Scans From The Seminal ART of John Byrne Book

 Thanks to the huge success of the latter 70's X-MEN stories, John Byrne became a HOT commodity in the comics world for awhile there, and at the height of the craze came a book that every fan needed to grab, THE ART OF JOHN BYRNE book released in 1980!

Oh MAN, there wasn't a kid around who didn't want a copy of this- not only for all its awesome art and insight, and all those AWESOME X-Men sketches!!!- but MOSTLY the inclusion of the mature sci-fi "Critical Error" story which featured a gorgeous Byrne Babe in ALL her natural wonder!

Scanning some illustrations for the John Byrne facebook page, I was taken back by how great these drawings still are- some consider 1980 PEAK John Byrne, and as these illos can attest, make a good case!

Happy Halloween!

Back in the 60's Tom Fagan organized the annual Rutland Halloween Parade centered around Marvel and DC superheroes alike, and the festival would occasionally show up in the pages of the comics, like Amazing Adventures 16 where the Beast encountered the Juggernaut!

Uncanny X-Men #125

My very FIRST X-Men comic, the one that introduced me to those Uncanny heroes, and WOW, what a issue to start off with! Not only was I introduced to all the X-men, but also Moira MacTaggert, Phoenix, Beast, Havok and Polaris AND the Danger Room! EVERYTHING was in this issue!

And if that weren’t enough, this was the first part of the incredible PROTEUS storyline, the beginnings of the HELLFIRE CLUB storyline and, of course, the seeds of what would eventually become the “DEATH OF PHOENIX” saga!

To this day this run remains the title that all others must compare to, and John Byrne and Terry Austin are STILL my favorite Artist/inker combo of all time!

Memories of Uncanny X-Men #111

The first time I laid eyes on the Chris Claremont/John Byrne classic UNCANNY X-MEN #111 was at the house of my friends Larry and James., and this was a beautiful new mint copy, as well!!Featuring the hypnosis mutant MESMERO, this issue was key in starting a globe-trotting epic story that would conclude years later in X-Men 121! 

Oh, how I gushed about their new aquisition, wishing I had a copy of it, but at the same time lucky I was able to read their copy so I’d at least know the story- but my jealousy only grew when my friend Herbert got a copy of X-Men 111 shortly thereafter from a classmate at school, too!

To be fair, Herb’s copy was really beat-up, but hey, he got it for free from his friend, and I would have done anything to have it as well!! Luckily for me, fate would soon step in when Me, Herbert and our friend Jas went to the local swap meet that weekend at the Waialae Drive-In. I didn't expect to see anything I liked, so I didn't bring any money with me...

So when we got there, there was a guy selling a copy of X-Men 111 for three dollars, and it was in great condition, too! Desperately, I asked Herb if I could borrow the three dollars and pay him back when we got home. He looked at that perfect condition copy and then thought of his beat up copy at home, and said, I'll make a deal with you- I'LL buy this one, and then I'll sell you MY copy for 3 dollars.  

WELL, that was better than nothing, and at least I would have a copy of my own, even though it was a beat-up copy!

Next day at school I gushed  to my classmates about how I scored my very own copy of X-Men 111, and when Larry and James heard about it, James came up to me and said, “Hey, can I come over to your house and see your copy?” I was like “SURE!!!”, proud to show it off!

He came over after school and I brought it out for him, but after only glancing at it for a minute, told me I could put it away.

We later met up with Larry and he nodded to James as if to say, “Well?” to which James shook his head, “Nope.” Ehhh? what was THAT all about?

Turns out that Larry and James had misplaced their copy of X-Men 111 and, upon hearing that I somehow got my hands on a copy, came to the conclusion that I must have STOLEN theirs!

Larry had ordered James: “Go to Z’s house and see if he has our X-Men 111”. Of course, when James saw that sad , beat-up copy of mine, he knew instantly that it wasn’t their near mint one! This was one time having a poor copy saved me! 

Funny thing is, in the years that have gone by, both Lar and Herb have long since sold off all their X-Men comics and have lost interest in comic collecting in general, and I'm the ONLY ONE who still has his copy and cherishes it like the day I first got it! Man, I should have been the one to get the nice condition one!

