Story and Art by John Byrne
After our intrepid heroes are separated and flung backward through time, they find themselves fighting their way through some of the most brutal periods in human history. The focus of this most recent issue is Tony (who’s stuck in the Civil War-era south), given a chance to exact vengeance on the slave owner responsible for the unspeakable acts of trauma inflicted upon her in previous issues.
The issue opens with some of the most needless exposition I’ve seen in recent comic books. Tony spends much of the first several pages explaining every act she takes, even going so far as to offer open color commentary of every moment in her planned escape. Not narration, mind you: she’s actually speaking out loud.
The absurdity of the dialogue in these opening pages continues unabated as she is joined by the slave-owner’s granddaughter, who has decided to run away from home and joins Tony in her exit. Verity’s dialogue is a different style of frustrating: a stilted southern-speak that – while possibly accurate – comes across as overdone and campy. The addition of Verity to the party does give Tony someone to explain every little movement to, whether that’s a benefit or not.
After a lackluster opening run only slightly absolved by a few interesting twists, I was hoping that John Byrne’s Next Men would be on a path toward redemption. Issue 6 takes a giant step backward. It feels like Byrne couldn’t really figure an intriguing way to get from point A to point B, and just cobbled together a series of random events requiring extensive explanation. His writing is simultaneously insubstantial and heavy-handed, creating a fluff piece that serves no purpose but to lead into an unsatisfying punchline.
