While not all his fault, Liefeld took full advantage of an industry that had been overwhelmed by horny, blood-thirsty teenage boys. I know, I was one of them. If there were pretty pictures (or in Liefeld's case, ultra-exadurated) filled with action and half-naked women, it was usually selling lots and lots of copies, during Rob's heyday of the 90's.
Remember: This was an era of comic books where low-rent Indy books like "Lady Death" could pay for their creator's new house ONLY because her boobies were everywhere and there was guaranteed lots of killing. It was a shallow, hollow time-period.
That being said, I don't feel sorry at all for how he's being clowned these days, because that's KARMA, baby! Liefeld made rockstar money, he was on a damn-fool Levis Jeans commercial, he got to do whatever the hell he wanted to with Marvel's hottest property at the time, "X-Force", and then lived the creator's dream by being able to become flat-out RICH with his OWN CREATIONS, therefore totally self-sufficient and answering to nobody. But then he got out of control, got on everybody's nerves, and was thus kicked-out of his own Clubhouse for being a brat. When Todd F'N McFarlane and Erik Larsen think you're too pretentious and your ego is a bit much, you have a PROBLEM; Rob Liefeld clearly thought more of himself than anyone else did. Proof? Well, now Robbie was all on his own 100%, and he gave us:
"Awesome Comics".
Honestly, at this time it seemed as if he WANTED us to laugh at him; "Extreme Studios" is horrible looking back, but at the time it made sense - everything was friggin' extreme back then. But "Awesome"? Was he trying to lure the Ninja Turtle audience? Anyway, he rubbed shoulders with Hollywood types, partnering with who-would-become the "Rob Liefeld Of Writing", Jeph Loeb. They proceeded to bring us things like "Supreme", because obviously DC's Superman wasn't Awesome enough, and try to convince the world that their "Fighting American" maybe/possibly pre-dated Captain America, and so was by default way-cooler and of course, more Awesome. They lasted three years with this nonsense, when even Alan "Cthulu Save The Queen" Moore himself couldn't make anyone care.
Liefeld rode the wave, and wasn't able to adapt when said-wave crashed down around him. At the end, he tried being more of a Capitalist Businessman than a comic book pro, like McFarlane became, but obviously didn't have the right tools, and didn't hold-on to his audience the same way his Image peers did. So where did he end-up? Back to Marvel, making laughing-stocks of The Avengers, Captain America in particular; by the time he had returned, the fans now reading comics was largely different, largely older. We'd had enough of his crap, his disproportioned-muscles, his tiny feet. And that basically sums-up where Robbie's at these days, with Marvel tossing him the occasional Variant Cover that I'm certain many fans will be trading to their friends for the regular version.
Oh, and he's still trying to force a "Youngblood" movie down our throats, because apparently he hates America. That's reason enough to despise him, isn't it?
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