Simply ... the worst

Back in 1996 Marvel did something which certainly increased sales, but certainly degraded comics storytelling. They "leased" out four of their characters' titles (The Avengers, Fantastic Four, Iron Man and Captain America) to Image's Jim Lee and Rob Liefeld. This, as you're probably familiar, was known as "Heroes Reborn." Lee's responsibility -- FF and Iron Man -- did well, and their stories were ... well, OK. Liefeld, on the other hand, proved again how vastly overrated a "talent" he is.

Example: Avengers volume 2, #1. Rarely has there been a combination of piss-poor storytelling whose artwork is supposed to "compensate" for it. I mean, c'mon -- all you have to do is weave a slightly modified story of established characters and backstory -- and you still manage to f*** it up? That takes some talent. Or rather, serious lack thereof. To start with, who the hell came up with the choice of team members? And their outfits? Let's see ... Captain America, the Vision, Hawkeye, Scarlet Witch, and ... Swordsman?? Hellcat??? WTF?? Why go with two characters who were at best very marginal characters in Avengers lore? Oooh ... is this how Liefeld staked out his ... "originality" on the title? Cheeyeah, right.

I mean, whoa. What is up with Wanda's costume?

This looks even worse than her original one -- to which this is an homage. Albeit a very lame one.

Then there's Hawkeye:

Kurt Busiek busted on this pathetic outfit in early volume 3 Avengers, having Clint Barton himself remarking that he looked like a "brown Plantman."

Then there's the Swordsman. Hilariously, in an early panel we see him primping in front of a mirror saying "Face it, Swordsman, you do cut one mean figure of a man!" Well, if Chap Yaep or Liefeld himself are on art chores, you can be sure that any "figure" will be grossly exaggerated so as easily to be "mean." But c'mon -- how attractive can a guy be when he wears his hair like Moe Howard, for cripe's sake?

Then there might be the biggest "heresy" of all -- Liefeld changing the "A" on Cap's headgear to an eagle logo. And indeed it was a heresy -- so much so that later on in the volume two issues of the Hereos Reborn characters the "A" found its way back to the Captain's head!


But back to what I stated at the onset: Heroes Reborn degraded comics storytelling. Yep, that's what I said. Overall, but especially with the Liefeld-helmed titles, big "flashy" panels with ridiculously exaggerated physiques filled the pages, and actual written text was diminished by several orders of magnitude. For example, back in 1997, Bill Egan, former editor-in-chief of Advanced Iron -- the online Iron Man fan magazine -- did an analysis of the average number panels per page, total number of panels in the book, as well as the average/total number of words per page/book. He compared volume 2 Iron Man to Acclaim's X-O Manowar. Here's what he found:

Average # of panels per page: IM: 3.18; X-O: 4.5
Total # of panels: IM: 70; X-O: 99

Average # of words per page: IM: 38.9; X-O: 136.23
Total # of words: IM: 856; X-O: 2997.

As Bill wrote then (in Advanced Iron #34, by the way, if you're interested in downloading the issue -- as you can with any issue of the ultimate Iron Man fan experience),

"For a 28% increase in price (X-O Manowar), we're getting a 41% increase in the number of panels (with possibly better artwork) and a whopping 250% increase in the number of words!! Any way you slice it we're getting way more bang for the buck with X-O Manowar than in Iron Man."

Liefeld's story and Jim Valentino's script in Avengers vol. 2 #1 are so basic, so cliché ridden, and so devoid of character development as to be a prodigious head-shaker. They can't decide whether to make the Swordsman a smart aleck like Hawkeye, or some well-spoken elitist. Hawkeye's snappy patter is childish and forced. Hellcat and Wanda are such a waste of time as to be virtually insignificant. And how does the team accept Thor immediately into the team after he's been "on ice" for millenia, not to mention having fought the team ferociously a few seconds upon his "awakening?" I'd expect this from a shortly-after-the-birth-of-Marvel 1960s Stan Lee penned book, but not a 1996 reimagining.

And then there's Yaep's and Liefeld's ... "art." It's miserable. (See this past post of mine for more on Liefeld's "talents.") Liefeld has long been the butt of jokes for his ridiculous anatomy (and rightly so) and he doesn't disappoint us here. For example, check out the panel at left of the Enchantress. What -- did she have stilt implants?

And WTF is up with the two-page spread (Image-ites never do anything small) of Thor attacking Cap? Where is Thor's torso? His legs appear to be growing directly out of his neck! That's not to mention the ridiculously shaped fists and inane angle of attack:

Lastly there's the panel that's really beyond parody: Thor's hammer (Mjolnir) with its inscription ... in English!!

Avengers volume 2 #1 -- simply the worst!