The Four Color Media Monitor

I wish I could've commented on this laughable news from several weeks ago earlier, but here again, is something I've only come across belatedly, and I just don't see why they think an otherwise poor artist like Liefeld makes a great choice for Marvel's mutant movement. Especially when it involves another tiresome crossover:

Rob Liefeld, the creator of Deadpool, Cable, and X-Force is returning to Marvel Comics for an upcoming X-Men crossover.

[...] "I have a new project, 2019, it's a huge X-Men crossover...It's awesome...Marvel called me up last Thanksgiving and said, 'We want you to do a big story.' I said well, let's see if they'll go for this, and I tried to do something no one has done before,” Liefeld explained. “So I gave them this pretty aggressive proposal for an event and I can't say what it is, I can't say what it involves, got a lot of new stuff."

We've been through far too many crossovers already, and they just keep getting dumber and dumber, and increasingly pointless. Plus, continuity is still such a shambles, so what's the point?

For many, Liefeld is a seminal X-Men artist, helping to define the look of the X-Men line at its peak in the 1990s and helping to create characters that are among the franchise’s most popular today. Liefeld’s new project is part of a renewed focus on the X-Men on Marvel’s part, which he also alluded to during the panel.

Don't you just love that sugarcoating! His early artwork was monumentally poor, and while he may have co-produced X-Force after drawing the last 14 issues of its predecessor, New Mutants, he didn't last very long at Marvel, having left to join Image after working at Marvel for about 2 or 3 years. Those he did co-create, like Cable, suffered from poor design with bulky looking bodies and silly armor accessories. Oh, and let's not forget, he couldn't draw feet well, and if the coverscan for his upcoming "project" is any suggestion, he may not have what it takes to draw feet now. He does seem to draw Bishop's left arm pretty awkwardly though, and the necks on the X-Men look kinda long. So, we shouldn't be shocked if this turns out to be just a lot more hot air for promotion. Granted, Liefeld's art doesn't look PC like the disaster Axel Alonso turned Marvel into a few years ago, but it's still very uninspired, especially Jubilee's design.

On which note, why must Jubilee be reverted back to wearing that silly trenchcoat again? I'm sorry, but even that's not particularly impressive, and it's just a throwback to one of the weaker ideas of its time. Which gives a clue to where this X-Men crossover could be headed. It's a real shame the Big Two keep giving Liefeld jobs when his artwork is nothing to celebrate, and there's plenty far more competent illustrators out there who would've made far better choices.

Labels: crossoverloading, dreadful artists, marvel comics, msm propaganda, X-Men