JB has always been my favorite comic book artist, and though I collected DC, I was predominately a Marvel collector in the mid-1980s. I was also anxiously awaiting the 25th anniversary issue that JB had planned as mentioned in "Marvel Age," so it was a shock when I saw a blurb on the cover of either "Comics Collector," or "Comics Feature," I forget which one, that said JB was leaving Marvel. My heart skipped a beat, no exaggeration! LOL! It seemed unfathomable! 

Naturally, I followed along. I was one of those readers that had started to pick up more DC as a result of "Crisis on Infinite Earths." I know part of the mission statement with that series was to "Marvelize" DC, and acquire some new Marvel readers, and it was working with me. JB heading over to do Superman just cemented things for me.

If you were there at the time, what was YOUR reaction when it was announced JB left Marvel for DC?

The "big move" happened the summer I turned 14, but I didn't exactly have my pulse on the comic industry at the time, even though I was collecting like crazy.  My first inkling that something was up was when (seemingly out-of-the-blue) Al Milgrom took over writing and art duties on INCREDIBLE HULK #320, released in March of '86.  This elicited one big "Huh? What?? Awww, man!!!" response from this particular fan.

Later on, I of course did hear about the news of the Superman/DC move, and I was completely on board with it (I even remember somehow managing to catch his interview on the TODAY SHOW that year!)... though again, JB had already begun to withdraw from script and art duties on FF, which had me wondering/hoping he'd make a reappearance for their 25th anniversary issue that August, #296.  I had been looking forward to that (like Matt, I probably read about it in MARVEL AGE), but wasn't thrilled with the end result--no JB to be found anywhere in the credits, not even under "Plotter."

But:  I was thrilled with his SUPERMAN and LEGENDS work, and it helped move me over to more DC titles in general for the next few years afterwards.

Similar to Shaun & Brian. I was 15. Hulk ending was suspicious without an announcement like the AF->Hulk transition. Then FF? Oh no! I was a freshmen in high school so I got the scoop from other comic fans after asking around. The older fans went to comic shops and knew. But I lost track of JB for a couple of weeks, that's for sure. 

I was years out of comics when JB made the move, wondering how I would've felt about it. He was so entrenched in my head as the look of Marvel by 1980, but getting back into some DC titles would have been a welcoming change.

(Good news for issue #296:  Script by Stan Lee.  Bad news:  Plot by Jim Shooter--who knows how much he used or threw out of JB's proposed resolution.)

At least we got some solid fill-ins, in between JB's departure and the 25th anniversary, from the team of Roger Stern and Jerry Ordway, with plots by Mr. Byrne.

*No slight to the creative team, as they were solid talents. I think they were trying to deal with JB's departure as best as they could.