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Jaredan

Name: Scott Hawkes

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Reviews

And here are the X-Men I remember so fondly. Aaron breezes into this first issue with a cavalcade of smart,…

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The Avengers lick their wounds and Cap opens the discussion about just who will be on the roster. One would…

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Fear Itself comes to an end (as far as I’m concerned), and the “writing by flow-chart” is still painfully evident….

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Jaredan's Recent Comments
October 27, 2011 11:41 am I forgot to mention: finally a comic with worthwhile extras in the end pages. The Class-List was hysterical, I adore the school's logo and the new motto. Superb.
October 21, 2011 8:21 pm I can't think of a worse one myself. There have been some utter messes but usually it was due to pacing or it spiralling out of control, not that there just wasn't anything in it worthwhile. There wasn't a story beyond bullet points.
October 21, 2011 8:19 pm Thank you. I feel like a masochist buying this, like I've punched myself in my left eye to match the bruise on the right and complete the set.
August 19, 2011 7:15 pm Yes and I think that's part of the problem. It's been so soon since we've seen that he will certainly come back that doing it again just doesn't seem worthwhile.
August 19, 2011 4:57 pm I find using the "point" numbering to be odd as they've been marketed as jump-on books for readers and yet are being used here as issues to portray the aftermath of the series. Though actually the true aftermath will occur in Shattered Heroes (with its horrid Onslaught styling of the title). Then again I don't think announcing that Fear Itself will now be numbered to 10 would engender much celebration. I think it's a shame that Fear Itself has been as badly written (in the main book that is) as it has so far. There's nothing wrong with having an epic battle across the planet play out, as long as it is well written and puts the characters through their paces in a way that makes sense. Also isn't it a bit too soon to be sending Thor back into the realm of the non-living and expect a powerful emotional response from the reader?
August 18, 2011 12:25 pm It's interesting that Jubilee would not be on the same team as Wolverine. I didn't read all of the mini with Logan helping her to come to terms with her vampirism, was a rift created between them?
August 11, 2011 7:39 pm For those confused why so many find Land distasteful, have a look here 
It isn't the complete list of his swipes of course but you'll find a lot of familiar images there. In fact compare the first image of Sinister in the chair with the swipe of Adrian Paul from Highlander. It's the same image but with added hair, a beard which seems to float slightly out of alignment with his face, an off-center forehead diamond and bushy eyebrows. It just needs glasses and a big plastic nose and the disguise is complete.

 
August 11, 2011 3:24 pm Look at Sinister on the first page and then again in the splash. Two completely different references, not just because of hair but facial structure. Also note how the triangular soul patch is slightly off on the first panel and in the splash, a mistake he makes quite often when adding additional details to a swiped reference.
Pretty sure Apocalypse was once Hulk.
Sorry you start picking at one thread on his work and it just starts to unravel. 
August 11, 2011 2:52 pm My cynicism clashes with my love of the subject matter in that spread. I grew up on the stories depicted and they honestly helped me through some pretty horrific times.
But I look at the Dark Phoenix front and center and recognise it as being a retread from his previous work, then the Wolverine pops out as another reused piece. The Cyclops/Marvel Girl kiss is wonderful, but within a plist second I'm wondering what the original image was and how good the artist/photographer who originally created it is.
The Logan/Peter/Kurt image is perfect, but I wonder where Land got the base figures from. Rachel's face looks so good it is very reminiscent of John Romita Jr., then of course I wonder if it actually is JR.
Beast looks very similar to Alan Davis' work, Kitty looks unlike any other female on the page, the Magneto helmet looks to be from a cover he did on Uncanny 516 etc. etc.
Land has an eye for composition, but you see so many different styles in his images and so many examples of him swiping other artists, photographers and then reusing them over and over that it just leaps out each time I look at his work.
I despise his art for many reasons, the intellectual dishonesty to begin with, but I guess most of all that his art always gets in the way of the story for me. 
August 11, 2011 11:45 am Have a look at the preview for Avengers 16. There's more grounding in character, exploration of who Cap is and examination of the repercussions of Bucky's death in those four pages than in the entirety of Fear Itself.