King Krypton
Superman Family
 Offline
Posts: 148
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« Reply #8 on: October 01, 2005, 05:47:42 PM » |
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I hold DC editorial accountable for a lot of what went wrong with Birthright, too (although it has been faring better as a TPB). But I still think fan close-mindedness was the bigger culprit. It's what helped sink Trinity, after all. As far as the emblem goes, I was game to see what the redesign looked like until I saw it in practice. It just looks off to me. As far as the "Iron Age" look of the reinserted classic emblem, the Quitely original was already gigantic. So to me, that's not an issue. (Rumor has it that Quitely's still not finished with issue #2 after having nearly a year's lead time, which gives me major pause. Travis Charest got tons of lead time on Wildcats, and he still couldn't handle the schedule.) To me, the emblem should have been addressed early on and dealt with. Waiting to get the mixed reaction to the emblem from the previews before taking action was a mistake.
Then again, hiring an artist who from the sound of things isn't capable of handling a regular schedule and whose style is violently polarizing the readership wasn’t the best idea, either. If an artist can’t handle a monthly schedule, or least can’t whack out four or five issues before needing a fill-in, why hire that person in the first place? Why not hire someone more capable to do the honors? I remember when Ed Benes first took over Superman, and just about EVERYBODY was going wild about his artwork. Aside from one fill-in from Tony Daniel, Benes has been doing very well for himself on that book. Why didn’t DC get HIM to do All-Star Superman? He’s got a style just about everybody loves, his Superman is fittingly iconic, he can manage more than two issues a year…why didn’t DC shoot for that? Or even Ivan Reis, whose art was the sole thing about Chuck Austen’s Action run that got unceasing kudos? (He’s now said to be taking over Green Lantern following Pacheco and Van Sciver.) They’ve got tons of artistic talent at DC, guys who put Quitely to shame in just about every capacity. Guys who could crank out a monthly book without much trouble and give the book the "iconic" look ALL-STARS is supposed to have. It wouldn’t have taken much effort to pick one of those guys, put them on All-Star Superman, and said "Run with it." Instead we get a guy who apparently is still way behind on the book and whose style is leaving people split down the middle.
I have to agree with the assessment that Leinil Yu did more harm than good to Birthright (his art grew on me, but I could see why others were alienated by it), and that Quitely’s going to do exactly the same thing to All-Star Superman. But if he can’t even make the schedule with a year’s worth of lead time, that’s going to be an even bigger problem. Green Lantern’s been running into trouble due to artist-related delays (especially with Pacheco and Van Sciver leaving), and that’s something a judicious artist change could easily correct. If the best All-Star can manage is two issues or so a year, what’s the point? You might as well not bother making it a monthly book and just release it as a graphic novel. It’s ridiculous, because this book sounded so promising at first. But after the sketches, the previews, the changes to the art post-preview, and now rumors that Quitely’s still falling behind, this book’s looking like it’s not going to live up to its promise. DC should have manned up, made all its creative decisions early on, gotten an artist who could handle the schedule, and been done with it. Instead this looks like a mess. And it didn't have to be.
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