Memories of Uncanny X-Men #127

I first started collecting  the awesome Chris Claremont/John Byrne run of the UNCANNY X-MEN starting from issue #125, and by the time the latest issue #127 came out, I'd gotten a few back issues including 123,124 and 108. By this time they were my favorite comic and I lugged them around to read wherever I went, even down to a family picnic down at the beach one evening!

While everyone was congregating , the uncles and aunts talking story and the kids running around on the field, I played introverted anti-social kid and drifted off to a shady area and began reading my comics. My cousin saw me siting under a tree, and asked, "Hey, what's that you're reading?" I proudly gestured to my stack of comics and said it was my FAVORITE comic, The Uncanny X-MEN!"Intrigued, she said, "that sounds interesting...can I take a look at them?"

Handing it over, I saw her immediately take a look at the cover of my newly-purchased issue #127, and then turning the cover to show me, she quizzically pointed at Storm and said, "But this is a LADY."
Ehhh? "Ummm...Yeah, but she's still a member of the team. " She frowned and looked at the cover again, and said "But the group is called X-MEN."

"Um...yeah." I said.

At that point my brothers came up to me and told me they were ready to do some fishing in the canal off to the side of the park, so I left her there reading the comics. When I got back a few hours later, I asked her if she'd read the comics, to which she said an affirmative "yup".

"So...How Did You Like It?" I asked.

"It was okay. That Lady was pretty Cool with the lightning bolts and all."

LOL! Anyway, to this day, whenever I see the cover of Issue #127, I think of that day at the picnic, and have to marvel at the fact that nawadays, X-MEN is SUCH a well-known comic/movie/cartoon,etc that there probably aren't that many people who don't know Storm or the other many females comprising the team. But back then...Wow.

Signs You're In a John Byrne Comic!

Beautiful Girls Sleep In The "Buff"!!

Avengers #185

X-Men #137

Fantastic Four #241

About “Signs That You’re In a John Byrne Comic”:

Like many of you out there, I am a HUGE fan of John Byrne, and have voraciously read just about every title he’s done over the years, from Marvel to DC, Dark Horse, and Beyond!

And as any fan of Byrne can tell you, there are many things that are BOUND to happen in a any given tale of his, and the “Signs That You’re In a John Byrne Comic” entries are just fun captures of similar links between his wonderful stories that give you a sense of Deja Vu!

Super-Vixens: Lorelei

And here we feature a heavenly creation of Magneto’s who gives a new meaning to the old adage “All style and no substance”! With the looks of a drop dead gorgeous woman and the mind of a naïve three-year old, entrancing Lorelei is Marvel Comics’ answer to Melody Jones!

   Oh, sure, she had a mutant power, all right- when she sang her sweet love song, all the dudes in Maggy’s secret lair immediately became transfixed and frozen in captivation,  a power that didn’t do much good when one member of the X-Men was a red-blooded American GIRL, and it was Jean Grey indeed who eventually put the kibosh on Magneto and his New Men’s plans!

 Expertly crafted by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams, Lorelei really stands out as one of the prettier mutants in a the X-Men canon (and that’s really saying something!) but unfortunately, Lorelei and her fellow Savage Land Mutates only made two or three more appearances (in the silver age), and sadly, none of them featured Neal Adams on pencils!

 Talk about rare appearances! In fact, most of my life growing up, I only had TWO things with Lorelei in it: X-Men #63 and a battered old issue of FOOM which featured the X-Men, and had some new artwork regarding Magneto’s merry mechanically-engineered mutants!

 And by the way, at the end of X-Men #63, the Mutates appear to be losing their powers and reverting back to their former selves…when Lorelei appeared next in the Avengers, she not only had her powers back- but had gone from blond to redhead! How the heck did THAT happen? I guess when Magneto fills you up with Mutant Powers, even the residue has a bit of kick!

 Oh, and interesting side note about Lorelei’s attack on the Avengers…once again, all the members became entranced when she sang her song-except for the two girls there (Scarlet Witch and the Lady Sif)…and THE VISION! Hahaha, this really screwed him up because even a synthezoid like him knew that if sexy little Lorelei doesn't turn you on, something's wrong! Ahahahaha!

Lorelei

First Appearance: X-Men #63

Created by Roy Thomas and Neal Adams

Favorite Comics: Avengers #53

I began reading Marvel Comics’ X-MEN series during the highly acclaimed Byrne/Claremont run featuring the “All-New, All-Different” team, and so had no real knowledge of the original 1960’s team. But as my love of the “Uncanny” X-men grew, my curiosity of the Lee and Kirby team grew too, til I HAD to know more about them!

