The following excerpt is from one of Byrne's posts in a thread discussing Superman's origins.One of the posters brought up All-Star Superman's one page origin recap to which Byrne didn't really have much of a comment on until this:
Poster-Usually, I'd agree with you here, but in the case of Superman, the origin is common knowledge by now. In comics alone, there's been at least half a dozen Superman origins, then there are the movies, tv shows (live-action and animated). It's come to a point where re-telling the origin is a waste of pages. That's why I like the All-Star Superman one-page summary. It tells you everything you need to know.And in the highly improbable chance that the reader is not familiar with Superman at all, later issues have Superman speak of Krypton and that he was rocketed to Earth.
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Byrne:It TELLS you NOTHING you NEED to know. It merely reiterates what the writer assumes you already know.
You're looking thru the wrong end of the telescope at this. YOU already know this stuff. You have known it for years. But THINK BACK. There was a time when you DIDN'T know this stuff. You were not born fully conversant with the details of Superman's origin. This was something you had to LEARN. You may have learned it from a TV show, or a movie, or a comic book, or somebody telling you about it -- but whatever the source, the first time you encountered Superman you had NO IDEA who he was. You could not have.
And it is the worst kind of arrogance -- the arrogance that permeates virtually every corner of this industry today -- to ASSUME anyone who reads that page ALREADY KNOWS what it is about. Its the fanboy circle jerk, and it has helped to destroy the medium.
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Poster:That first page is a refresher, not an explanation.
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Byrne:And a big ol' FUCK YOU to anyone who isn't already in the circle.
Now then,it clearly shows to me that Byrne doesn't like fans who like comics other than his work or original GA source material.I got this far in the thread,which was mostly fans of Byrne's "Man of Steel" series and then this landed on the screen and I thought....wow.....this guy really hates comic fans.I understand the point of assuming that
everyone knows Superman's origin is a bit presumptuous(but not by much because even those that don't read comics know his origin for the most part),but jeez!! this post bordered on pure
hatred for long-time fans. I know Byrne has grown bitter over the years but wow....
P.S. GA="Golden Age" and I put Byrne in red cuz Mama says he's the devil.
