Friday, February 23, 2007

Breaking art critique

Watch as I completely give in to the Marvel hype machine! I need a shower. (This is all from Newsarama, BTW.) First up: art.



What a terrible, terrible layout, unless the artist wanted (a) Green Goblin's flaming pumpkin to look like a lit cigar in Bullseye's mouth, and (b) Moonstone to look like she's caressing herself in a somewhat lewd way.



Beta Ray Bill's hammer looks more like a gavel. Isn't it supposed to be some wicked engine of destruction? Isn't that what Simonson intended? This thing looks weightless and chintzy. Boooooo.



Okay, now that's pretty good. Yu is one of the best at Marvel for composing dynamic covers.



Fellow internet nerds: if you're going to express collective rage about anything, make it this redesigned Thor. He looks like some kid at the mall wearing thermal underwear under a t-shirt. And that helmet is dumb, and makes Thor look dumb.

Marvel: if you're not comfortable with the Thor of the Silver Age, just don't bother resurrecting him. A Thor who doesn't say things like "Yea, verily" is not Thor. Thor's no closer to looking like a badass here than he ever was. Unless you're prepared to make him look like a genuine stinky, hairy Viking, you need to come to terms with the fact this particular intellectual property might only resonate with losers like me.

As far as the news so far:

-I have a bad feeling that Geoff Johns and Tony Daniel might be following Mark Waid and Barry Kitson on LSH. I'm not a big fan of Kitson, but Tony Daniel is one of the great, underappreciated hacks of the 21st century. I can already feel myself becoming one of these crusty old dudes who complains that THEY'RE DOING IT ALL WRONG WHAT'S WRONG WITH THEM on message boards and blogs. Christ, shoot me now.

-The Champions sounds potentially pretty cool, mostly because Matt Fraction is writing. I just don't know if Kitson will be able to hang with him, though.

-World War Hulk:Frontline seems bad enough (and probably will be bad enough), but World War Hulk:X-Men? Seriously? Maybe Marvel will luck out and everyone will have a short memory, but I don't think anyone's in the mood for this shit in the immediate wake of Civil War. I'm looking forward to World War Hulk: The Return, in which, I don't know, the original Human Torch comes back because HE'S THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN MAKE AN EGG SANDWICH THE WAY HULK LIKES THEM.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Fellow internet nerds: if you're going to express collective rage about anything, make it this redesigned Thor. He looks like some kid at the mall wearing thermal underwear under a t-shirt. And that helmet is dumb, and makes Thor look dumb."

Yes, sir!

Bill at Comix Connection said...

OK, that was funny.

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