When I bought Uncanny X-Men Masterworks volumes I wanted to read whole Chris Claremont’s run. I thought he was the one making X-Men so good. After reading the second volume I start to wonder how much credit John Byrne should get making X-Men my favorite superhero comic. This volume has last issues before Claremont started to work with John Byrne. First issue with Byrne was in middle of story. We can assume Byrne had nothing to do with the story of that issue. But in next issue things click together and X-Men start to look like X-Men I remember.
Before that issue all villains have wanted to rule the world or destroy X-Men. Even Magneto does that. First issue where Byrne could have had impact on story has Weapon Alpha as antagonist. I don’t say villain because he is not a villain unlike almost everyone gone against X-Men during first two volumes. Weapon Alpha is working for his country trying to bring Wolverine back. He is not doing this because he is evil. These kind of antagonists made X-Men so good. This is first such during Chris Claremont’s run. Talking about Wolverine. This is first time he is shown to enjoy being in nature and hunting or being like animal in wild. Before this he was angry guy trying to start fights with everyone.
It is not that arrival of Byrne made everything click. Some of the character development started to show before Byrne arrived. Then it disappeared like someone told Claremont he shouldn’t spend so much time developing characters. I probably didn’t give enough credit to Claremont’s ability to connect different plots together when I talked about first volume. What ever happens could have consequences later. It could be few frames somewhere setting something happening in future or fight setting something else loose which X-Men have to deal later. These were there before Byrne.
This volume has first two issues from dream team of Chris Claremont, John Byrne and Terry Austin. When I was younger I thought Byrne’s and Austin’s art was pinnacle of comic book art. Later I have learned to appreciate different kind of comic book art. Art before Byrne and Austin wasn’t problem. But their art made this book feel like X-Men. It wasn’t just art as I mentioned before. Before Byrne and Austin X-Men was more generic superhero comic.