This was back in the pre-internet days when access to information of most comics was almost nil. The only real way to get info on any comic you liked was to talk to the local comic shop dealer or other collectors, and in that I was lucky because I had a couple of friends who were BIG collectors of Marvel Comics, and were always ready to educate me about any Marvel History I needed to know.

So one day after telling my friend I wanted to see what the “old” X-Men looked like, he came to class and handed me a comic. It was issue #46 of a Marvel reprint title called Marvel Triple Action, and it was here I got my very first glimpse of the original X-Men: Cyclops. Marvel Girl, Beast, Angel and Iceman, and right off the bat I was blown away- WOW! How colorful, dynamic and totally COOL they looked!

The comic also introduced me to the Avengers for the first time, and I IMMEDIATELY dived into the story, relishing the interesting dialog and powerful artwork, not knowing at the time that the tale was concocted by two GREATS of the Silver Age  (Writer Roy Thomas and Artists Big John Buscema), only knowing that the story “In Battle Joined!” was the most KICK-ASS story I’d read in awhile! Begun in the pages of X-Men #45, this was a story of the Avengers and the X-Men united against mutual baddie Magneto. The X-Men have been captured by Magneto, and the Angel has escaped to get aid from the Avengers- but they arrive just in time to see Cyclops knocking out former Avenger Quicksilver…

“In Battle Joined!"

Hawkeye, Goliath, Wasp and the Black Panther have come upon X-Man Cyclops standing over the fallen figure of Quicksilver. Not sure of the situation, they tell the youth to freeze. Cyclops, however, suspects they’re only robots created by Magneto, and isn’t taking any chances. He fires at Hawkeye, and when Black Panther jumps down to subdue him, a couple of blasts from his optic visor give Cyclops enough time to get away!

It seems that when the Angel escaped Magneto’s prison back in X-Men #45, he went directly to the Avengers mansion for assistance in rescuing his fellow X-Men. Since Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were last seem leaving with Magneto back in Avengers #49, the Avengers are happy to team up tackling the master of Magnetism.

On the Atlantic flight over to Magneto’s island, Janet discovers a miniature bugging device hidden among Angel’s wings. The Avengers now believe he’s in cahoots with Magneto, and is setting them up. While he swears he ‘s innocent, they tie him up and leave him behind when they investigate the fortress. Thus we return to our opening scene where the Avengers have just arrived to see Cyclops flee!

 Magneto is watching the entire drama play out, delighted that his plans are coming to fruition. Of course, it was all part of his plans for Angel to escape and get caught with the monitor on his wings. “ Now they and the X-Men, who might otherwise been allies- will be at each other’s throats!”

  Toad doesn’t like the idea of bringing in the Avengers…they should have been satisfied capturing the X-Men- their REAL enemies! Magneto electrocutes Toad for his doubt, and Toad questions why Magneto always abuses him when he alone out of ALL the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants has been loyal. “Because I don’t NEED your Loyalty!” snaps Magneto. He explains that he’s only kept Toad around because it amused him, and now Toad is just angering him. Wanda steps in and begs Magneto to leave Toad alone, and Toad says “One day soon, Magneto shall know who his true friends are.”

  Meanwhile, The Avengers have become antsy sneaking around the hidden fortress, and as usual, Hawkeye and Goliath start to bicker and fight. Soon the Black Panther, who initially tries to STOP the fight, is involved, and it is up to Jan to step in and remind them that there is a task at hand.

This moment of discourse is just what Magneto has been hoping to hear, and he releases a machine that unleashes crackling electronic commands upon the unsuspecting X-Men.  When the sensations vanish, we realize just what the machine has done to their minds when Cyclops states, “There was something we were going to do! Yes- We were going to find the Avengers…and DESTROY THEM!”

  Any doubt that the X-Men are on the wrong side of the good guys is gone when the Avengers confront the angry teen mob and Cyclops orders: “Kill Them! Kill The Avengers!”

