General Marvel Legends

NORM said:
My first comics were the Jim Lee adjectiveless run. They were my first real exposure to the X-Men, followed quickly by the 5” figures and the animated series. I thought their costumes were very cool. Then I grew up and found out people on the internet made fun of them, and that they are apparently NOT good designs. Then I felt shame for my taste. But then so many people hold Jim Lee and his art in high regard! Is he a good artist or not? Is he just a bad costume designer? Is he just overhyped? I feel like I must hide my real opinion of his art.
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Not me. I loved his art back in the day. He mastered great group shots both in action and conversation. I remember a shot with them all talking in a conference room and the way several characters were looking at each other addedso much more to the page than just the expostion going on.

Having said that, he seems to have lost that group shot ability (I haven't read the new Hush that may disprove this). I say this because around 2 years ago he did a big DC group shot, and you could very easily tell he drew most, if not all of them separate and then photoshopped them all into the same drawing. The sizes were so far off from each other.

Found the drawing I was talking about.
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Random question about Strong Guy. I've seen folks talking about how the barbell has a bendy wire in the middle. Is that confirmed? I assumed form the photos it's just molded in that bent shape and the one shot where it looks straight is just it rotated to the side.
 
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I don't think it's been officially confirmed, but I'm pretty sure it's molded into the bent shape as well.
 
I like Lee's art, but I honestly think he's better served doing cover art than interiors. His art always looked like a photoshoot to me. The poses are inspired, but none of them feel natural. His action has a similar static feeling. Beast leaping over a table or Batman surveying the city from a gargoyle with a photographer in the background saying "Tilt your head a little to the right... bend your left arm into a 90-degree angle... perfect!"

I feel that most artists are more creative with where they put the "camera," too. His shots are straight on, at eye- or chest-level.
 
I agree with this.

I think Jim Lee was my favorite of the "Image era" artists, but as was mentioned Williams' inking had a lot to do with that too. But also Lee's art wasn't the most dynamic and fluid. Posed shots were his bread and butter.

Lee doesn't even make my top 5 X-Men artists though. Unsurprisingly to many Byrne is number 1, then Paul Smith, Neal Adams, Jack Kirby and Mark Silvestri round out that list.

I know JRJr has his fans but man do I dislike his X-Men work.

If Art Adams had gotten to do more work on X-Men that wasn't annuals he might have pushed Silvestri to sixth.
 
PantherCult said:
Lee doesn't even make my top 5 X-Men artists though. Unsurprisingly to many Byrne is number 1, then Paul Smith, Neal Adams, Jack Kirby and Mark Silvestri round out that list.
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Paul Smith is the top of my list, especially as I get older. Just pure meat and potatoes good storytelling. Does the work and gets out of the way. He's not as flashy as some, but I think he's pound for pound one of the best.
 
Yeah, I always wished Paul Smith did more work... reading about him it sounds like it was mostly by his choice that he didn't. He only did enough work to pay his bills and then stop He is awesome and if he lasted longer or had more lasting impact (in terms of character creation or design) I'd rank him ahead of Byrne.
 
I hear what everyone is saying about Jim Lee, the criticisms I read are valid. I'm still a huge fan. I will occasionally watch YouTube videos of him drawing and it's amazing seeing how it all comes together.

If I had to put my top 5 X-Men artists in order I'd have to take longer than I have time to think about it, but in no particular order I'd go:

Jim Lee
John Byrne
Dave Cockrum
Paul Smith
Andy Kubert

EDIT: Sadly I have to bump Paul Smith and go Neil Adams. Sorry, so often my mind erroneously defaults to thinking X-Men began with Claremont and Cockrum.
 
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My top X-Men artists are John Cassaday, Chris Bachalo, Jim Lee, and that’s probably it.
 
Just going off X-artists:

Joe Mad - got me into reading X-Men comics and
Carlos Pacheco - kept me there
Brandon Peterson
Bachalo

Those are the four I really responded to/that I remember. And you can tell how long it's been. :/
 
I love most of the 90s big name X-artists, but for me, while I like Mark Texeira and Barry Windsor Smith's Wolverine, there is no better Wolverine artist (at least to me) than Dwayne Turner. His chaotic mutant midget in a perpetually destroyed costume in the #70s issues of Wolverine's stand alone title was pure excitement for me as a kid. I would love nothing more than a battle damaged 90s Wolverine figure that reflected this.

Some of his unpublished (brown & tan no less) artwork:
C8TcV8VUMAEQ3bN.jpg:large
 
yojoebro82 said:
Are they going to resell us X-Factor?

I have to admit the added paint on Strong Guy makes him tempting, but I've completed that team already and I have to call it good.
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Like yourself, I'm not rebuying an entire long-beleaguered team just to have "matching yellows." I'll likely buy Havok and Polaris because those are the two I mostly like from the team. And of course Pietro if they re-release the Walmart one in baby blue. And of course they'll put Madrox in his 90s comics accurate GREEN jacket this time. But I'm not rebuying Wolfsbane, disappointing as that figure is, I'm sure they'll put her out the way I wanted with brown sculpted fur rather than orange this time. So it looks like I'll be slowly tempted and undermined into rebuying the whole team...

But they better put Val Cooper in her Fatal Attactions look or I'm going to give someone such a pinch!
 
RichardSimmonsRobot said:
I love most of the 90s big name X-artists, but for me, while I like Mark Texeira and Barry Windsor Smith's Wolverine, there is no better Wolverine artist (at least to me) than Dwayne Turner. His chaotic mutant midget in a perpetually destroyed costume in the #70s issues of Wolverine's stand alone title was pure excitement for me as a kid. I would love nothing more than a battle damaged 90s Wolverine figure that reflected this.

Some of his unpublished (brown & tan no less) artwork:
C8TcV8VUMAEQ3bN.jpg:large
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Some stuff that'll kill your butt, indeed...
 
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