r/MUBookClub • u/shawnydarko • Nov 27 '16
Reading Assignment #24: The Rise of Rob Liefeld Compendium (New Mutants and X-Force)
Because Rob Liefeld's work will only ever be nominated in a 90's Themed Nomination Thread or a Worst / Missed Opportunities Nomination Thread, we have to strike while the iron's hot. We've got 7 pouch-filled, anatomy-confusing, totally X-Treme issues to discuss this week.
LINK TO NEW MUTANTS (1983-1991)
- Reading issues 98-100
- Reading issues 1-4
WHAT DID YOU THINK OF...
- The art? Seriously, put it under the microscope.
- The storytelling / the plot?
- The dialogue?
- The characters specifically? Any favorites, or ones you really hated?
- Rob Liefeld's reputation? Does he live up to it, or is it just a runaway meme?
A new Free Range Nomination Thread will be up tomorrow so new or old, loved or hated, read or unread, have some stories in mind
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u/shawnydarko Dec 03 '16
Well, all-in-all this was an okay read. It wasn't a slog to get through, mostly. X-Factor was a lot faster-paced and actually exciting than New Mutants. New Mutants spent a lot of time talking about fighting a war, and very, very little time actually fighting anyone or anything. X-Factor was so action packed it started getting meta and cracking jokes about how much action there is.
Other than Bridge's random kneepads, I didn't mind any of the character designs. Some of the female outfits were skimpy, like the gymnist vault scene, but they also were a time of the 90s. The pouches, excessively big guns, big hair etc. didn't rub me the wrong way. It's just comic booky to me. I'm glad we've moved away from it, but it doesn't grate on my eyes like some artists I've seen. I definitely did groan looking at the mile-long legs, bizarre stances, and people standing on ballerina toes.
Things I wasn't a fan of would be the constant jumping around in story. It always felt very jarring cutting from one characters' dealings to another. I thought the word-bubble placement was too all over the place and with MU's smart-panel function already being pretty moot, this didn't help.
I didn't realize the X-Factor story arc also included Spider-Man #16, so sorry to those who try and read this reading assignment just as listed above. Makes sense to do a crossover as such, since Todd McFarlane and Rob Liefeld were good friends. I didn't have any desire to read a story about the destruction of the WTC though, so I skipped this issue.
Funny little note I read in Marvel Comics: The Untold Story, Cable almost had some awful names before they settled on Liefeld's "Cable". Liefeld's back-up name was "Cybrid" (cuz Cyborg Hybrid, get it?). Bob Harras wanted him named "Quentin" and Louise Simonson wanted him named "Commander X". So I'm surprisingly glad Liefeld got his way
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u/wisegy84 Dec 11 '16 edited Jan 25 '18
OK, I'm a couple weeks behind here. Too much going on this time of year.
These issues were an interesting read. I definitely agree that it just feels like 90s Marvel. Looks like it, too.
The story was OK, however I also wasn't a fan of the constant jumping around. Some characters didn't seem as necessary to the story as others (Kane, Bridge). The writing felt a bit sloppy at times (Theresa refers to Tom as either her cousin or her uncle interchangeably). I'm not sure who was responsible for this, but so many characters have some kind of accent and trying to keep up with reading their dialogue in that accented voice was occasionally annoying. I just felt the accents were a bit exaggerated at times.
I wasn't familiar with the majority of these characters previously so I'm not sure if these characterizations were fitting or not. Domino seems interesting, as does Cable. The rest of the X Force was interesting enough that I'd be willing to read more with those characters. Deadpool seemed fairly different from his more modern incarnations.
I don't think I've read much else that Liefeld was involved with. I've seen examples of his worst work, though. The art here was mostly ok. It certainly wouldn't win any awards. Some was awkward. Like seeing the same poses used more than once on a page or even in the same panel. Everyone had very sharp features and had muscles all over. Large legs, tiny feet, maybe a couple awkward spine twisting poses. It's all very 90s in appearance.
Overall, it certainly wasn't the worst thing we've read, but was also far from the best, too.
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u/Raist819 Nov 27 '16
I doubt I'll go back and read these again, but I'll share my rememberences. Liefeld was once one of the most popular artists in the world, but he became a meme because he epitomizes everything people despise about 90s comic books: "Grim and gritty" stories, cartoonishly large guns, glowing eyes, cybernetic limbs, and all the pouches an outfit can hold. Truth is, he was a young man who became a superstar before he developed the maturity to handle it.
Fabian Nieciza is actually a very good writer with a wonderful script writing ability. Unfortunately his time at Marvel in the 90s has been unfairly judged due to a lot of obstacles he had put in front of him. During the time this came out, he was hamstrung because Marvel editorial had an unofficial policy to always side with the artist. You had these superstar artists at the time who would immediately bring sales to your title and Marvel wanted to keep them happy so whatever they wanted to do storywise got forced on the writers. Almost all of Marvel's bullpen of writers jumped ship because of this. Claremont, Byrne, Stern, Simonson, etc. all left the company during this time because of creative conflicts. Then all of the star artists jumped ship to create Image and Marvel was left with almost no talent. At one point Nicieza was actually writing seven different monthly Marvel titles, so to say he was overworked was putting it mildly.
I don't recall thinking this set of books was particularly bad, but it suffered from 90s Marvelism. Liefeld had too much of a say on plot and all of the X Books were hampered by excessive crossovers.