General Marvel Legends

(Actually I'll correct myself - Jubilee and Psylocke stay in heavy rotation on my shelf, but also because of a lack of other options. Feels like poor Jubilee gets short shrift overall for options, but Legends owes Betsy a few other lewks.)
 
Someone on Reddit has been customizing the X-dudes into blue/yellow color combos and they look surprisingly satisfying on a shelf all unified in at least palette. Can't find a link.

I realize this is the Training Uniform look. :)
 
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.
 
BasilElks said:
Do you think that this is the "Spider-Man/Venom" that is on the rumored list? Maybe a miss translation, and it was supposed to say Spider-Woman/Venom?
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I don't know what leak you're talking about, but absolutely not. No MU figure has ever ended up on a leak list anywhere. These are not offered to retail or on any order form anywhere. No way this is anything on a list somewhere.
 
I guess this is a good spot to discuss Spider-Man '77. It's a pretty good representation of the movie. I almost missed that his belt is removable to help get both looks. I noticed because I was looking to paint the parts silver, which I definitely will now. The rope and web splats match the movie look perfectly and I love how they toned down the musculature. I mean, his arms and legs are still jacked for a toy, but he's not ripped. This is a great addition to the Spider-Verse or the MCU if you are so inclined.
 
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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He's okay, but look at his pencils, Scott Campbell, Whilce Portacio, and I'd be surprised if what you weren't actually impressed with was Scott Williams and his inking prowess.

He's the one who actually cooks the meal.
 
Misfit said:
Anybody with as much exposure as Jim Lee is going to have his share of vocal critics and admirers. For most people, their favorite look for a classic character is probably just the first version they encountered.
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Objectively... And as a Lee fan with lots of older comic fans... my research is this, but in a basic illustrator and comic sense, Lee's stuff just added so many more lines, which then made everyone in the 90s do that, which led to deadline crushing and overstimulation on the page for a lot of readers.

And as you'll see in any art school, impressive detail doesn't always excuse or hide bad anatomy or posing or proportions. But it sure impresses at a glance to the casual observers and the cover on the racks.

Sidenote, I know people who love comics but don't even look at the art. Couldn't even care. They just slam text down and move on to the next in minutes. Couldn't even be me.
 
TFitz said:
I guess this is a good spot to discuss Spider-Man '77. It's a pretty good representation of the movie. I almost missed that his belt is removable to help get both looks. I noticed because I was looking to paint the parts silver, which I definitely will now. The rope and web splats match the movie look perfectly and I love how they toned down the musculature. I mean, his arms and legs are still jacked for a toy, but he's not ripped. This is a great addition to the Spider-Verse or the MCU if you are so inclined.
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Are the weblines between the neck and the shoulders all messed up/missing on yours? The one I got has noticeable gaps.

And thanks, Walmart for shipping this in a paper sleeve. Definitely arrived damaged fresh from the store.
 
altcunningham said:
Objectively... And as a Lee fan with lots of older comic fans... my research is this, but in a basic illustrator and comic sense, Lee's stuff just added so many more lines, which then made everyone in the 90s do that, which led to deadline crushing and overstimulation on the page for a lot of readers.

And as you'll see in any art school, impressive detail doesn't always excuse or hide bad anatomy or posing or proportions. But it sure impresses at a glance to the casual observers and the cover on the racks.
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This captures what's best about Lee's art, but it's also his posing and the action he depicts. Comic book artists do with their characters what many of us do with our action figures in terms of posing, and Lee was great with dynamic, action-filled poses. I mostly prefer the Bengus reinterpretation of Lee's art and style in the Capcom games to Lee's own art though.

I get the criticism of his costume and character designs. There are quite a few misses, but there are also some HUGE wins and he's nowhere near as deserving for ridiculous character designs as his contemporary Rob Liefeld. Lee's biggest design win is his Cyclops costume with the yellow straps; that is by far the most iconic version of the second-most popular X-Men character (behind Wolverine) and I say that as a giant fan of both the Silver Age and Byrne designs for Cyke. His overall designs for Rogue, Gambit, Psylocke, Jubilee, and Cable are also the iconic looks for those characters.

This one I can't fully remember but isn't Lee also the guy who gave us the iconic lab coat with glasses look for Beast? Or was it an Avengers artist who gave us that look before Hank came back to the X-Men? The first time I ever saw him like that was when Lee drew him.
 
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EnigmaticClarity said:
Comic book artists do with their characters what many of us do with our action figures in terms of posing, and Lee was great with dynamic, action-filled poses.
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What's ironic about this is that when you see interviews with McFarlane sitting in his office in front of his display shelves he does nothing but vanilla poses with his action figures, and I've heard him explicitly say in interviews that most people want to just do vanilla poses with their figures like he does on his own shelves. I suppose he's right, but his own comic art was the polar opposite of this with the most insanely ridiculous poses that human anatomy couldn't even achieve in many examples of his art.

It's like Todd channeled all of his desire to play with his characters in his art and had nothing left for action figures, whereas many of us who aren't artists didn't have that outlet so we do it with action figures instead. :D
 
I just stumbled on this video and would buy all of the characters mentioned that haven't been made yet.
They should have done better homework. Not everyone appeared in the FF.


 
Schizm said:
Are the weblines between the neck and the shoulders all messed up/missing on yours? The one I got has noticeable gaps.

And thanks, Walmart for shipping this in a paper sleeve. Definitely arrived damaged fresh from the store.
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On mine, the back of the neck and upper shoulders are fine. No misses. There is like a letter "C" on the lower front neck leading up to the shoulders where some misses happen. The lines aren't long enough. Slightly bothersome, but my eyes are getting old and I can rationalize it as a costume made back in the mid-70's.
 
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