The Four Color Media Monitor

Broken Frontier wrote a review of DC's relaunch of Hawk & Dove, and make a pretty contradictory statement about the awful Rob Liefeld's artwork:

Gates’ character work is brought to life by the talented artist Rob Liefeld. In several instances throughout the issue, panels are split to simultaneously show the reactions of both Hawk and Dove, with Hawk’s gruff grunts being compared to Dove’s calm whispers. When characters are out of costume, on the other hand, facial features tend to change depending on their orientation on the page, with cheek bones changing size and noses becoming more or less pointed. Considering the majority of the issue takes place with both heroes dressed as Hawk and Dove, however, this is merely a minor issue.

Oh, considering how they gloss over his notorious history as an artist from nearly 2 decades ago, I seriously doubt that's possible. Ignoring his worst artwork at Image, Marvel, and DC, even in recent times, and fawning over his work the way they are by calling him "talented" is foolish and misleading. They actually confirm that something is wrong with the artwork - certainly when the 2 protagonists are out of costume - yet they go ahead and act as though everything's okay? How do we know there aren't other dreadful potholes in the art lane in this book? The cover certainly made Hawk look lousy around the mouth and his body a tad bulky, and even Dove doesn't look so great - her hair looks like a ponytailed wig!

If anything, the superficial gloss-over of Liefeld's infamous period during the 1990s is certainly dishonest of them, and it's funny how they admit that he does screw up even as they call him "talented", which he definitely hasn't been for a long, long time. Hawk & Dove deserve much better.

Labels: dc comics, dreadful artists