Yeah, I have noticed you do a great job of making villains three dimensional and nuanced while still clearly remaining bad guys.
That's one of the reasons I was so interested in Namor when I heard you were taking him on. How would you treat him and why? Would we root for him? Ie shares so many characteristics with Doom and yet at worst is usually treated as an anti-hero.
The interesting thing is - if this series was edited by someone other than JB, although it would still be great, I don't think it would have quite the same impact.
Simple fact is, for good or ill, the “pure” form is most often the most desirable form. And certainly here we avoid the most UNdesirable form, in which editors make changes without consultation with the assigned talent. I encountered that mostly (and often) at DC, but it was not unknown at Marvel.
JB -- has there ever been a point during this project where you missed having someone else to work with? Not an editor necessarily, but another person to collaborate with and bounce ideas off of?
Some writers and artists need a good editor (guessing there were some, from what I have read Archie Goodwin was one) to keep them from forgetting details, going off on tangents, etc. But not Mr. Byrne as this series shows quite nicely.
I remember an earlier thread where JB said he was nearing #50 (I could be wrong, wouldn't be a first) or had plots set up to go through that issue at least. Myself, I'm hoping for a Cerebus type run of 300 issues. Too much fun seeing a good Dr. Doom and an evil Magneto where both have motivations and intent behind their bad deeds without going good guy (someone showed me a recent Doom storyline where he tried being a good guy and it was just bizarre).