  Beast strikes the first blow at Black Panther, and the others follow his lead. After fighting for a while, the Avengers they find they are having a hard time beating them. Then Black Panther realizes it is because they subconsciously think of the X-Men as heroes, not villains. With this change in attitude, the Avengers make quick work of the youths, much to the confusion of Magneto, who thought the X-Men would be the victors!

  His confusion only increases when he turns and finds The Angel has infiltrated the control room! Soon, the Avengers smash in, as well! Goliath knows Magneto must be dying of curiosity to find out what went wrong with his plans, and elucidates. “We guessed the bug on Angel was a plant, and tied his hands loosely! Wasp whispered in his ear our plans, then pretended to quarrel to lure you into an ill-timed attack!”

  Magneto knows the only option is escape, and brings down a wall of metal parts onto the Avengers, giving himself enough time to get away! He orders Toad to get the escape ship, hitting him to get a move on. “He orders me to save him - and strikes me as he does so! Thus has he EVER rewarded my unwavering Loyalty!” thinks the Toad.

  With a quick move, the Toad sets the machine generators to overload- soon the entire island will be decimated by the huge explosion!  He leads the Scarlet Witch and a still dazed Quicksilver to a waiting escape ship. As the ship takes off, Magneto reaches out with his magnetic powers to lift him to the jet, but finds that his powers have no effect! Toad reminds him that he once built an entire ship out of non-metals, just to prove he could do it. As Magneto tries to hold onto the ship, He says, “Toad…Stop!! I am Your Master!” to which the Toad solemnly replies, “No Magneto. The Toad calls no man master- ever again!!”  He steps on Magneto’s fingers and sends him hurtling to the jagged rocks below!

  Meanwhile the Avengers and X-Men (who seem to have recovered from the hypno-ray) have made it back to their ship in time to witness the Toad and his crew leaving.  They quickly shove off themselves, and a few minutes later, the very horizon rocks as the entire island goes up in a fiery explosion! Soon, the ocean is littered with smoking debris and machinery from the fortress, and among the bits of twisted metal floats the remains of Magneto’s once mighty metal helmet!

*    *    *    *    *

What a STORY!! I loved and re-read this issue so darn much that not only did I eventually collect all the back-issues of Marvel Triple Action featuring The Avengers (as well as Triple Action successor Marvel Super Action) but immediately began subscribing to the current issues as well -and what do you know- John Byrne was the artist HERE, too When I got older, I made it a priority to get my hands on all the ORIGINAL Avengers issues, and I was simply beside myself the day I got my very own copy of AVENGERS #53, the issue where that X-Men/Avengers story originally ran and the very issue you see scanned here!

Besides the overwhelming “pride of ownership” that came with obtaining this piece of Marvel history, there are several other good reasons to own the actual copy, and not just that they got the COLORS of Beast, Angel and Goliath right(!) in the original comic-I was ECSTATIC when I read the original issue and found there were TWO EXTRA PAGES that Marvel Triple Action had cut out! HOLY TOLEDO! This was like the Modern-Day equivalent of a DVD bonus! If I thought I loved that story BEFORE…MAN! Now it was BEYOND LOVE!!! Ahahahaha!

To this day, those Avengers issues from around issue #46-60 are still some of my favorite stories ever; Roy Thomas is still one of my favorite writers, and John Buscema one of my very favorite artists… When you consider that back then I was simultaneously reading both Thomas/Buscema stories AND Byrne/Claremont stories, there’s no wonder I call this my own personal “Golden Age” of comic reading in my life! 

Super-Vixens: Marvel Girl

Okay, at first glance, Jean Grey’s outfit seems to be nothing more than a green dress with yellow gloves and boots.Then looking closer, you realize…Yep, It’s a dress, alright!

So why do I love this costume so much?!

I don’t know, but I WILL say that in the era where Sue Storm was wearing the same outfit as Reed Richards and Wanda Frank & Janet Van Dyne were wearing their respective one-piece bodysuits, Jean’s dress outfit was positively original and sexy!

I know that a lot of people had an aversion to the new costumes of the Original X-Men, especially John Byrne ,who seemed to be obsessed with the original outfits (Kitty Pryde and later Jean in the Hidden Years reflect this) and Neal Adams, who quickly changed the Angel’s Yellow ‘n’ Suspenders look to a more sleek style, but, hey, one of the first classic comics I read was Avengers #53, and John Buscema’s depiction of the X-Men will always be THE defining look of the group for me.

