John Byrne's Next Men

[Tim333]

I just spent some hours scanning pages from the early 1990s comic book John Byrne's Next Men. To sum up why I'm putting it here, there's a storyline running through about half the comic involving a very petite young woman named Sandy who, due to having sex with somebody who has superpowers (turns out they're contagious, which becomes a crucial point of the plot of the entire series), transforms over a few months into a tall, busty superhero-comic babe.

JBNM is a good comic, some of Byrne's best work. It's thought-provoking and often incredibly tragic. This storyline definitely wasn't meant to be fanservice, but reading it as a young man was one of the things that got me started on this entire "process" thing.

Her boobs don't get THAT big, but there's quite a bit of discussion of them growing so I thought it'd go in this category. I think this is one of the most fascinating stories about a young woman's body transforming that I've ever encountered.

I had to skip around a lot, but the story should still be comprehensible with a few points of context:

*Danny is an escapee from a project to develop superpowers. He grew up in a virtual reality paradise and is unfamiliar with the real world.

*Superpowers, in this story, are a sexually transmitted condition, though you won't have the same powers your partner did.

*Sandy works at a comic book company and is a huge comics fan.

*The power Sandy acquires, though she doesn't realize it, is to alter reality with but a thought. This is why she changes and also why comics characters (including Hellboy, Concrete, Monkeyman and O'Brien and elves from Elfquest) keep popping into the real world, which isn't shown in my scans but is discussed.

*Issue 21 of JBNM is actually the first printed appearance of Hellboy.

*I didn't scan issue 26, the ending to Sandy's story, for two reasons: 1) It's so fucking tragic I'm sure nobody would find it at all sexy. 2) The entire issue is relevant, so I would've had to scan the whole damn thing. Either imagine a much happier ending than the one the comic actually has or track down the comic yourself. =P

OK, sorry for all the text, but this story means a lot to me and I've carried it in my head for many years.

If all that is TL;DR or you doubt this is worth your time, check out 19p07 - that page ran through my mind an awful lot as a BE-obsessed youngster. I hope you enjoy the scans!

[Reactant]

Great stuff, thanks. If you haven't posted in IB yet, this is *definitely* relevant to that thread as well.

[jack36262001]

What a wonderful find. Simple and intriguing.

[Tim333]

Um, what's IB?

[catfish27]

Originally Posted by Tim333

Um, what's IB?

"Increased beauty," which is discussed in this thread over in the Everything Else forum. I just posted there to point people over here, in case they missed it. As Reactant said, this process definitely counts as IB -- in my opinion, much more so than BE.

Thanks for your excellent scans!

[NimrodClover]

The first time I saw Byrne's art was in the first round of the printed Marvel Comics character index comics. The fact that he drew so many of the characters was a shock. If anything he is prolific. Caught his run on Fantastic Four in the early-mid 80's and even followed him over to his take on She-Hulk which I think was the best match of his look and feel of storytelling and art style.

The reason I say that now has to do with something I only realized many years latter. John has but one style, one body type, one method of doing whatever. It is all good, but page after page, comic after comic he churns out the same (albeit very fast). Even the way he draws rocks and debris.

In the above work there are two things that immediately reminded me of his consistency:
a) The heavy reliance on the text to describe change, effects, looks or even expressions that should have been made obvious in the art and yet due to the rigid consistency of style are difficult to see or not really apparent. - for example, when she says her bust is bigger or changed, a simple comparison from pages before or after should demonstrate this and yet they do not. It is supposed to be a jump of 2 cups at least!
b) stock poses that I have seen so many times they are almost a trademark - even down to the medical gown (There is a She-Hulk panel that is a near copy of that one, right down to the hand positions and folds in the fabric).

Also - she is supposed to be 19! Regardless of style, age of the comic (mid-90's), inking, composition of the panels, etc. that is not the drawing of a 19 year old. Again, his basic female hovers somewhere in their late 20's - early 30's and he could only "morph" that stock look so young. She still reads 25 at the least.

Interesting comic. But if you really want to see John Byrne at his best get the She-Hulk run.

[godleydemon]

I kind of want to know about the tragic end to this interesting character.

----

So I went through and read the synopsis of the comics of where you grabbed these images and then where she meets her tragic end. I have to say.. wow.. thats honestly a very sad ending to such a valuable and dynamic character. To be honest, I didn't like any of the other characters when I started reading this, except for sandy.

[Tim333]

Oh, I have the She-Hulk run, and I'm well aware of Byrne's limitations. He has a number of faces that turn up again and again, for example, and you'll see them in everything from Superman to Alpha Flight.