Post cognition is such a great ability I'm surprised that we don't see it more often.  The only times I can remember it are when the Silver Surfer uses it to see what happened when Reed Richards was abducted to stand trial, and this issue with Snowbird.  Any detective would love such an ability.

When some fans criticize my work for "no backgrounds" or "scratchy inks" or "looks rushed" I confess there are, indeed, periods of my work to which these faults attach.* Thing is, those periods are about 99% to be found in the pages of FANTASTIC FOUR and ALPHA FLIGHT, the latter of which is often cited as being among my best work, while the former, as we all know, is "second only to Lee and Kirby".

It's fascinating -- if very, very frustrating -- to see the way these fan mantras (fantras?) so often run in tandem, while being, apparently, oblivious to each other.



* I still maintain it is impossible for work to look rushed, since there is no way to tell how long a particular page, picture, or issue took to produce. However, there were periods on ALPHA and FF, when Marvel changed the schedules and I actually was rushed, so we could, in this instance, allow this criticism to apply.

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I knew about the "old stuff is better" rumour concerning JB's art, but I really didn't know people also criticized the lack of backgrounds!

If the first rumour is kind of idiotic but can almost be justified in terms of taste ("I like the old stuff better" people should say then), but the "lack of backgrounds" stuff is completely stupid in my opinion... I remember a double page where Doom arrives to a destroyed Latveria and the details on that background left me speechless! From then on I took particular attention to backgrounds in comics and JB's have always been one of the best for me...

Just my 2 cents...

It's very interesting to find out Tom Orz lettered this issue, as I am a big fan of his work. I have read a great portion of those Alpha Flight stories in Greek and the lettering was of course replaced. Since the originals I own have other letterers, it never occured to me that Tom had worked with John again in a title without a Byrne/Claremont combo.

The funny thing about lack of backgrounds... I always assumed it was artistic license.  For example, the artist intentionally wanted to focus on the forground or figure without distractions.  Or to give room to dialogue.

I never once thought it might be because the artist was lazy or somehow cheating.  I still do not think that.

I have no memories of thinking Alpha Flight or FF with JB was anything but great art.