Saturday, December 27, 2014

12 Days of X-Mas: X-Force #3

Oh my gosh, three issues in, and I’m having a hard time. Rob Liefeld’s art, which was so nicely laid out and designed in issue 1 is really starting to look rushed. The thighs and general anatomy of the characters has gone out the window. I mean, there are panels where Warpath’s waist looks thicker than Juggernaut’s whole body! And Cable’s armor, oh my gosh, it is awful. There are two strange sharp prongs that look like they should be jabbing ol’ Nathan in the face during every fight. Juggernaut looks OK, but most of the characters really don’t look good.

But that isn’t a universal comment, because once again, Liefeld seems to be spending a lot of time on Shatterstar and Feral. Both characters look more completely penciled in. Their cross-hatching is more detailed. They have more lines on their uniforms and faces. In general, these two look the best every single issue. The list does grow here, though. Black Tom Cassidy is nicely realized on the page here. From his fantastic, over-the-top villainous posing to his moments in battle, Black Tom looks good. 

Siryn, for the most part, looks good too, but there are a few iffy panels for her too. Adding Siryn to the team does wonders for the color scheme of the team. With this early 90’s coloring, the pinks, purples, and silvers were not looking good. Only Warpaths’ blue and red really breaks up the bland-looking team. Adding Siryn's greens and yellows really breaks up the page.

I love Fabian Nicieza’s dialogue for Black Tom and Juggernaut. They sound like classic comic book bullies. It is weird seeing this much talking between Warpath and Juggsy, but it is amusing seeing the tough guy posturing. Plus, any book with a “Krathakapow” sound effect is OK by me!
  

This book is a set-up for issue 4, the “all-horizontal” issue guest-starring Spider-Man. Issue 3 doesn’t stand too well on its own, but it does pull the book out of the nosedive of issue 2. Issue one remains the high point of this FAIR series. 

No comments: