All-Out Avengers: The Redemption of Greg Land

All-Out Avengers is a mini-series that was one of the most surprising things to come out. While the critics were a little less than impressed, the fans ate it up! After reading it I could see why… no events, no drama shoehorning, just your favorite Marvel heroes in action figure bashing set-ups. Sure there’s a plot involving the Beyonder and it got that payoff in a sequel. But… the payoff wasn’t good. As for me, there’s one thing that steals my attention, the artwork by Greg Land!

Who?

In case you’re one of smart people who left Twitter let me introduce the videos that give Mr. Land his reputation.

The act of swiping is a controversial practice to say the least. To put it in Laymen: it’s like AI art done by a person but it takes longer because it tends to look more orderly. Land isn’t a special case, even celebrated artists like the late Keith Giffen and (sigh…) Rob Liefeld get the accusation. As Linkara states, some of Land’s worst pieces come from lazy tracing of images. But backtracking through Land’s bibliography, I found a common pattern. While most of Land’s projects get pretty mediocre reviews, most of the fans actually like Land’s art more than the stories. Why? Because it looks like Land does less tracing today. But it looks like a lot of people didn’t get the memo.

Remember folks, it’s not just race lifting that gets under people’s skin.

All-Out Avengers Tracing

Let’s see how different Greg Land’s art is with some good strawmen:

Now let’s look at more recent Greg Land artwork BEFORE and AFTER we assemble our Avengers:

So yeah, Land has improved his artwork by a wide margin. But as a result it’s hard to tell if he’s using references now or if he’s gotten better at hiding the tracing.

Let me show you what I mean.

Someone can probably argue that the above image of Captain Marvel uses a familiar wavy hairstyle that Land traced. But it’s used to enhance the feeling that Carol has been taken over by an evil force that go along with the spikes coming out of her. Because next issue, Captain Marvel is back to normal with straighter hair and no spikes. Is this still tracing or is it referencing? Referencing a trace? I can’t really tell.

All-Out Avengers Landing Effect

Here’s another reason why people enjoy Greg Land in the Avengers: copies. Whether that’s a Doctor Doom split in two or multiple Red Skulls. It’s just that unlike in the above Ultimate Power with shock-and-awe, it’s used for actual stakes in a story to explore character. Like how Doctor Doom is way more complicated than the generic egomaniac people think he is. Unlike how the Red Skull’s ego gets the better of him. Not to mention all of the heroes reacting to the villains with their history. All of which magic a resource efficient story for casuals or newcomers to the Marvel Universe.

Although it also has the other effect of typecasting Land. You see there’s a Thor story Greg Land gets to be artist for that revolves around Thor and his supporting cast fighting corporate knockoffs. There’s a lot of things going into this, but let’s focus on what it is in relation to Land. Why bother wasting stamina overhyping an original big bad villain with a cookie cutter personality? Especially when you can make What-If doppelgangers to showcase your hero’s character? All the while using some meta-commentary on the side of the writer. As for Land, he gets to save his energy with reference material so that he finishes deadlines on time.

Best Work At Random

Hang on I think I found another thing that Greg Land gets typecast for. All of the stories he illustrates looks like they were made flying by the seat of their pants. Not by Land mind you, these days he makes the haphazards look good. Just look at the fourth issue of All-Out Avengers. Even without a set-up to why everything’s happening, it’s presented in a way that says: STOP LOOKING FOR ANSWERS AND BE IMPRESSED! The transitions are as smooth as the captions that explain why the Avengers are here. The aliens they’re fighting against get the intros as are why the Avengers are fighting them. As for the heroes, they let their actions and dialogue speak for them. They have no reason to be there other than be heroes and enjoy doing it.

But don’t worry, there are times when action needs to take a back seat like last issue of this mini-series. Sometimes the presentation and expressiveness of characters can sell the dialogue. Like when Captain America is trying to connect with Spider-Man while looking big and bold in the panel above him. Meanwhile Spider-Man’s head pushing out of his panel looks like he is trying to assert himself in a serious situation so that Cap doesn’t overpower his presence. He even tries to do a similar thing with Thor, looking bold and taking half the wide panel’s space. Only to end up in an empty space because it looks like he’s losing his ground.

Getting Creative With Limitations

You can’t say that Greg Land isn’t bringing his A-game every time he’s at the pen. His best work is basically bringing out action figures with their character stats before banging them together. And honestly that’s not a bad thing so long as you get the spirit of the characters down. If you need a comparison check out Justice League Action.

Greg Land Is Here To Stay

So yeah, the reason Greg Land is still around despite everything is because after a certain period, he decided to get his act together. Does he still trace artwork? Hard to say, I mean even in All-Out Avengers I notice a couple tidbits like a woman’s mouth looking like an adult entertainer’s for a panel. That is if you can find it or I’m letting Land’s reputation paint what to expect. At the very least, he’s Marvel’s ideal artist: someone who gets his deadlines in, and makes the story look good for the previews. All by using efficient methods that actually have effort put into presenting them.

By all means, everyone’s got a right to be suspicious. You don’t just walk away from your low points and expect everyone to forget about them. But does that mean those lows are everything; that people can’t change for the better? Is taking personal responsibility a bad thing if nobody recognizes it. Because it looks like some people don’t even know about Land’s career post-2018. No Symbiote Spider-Man or All-Out Avengers on Wikipedia anyway. (As of this post.) My underrated comics list comes in real handy here.

So please, like what you like, especially if they can hold themselves accountable. Just don’t let your suspicions spoil the fun.

Thanks for coming to the end and as always remember to look between the panels.