The Pulse

John Byrne is a huge name in the comics fraternity. He has written Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, Spiderman, Wonder Woman and Superman, as well as doing fine work on smaller titles like Doom Patrol and She-Hulk. He created memorable storylines like the Dark Phoenix Saga; revamped Superman and the Invisible Girl, among others; created Alpha Flight; smoothed continuity with neat filler stories and even breached the fourth wall with She-Hulk.

But I come here to bury Byrne, not to praise him.

While he is a creative genius, Byrne has been known to shoot his mouth off on many occasions saying things that are not quite PC, and offend many people in the process. He has had a number of spats with colleagues, reportedly storming out of Marvel after another writer showed the She-hulk breaking razors while shaving her legs!

Recently, on his official site www.byrnerobotics.com, he dropped this clanger after discussing the casting for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, particularly the choice of Jessica Alba for the role of Sue Storm, a favourite character of his.

"Hispanic and Latino women with blond hair look like hookers to me, no matter how clean or "cute" they are."

Ouchhhh!

While I agree that casting the girl with the fantastic navel as comicdom's favourite mom was an ill-concieved move, I wouldn't go that far.

But then Byrne will be Byrne.