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Underground > Comic Books >

New X-Men #124

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20:32 / 21.03.02

I've seen Kordey's artwork on other books and I don't think it's too bad. As far as I can tell, he rips through these X-Men books to pick up the slack after Quitely and Van Sciver fall behind schedule.

Unfortunately, it LOOKS like he speeds through them. His previous issues haven't been so bad but this latest one is, in my opinion, just sloppy. There were pages that were near-incomprehensible, most notably the action sequences. I had to re-read a couple of pages just to work out what was going on.

I don't think it's because he's a bad artist - I think it's just because he's rushed. If I had to make an educated guess I'd say he's probably skipping the pencils and doing most of the drawing directly in ink to save time - providing him with an inker would likely improve the work but also take twice as long, and the goal here is to pick up the pace.

Best line in the comic wasn't anything to do with the story, but the news in the letter column that the schedule will be arranged in future so that we get 5 consecutive Quitely issues...

Matthew Fluxington

09:01 / 22.03.02

Um, I don't really know what to say about this issue. The art was so erratic - some pages look really nice - like, say, the first four pages. But others are confusing, sloppy, incoherant... Kordey needs to slow down. A lot. I think that if he did this, he'd be great. Maybe if he quit Cable, and spent all of his time making six issues of New X-Men, giving it his all, that would be good - but this kind of art is bringing down the whole story.

And why does he insist on drawing Wolverine THAT WAY? Surely you know what I mean.

That one page with him attacking the dinosaur guy was so weak, enough that I wonder why they would consider it worth publishing. That page should've been exciting, it looks gloppy. All of the fight scenes were baffling, really...

The worst part is the final page - what the hell? I was staring at that page for a while on the train, trying to figure out what was going on - what happened between the last panel of the preceeding page, and that splash? Why are Scott and Xorn flying over the top of the Shi'Ar folks - are the Shi'Ar looking at them from below? Are the Shi'Ar on the ground, defeated? Shouldn't they be sucked into the vacuum of space or something? Why does Scott suddenly have his regular visor on again? I could go on...

The story is moving along nicely, and it certainly isn't bad, but this issue doesn't really seem to have any good reason to exist, it seems a bit tacked on. This could've been condensed down to ten pages, or less even.

Hopefully Igor's art will get a little better, less sloppy, a bit more meaty. His style may be ugly, but he can pull off some good work here and there. I do wish they'd get someone different, though. He doesn't really fit the mood of the series...his art is too 'gritty', I think.

09:05 / 22.03.02

It's too 'crappy', I think...

Matthew Fluxington

09:13 / 22.03.02

Maybe they should hire Bruce Timm. He seems up for it.

09:17 / 22.03.02

Or maybe we could all pool our money and get Phillip Bond to do it?

Aren't there tens of thousands of illustrators graduating from art schools every year? You'd figure Marvel would snatch some of these kids up, give them drugs, lock them away in a room somewhere and have them make comicbooks. The bastards.

[ 22-03-2002: Message edited by: invix ]

09:27 / 22.03.02

quote:Originally posted by invix:
Or maybe we could all pool our money and get Phillip Bond to do it?

Aren't there tens of thousands of illustrators graduating from art schools every year? You'd figure Marvel would snatch some of these kids up, give them drugs, lock them away in a room somewhere and have them make comicbooks. The bastards.

That is EXACTLY what I think. Aren't there heaps of artists dying to do this shit!

Matthew Fluxington

09:33 / 22.03.02

I think maybe the thing of it is, there's just not heaps of artists dying to do this stuff who are as fast as Igor Kordey. Or are pals with the editor of New X-Men.

Connections, connections, connections...

I wish our own Cameron Stewart would get this job based on his connections, but alas...

09:36 / 22.03.02

I plan on talking to The Relevant People At Marvel at this summer's San Diego con. By then I should have a few issues of Catwoman in the can - issue 11 on sale in late September folks! - and thus be able to have something to show them.

I'd love to do even one issue...

[ 22-03-2002: Message edited by: CameronStewart ]

Matthew Fluxington

09:44 / 22.03.02

Ah, but what if it somehow backfires, and they say "Well, Cameron - how would you like to become the new artist of X-Treme X-Men?"

A

09:44 / 22.03.02

I haven't picked up a copy of this yet (i plan on wandering on down to the comic store later on today), but it strikes me as more than a little odd that NewXMen is seemingly Marvel's "flagship" title, yet they get some guy to dash off the art in between doing issues of Cable.

Fair enough, i understand that Quitely can't crank 'em out monthly- that's fine, but seeing as he can't, and so the title will always require at least one regular fill-in artist, the fill-ins should be done by someone who can devote a suitable amount of time to them. It seems silly to have Marvel's #1 seller take a backseat to Cable in terms of art.

