The "not a deal killer" one.

Right.

Wait, what?

I like you, but this is so hard to resist.

Jim Lee was my favorite artist when I was like 10 years old. Not so much anymore. It doesn't help that he hasn't had a book of any value for most of his career. I mean, after X-Men, what is there? Hush? For Tomorrow? JLA? The book I liked best was ASBAR and I think that was partly Miller taking the piss out of Lee like he did McFarlane prior.

His figures are very cool. His faces are devoid of emotion. I always feel like Jim Lee is drawing an alternate world where every single person is a Life Model Decoy.

I can't really tell

Yep.

Done by Thomas Mason, same as the Mutant Genesis 2.0 HC

All the recent X-Men OHC's featured a recoloured cover by him.

IMO, Lee is the best.

Byrne evolved. (or what Byrne could have been, if he gave a shit)

The recolored as a poster the cover to Uncanny X-Men #275

He's got some technical flaws, but I love his work. As a kid I thought he drew the most powerful and dynamic looking figures I'd seen, and still think he's one of the best in the business, in that respect. He's Neal Adams for my generation.

He over-renders things a bit,but generally I like his work.
He's terrible at design,however.The costumes he designed for the New 52 revamp stink.

I say thee YEAH.

I like him a lot, and for someone who has been drawing comics for over 20 years, he still has a lot of energy in his pencils.

Too bad he has been either awfully miscast (For Tomorrow, ASBARWTF) or just paired with a sucky writer (JL)

His single, glorious issue he did with Morrison is my favorite thing he has ever drawn.

The recolored as a poster the cover to Uncanny X-Men #275
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I knew it was from Uncanny 275! I had just meant where was that particular re-colorizing from. (Funnily enough, while I was looking around online for the source, I found another recolored version of it:

The recoloured ones have been in the various X-Men crossover HC's they've been releasing over the last year.

These ones in particular are from the two Claremont/Lee omnibus volumes.

Some were used as covers (there's always two different covers for the omniboo. Direct Market and...the other one)

It surprises me that you'd say that. To me they are complete opposites. Byrne as a comics artist is far beyond Jim Lee's level. Byrne can't compare to Lee as an illustrator, but for visual storytelling there's no contest. They have opposite strengths and weaknesses, IMO.

Neither plus or minus here. Sometimes (rarely) I think he's the best, like on Hush. Other times (often) I wonder why there are so many random lines on everyone, and why Superman is always flexing.

This, however, is awesome. I think it might be my favorite Jim Lee drawing ever. Any idea who inked it? Nevermind, I see the inkers sig at the bottom, and it's the usual Scott Williams. Odd...it just looks "different" somehow. Like maybe it's drawn by someone else, but with Lee style.

A relatively similar example scene from the Lee and Byrne's most recent comics (spoiled in case someone hasn't read 'em yet):

Byrne wins on facial expressions, body language and visual storytelling. Lee wins on cool poses (and by not same-old same-old or having the distracting rock texture effect). Both seem dated, but Byrne's dated to 30 years ago and Lee's only dated 20 so I guess he wins there.

That Wonder Woman pic is great.

I agree that Byrne's better at laying out a story but don't regard him as "far beyond Jim Lee's level". Byrne is good at telling a story clearly and paces it well, but I've never seen any kind of "exploring the medium" type stuff from him -- his work is all very competent but ultimately still utilitarian.

People like Will Eisner, Dave Gibbons, Scott McCloud, etc. who really see comics as an actual language and do their work from this perspective are "far beyond Jim Lee's level" -- John Byrne's better than Jim Lee, but he's not some amazing innovator and Lee's not nearly as bad as his critics suggest (he's not great either).

I don't like Jim Lee. What he actually choose to draw, his composition, is not interesting to me. And his line work sort of draws attention to itself. It looks like something somebody drew, instead of making my brain forget it's a drawing and seeing something else.