"High" Power Level vs. "Low" Power Level

[JulianPerez]

I'm almost certain Byrne had priority on the psionic aspect.  He mentioned his POV on Superman's powers many years before while he was still at Marvel.  He even did a trial run of the idea in FF #'s 249 - 250 ("Man and Superman") with Marvel's Gladiator.  While Moore might have done better justice to the psionic aspect, I do believe Byrne was the originator. (I may dislike Byrne's writing intensely, but I do try to be fair and objective.)

Huh! Well, I'll be danged! I have the issue you're talking about - FF #250, which came out in 1983. And you're right - this idea is present there.

However, this does not prove John Byrne had this idea first. WARRIOR #1, the first appearance of the Alan Moore version of Marvel/Miracleman, came out in 1982, and Alan Moore had printed quotes detailing how he would write Miracleman that were floating around in UK fan magazines as far back as 1981 in the Society of Strip Illustrators Journal, which was how he was approached by Dez Skinn to write MIRACLEMAN in the first place.

(Yes, it took until 1985 for MIRACLEMAN to make it to the United States thanks to Eclipse Comics, but one of the reasons that sales were not as impressive for those comics was, everybody that REALLY wanted the Alan Moore/Alan Davis MIRACLEMAN had already bought the UK WARRIOR issues).

If I might bring up a piece of circumstantial evidence:

Byrne, working by himself, has never created a worthwhile or memorable original character in his entire career.

He has never created a worthwhile or imaginative concept to transplant onto existing characters in his entire career: from the Vision having no emotions to not "really" being the Human Torch, to Namor not really being an honorable, complicated regal monarch with a legitimate grievance against the surface world, but instead having a disease that "makes him crazy" every so often; to Byrne's catastrophic relaunch of Superman whose flaws have already been detailed in depth by many people on this very website. Individuals have spent careers undoing the mistakes Byrne has left behind; saddled with the detritus of Byrne's FF run, the reason Alicia acted as wildly out of character as she did in Byrne's run is because "Byrne's Alicia was a Skrull." Look at Loebs bringing back "classic" Superman elements, or Busiek restoring the Vision's humanity and original origin.

So, in that context, excuse me if I'm in-freakin-credulous of a claim that it was Johnny Byrne that originated a concept instead of ALAN MOORE.

That's sort of like saying, "I'm positive the man who stole my purse wasn't that known, convicted pursesnatcher. It had to have been that elderly church lady." It doesn't mean that the pursesnatcher is innocent and the old church lady is guilty, but come on.

I will give credit to Byrne for one thing: he ripped off MIRACLEMAN before it became fashoinable to do so.

I was not aware Elliot S! Maggin created LexCorp. Seriously, if they don't cough up the bucks, Maggin ought to get an attorney. True, Jack Kirby never got his art back from Shooter, that's in the past; Stan Lee recently won a giant settlement against Marvel for over several million dollars, and that was from a pussycat like Stan who didn't really push very hard.

And it's even more damning proof that Byrne is the exploding syphillis canker that we know he is. He shamelessly robbed the desk and concepts of a writer that was fired to make way for him. A writer, incidentally, that was powerless and marginalized and had no voice to really defend himself.

There's a certain vindicating thrill when you find out that people whose work you despise are also worthless, evil jerkholes as human beings, too.

[Super Monkey]

Byrne, working by himself, has never created a worthwhile or memorable original character in his entire career.

Not even the Next Men? You know his creator owned book that was so bad and had such low sells that he had to quit his own book without even finishing the storyline and thus leaving the few fans that he did have hanging forever, not even that one?


Anyway

Here is what the devi... John Byrne had to says about this topic from his website:

What's the story behind Superman's indestructible aura invented by JB?

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you revamped Superman and gave him a force-field around his body, did you do that because you wanted to get away from the "indestructible" costume thing? Did you catch much slack for this new "power"?

JB: No, to both. A few months before I started work on Superman, I'd read a book called "The Secret House" (which I highly recommend, though I sadly cannot remember the name of the author.) This book tells all about the strange and amazing things that happen in the world around us, things of which we are mostly oblivious (How they make chocolate cake, for instance. Shudder.) One of the things that was most interesting was the fact that the bioelectric energy of the human body generates a field of energy around all of us, very low wattage and very close to the skin. (This is not Kirillian photography, btw. This is real science.) Apparently, were it not for this field, we would be covered with dust and grime all the time. I extrapolated this for Superman, as a justification for him wearing a skintight (to be inside the field) costume. (4/25/1998)

[TELLE]

Maggin ought to get an attorney. True, Jack Kirby never got his art back from Shooter, that's in the past; Stan Lee recently won a giant settlement against Marvel for over several million dollars, and that was from a pussycat like Stan who didn't really push very hard.