I think I read somewhere that Van Sciver won't be doing NewXMen anymore, and that Kordey and Quitely will be the regular pencillers. Does anyone know if this is true?

Matthew Fluxington

09:44 / 22.03.02

That's true, and the letters column of the new issue backs it up. From now on, it's the Frank and Igor show, with occasional special guest pencillers.

Which I hope means "a-list" artists, as opposed to folks who will make us all long for more Igor...

ONLY NICE THINGS

09:44 / 22.03.02

quote:Originally posted by Flux = No Rock n' Roll Fun:
Ah, but what if it somehow backfires, and they say "Well, Cameron - how would you like to become the new artist of X-Treme X-Men?"

Well, then we just need to replace the writer and the plotlines and we'd have a potential goer.

I vote for guest spots by Shakey 2000, D'Israeli, Glyn Dillon, Philip Bond and Alan Davis. It would make people's heads gooey.

A

09:44 / 22.03.02

quote:Originally posted by The Haus under the Ocean:

Well, then we just need to replace the writer and the plotlines and we'd have a potential goer.

I think the name would have to go, too, because I wouldn't buy a comic called "X-Treme X-Men" if it were written by god himself, illustrated with naked pictures of Drew Barrymore, and contained the ture secret of immortality within it's pages.

09:44 / 22.03.02

quote:Originally posted by count adam:

I think the name would have to go, too, because I wouldn't buy a comic called "X-Treme X-Men" if it were written by god himself, illustrated with naked pictures of Drew Barrymore, and contained the ture secret of immortality within it's pages.

I bet you would...

Matthew Fluxington

09:44 / 22.03.02

Good nominations, Haus...

I stand by my Dave Gibbons nomination. I think his art suits NXM really well, and he's a peer of Quitely's in terms of style and craft.

Peter Gross, Richard Case, Sean Phillips, and Brian Bolland would all pleasant fill-ins too, I would think...

The Natural Way

09:44 / 22.03.02

There's no point going on about it here, is there?

I'm going to email Marvel and spank them good and proper. Kordey IS NOT going to attract new readers. If I was Grant I'd be so pissed off.

Urrgh...the flying fight w/ Wolvie and the Beast.....the characters crammed into the panels on the Shi'ar Superdestroyer...flapping skin heads....

[ 22-03-2002: Message edited by: You and Runce ]

Our Lady of The Two Towers

12:40 / 22.03.02

Got it yesterday, didn't think it was much cop in terms of the story either. The pages also looked better on the internet, possibly a slightly lower resolution doing them favours, but by halfway through it looked awful. The fight scenes were badly laid out and pretty rubbish too.

But Grant's treatment of the Imperial Guard was off too. Since when have they had so many lightweights in the team? By the time of me giving up the X-Men around a hundred issues ago the best any incarnation of the X-Men had managed was a standstill, occasionally managing to beat down a few of them but always outclassed.

Where did Emma, Angel and the Cuckoo's disappear to?

Phew, it's lucky that the guard that ejected in issue 1 must have landed just down the road from the X-Mansion to be found by the Imperial Guard so soon. And how convenient that Gladiator realises the truth after hearing it from this guard despite him having come into contact with the 'contaminated' planet.

And what is going on with this whole Jean Grey/Phoenix thing? Did she become it's avatar again during the period I wasn't reading?

No star here laces

12:44 / 22.03.02

Horrible, horrible, horrible issue. I weep to think of what a decent artist could have done with this. In your face all you art sceptics who think comics are all about scripting... Any comic storyline in history would be rendered shitty by art as bad as this.

D'you think we can get a petition together to get a new artist to re-do this issue in time for the trade?

12:47 / 22.03.02

The imperial guard can't be all that comfortable w/ the phoenix. They kill her and she comes back. But they have to like her now because their queen's boyfriend says she's OK. That's gotta piss them off.

12:49 / 22.03.02

They should give Quitely a bunch of drugs and lock him in a room and have him redraw all of the van Scriver/Kordey issues.

But giving people a bunch of drugs and locking them in a room is my answer for everything.

Matthew Fluxington

13:07 / 22.03.02

Let's start a petition to get Quitely hooked on speed or some other methamphetamine...

The Natural Way

13:42 / 22.03.02

I'm not bothered about the "convenient" plot devices - that's par for the course w/ this sort of thing.

I suppose it doesn't matter whether or not anyone here complains to Marvel. They should already be inundated w/ fans moaning by now.

Not gonna stop me, though.

