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Last month, our own Jamie Coville broke the news about
Avengers penciler George Perez leaving the Avengers later this
year. For those of you who may not know, let me tell you that
his replacement has been chosen. After three fill-in issues,
one by John Romita Jr. and the next two by former Avengers
penciler Steve Epting, a name well known to old time X-Fans
is taking over, Alan Davis himself.
For those of you who may have no clue who he is (shame on
all of you who don't!), Alan Davis is probably best known right
now for his recent stint on X-Men, during the Shattering and
Twelve storylines. He also has done such varied projects as JLA:
The Nail for DC Comics, created Excalibur, along with Chris
Claremont, and an upcoming Killraven miniseries.
Why is this such good news? Well, his art may not be as
detailed as Perez's but then not many artists are, nor can be,
and keep a steady monthly schedule. Alan's art is very clear,
and clean, and also very proportional, something that is not
seen in comics that much these days. His women are beautiful,
and his men are solid and strong-looking, while also looking
like you could actually see them walking down the street.
"Wait," you may be asking. "How does this become your
usual X-Rant, Jason?" Have no fear, faithful readers, we're
getting there.
I personally hold Alan Davis responsible for sucking me
into collecting X-Men. His stunning art and storytelling (He
began writing Excalibur as well as drawing it in the early
forties of that series, when I started collecting it) sucked
me into this intricate subdivision of the Marvel Universe,
digging for whatever info I could on that lovely redhead,
Rachel Summers. Yes, he can be blamed for that too. I can't
wait to see his renditions of the Wasp and Scarlet Witch...
Yes, that's right. blame Alan Davis for all this! The
redhead obsession, the rampant x-books collecting (And the fact
he did the covers for Legion of Super Heroes for a good long
while probably helped get me into that book, too), and all of
you listening to me whine and moan each month about how crappy
the x-books are every single month!
Back onto the topic, Alan is probably the best choice, in
my opinion, that Marvel could have gotten to replace Perez.
His art and storytelling are equal to, and different enough
that he makes an adequate replacement, but doesn't seem like
he is copying Perez, or that Marvel is trying to make it seem
like they want the change to go unnoticed with some Perez clone.
I'm actually rather frightened. Marvel has been making better
and better choices regarding creators for awhile now. Well ok,
they did hire Liefeld back, again, but no one is perfect. Although
I can't deny that he increases sales, even if it is for all the
wrong reasons.
Looks like I'm all ranted out for this month folks, I urge
you all to try Avengers in January, and... No, I urge you to buy
Avengers now, it's consistently one of Marvel's best books, month
after month, with or without Alan Davis.
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