What more can be said about John Byrne? Anything that could be said about
him has already been spoken. John talks to us about his upcoming runs on
Amazing Spider-Man, Incredible Hulk, and the new X-men book.
Coville:
What will you do with Amazing Spider-Man that is different and exciting?
Byrne:
The main problem presented by the whole Spider-Man mythos in its present state
is finding a way to fix something which, for a majority of readers, does not
appear to be broken. Those of us who have followed Spider-Man through all the
years of his existence remember times when there was something almost magical
about the stories, the art, the whole package, and it is that which has,
slowly but surely, eroded away, as mistakes were made which, to the people in
charge, did not seem to be mistakes at the time. Thus, the best thing we can
think of to make Spider-Man "different and exciting" is to press "REWIND", but
to do so in a fashion that will seem a logical outgrowth of all that has gone
before, and not simply a massive erasure.
Coville:
Will you be creating new villains for Spider-Man or using old ones?
Byrne:
The intent is to use mostly new villains - and, indeed, a new supporting cast in
AMAZING. Since the old tried-and-true villains will be appearing at the same
time in my "Year One" project, this seems a good way to have our cake and eat
it too!
Coville:
Will there be more "revamps" of Spider-Man villains (eg. Female Dr. Octopus)?
Byrne:
No such is planned. We would prefer the new villains to be just-that-new!
Coville:
When does your run on Amazing Spider-Man start and what will the first
story be about?
Byrne:
Howard Mackie and I will begin with the issue of AMAZING that comes out in
November of this year. That's far enough away that, concerned as we are with
wrapping up the storylines in the current books, we have not yet given much
thought to the specifics of our first stories.
Coville:
Would you be interested in doing Alpha Flight again in the future?
Byrne:
Nope. Alpha is a definite case of "bin there, dun that"!
Coville:
What are your thoughts on the new Alpha Flight?
Byrne:
I have not read it.
Coville:
After many years of the Hulk having some intelligence, how do you plan on
making "Hulk Smash" interesting?
Byrne:
The same way it was made interesting in the past-by creating interesting
stories, places, people, etc. with which the Hulk can interact.
Coville:
What can you tell us about your first Hulk story?
Byrne:
Nothing - it's not plotted yet. Still several months before Ron Garney and I
will be prepared to actually get to work on the title.
Coville:
What will be the title of the new X-Men book your working on?
Byrne:
The working title is X-MEN: HIDDEN YEARS. It may be called something else by
the time it actually comes out.
Coville:
It will feature the original X-men in new stories during the re-print era correct?
Byrne:
Correct.
Coville:
Do you know what kind of format the new title will be in? Will it be done
"Untold Tales of Spider-Man" style, or like a normal comic?
Byrne:
The plan is to present it as a normal, ongoing monthly series. The "gap" it
fills was about 29 issues long, but I am not restricted to that. If the
series is a success it could run 100 issues. Not necessarily all by me, though.
Coville:
When does the first issue come out?
Byrne:
We've been talking about the fall of 1999, though that close to the Millennium, I
would not mind seeing it pushed back to January 2000.
Coville:
Will we be seeing some X-men villains from the 60's that we don't see anymore?
Byrne:
At present I am still in the process of doing the background research
necessary to determine who was available, not only in terms of familiar X-Men
villains, but characters and villains from other Marvel books of the period.
This also requires figuring out if any of the old, familiar faces can, in
fact, have appearances during this period, of if established Marvel continuity
has made that impossible. Luckily I have already discovered that it will be
possible to do a Magneto story almost at once.
Coville:
Do you plan on creating new X-villians that could pop up in present day X-men titles?
Byrne:
Possibly. At this point there has been very little discussion of just how my
book will impact on the present day X-Books-or vice versa. Clearly, since I
am working in the past, it would be difficult, if not impossible to do
anything that impacted on the present unless the writers on the present day
books wanted it to.
Coville:
Will we be seeing a sympathetic Magneto or a pure evil Magneto?
Byrne:
We will see Magneto as he was then-a ruthless megalomaniac with a desire to
subjugate humanity to the will of "homo superior". Xavier's precise opposite,
in other words.
Coville:
Out of the original X-men characters, do you have a favorite?
Byrne:
Cyclops has always been "Mr. X-Men" to me.
Coville:
Do you think you will find some time to re-start Next Men?
Byrne:
It's less a question of time than it is of the state of the marketplace.
NEXT MEN sold very well in its original run - better than I expected in fact - but
during what I planned to be merely a brief hiatus, the whole industry crashed,
and now books like NEXT MEN are swept away without so much as a ripple. I
would need to see a far greater stability in the marketplace before I would
risk a relaunch.
Coville:
How will you deal with hostile fans at San Deigo?
Byrne:
The simplest way of all - by not being there. I have no plans to attend the San
Diego Con.
Coville:
Do you have any desire to become an editor in the future?
Byrne:
Somehow that would seem like a step down. Sometimes I wonder what I would do
if Marvel or DC offered me the top spot, the editor-in-chief job, but I think
the answer would be "Turn it down". The bean-counters are running the show,
these days, and the job of most editors is to meet their demands. Perhaps
this will change, and we can get back the a more creative approach to
comics - something not driven by marketing-but until then, it seems as though an
editorial position would just be frustrating.
