ytrez

I know what you mean. I remember people were complaining about JRJR during his last Spider-Man run. I was okay with that work but his more recent stuff just isn't doing it for me. What's going on with Superman's left leg in that cover?

Maxflier

Romita is trash.

B5Erik

That wasn't true until about 15-18 years ago.

His work on ASM, Iron Man, and X-MEN was really good, especially with Frank Giacoia or Bob Layton inking.

PhantomStranger

Yeah, I never minded Romita's work in the 1990s. Sure, it looked vaguely like his dad's art but it was a distinctive style. I've heard he switched to this style because it's faster.

brayzie

I've been a fan of John Romita Jr's art.
His Daredevil run with Ann Nocenti, his Spider-man run back when Norman Osborn came back from the dead, and the next one when he worked with JMS. Kick-Ass was good too.

Kick-Ass 2 looked really ugly for some reason. Like was in a hurry. His DC stuff looks odd and unappealing to me:


JRJR draws the weirdest Superman.


Frank Miller seems like a parody of himself, at least when he was writing All-Star Batman. Even so, his books are usually very entertaining though and he has some good ideas, like some of the ones we saw in DK2. Even his Bill Watterson-looking art is interesting these days. His crude Superman Year One cover looked better than the JR JR ones. I'm not excited about a collaboration between JR JR and Miller though. Daredevil: The Man Without Fear mini-series in the 90s wasn't very good, especially compared to Miller's original run, Elektra Lives Again, and Elektra: Assassin.

There's too many origin stories now.
Batman Year One was okay because it hadn't been done before, and it was modernizing Batman's origin. But then we got Batman Year 0. Batman Earth One.
For Superman we had Byrne's Man of Steel. Then Superman Secret Origin by Johns. Superman Earth One by JMS. Then Superman's early days in Action Comics by Morrison.
I'm sure there's plenty more.

Josh-da-man

ddrknghtrtns

​​​​​​For some reason, that picture gives off a real creepy vibe.

B5Erik

The proportions are all off. His legs (especially his upper legs/thighs) are too long. His arms are slightly too long. He really looks like a 21 year old kid dressing up as Superman, not the real thing.

And his sleeves are ridiculously long. Is that a new thing? Or just a JR JR thing?

Man, he used to be such a good artist.

On another note, though, I just read a bit of an interview with Ron Frenz, and Frenz did some fill in issues of Amazing Spider-Man and Romita JR was so impressed that he suggested that Frenz stay on indefinitely while JR Jr did X-Men. Frenz really appreciated that since he was a HUGE Spider-Man fan and loved doing the book.

PhantomStranger

I think that Miller mini has been in the works for years - those extra-long sleeves on Superman were briefly a thing several years ago, way back in the New 52 era. It's not even a costume still in continuity.

ddrknghtrtns

​​​​Also, the kid has no teeth or eyeballs. Makes you wonder if he used this lazy (ugly) art for a Batman book, DC would have a) make him redraw it or b)fired him? If Supes costume suddenly donned patches and the cover panel concealed the feet, this could almost be mistaken for Liefeld art.

brayzie

I thought his work in The Dark Knight Returns: The Last Crusade was really good.

Superma's extra long sleeves look ridiculous. Maybe DC at the time saw the fashion when people were wearing extra long sleeves with the thumb hole and thought it would make the character look less old-fashioned? Superman has had the worst costume redesigns.