D for Defense #23

(by Bac Hylon)

Another week we find ourselves again trying to counter the pernicious baseless attacks, clearly caused by jelousy, of Progressive Boink boys against our unique leader ROB!

This time the objective of their untreated emotional frustration is the cover of X-Force #9, where, oh holy moley!, we can see Cable more angered than usual carrying one of his usual gigantic weapons, normal trademark of this character, and seconded by Shatterstar and Domino. All three ready to fight against an invisible enemy, out of the frame, that in this ocasion is the evil intention of these sad and bored individuals. Which is the problem of this cover for this people? Cable‘s weapon. It’s too big!

Let’s see. It’s a half man, half machine, with mutant powers that include telekinesis, with a special predilection for paramilitary paraphernalia and come from the future. A post-apocaliptic future if you need more details. And their problem is that his weapon is too big? Too much sexual frustration is what I see in their case.

And what a poor view it makes: the critic so blind, so obsesed in finding faults in ROB!‘s work, that he gets lost in the simplest details of a composition that doesn’t leave any doubt about the mastery of the ilustrator.

You don’t need to be a genious to see that the predominance of weapons in this cover (Cable‘s plasma rifle, Shatterstar‘s sword blades and gun) and their situation in this drawing is all but casual, trying to show us a representation of Cable‘s temporal situation. Let us trace a few lines on the image (ROB!, please forgive my tainting of your work) so that the clueless understand better.
 

How blind have we been, the message could be seen on the image from the begining. ROB!, in his infinite grace, shows us Cable‘s terrible interior conflict. As a time traveler in the image he represents the Future, because that’s where he comes from. Shatterstar represents his Present, as a warrior, noble but with a confused mind, who needs of his leadership in the recently formed X-Force. Also Domino, a key character in Cable‘s Past who reappears to join the mutant group in the moment they most need it. In just an image you can clearly see all Past, Present and Future.

Because X-Force is Cable, and by extent, ROB! as Cable is also X-Force. We all know what happened to the group when Cable had to leave it. Time has proven us, true believers, to be right and Cable, thanks to ROB!‘s grace, has returned to the fold to give the group it’s former glory.

So, this story’s moral is clear: Next time you want to criticize any of ROB!‘s drawing don’t be so simple as to remain in the most obvious and superficial, his work has more levels of depth than you can imagine.

(Be here next week for this:…