In 1986, John left Marvel for DC Comics, where he revamped Superman shortly after Crisis on Infinite Earths. In just a few years, John did over 70 Superman related issues, and wrote what is still considered as the ideal Superman. His stay at DC was short, though, and soon, he returned to Marvel where he worked on such titles as Namor and the Sensational She-Hulk. In 1992, John left Marvel yet again, this time for Dark Horse, where he introduced John Byrne's Next Men, Danger Unlimited, the Torch of Liberty, and Babe. John helped form the Legend imprint, which united some of the best storytellers in the industry. Unfortunately, due to a less than stellar market place and due to the need for a break, John ended Next Men in 1995, after the 30th issue came out.

John once again returned to DC, this time to take over Wonder Woman. John immediately brought new readers with him raising sales higher than they'd been in years. He also took over on New Gods with issue 12, and worked on the series until its conclusion in issue 15. He then began a NEW New Gods series, titled Jack Kirby's Fourth World.

Unfortunately, John is soon leaving Wonder Woman and Fourth World. His last issues will be Wonder Woman #134 and Fourth World #20. He left due to "A simple coincidence -- I ran out of stories at about the same time my contracts were up."

While John is leaving the monthly grind behind for awhile, he won't be gone too long. He'll begin a Spider-Man Year One 12 issue maxi series (called Twice Told Tales) shortly after the last issues come out of his current titles (they're not being cancelled, though...Walter Simonson is taking over on Fourth World and Eric Luke and Yannick Paquette will take over on Wonder Woman).

But for those of you fans who are starved for DC titles written and drawn by John, don't fret, because at the end of the year, DC will be releasing Generations. Generations is a four issue mini series coming out in celebration of the 60th Anniversaries of Superman and Batman.

Byrne says of Generations, "The premise is very simple, really: what if Superman and Batman (and all their attendant supporting casts) had actually aged in real time since they were introduced in the Thirties. On top of this will be some exploration of how our world might be, if beings like this had really existed since those optimistic days of the New York (in this case Metropolis) World's Fair. At the same time, there will be an attempt to reflect the 'tone' of the comic that were published in the eight decades the series covers -- 1939 to 2009."

Generations is an idea that he's been planning for a long time. "Since it is very much a 'sequel' to BATMAN & CAPTAIN AMERICA -- taking place in the same reality, just minus Cap -- one could argue that it has been mulling about in my head for a good 20 years. The fine points, though, have been in the refining process for about two."

The story will be told in eight chapters spanning four issues, from the title's beginning in November, and its ending in February. Each chapter will depict a decade, with the final chapter ending in the next millennium. In the past, John has been known to change his artistic style in every series he works on. When asked about his artistic approach on Generations, he says, "I'm sure there will be a fairly wide range in the artistic approach to the eight chapters, though I am equally sure that range will be subtle enough that some might even miss it completely. Certainly I have no plans to ape the various periods artistically. Sadly, to a modern audience some of that would simply appear as 'bad art'."

Already, it is evident that most fans will probably have a favorite chapter. "I tend to say 'Batman' when anyone asks me (about my favorite chapter)," John says. "Of course, since Batman has gone through all manner of incarnations, this is not so 'clean' an answer as one might wish."

While many fans can look at the history of the DC Universe and attempt to predict what will happen in the various chapters, Byrne says, "The whole series is full of surprises. It starts to diverge from the established DC Universe chronology almost at once, and by the time we get to the second chapter, 1949, we will be seeing lots of things that 'didn't happen' in the familiar timeline."

It seems fitting that John Byrne would be the man behind Generations. He has probably done more for comics in general than anyone in recent decades, and Generations appears to be yet another one of the excellent stories that only John Byrne can tell.