John Byrne's Next Men #31-44

Yep, we're still on a John Byrne kick here, and this time I decided to re-read his 2010 continuation which was chopsocky and erratic but still retained the intrigue that the original series had.

John Byrne's Next Men #0-44

John Byrne's next men sure had its ups an downs but I read it religiously from its initial 30+0 issues with Dark Horse and through its new IDW series in 2010 and concluding series Next-Men: Aftermath (retroactively numbered as 31-44), 

While it didn't end on a very strong note (quite frankly, more of a whimper) it still is a series with characters I really, really love and care about and I will always take Next Men out and read again from time to time.

John Byrne's "Next Men" is Back!!

So my friend and I were browsing through a Comic Store In Town, primarily to see what “old” comics were up on the wall for sale. While we waxed nostalgic looking at all the old classic silver age covers, my eyes dropped down to the current comics, and I almost had a heart attack when I saw THIS sitting on the new release shelf:

WHAT THE HELL WAS THIS?  Was this a reprint of the old NEXT MEN Strips? Was this a clever repackaging made to promote the "Trade Edition" collections that IDW was releasing? Or….Hope ABOVE HOPE…Did John Byrne FINALLY get around to CONTINUING his Next Men series after ALL THESE YEARS?!

I couldn’t believe THAT possibility, and decided that when I got home, I was going to have to go online and find out just WHAT the heck it was that I saw at the comic store! I felt SURE that they were only reprints, but why did Bethany and Jasmine have new costumes on the cover? Dare I hope that it was something NEW?

Going onto Wikipedia, I quickly scrolled through the fact page…and…HOLY CRAP! Unbelievably, It WAS a NEW SERIES! Byrne had FINALLY picked up where he’d left off and STARTED IT UP AGAIN! HOW IN THE WORLD DID THIS THING COME OUT WITHOUT MY KNOWLEDGE?! It was already up to issue 7...that meant SEVEN WHOLE MONTHS that it was out and I never had an INKLING of its existence!

Oh My GOSH, you best bet I RAN my BUTT back to that comic store and SCOOPED up those issues, but QUICK! Took a lot of driving and visits to three (!) comic stores before I finally got all 7 back-issues, but once I did, it was WELL WORTH IT! Diving in, reading NEXT MEN again was like slipping on a comfortable old show-I felt at home!

Now, truth be told, I’m not sure exactly WHERE the storyline is going, and there’s admittedly a lot of “it was only a dream/illusion” jerking around going on, but like I’ve stated before, the characters have always been more important to me than the actual storyline, and in THIS regard, Byrne is moving along SWIMMINGLY! Not only have we been reintroduced to the characters, but he’s made great strides developing Federal Agent Toni Murcheson and the continued story of Jack’s religious awakening!

The others are there as well, with both Nathan and Jazz storylines involving them fighting their way out of the muddled past and nice developments for my beloved Bethany. In fact, at the moment, Danny’s the only one who still hasn’t been covered yet…wonder if there’s gonna be some big secret unveiled soon?

We’ll have to read and find out! Byrne has stated that he’s got about 50 issues worth to tell the whole story, and I sincerely hope the comic can LAST up until then- I would HATE to have the Next Men pulled out from under me AGAIN!

John Byrne's "Next Men"

For one reason or the other,  I didn’t read John Byrne’s NEXT MEN during its initial run back in the early 90’s- after reading both his West Coast Avengers and Namor The Sub Mariner run, I was pretty much overkilled on Byrne, and didn’t feel like taking up what looked like nothing more than a vanity project copying the X-MEN…

Boy, how misguided can a guy get?

It was only after Byrne started up his X-Men: The Hidden Years comic that I felt enthusiastic enough about picking up his NEXT MEN series that was, by then, dead and gone (or, infinitely postponed, according to Byrne) and I was able to buy almost the complete 31 issue run in the $1.00 bins at the local comic store! (at least, all except issue 21 which featured Hellboy)

I really wasn’t sure what to expect when I began reading the strip, but I tell you this: After reading just issue #0, I knew this comic was special. Something about the  characters made me care for them the very first time I laid eyes one them!

We get introduced to the central players, who we later find are living in a virtual world plugged into their subconscious, and it’s only after they’ve woken up in the “real” world, do their powers manifest, shocking them and subsequently overtaking their humanity with its raw power. The team must set out to find “the truth” about themselves all the while dodging government and political enemies, trying to sort out friends from enemies.

