Man of Steel – John
Byrne (penciller), Dick Giordano (inker), Tom Ziuko (colors), and John
Constanza (letters)
Pros – Well, it’s John
Byrne and Dick Giordano! Byrne is definitely one of my favorite old-school
artists because of his work on Superman and Uncanny X-Men. I don’t know much
about Giordano, but I see that it’s good.
The art as a whole is pretty good. Everyone looks how they should look.
My best parts from the book are the shuttle rescue scene, the last page of the
book, and Superman’s fight with the robbers in issue two. The artwork is also
pretty consistent from front to back. I have no complaints about the inking or
colors.
Cons – Hmm…I have to admit
that the action does feel a little stale when compared to the action from other
books. Also, the art is the only thing that makes the book feels real dated.
For example, there’s Lois’s fashion
style to look at. Another example is definitely MAGPIE. What was up with her
design? As I said before, she really looks like a reject from the Rocky Horror
Picture Show…and that may be the point.
Overall, while the art is good, it
really doesn’t wow me like the others do. Even art that Byrne has done for other things
is a little better.
EGAH! I know 80's fashion was bad, but Dang!
Superman Birthright:
Leinel Yu (pencils), Gerry Alangulian (inks)
Pros – First, the
action is good…really good. It flies off the page and smacks you with its
awesomeness. The designs for the characters are also good. They are what you
would expect from these characters and they work well. The look of everything
is modern and up to date. This book probably
has the best “epic panels” of the whole thing. All of the actions scenes are
good, but my favorite page is this one below. It wasn’t until later that I realized it
kind of has a Messianic feel…with less emphasis on the Messy. A lot of
the quiet moments where there was no action were good too.
So this is where Bryan
Singer got all of those Jesus/Superman comparisons!
Cons – I guess the
first thing I can say is that I don’t know if Yu’s style really fits with the
character as a whole. It’s edgy and gritty. Look at his work on things like New
Avengers and see which characters he looks right with. Also, the art does get a
little inconsistent. For example, you’ll have a couple of mistakes (Lois turns
into Halle Berry for a couple of pages) and then there are the faces and the
teeth. They look weird at some points in the book.
Now I see why people would be afraid of Superman.
Overall, while Yu may
not the first artist I would go to penciling Superman book, he and the art team
kick some major butt on this book.
Superman Secret Origin:
Gary Frank (pencils), John Sibal (inks), Brad Anderson (coloring)
Pros – Christopher
Reeve!!! Okay, I’m kidding a little. Reeve’s likeness is not going to be the
deciding point of this battle, but it is a pretty good rendition. The action in
the book is good and it also leaps off the pages and hits you with its
awesomeness. The character designs are good. The art as a whole has a classic,
timeless feel to it. While it does have that Silver Age feel to it, it still
feels modern. There are also some “epic pages” that are shown here. Of course,
there are the two shirt rips, the pic Jimmy takes, and two old-school remakes
of a certain classic cover.
Cons – First off, Young
Clark looks off at times. It’s like Gary Frank is trying to draw an anorexic
version of Chris Reeve. He also looked a little too young in the Superboy
uniform at times. Another thing is the faces of other characters. Sometimes
they look a little off. One thing I’ve noticed about the art is that Lex always
has an evil or scowling look on his face. He even looks like that in his young
days. It’s actually kinda funny when you think about it. I counted 48 scowl/evil faces. It’s not bad, but it would be cool to see Lex show another
face than the “I’m EVIL” face.
I don’t know about you, but I think Lex may grow up to become "EVILLL!!!", ya know?
Action Comics #1-#8
(New 52): Rag Morales, Brent Anderson, Gene Ha, Brad Walker, Andy Kubert, and
ChrisCross on pencils and various people on inks and pencils (yeah, it varies
per issue)
Pros – Like with the
other books, this action in these eight issues is pretty good. Just about all
of the pencillers here draw this stuff well...at times. The overall designs
look good and fit with this new universe. I like the suits…both of them. The
first did take some getting used to at first. The armor is a little better. The
fact that there a lot of artists is a little jarring at first, but considering
that this is an ongoing book, it ‘s fine by me. My favorite artists from this origin are Andy
Kubert, Gene Ha, Rags Morales, and Brad Walker. Brent Anderson and ChrisCross
(Jump, Jump!!) are okay though.
Shocking.
Cons – While the many
artists don’t bother me, the artists themselves are pretty inconsistent. Let’s
start with Morales. The first two issues are good. Then the art lessens in
quality especially in the third issue. It does pick up in the latter two parts
though. Chrisscross is the next one on the list. It’s the faces for some reason.
They just look way off with this guy.
Wow, Pa's looking mighty old for someone in his 50's.
Brad Walker is another one on the list. His
backups are pretty good. On the other hand, his eight pages in Action #8 are
not that good. Most of the faces, especially Superman’s, look off. That page of
the high-looking Superman is from this artist and that page still makes me
laugh not in a good way. Then there’s Brent Anderson’s Lois. All I can say is this: lay off the surgery! His
stuff was a little off-putting as well.
Overall, while I think
the art has good spots, it also has a lot of bad spots as well.
................................................................
So in saying all of that, which art do I like the best? This too is tough because all of it is at least decent. All of them have good action and fights. They also have those soft, quieter moments that happen between the action and the art complements them greatly. A big example from Secret Origin is when Clark finds out that he is an alien and Pa goes to console him. Another one I like is a Lex’s and Clark’s conversation from Birthright. With MoS, it’s when Clark comes back to the farm after the shuttle incident. The Nu52 version best quiet moment is probably the stuff from the backups involving the Kents. As I said, it’s a tough choice.
It looks like Secret
Origin gets this round…and no, it’s not because of Christopher Reeve makes a
cameo. There’s a lot here to chew on when it comes to the art. I like the art
for all of the reasons I listed earlier. The art is also detailed pretty well.
While I did harp on the facial expressions earlier, the rest of the expressions
work. For example, there is one I ‘m going to show below. As I said before, the
art also complements the story greatly here.
Clark: Wow! Two hot alien girls from the future! I can't wait to tell Lana...Oh, never mind.
Score tally:
Well, it’s here. Next time, I'm ending this thing!
NEXT TIME: THE END…
Man of Steel (MoS): 2
Superman Birthright : 3
Superman Secret Origin : 4
Superman and the Men of Steel (...Nu52): 2
NEXT TIME: THE END…
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