New Mutants, X-Force, Spider-Man

New Mutants 98-100

X-Force 1-8

Spider-Man 16

What is it about Rob Liefeld that brings out the nitpicker in me?  He’s certainly not the worst artist to ever draw a comic book. But when I look at his art, I can’t help but notice every little thing that doesn’t work.  Is it because I used to like his art? Is it because he’s become the punching bag for everyone on the internet, and I’m just jumping onto the bandwagon? Or perhaps it’s the massive gap between how popular he was and how not good his art really is.  There’d be less reason to pick on him if everyone thought he sucked from the get go and he never reached the astronomical heights that he did. Everyone loves to watch a star fall to earth.

Regardless, my notes from this read through are littered with art comments.  I’m wondering how much time I want to spend bagging on the pencils, but while I do that, some other thoughts:

For all the shit Liefeld takes, he sure created some people that have stood the test of time.  Cable’s become a critical part of the X-Tapestry. Domino and Shatterstar are legitimately cool characters that I still love.  And then there’s Deadpool, who’s the modern day Wolverine, showing up in every Marvel comic and on every cover there is, not to mention two smash hit movies.  Major props to Liefeld for them.

Don't care what anyone says, Shatterstar looks sweet.

And there's something about his stance that I love in this panel.

First, let’s go into why I liked his art in the first place.  I think I was seduced by all the lines. Looking at the other hot artists of the time (Jim Lee, Marc Silvestri, Todd McFarlane), there was a level of detail and cross hatching that applied to all their unique styles.

So many pen strokes on the page!

So much cross-hatching!

So much detail!

So if those are good, this must be too, right?  Right?

There’s so much flash to Liefeld’s art.  Dramatic poses, gaping mouths, non-stop action - It was all so exciting until I realized that there was no substance to any of it.  All of his deficiencies are well documented, what with his inability to draw feet, hands, guns, backgrounds, relative sizing, proportions, etc.  But what I hate the most is his astonishing laziness when it comes to consistency from panel to panel.  Draw the way you want, fine. But come on, pay attention to basic storytelling. It requires no artistic talent to do that, just the ability to look at the previous panel keep it in mind when drawing the next.  I’ll focus on that tomorrow.