One thing I really loved about the Next Men was how GREAT they looked as a group, one scene that really stood out for me was when the gang has been hauled in for mass murder… I remember thinking, wow,this is really a pretty awesome team Byrne’s created here…they’re all fully developed and work SO well together, whether on the battlefield or playing against each other.

This one particular shot says it all, each member’s personality is clearly evident here when they get the “Guilty” verdict handed down to them:

Nathan, the most perceptive of the bunch, is unflinchingly somber, as if to say “Of COURSE they voted against us.”

Danny, the wide-eyed guy who readily trusts people and thinks of himself as a true hero, is shocked at the verdict.

Jasmine, the sensitive one of the group, is both worried and crushed by the news…

Jack, who has overwhelming remorse over the carnage they’ve been involved in, is ashamed of himself, and truly believes he is guilty.

…and Bethany is PISSED AS HELL!!!

Oh How I LOVED Bethany! Tuff and Sassy, she was immediately my favorite member, among all the interesting characters in this strip! (More on her in the following post) In fact, along with Federal Agent Toni Murchenson, I'd say that it's the characters that are the driving force behind the strip WAY MORE than the storyline itself!

Sadly, when the series came to an end, I felt extremely unsatisfied, as far as the story went. Although Byrne stated in the editorial that this was the CONCLUSION of the Next Men story arc, they left so many plotlines and characters’ stories in limbo as to feel abruptly chopped off rather than any kind of real “ending”. I thought, “Wow, that ending was really disappointing”

However…

That night after finishing reading the final comic in a one week marathon of John Byrne Next Men reading, I had this huge, empty feeling in my heart- I MISSED the characters!

It saddened me to sit there not knowing the fates of my now beloved characters. I wanted to see all their problems solved, and I wanted to see them at peace!

Now, part of me knows that even if Byrne DID take up the series again, It probably would’ve unfolded in a different direction than I wanted (I wanted more about the interplay and personalities of the original five members, less of the politics & endless introduction of new characters) and it seemed like the strip was turning its direction more into a story about creating new characters with new super powers & secret agendas than the original five characters even before the series ended…

But, who am I kidding? Good or bad, If Byrne actually decided to get off his duff and restart Next Men up again, I will be the FIRST one to run out and grab a copy! Cause I can’t just have those characters suspended forever in comic limbo- I need to have CLOSURE!

Super-Vixens: Bethany

Though I wasn’t a big reader of John Byrne’s NEXT MEN series while is was being published, when I DID get down to collecting them all and reading them, I LOVED IT to DEATH!

With an original storyline of five super-powered individuals who awaken from a dream world state and are suddenly thrust into the real one, Byrne created these thoughtful and sympathetic characters that you really cared about. And out of all of the so-called “Next Men”, the one that I loved head and shoulders above the rest was the indestructible maiden of might, Bethany.

 I fell in love with Bethany from the very first moment I laid eyes on her, happily chatting with Nathan in the “Greenery” the virtual paradise in their minds, dressing like a beautiful extra in Logan’s Run, though I really can’t explain why she won me over so immediately.

But from the moment she awoke into the “real” world and had to begin dealing with her powers/curse of having a virtually indestructible body, her plight always seemed the most interesting to me: having a completely indestructible body meant long hair, long fingernails, and since even her pigment couldn’t be affected, developing a pale complexion!

  It was great storytelling to see her go from the pretty, optimistic and curious girl talking in the Greenery...

To the cold, bitter and ruthless warrior who grew out of her experience of having to deal with the loss of feeling, the loss of her love, and the helplessness of not being able to save innocents from the hands of truly evil men out in the real world.

There are traces of Susan Storm-Richards in Bethany to be sure, and why not? Byrne was trying to elevate Sue from the crying, wringing-her-hands girl she was in the early comics  to become arguably the strongest member of the Fantastic Four, an ass-kicking beautiful blonde- exactly the prototype for the character Beth became!

Why, there are even similarities in Bethany’s “Hardbody’ cosutme and Susan Storm’s “Hate” outfit from FF #281! AHAHAHA..Byrne shows his S & M Style LOL

PS: Speaking of Behtany’s supposed “Codename” Hardbody, well, I never liked it. In fact, in the comic it was a name thrust upon her by an overzealous fellow member who envisioned them as Comic heroes. I don’t know if Byrne menat Hardbody to stick as her real codename, but since even Bethany didn’t like it, I don’t feel any need to accept it either AHAHAHAHA!