Oh, Baby, ‘Ms. Marvel’ No. 7 Pushes One Of My Buttons
Last issue, series launch artist Adrian Alphona was replaced by Jake Wyatt, who did an estimable job on Ms. Marvel #6. This issue he committed what is a cardinal art sin in my mind — resorting to turning a character into a chibi version to express an extreme reaction.
First, let me say I understand this is a personal gripe of mine. That said, I HATE when an artist is too lazy to draw a proper facial expression to denote shock or disgust or even nausea, and resorts to using a chibi-style version of the character — drawn as a child or even infant, with hyper-cartoony eyes and mouths. Wyatt did that repeatedly in the latest Ms. Marvel issue.
It is only this year that I have been able to accept that the use of the chibi version of a character is a cultural norm in Japanese manga and anime. But there are still some animes that I have yet to watch past the first episode because of the pointless use of chibis. However, I want none of that in my American superhero comics. The infantile versions of the Teen Titans currently on television is the worst possible thing that could have happened to them in my mind, and made all the more frustrating when the wonderfully animated Young Justice was cancelled and not brought back.
Please, learn how to draw extreme expressions and body language. Hell, it seems that is the only way the brilliant Neal Adams was ever able to draw a character — in some form of extreme facial rictus or body agony. If I wanted simplistic line drawing cartoons I would be reading the webcomic xkcd, not a superhero comic — and definitely not one that had set such a marvelous (pun intended) artistic balance between cartoon and heroic imagery, as Alphona did.
Thankfully, the story and the writing by G. Willow Wilson is still whip smart and funny. But right now that alone is the reason I would buy the next issue.