Yes, it would seem we are in a very different era.  Or maybe it's just that, if you hang around long enough, you outlive your enemies and everyone forgets your past crimes.  Regardless, I am excited about the prospects of some of these cartoonists and writers of yesteryear finally seeing a greater share in the profits generated by their creations.

And ditto on your Byrne critique, Julian.

[lonewolf23k]

And it's even more damning proof that Byrne is the exploding syphillis canker that we know he is. He shamelessly robbed the desk and concepts of a writer that was fired to make way for him. A writer, incidentally, that was powerless and marginalized and had no voice to really defend himself.

Julian, you're my hero...  You really are...

[lonewolf23k]

He has never created a worthwhile or imaginative concept to transplant onto existing characters in his entire career: from the Vision having no emotions to not "really" being the Human Torch, to Namor not really being an honorable, complicated regal monarch with a legitimate grievance against the surface world, but instead having a disease that "makes him crazy" every so often; to Byrne's catastrophic relaunch of Superman whose flaws have already been detailed in depth by many people on this very website. Individuals have spent careers undoing the mistakes Byrne has left behind; saddled with the detritus of Byrne's FF run, the reason Alicia acted as wildly out of character as she did in Byrne's run is because "Byrne's Alicia was a Skrull." Look at Loebs bringing back "classic" Superman elements, or Busiek restoring the Vision's humanity and original origin.

And let's not forget that he rebooted the Doom Patrol, erasing everything ever done by the previous Doom Patrol in all it's incarnations...

...Thus leaving Beast Boy to become the New Donna Troy, amongst other things..

[JulianPerez]

When you revamped Superman and gave him a force-field around his body, did you do that because you wanted to get away from the "indestructible" costume thing? Did you catch much slack for this new "power"?

JB: No, to both. A few months before I started work on Superman, I'd read a book called "The Secret House" (which I highly recommend, though I sadly cannot remember the name of the author.) This book tells all about the strange and amazing things that happen in the world around us, things of which we are mostly oblivious (How they make chocolate cake, for instance. Shudder.) One of the things that was most interesting was the fact that the bioelectric energy of the human body generates a field of energy around all of us, very low wattage and very close to the skin. (This is not Kirillian photography, btw. This is real science.) Apparently, were it not for this field, we would be covered with dust and grime all the time. I extrapolated this for Superman, as a justification for him wearing a skintight (to be inside the field) costume. (4/25/1998)

Ding Ding! Backtrack ahoy!

Never have I seen a bigger load of after-the-fact justification since the last time George Lucas ranted to Entertainment Weekly. Byrne, you stole that idea from Alan Moore and we both know it, now fess up!

This one paragraph encapsulates Byrne perfectly: all in one response it's got plagiarism, egomania, and insane B-Movie science (...so, we're not dirty all the time because photographs show we're made of lightning? Granted, I'm not too familiar with Kirlian Photography, but that's such blatant quackery that it would be rejected by the Middle Ages.) If only it had mysoginy, immaturity, and homophobia and we've have his character down pat.

I haven't been enmeshed in Superman fandom until recently, but was anyone really crying out for a justification as to why Superman's costume is skintight? Thanks for moving heaven and earth to change what we know about Superman in order to answer a question nobody asked, Johnny.

I forgot about the Doom Patrol thing, thanks, lonewolf (and incidentally, welcome to the forums). Then again, Byrne's "writing" career reads like a list of the Clueless Ideas of the Past 25 Years. Byrne tore down the FF and replaced it with nothing. Byrne tore down Superman and replaced it with nothing. And finally, Byrne tore down the Doom Patrol, and not only did he replace it with nothing, he didn't even bother to do the art, either!

[Captain Kal]

And it's even more damning proof that Byrne is the exploding syphillis canker that we know he is. He shamelessly robbed the desk and concepts of a writer that was fired to make way for him. A writer, incidentally, that was powerless and marginalized and had no voice to really defend himself.

Julian, you're my hero...  You really are...

I'll add that you make an incredible turn of phrase, Julian.  I couldn't have said it better myself.

[Captain Kal]

Just a reminder, folks, since we're on the Doom Patrol that Unca Johnny violated his own continuity with his stupid reboot of the team recently.  His own original Byrned Superman stories included the Post Crisis Doom Patrol esp. one with Robotman duking it out with Byrned Metallo.  Now, he'd have us pretend the Doom Patrol mysteriously just appeared in the present.

But Byrne can't even maintain continuity in an issue of his own books.  It's obviously too much to ask for him to remember what crap he spewed out 17 years ago in the run that was supposed to fix Superman continuity.