One of the first 12¢ comic back issues I bought was Issue #39, which, of course, featured the X-Men for the first time in their “new” outfits, as illustrated by Don Heck, but it wasn’t til my friend James got this hardcover X-Men book published by Grandreams which reprinted the Neal Adams Sentinels stories that I really fell in love with Jean’s Marvel Girl outfit. He really made her look terrific in that dress!

For some reason, the original Marvel Girl outfit is one of the things that IMHO Byrne didn’t seem to care much for, and as I’d mentioned before, he couldn’t wait to find a reason to get her out of the green dress and back into the yellow and black suit in his HIDDEN YEARS strip. But that’s okay, because Jean gave the costume to Candy Southern to wear, and my didn’t she look nice in it!

Jean Grey:

First Appearance: X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

First Appearance in new Marvel Girl Costume:

X-Men #39 by Roy Thomas and Don Heck

Favorite Artists:

Werner Roth (X-Men 48,49)

John Buscema (Avengers #53)

Neal Adams (X-Men #56-65)

Super-Vixens: Phoenix

The Mighty Dave Cockrum strikes again with this totally awesome outfit, one of my favorite designs, and I don’t care that he designed practically the same identical suit for Ms. Marvel… In fact, that costume is gonna show up any time now on this list!

Man, I just love this outfit, and it only got better when Byrne took over! Funny thing, one big difference in the way the two artists depicted the costume for me was that in Cockrum’s drawings, the green part of her costume always seemed like cotton material, for some reason, with leather boots and gloves, whereas Byrne’s illustrations always looked completely slick, like some kind of cosmic latex!

And another thing I mentioned before, John Byrne just loved drawing girls in pretty clothes, and Jean was no exception- in fact, he really draped Ms. Grey in some wonderful outfits over the years, but my favorite has to be the green off-shoulder dress she’s wearing in Uncanny X-Men #114. Just so damn pretty!

Oh, and I am adamant in my belief that the ORIGINAL storyline where Jean Grey turns into Phoenix in Uncanny X-Men #101, turns to Dark Phoenix in issue #135, dies in issue #137, and is buried in issue #138 as the ONE TRUE and CORRECT story.

Call me stubborn (yes) and hard headed (yep, yep), but as far as I’m concerned, the Jean Grey that we knew and loved has passed away, and I refuse to subscribe to any of those revisionist storylines that sprout up regularly like evil baobabs seeking to invade and destroy my planet! Argggh…

Jean went out in a thoughtful, unselfish and poignant way, and that’s how I want to remember her.

Jean Grey:

First Appearance: Uncanny X-Men #1 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby

First Appearance in Phoenix Costume:

Uncanny X-Men #101 by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum

Favorite Artists:

Dave Cockrum and John Byrne

Signs You're In a John Byrne Comic!

Over every Icy Ridge lies a 

Huge, Futuristic Technological Wonder!

Alpha Flight #3

X-Men #116

Fantastic Four #224

About “Signs That You’re In a John Byrne Comic”:

Like many of you out there, I am a HUGE fan of John Byrne, and have voraciously read just about every title he’s done over the years, from Marvel to DC, Dark Horse, and Beyond!

And as any fan of Byrne can tell you, there are many things that are BOUND to happen in a any given tale of his, and the “Signs That You’re In a John Byrne Comic” entries are just fun captures of similar links between his wonderful stories that give you a sense of Deja Vu!

Super-Vixens: Polaris

While Ororo’s STORM costume has the distinction of being my favorite Super-Heroine costume of all-time, My SECOND favorite costume goes to another mutant in the Uncanny X-Men pantheon, Miss Lorna Dane, better known to the superhero world as POLARIS.

Ms. Dane has had quite a few costume changes over the years, but the outfit I’m referring to is her original green silk “harem” style costume that was first introduced to us all the way back in X-Men #50, as conceived by writer Arnold Drake and Jim Steranko.

My introduction to Polaris came during the Byrne / Claremont run of the X-Men. My very first issue was #125, in the first part of the Mutant X storyline. The issue ends with Lorna on the phone telling Scott that they are being attacked by someone or something on Muir Isle and would appreciate the back-up. At this time, I didn’t know she was a super-hero, and simply thought she was the (green-haired?) girlfriend of Havok. A few issues later, when the group is getting ready to have a showdown with Proteus, she is seen in the background taking off her sweater to reveal that sexy costume underneath. (What a shot…I’ll never forget it!)

