Episode 127, “Demon”
X-Men #143, March 1981
“Demon”
Written by Chris Claremont, Pencils by John Byrne, Inks by Terry Austin, Lettered by Tom Orzechowski, Colors by Glynis Wein, Edited by Louise Jones, Editor-In-Chief Jim Shooter.
Countdown to the Final Byrne!
In Which We Find That Xavier’s Woods Is No Place For Erotic Tree Removal, That This Is Not The First Time Kitty’s Perfume Has Been Confused With An Evil Miasma, And That Moving In On Logan’s Girl Has Two Parts: 1- Upside Down Kissing and 2- You In Two Parts!
Chris Pratt Is 38 Years Old and This Is The Only Place You Will Ever Find That Information!
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In the original ending to the Dark Phoenix saga, Jean Grey does not die. After losing the battle on the moon, the Shi’ar perform a psychic lobotomy, “permanently” removing Jean Grey’s powers. Above is some of John Byrne’s completed art from this alternative ending. Editor-in-chief Jim Shooter decided this was not punishment enough for someone who had committed genocide and sent the story back to Claremont and Byrne for a new ending. They chose to kill her.
Here is an example “Aargh” moment for John Byrne from issue 124. John Byrne wanted to express how easy it was for Colossus to pull stumps, but Claremont wrote it as if the stump pulling was extremely difficult for Peter. This sort of artist/writer disconnect was common when producing comics the so-called Marvel Way, but Byrne found it particularly irksome and claimed that this stump pulling series of panels was the thing that finally pushed him to move on from working with Chris Claremont.
Once off the X-men, John Byrne began using his power as writer/artist of the Fantastic Four to right past wrongs. The top panel comes from X-Men #119 (Ep 101), where Claremont insisted on the placement of a sound effect in the middle of Byrne’s explosion art. Byrne felt it diminished his image, so in Fantastic Four #240 his explosion contained a caption ridiculing the need for a sound effect with explosion art, a direct reference to his earlier fight.
Probably the most famous example of the Byrne/Claremont feud was the above battling Dr. Dooms. In X-Men 146 (left page above), Arcade lights a match off of Doom’s armor. Byrne felt Doom would never have allowed that to happen, so in Fantastic Four 258 (right page above) he drew a sequence where Dr. Doom questions a doombot about the incident, destroying him for having allowed Arcade to so affront the personage of Doom. In other words, Byrne dedicated a whole page of the comic he was drawing to negate/retcon a page of a comic Claremont was writing. The three issue arc in which the X-men battled Dr. Doom? He was never there.
I said, spit out that gum!
Demons have a way of really screwing with perspective…
His picture didn’t look like that on J-Date.
OK buddy, there is a door right there. You can see it in the panel! There is no need to destroy a wall. Ugh, demons, am I right?
C’mon, Kitty, ask him if he like likes me!
Things to avoid in the danger room: explosions, laser beams, mines, giant injections, and uncut pizza.
Damn paparazzi!
And you should have seen the pedicure!
And this year’s winner for weirdest eyes goes to…
Ugh, Wolvie was shaving in the shower again.
