Wait--what's going on here? John Junior has always been a self-proclaimed Marvel loyalist, just like his father before him. He's said in interviews many times he would never work for another company. His loyalty runs so deep that Marvel released a special comic a few years ago celebrating his 30th Anniversary with Marvel. Marvel has never done that for one of their creators--not Jack Kirby, not Steve Ditko, not Chris Claremont--not even Stan Lee himself!

So does anybody know the details of this? Has he left Marvel, or is it more like an open marriage?

How are you just hearing about this? It's been all over the place for months. Anyway, he is done at Marvel, at least for the time being. Here's a pretty good interview and article with the Washington Post.

Frankly, I'm unimpressed with what I've seen so far... (I haven't had a chance to go through my new stuff this week yet) It's OK, but I don't see what the big deal is.
Can I do better? Well, I'm not a professional artist, so NO.
Why is this guy such a big deal? Is it all just a bunch of hype because he's supposed to be a Marvel guy?

^ He used to be much better in his early career.

But I agree, his Superman stuff (like a lot of his stuff in the last decade) just looks sloppy. There's all these excessive lines everywhere that I'm guessing is his way of adding more detail, except it just looks like a mess.

Whole heartedly agree as well. Never saw the big deal about the move. Not a big fan of his art.

Can I +1,000 this? Seeing he was joining this book almost made me drop it. Only that's kept me from doing so was Geoff Johns writing it. We'll see how it goes for a few issues.

Definitely liked the writing better than the art.
However... Johns has a really really bad habit of starting off awesome and then never knowing how to wrap it up, so I expect this story never have a climax and just kind of wander off into meaningless nothing with no resolution or any real impact.

Jr can't hold a candle to Sr.

Thanks for the link. I find it funny how Junior pretty much admits in the article that his art isn't very good, and that he's kind of a hack for being more concerned with deadlines than actually doing a good job.

They still payin' me? Alright... F it!

Agreed!

I am one of the exceptions, apparently, but I have always like JrJr. I find his art unique and dynamic. Fun to look at.
However, Romita the Senior beat the pants of him.

Me too I always like his work his resent work on captain America we pretty good.

I take this comment back. I was just reading Starbrand #1 (New Universe), and J.R. jr. was doing the artwork on it, way back in '87. And it looked sloppy, too. Granted, it wasn't quite as bad and full of excess lines as it is it is today, but there were much better artists then, too.

I still argue that Romita Jr.'s best work was when he was working on Spider-Man. LOVED that run.

What he produces now just seems so "rushed" (glad he actually kind of admits it too), BUT, I still think he's one of the best visual storytellers of our generation. Reading a JRjr. book isn't always pretty, but I always felt it was effortless.

And Daredevil: The Man Without Fear is still one of my favorite works of Romta Jr.

Which Spidey run? The early 80's Amazing run, or his early 2000's Spidey run? I think some of his best work was on his 2000's Spider-Man run (including the WTC issue). But I also think his inker usually has a lot to do with how his art turns out.

I agree that his art is hit and miss. It's pretty ugly to look at when he's just drawing characters standing around, but he's very good at drawing high-energy scenes with a lot of power to them.

Nate mentioned his art sucking going back to '87. I think his earliest work on Iron Man, and his first run on Amazing was pretty good. It's his first run on Uncanny X-Men where you really start to see his current style developing in earnest, and it's pretty full-blown by the time he started his run on Daredevil with issue #250.

Yeah, I was talking about the Volume 2 era of Spider-Man, so early 2000's.

http://www.comiccollectorlive.com/LiveData/Issue_Review.aspx?article=85cb0570-700b-4071-a6a0-721a52550444

I can agree with this. I actually didn't entirely hate his artwork during this period. My problem was the writer during that time (JMS). It actually seemed like J.R. tried harder with Spider-Man.