At some point I fell in love with the artwork of Jim Steranko (and really, which Silver-Age Marvel Comics aficionado hasn’t?) and really wanted to get X-Men issues #49-51 which he’d done these gorgeous covers for. When I finally got my hands the issues, I was stoked to find that this was the first appearance of Lorna! I eventually got the Neal Adams issues as well, finding out how she and Alex hooked up (by dumping poor Iceman on his butt!) as well as seeing her character develop.

When Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum revived the X-Men in ’76, she was given a new costume that I truly despised, supposedly of Shi’ar origin but looking a lot more like Shrinking Violet’s costume in DC’s Legion of Super Heroes.(which was also designed by Mr. Cockrum) Fortunately Byrne had the kindness to drape her in my beloved costume instead when he took over the run.

You know, one thing I’ve always felt was that John Byrne liked Lorna’s character a lot. After all, it was the Byrne/Claremont team that did that Marvel Team-Up story, but even more proof came to me when Byrne did his stint on the short-lived “X-Men Hidden Years” strip. He really fleshed out Lorna’s character,including her as much as possible and even giving her a well deserved solo arc in”The Promise”.There’s this one passage that’s really great when Bobby pushes Lorna too far with his “You’re MY Girl “ schtick and she really lets his have it!

After Byrne left the original X-Men run, they immediately changed Lorna’s costume back to the Shi’ar outfit, one that I had to endure till she was outfitted with a far more sensible one in the Peter David “X-Factor” run (a run I rather liked as it utilized three of the “Muir Isle Gang" members!).

Nowadays I’m not sure just what kind of costuming Lorna is running around with, but a (relatively) recent glance at a cover of Ultimate X-Men #61 reassured me that all those involved are still doing their duty of keeping Lorna a Cute and Sexy Marvel Commodity, no matter what the costume!

First Appearance: X-Men #49 by Arnold Drake and Werner Roth

First Appearance in costume: X-Men #50 by Arnold Drake and Jim Steranko

Favorite Artists:

Werner Roth (X-Men #49)

Jim Steranko (X-Men #50)

Neal Adams (X-Men #57-65)

John Byrne ( Uncanny X-Men #119-129)

Super-Vixens: Storm

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Miss Ororo Monroe, one of my favorite characters ever, as I’ve blogged about on other forums incessantly. Smart, Sexy and Exotic, she also sports my favorite Super Heroine costume ever!

Originally created by Len Wein and Dave Cockrum, Ororo blossomed into the gorgeous Goddess she would be known for when writer Chris Claremont and artist John Byrne took over the strip starting from Uncanny X-Men #108.

This seminal issue run would feature Ororo at her most fetching; strong and powerful in her element, but also young and naïve about life in the city and living with her fellow X-Men in domestic settings.

Ororo always looked great and was always an interesting character during Dave Cockrum’s reign, but it wasn’t until John Byrne came around that I was totally taken for a loop with Storm.

Under Byrne’s penciling, she became one of the hottest commodities comics had, with a tight curvy figure, billowy snowy white hair, and lush, exotic eyes. It was fascinating to watch her in costume OR in street clothing, both of which John Byrne had a fair for drawing. It became the main focus of these early issues to see what Storm would reveal to us next! Under Byrne’s eye, Ororo became HOT, HOT, HOT!

Someone at work once pointed out to me that it seemed to him that in almost EVERY issue of the Byrne/Claremont X-Men run, Ororo would be either

1) scantily clad 2)undressing or 3) nude.

Looking back over the run, I find this statement to be pretty accurate! He also added, “Not that I blame them…if it was up to ME, I’d have her in the same state of semi-undress, too!

First Appearance: Giant Size X-Men #1, Illustrator: Dave Cockrum

Favorite Artists:

•Dave Cockrum, Uncanny X-Men , epsecially the Juggernaut arc, which also featured Ororo's origin. (#101-103)

•John Byrne in Uncanny X-Men #108-141, Iron Fist #15, etc…. Personally, no one will ever match John Byrne’s rendition of Ororo! And BTW, expect to see Mr. Byrne listed here a LOT under "favorite Artists" for any particular heroine!