Matthew Fluxington

13:53 / 22.03.02

You know what?

My little brother just read it, and he thought the art was spotty, but it also reminded him of some Japanese comics that his friends have... I'm a bit baffled on it. He says it's not so much the style, but the layout and storytelling. Hm. Anyone else more knowledgeable than I care to second this, or call into question my 14 year old brother's sanity?

No star here laces

13:59 / 22.03.02

"14-year old brother", eh?

Does he know any of your 15 girlfriends...

The Natural Way

14:07 / 22.03.02

No...he's right about all that stuff.

BUT the art is shit as well.

Those fight sequences (esp flying wolvie) would have been so good and sooo funny if cockos hadn't messed them up.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

21:41 / 22.03.02

quote:Originally posted by invix:
The imperial guard can't be all that comfortable w/ the phoenix. They kill her and she comes back. But they have to like her now because their queen's boyfriend says she's OK. That's gotta piss them off.

Great missing scenes from X-Men;
Guardian; "So she's not actually the Phoenix at all, the Phoenix merely copied her body and that died and she's just a very powerful telekinetic and psychic? Oops, our bad, come on everyone, back on ship, and someone put some clothes on Xavier will they, his penis is disturbing me..."

11:42 / 23.03.02

I second the notion that this issue pretty much sucked.

Lame art and a script that seemed to have been dashed off in half an hour to try and sort out continuity .. it was just completely lacking in all the things that make Grant Morrison comics great - no mad ideas, no memorable dialogue, no character insights, Scooby-Doo level plot development - it could so totally have been written by yer standard X-men hack.. COME ON, GRANT, GET IT TOGEHTER!

No star here laces

17:39 / 23.03.02

I have to say I don't think the scripting was all that bad - it's just that without decent art a good script is meaningless. Nobody wants to read books of comics scripts without the pictures, no matter how brilliant they are. If Quitely had drawn it we'd all be picking out the Morrison-isms left right and centre...

A

23:04 / 24.03.02

Wow, that art really was quite dreadful. Some of it looked like Kordy had never actually seen a human being before, so someone had to describe what they look like over the phone to him.

But, perhaps this is all a cunning plan. Perhaps the trade-paperback editions will have all of Kordey's issues redone by someone who can draw, and everyone who already bought the issues will then get the trades, as well.

Okay, probably not, but at least that would make some kind of sense.

yawn - thing's buddy

06:56 / 25.03.02

come back jill thompson - all is forgiven.

07:37 / 25.03.02

So the art was pretty horrible, huh? Got to agree, and I liked the last couple of issues he did. Anyway... what did anyone think about the story? Have to admit that I was a leetle disappointed.. did a lot of the superguardians just seem lame to anyone else? Beast had that line where he rants about how incredibly powerful they are, immediately after which we see him and Wolverine wading right through them. I feel that the sense of enormous impending disaster has dissipated slightly; somebody said about the last issue that they simply couldn't work out how the x-men were going to pull through, which I agreed with wholeheartedly - it's very difficult to achieve that state of affairs. This issue one of their major problems is cleared up very quickly by some fisticuffs and the straightforward device of Smasher being found at the last minute. That was nicely handled though, I loved Gladiator's stunned disbelief: "But the empress is beyond reproach". Shit, they've still got to kill all the nano - sentinels (funny how scott doesn't seem to be feeling too poorly while the others are falling apart), and there's the big showdown, of course, so there's still plenty to keep a fanboy happy.
I completely agree with Flux about the final page - the best I could come up witht is that Xorn's knocked them all over with some gravity trick and they've both miraculously escaped what must have been pretty flimsy restraints. I don't know whether that just comes down to the art though - it did disrupt the flow a number of times. Grant's pacing and cocky denial of the drawn-out exposition that dogs so much superhero stuff is one of the things that makes the book work, but maybe he needs his scripts in the hands of an artist with an equal sense of narrative density for it to appear coherent.

07:39 / 25.03.02

oh, sorry. completely failed to realise there was a thrird page to this thread before posting.

The Natural Way

07:49 / 25.03.02

maybe he needs his scripts in the hands of an artist with an equal sense of narrative density for it to appear coherent.

Definitely.

Our Lady of The Two Towers

07:49 / 25.03.02

Lentil, I was one of those who wondered how they were going to pull through and watched with stunned disbelief at the ease of it. Even if you consider the fact that Morrison has looked at each of these characters and looked at ways in which they can use their powers more imaginatively it still wouldn't work, and they're supposed to be ill from these nano-viruses.

11:04 / 25.03.02

quote:Originally posted by yawn:
come back jill thompson - all is forgiven.

Only joking, Jill. Stay away, please.

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