John Lindley Byrne, born on July 6, 1950, is a British-born American writer and artist of superhero comics who has made significant contributions to the industry since the mid-1970s. Byrne's notable work includes his collaborations on Marvel Comics's X-Men and Fantastic Four, as well as his relaunch of DC Comics's Superman franchise with the limited series The Man of Steel in 1986.
Byrne began his career in comics as a penciller, inker, letterer, and writer, and soon transitioned to co-plotting story arcs for X-Men, including the iconic "Dark Phoenix Saga" and "Days of Future Past". He also co-created characters such as Kitty Pryde (Shadowcat),Emma Frost, Sabretooth, Shadow King, and Rachel Summers.
Byrne's writing career took off with his work on Fantastic Four, where he served as both writer and artist, and introduced She-Hulk to the team. He also created the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight and wrote and drew their own series. After working on X-Men, Byrne moved to DC Comics, where he reimagined Superman's origin in The Man of Steel and wrote and drew multiple titles and miniseries for the character.
Byrne returned to Marvel, where he introduced the Great Lakes Avengers and wrote and drew the humorous series The Sensational She-Hulk. He also co-created the Marvel characters Scott Lang and James Rhodes. In the 1990s, Byrne produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited, and was one of the founders of the Legend imprint at Dark Horse Comics.
Byrne revisited X-Men as a writer, co-creating Bishop and Omega Red. He was the writer and artist of the Wonder Woman series for three years, introducing the second Wonder Girl, Cassie Sandsmark. Additionally, he co-created the DC character Amanda Waller. Byrne also scripted the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced several Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
In 2010, Byrne revived Next Men to conclude the series. Byrne and his X-Men collaborator Chris Claremont were entered into the Will Eisner Award Hall of Fame in 2015, solidifying his status as one of the most prolific and influential comic book artists of all time.
