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I don't know if I mentioned it a few weeks back, but I bought a small collection from a seller on Kijiji. I allowed myself half of it and divided the rest up into three chunks that I'm "gifting" myself over the next few months. Today was the first chunk, and it contains a nice run of this comic. Except the issue I'm reading today is from my collection, and has been awhile. It reprints the preludes to the Next Men ongoing series from Dark Horse Presents.
I didn't know this when I sat down to read issue number one this afternoon. I was very confused by the events of the comic. Thank goodness the dark recesses of my brain managed to recall that I had a zero issue of the series, or I thought I did, and lo and behold, it appeared.
I've not been kind to John Byrne on this blog, but I have to give credit where credit is due. He's a really, really good comics artist. I just think he's one of those people, and you have them in every industry, who thinks he's more important than he actually is. He did some spectacular runs on some of the biggest superheroes, but that doesn't mean that his voice ought to be counted for more than newer, or less famous, voices. This is always the sense I get from him when I've read interviews. I really should just avoid reading interview.
The end of Byrne's Fantastic Four was one of the first Marvel comics I collected. Before I read Jonathan Hickman's run on the team, I always thought that Byrne got the super-family dynamic just right, though I'll admit it's been a while since I've read it. I'm curious to see how this particular team of Next Men (and Women) evolves. Given the artist's huge successes with team books prior to writing this one, I wonder if we'll see things that are familiar from Byrne's earlier team books, but refined through the lens of experience.
More to follow.
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