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I think if it came from Bagley, Ryan, or Lim, it would have been somewhat strange. But it would have been not nearly as offensive because, unlike Larsen, all of them are actually very good artists. 

IF one of those guys had a Twitter or Facebook account where they did what Larsen did, the way he did it, my first instinct would be to think they'd be hacked, and that it wasn't really them. 

I support John Byrne as a Hall of Fame writer probably more than a Hall of Fame artist, myself.

I'm probably in the minority in saying JB's work today is different to the point where he's "not the same." Either as artist or writer. 

Maybe that's the rub: JB didn't consider himself a true artist in what I find nostalgic, the FF stuff, the Alpha Flight, the Hulk blip, and that work was more utilitarian, less concerned with itself as much as telling the story. Particularly when JB was scripting himself, which was the bulk of his success.

As an older man with a keen interest in his art, as with many older writers/musicians/artists, there's a tendency to reflect on what makes art good. This often comes off as "less good" to us, since we were caught up in the original emotion of first contact. The stars aligned, the story and art, or music or prose, impassioned with degrees of youth and deadlines, and reflected in our own youth, ruled the day. Nothing is ever as good as when it was good and you, meaning us, were young.

So it doesn't matter what I find to be the "best" John Byrne art. I think JB was meant to write/draw Marvel Comics' characters; I think every bit of his passion and all his best stories are within that framework. I don't love his non-corporate-owned character stories because I think they lack the Marvel Comics history and richness of potential. 

All you have to do is look at the commissions, and you'll find the John Byrne Hall of Fame artist. Because the stories he is forced to keep to himself, now, are just visible, and cogent, beneath the image of Batman or the FF or the Hulk.

It should be noted, the Marvel Comics that did inspire JB is as dead as Abe Lincoln. If it existed, even marginally, in a coherent, non-a**hole form, as JB has pointed out, we might get some late-legend eye-blasts to carry aging fans into their graves. 

But given the circumstances at the Big Two, I don't see JB or Erik Larsen producing any viable work on those classic characters at any point in the future. 

As far as JB's current work, I've a growing appreciating for the changes. The art and storytelling are great, but from my "eye" the work is intentionally more stylized and "cartoony" in its looseness compare to the more "realistic" style he used during his years on X-Men, FF, Superman, etc. I'm not sure when this stylistic change occurred, but the Namor era seems to me to be one of the last times JB drew that way. 

That being said, I think a lot of this perception has to do with the fact that JB hasn't worked on top Marvel characters in a long time, since Hidden Years, really. Most of us, for all he's done, consider JB a Marvel guy at heart. When I "really" look at stuff like Generations, Batman/Captain America, Cold War, etc, there are many aspects of the art that are superior to even his best Marvel stuff. I suppose you always have to lose certain aspects of old styles to gain newer ones as an artist. 

This, of course, is simply my layman viewpoint as a long-time fan.