitude and super-dog Krypto , and kept Jonathan and Martha Kent alive into Clark's adulthood to enjoy their adopted son's triumphs, as well as to provide him with support, grounding, and advice whenever he needed it. Byrne also used Marv Wolfman 's idea of making Lex Luthor

11716-484: The time. His first encounter with Marvel Comics was in 1962 with Stan Lee and Jack Kirby 's Fantastic Four #5. He later commented that "the book had an 'edge' like nothing DC was putting out at the time". Jack Kirby's work, in particular, had a strong influence on Byrne and he has worked with many of the characters Kirby created or co-created. Besides Kirby, Byrne was influenced by the naturalistic style of Neal Adams . Byrne has named comic books, The Lord of

11832-400: The title keep its Canadian character, Wolverine , and contributed a series of story elements to justify Wolverine's presence which eventually made the character among the most popular in Marvel's publishing history. With issue #114, Byrne began co-plotting the series as well as penciling. Claremont recounted that "at that point in time John and I were, in a very real sense, true collaborators on

11948-541: The title's cancellation by saying, "I was officially informed yesterday that, despite the fact that they are still profitable, several 'redundant' X-Titles are being axed." This disagreement factored in his decision to no longer work for Marvel Comics. Like X-Men: The Hidden Years , some other works of this period involved characters and events in time periods other than the present and, in some cases, considered "skipped over" ( Marvel: The Lost Generation ), or alternate timelines (DC's Superman & Batman: Generations );

12064-660: The villain Ultron constructed with the body of the original Human Torch . The Vision went on to join the team, marry his teammate the Scarlet Witch , and father two children by her. Byrne radically changed this, revealing that Immortus – who previously had revealed to the Avengers the synthezoid's origin – lied about the Vision's creation. The android Human Torch was found and joined the WCA. The Vision

12180-550: The wedding of Bruce Banner and Betty Ross. In early 1980, Byrne did his first work for DC Comics, penciling the first issue of The Untold Legend of the Batman miniseries . Byrne had always wanted to draw Batman , and had a three-month window of time during which he was not under contract to Marvel. Hearing about the Untold Legend series, Byrne contacted editor Paul Levitz to express interest. DC took him up on his offer, but it

12296-404: The works themselves (one prominent example is Image Comics ). A number of these creators, including Byrne, Frank Miller , Mike Mignola , and Art Adams , banded together to form the Legend imprint at Dark Horse. Byrne's first title for Dark Horse was Next Men , a work he considered darker and more realistic than his previous work. The Next Men were five young people who were the product of

12412-503: Was a town planner and his mother was a homemaker. While living in England, prior to his family emigrating to Canada when Byrne was 8, he was first exposed to comics, saying in 2005, [M]y 'journey into comics' began with [star] George Reeves ' [Adventures of] Superman series being shown on the BBC in England when I was about 6 years old. Not long after I started watching that series I saw one of

12528-590: Was disassembled and stripped of his emotions. The couple's twins were revealed to be pieces of the soul of the demon Mephisto. In addition to these changes, Byrne's run is remembered for the introduction of the Great Lakes Avengers , an eclectic group of new superheroes. During She-Hulk 's tenure with the Fantastic Four, she appeared in Marvel Graphic Novel #18 (Nov. 1985) in a story titled The Sensational She-Hulk , which Byrne wrote and illustrated. On

12644-485: Was introduced in the "Days of Future Past" storyline (#141–142, Jan.-Feb. 1981) in which a time-travelling Kitty Pryde tried to avert a dystopian future caused by the Brotherhood assassinating Presidential candidate Senator Robert Kelly . Byrne plotted the story because he wanted to depict the Sentinels as a genuine threat to the existence of the mutant race. Byrne left The X-Men with #143 (March 1981). During his tenure on

12760-492: Was not until the second month of his three-month window that Byrne received the plot for the first issue. Byrne told Levitz that he would not be able to finish the project due to time constraints despite DC then allegedly offering Byrne double his Marvel pay rate, after initially saying they could not match his Marvel rate. Byrne penciled the first issue, which was inked by Jim Aparo after being intended for Terry Austin. This experience soured Byrne on DC for quite some time. Near

12876-513: Was on Department H's consistently hidden agenda and Alpha Flight's reluctance to comply thereto. The conspiracy plotline saw Department H allowing an incarnation of the Zodiac Cartel to kidnap Madison Jeffries, who was subsequently brainwashed into becoming the group's "Gemini". To keep the group from interfering with their "deal", Department H brainwashed the team into forgetting Jeffries' kidnapping. Also, Department H employed an actual sasquatch as

12992-644: Was paired with Claremont, with whom he teamed for issue #11 of the black-and-white Marvel magazine Marvel Preview featuring Star-Lord . The Star-Lord story was inked by Terry Austin and lettered by Tom Orzechowski , both of whom soon afterward teamed with Claremont and Byrne on Uncanny X-Men . Byrne joined Claremont beginning with X-Men #108 (Dec. 1977), which was later renamed The Uncanny X-Men with issue #114. Their work together, along with inker Terry Austin, on such classic story arcs as " Proteus ", " Dark Phoenix Saga ", and " Days of Future Past " would make them both fan favorites. Byrne insisted that

13108-570: Was preceded by a team called "The Flight". This team first appeared in Alpha Flight Special vol. 2 #1 (1992). Inspired by the debut of the Fantastic Four , James Hudson refined the purpose of Department H to find and/or develop Canada's superheroes. New recruit Groundhog joins Snowbird , St. Elmo, Stitch , Wolverine (as Weapon X) and Smart Alec in training. Within a week, the Flight

13224-414: Was renamed The Adventures of Superman starting with issue #424 and was initially written by Marv Wolfman and drawn by Jerry Ordway , but the writing chores were taken over by Byrne after a year from issues #436–442 and 444. As 1988 marked the 50th anniversary year of Superman's creation, Byrne did more Superman-related projects while working on the core Superman monthly titles at the same time: he wrote

13340-483: Was still more similar to previous depictions of the character than he was not. Byrne penciled the six-issue DC Universe crossover miniseries Legends (Nov. 1986 – May 1987) during this time. He wrote and drew two monthly Superman titles with the hero's present-day adventures: a new Superman title beginning with issue #1 (January 1987) and Action Comics , in which, beginning with issue #584, Superman teamed up with other DC characters. The original Superman book

13456-509: Was the writer and artist of the Wonder Woman series for three years, during which he created the second Wonder Girl , Cassie Sandsmark . In addition, he co-created the DC character Amanda Waller . He scripted the first issues of Mike Mignola 's Hellboy series and produced several Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing . In 2010, Byrne revived Next Men to conclude the series. Hailed as one of

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