Byrne then returned to Marvel, introducing the Great Lakes Avengers, and wrote and drew the humorous fourth wall-breaking series The Sensational She-Hulk.

Hailed as one of the most prolific and influential comic book artists ever, Byrne and his X-Men collaborator Chris Claremont were entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2015.

Not long after I started watching that series I saw one of the hardcover, black and white 'Annuals' that were being published over there at the time, and soon after found a copy of an Australian reprint called Super Comics that featured a story each of Superboy, Johnny Quick and Batman.

[19] After the Rog-2000 story, Byrne went on to work on the Charlton books Wheelie and the Chopper Bunch, Space: 1999, and Emergency!, and co-created with writer Joe Gill the post-apocalyptic science-fiction series Doomsday + 1.

When [artist] Pat Broderick missed a deadline on the 'Iron Fist' series in Marvel Premiere, [production manager] John Verpoorten fired him and offered the book to [Byrne].

[26] Their work together, along with inker Terry Austin, on such classic story arcs as "Proteus", "Dark Phoenix Saga", and "Days of Future Past" would make them both fan favorites.

It was with very few exceptions, difficult, for me, anyway, to tell in the actual gestation of the book where one of us left off and the other began – because it involved one of us coming up with an idea and bouncing it off the other ..."[28] The "Dark Phoenix Saga" in 1980 is one of the most notable stories in the title's history.

[29][30] Comics writers and historians Roy Thomas and Peter Sanderson observed that "'The Dark Phoenix Saga' is to Claremont and Byrne what the 'Galactus Trilogy' is to Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

During his tenure on the series, The X-Men was promoted from a bimonthly to a monthly publication schedule as sales steadily increased—a trend that continued long after Byrne left.

[43] Byrne's post-X-Men body of work at Marvel includes his five-year run on Fantastic Four (#232–295, July 1981 – October 1986), which is generally considered a "second golden age" for the title.

[48] In 1983, while still at the helm of Fantastic Four, Byrne began to write and draw Alpha Flight, starring a Canadian superhero team that had been introduced "merely to survive a fight with the X-Men.

Byrne also used Marv Wolfman's idea of making Lex Luthor a wealthy business owner in addition to a scientific genius with a deadly vendetta against the superhero.

[61] In the Superman mythos, Byrne wrote Clark Kent as having a more aggressive and extroverted personality than previously depicted, comparing him to Jimmy Breslin,[62] and even making him a top high-school football player.

[56] Comics historian Timothy Callahan argued that Superman in modern media has more in common with Byrne's portrayal of the character than those of Cary Bates, Elliot S. Maggin, Dennis O'Neil, Jerry Siegel, and Edmond Hamilton.

In 2004 Superman: True Brit, an Elseworlds story, was a collaboration with former Monty Python member John Cleese and Kim Johnson, with art by Byrne and inker Mark Farmer.

Byrne launched a second "Armor Wars" story arc, restored the Mandarin as a major Iron Man nemesis, and featured the 1950s "pre-superhero Marvel" monster Fin Fang Foom.

A number of these creators, including Byrne, Frank Miller, Mike Mignola, and Art Adams, banded together to form the Legend imprint at Dark Horse.

"[8] Byrne's other Dark Horse titles were Babe, and Danger Unlimited, an all-age readers book about a team of heroes in the future fighting an alien occupation of Earth.

[101] He would later become the final person to draw Funky Winkerbean, taking over illustration duties from artist Chuck Ayers for the strip's concluding week, ending on December 31, 2022.

Superman: True Brit was a collaboration with former Monty Python member John Cleese and Kim Johnson, with art by Byrne and inker Mark Farmer.

"[109] In 1981, Jack Kirby began speaking publicly about his belief that he had been deprived of fair credit and money while creating the majority of Marvel's top characters.

Steve Gerber and Kirby lampooned Byrne's position in Destroyer Duck, drawing him as a character called Booster Cogburn, possessing no genitals, a removable spine, and existing only to serve as a cog in the mammoth corporation that owned him.

[110] Byrne later made a story in Action Comics #592–593 where Big Barda (who is based on Kirby's wife Roz) is brainwashed and almost forced to make a pornographic video with Superman.

[111] Erik Larsen created a villain in the 1990s for his Savage Dragon and the Freak Force series, Johnny Redbeard / the Creator, who is a parody of Byrne; a massive cranium with atrophied appendages, he can bestow superpowers indiscriminately.

This is where my low BS threshold touched on in the sense that I looked at the story of Siegel and Shuster, for example, and I said, well, that's kind of sad that they created this huge, iconic character and didn't make a hundred bajillion dollars for it.

"[115] In 2005, while criticizing portrayals of Superman emphasizing his connection to his home planet, Byrne described immigrants with excessive attachment to their nations of origin as "ungrateful little shits.

"[116] Similar views were earlier expressed in Byrne's The Man of Steel (1986), in which Superman was not considered born until after his Kryptonian artificial matrix opened after landing in Kansas, thus making him an American citizen by birth.

He cites Neal Adams, Jack Kirby, John Buscema, and Steve Ditko as primary influences on his style, but continues to pick up on ideas that he sees and likes while constantly changing his tools and methods.

[126] He made an appearance at the 2018 Fan Expo Boston, where he spoke at two events, both titled "Spotlight on John Byrne" on August 11 and 12,[127] and an autograph signing with William Shatner.

[131] In 2015, Byrne was inducted into the Will Eisner Hall of Fame, alongside judges' choices Marge (Marjorie Henderson Buell) and Bill Woggon and elected inductees Chris Claremont, Denis Kitchen, and Frank Miller.