Last week’s comic (X-O Manowar #1) was such a pleasant
surprise that I decided to put all my chips in the middle of the table and go
for broke. I would either find a true
diamond in the rough or I would find a terrible comic that I could rip
apart. Now I knew that Rob Liefeld would
be involved with Youngblood in some way, it is his baby from back in the day,
but to my surprise, I opened up the comic sight unseen and found that he was
heavily involved, to the tune of penciling the issue. He didn’t have any story credits to his name
(that honor falls to John McLaughlin) but I find it hard to believe he didn’t
have a large input on the story.
The cover:
Yay, more variant covers!
This one apparently had three different covers, but like last week I
grabbed the first one in line, which happened to be by Ryan Ottley. Now I knew he did not pencil the book, as if
Robert Kirkman would let him off his leash on Invincible to do much else, but I
love Ryan’s work ever since he took over for Cory Walker on Invincible many
moons ago so I figured if the comic turned out to be a complete bomb I would at
least get a cover from one of my current favorites out of it. I think the best part about this, and one of
the things that Ottley does so well on Invincible is that the cover actually
depicts something in the story. For you
young’uns out there, this used to be standard practice for covers and it is
nice to at least see it return in some form here. The art on the cover is excellent and if you
really want to pick up this book I would suggest looking for the version with
this cover. The characters are
recognizable but they have a distinct Ottley-esque look to them which I
obviously enjoy. He does well
establishing a distinct foreground-middleground-background with the characters
(without the use of the coloring) that gives a sense of motion to the cover and
a feeling that the action is coming at us.
I would have loved if this cover had come to us in just black and white
because that part of the artwork is so strong that the coloring (I’m assuming
by Jordie Bellaire) really hurts it. I
understand using different colors to establish levels, that’s color theory-101,
but this cover basically has three hues, pink, orange and blue, and that’s
it. I don’t need, nor do I want a fully
painted cover, especially over black and white art that is as strong as
Ottley’s, but the coloring looks rushed, and therefore unfinished. I would be possible to use those hues as a
base and then work it up while still maintaining the basic shades, but it looks
like the colorist laid their flats down and shipped it.
If the cover was in black and white it would be a 10/10, but
the color severely damages it enough to reduce the grade to 6/10. Sorry Ryan, you deserve better.
The writing:
Oh sweet and salty Jesus flakes is this writing bad. First of all, the plot is recycled from an
older comic or superhero cartoon, where a liaison comes in to make the
superhero team look good. I know I have
read/seen this before and if you remember a specific comic/show please let me
know. Now that is not to say that this
plot cannot be recycled, it’s not a bad way to introduce characters, even if it
is a fairly cheap way to do so. The
problem is that this plot device is not used very well at all. The story feels like it belongs back in 1995
when Image comics didn’t have any real editors, just the guys that created the
books. This book is a reintroduction to
Youngblood. Even though it is issue #71,
it has been quite some time since the book came out in any regularity. All that I get in this issue to introduce me
to the characters is a couple text boxes that tell me who is on the first
mission. They don’t even acknowledge the
fact that one of the characters changed genders until almost the end of the
book. That’s right, go back and read
that last sentence again, I’ll wait.
The dialogue between the characters in not believable and
kind of clunky. I do not enjoy what
Bendis has done for comics in general, but the guy can write dialogue. McLaughlin should really just pick up an
issue of Alias or early Ultimate Spider-Man (before the “let’s make him black”
debacle) if he wants to see dialogue done well.
The idea that the Youngblood group need to plug products like Youtube in
order to pay the bills is just ridiculous and the fact that the character
Cougar does this by mocking the “Honey Badger don’t care” video is dumb, just
plain dumb. It is something that you
would see in a comic out of the early nineties, and if McLoughlin is trying to
evoke a sense of nostalgia for a time that is affectionately known as the “Dark
Ages” of modern comics then he needs to check his priorities.
There is barely a mention of Shaft, the old leader and why
he left the team, just various references to “Not Shaft” the new leader, who
looks a lot like Shaft just colored differently. Again, I realize that this is a continuation
of a series, but even if the last issue came out last month, there is no
guarantee that I read it or remember what happened, so waiting years between
issues and not referencing pertinent information is just ridiculous.
0/10 - Terrible just terrible
The Art:
Oh the art. Now
remember, I went into this not realizing that I would be critiquing Rob
Leifeld. I seriously thought that he was
a little too busy with his DC gig of badly writing a couple of their books, to
take the time out to actually draw a full issue. That being said, I could take a red sharpie
to every page and point out at least one thing wrong per page. The art is
seriously that poor. How this guy
maintains a job in comics when there are people out there with so much more
talent that are hand stapling homemade comics in their basement studio
apartment just to get noticed I don’t know.
Some of it may not be noticeable to everyone, but a lot of it is just
downright ridiculous and blatantly wrong.
I will just take you through a few of the worst offenders.
The cars are too big for the road they are on
(look at the “shops” in the background)
Is it just me or is this thug wildly out of proportion to
the car he is riding in? He looks like a
horse jockey hanging out of a tank. Rob,
have you ever seen how big car windows are?
Good God the Liefeld mouths, they haunt my
dreams
Women do not bend like this!!! I am not Terry Dodson or Adam Hughes, but at
least I know how they are supposed to look and when one is drawn completely
wrong. You cannot, and Rob I repeat, cannot see a girl’s tits and ass in the
same shot. Cannot happen, not now, not
ever. Physically impossible (much like
movement in massive shoulder pads, but you know about that already, don’t you Rob).
The people look like they are floating or ice skating on the
ground, very little relationship between characters and their environment.
I don’t mind this panel, the Pentagon is well done and so is
the ship. Something tells me you had
help with this one Rob.
I highly doubt that the FBI issues clothing that tight, just
saying…
Those tears are not even close to believable. Really, you’re having trouble with tears now
Rob?
This page is completely wonky. Ok, I get it, they are on a farm, but what is
that middle panel? Is that an elevator
shaft? And the last panel, oooo,
Badrock, and he’s hurt, ok. Who are
those people with him? Why are they crying? Did he just get hurt or are they realizing
that he is fatally wounded? This is not
something to end your comic on without any context.
I know that this turned into a bash Rob Liefeld party, but
if you are spending your hard earned money on this stuff, take your
wallet/purse/fanny pack/etc. and just set it on fire. Go ahead, you’ll thank me later.
0/10 - I threw up in my mouth a little bit.
Overall: 2/10 – one point for the Ryan Ottley cover and 1
point for the price point:
$2.95 – Cheap!
No comments:
Post a Comment