Outlaw: The Legend of Robin Hood Book

This is a tidily concise version of the varied elements of the Robin Hood legend, incorporating most of the traditional elements (Maid Marian, Much the Miller's son, Little John, the archery contest) and most of the modern revisions as well (Robin was a noble knight who fought in the Crusades, fighting the corruption of Prince John and the blackguard Sir Guy until King Richard could return). Lee even incorporates the "bury me where the arrow lands" legend in a humorously original way. But the artwork is weird. Critics have lambasted Keith Giffen's work on the "Five Years Later" storyline of "The Legion of Super Heroes," largely because his characters' faces were often partially obscured by shadow. It never bothered me there (in fact, that "Legion" storyline is still one of my lifetime favorites), but the same critique could be made - more justifiably in my opinion - with Sam Hart's artwork in "Outlaw." Most characters don't have eyes, but rather deep pools of shadow that connect to networks of criss-crossing lines to imply faces, rather than depict them. It means that the identity of characters has to be largely inferred from dialogue, rather than from being able to recognize them as people with distinct appearances. This wasn't so difficult with Marian and Robin, but characters like the Sheriff and Sir Guy are completely indistinguishable. The Middle Ages here had no torches, braziers or firepits to provide horizontal illumination. The coloring is not quite so one-note as "Solomon's Thieves," but three color schemes isn't much better than two. So: good story, artwork and color leaving a fair amount to be desired.