I have really been enjoying John Byrne’s return to the X-Men on his Byrne Robotics site under the Fan Fic (Fan Fiction) heading. This link will get you to page one of issue one.
We are about halfway through issue 4 and I am thoroughly enjoying it! A new page comes out every morning from Monday to Friday and he has over 10 issues already in the can and continues to work on the further adventures of X-Men, continuing on from issue 137.
I am a big fan of John Byrne and decided to revisit a 4 issue series he did called Cold War from 2011. Also available as a trade paperback. (Comic Book Daily’s previous coverage of this work).
The story is set in the 1960s during the Cold War and features freelance retired MI6 agent Michael Swann, who is called into service by the aforementioned MI6 when things get too hot to handle for the British Government.
Now I had bought two of the four issues when they came out in 2011 but only recently finished the series off from back issue bins, so I was looking at it with fresh eyes.
Byrne spends the first 11 pages building the story with no dialogue whatsoever, yet completely opens the story up perfectly and as only a master of the sequential art form we call comics, can accomplish.
Well-paced, well written and illustrated and with some truly unique scenes such as a multi-car race, some interesting banter and sexual innuendo befitting the period piece and enough twists and turns to make Ian Fleming and John Le Carre proud.
This was set up as a new ongoing series with the end of issue 4 saying Michael Swann would return in” Cold War “The Seven Cardinal Contract.”
Alas, it was not meant to be, as the first 4 issue arc was all we ever saw on Michael Swann.
Continued Happy Collecting!
