I started really getting into superhero comics around 1998 with the HEROES RETURN issues of IRON MAN, CAPTAIN AMERICA, AVENGERS and FANTASTIC FOUR as well as THUNDERBOLTS. I've been revisiting these issues on the Marvel Unlimited app and I am horrified by the atrocious colouring: a flat, monotone look. Plain yellow and pink for faces and hair with no attempt at lighting the scene for atmosphere, emotionality, contrast or location.

It's particularly painful because IRON MAN and CAPTAIN AMERICA start off with some beautiful colour work, especially with Liquid on IRON MAN showing the hyperreflectivity of the Iron Man armour and Chris Sotomayor on CAPTAIN AMERICA adding beautiful saturation to Cap's colours. But then, Marvel under Bob Harras apparently contracted about three-quarters of all Marvel's colour separations to be done by some fly by night operation called Graphic Color Works.

They took over and instantly, we had crisp lines and sharp definition from Andy Kubert on CAPTAIN AMERICA and Sean Chen on IRON MAN as the high point of late 90s comic book art -- but with flat, lifeless colouring that looked like it was a reprint from the 60s without the colour dots but absolutely no depth. On a printed page, Graphic Color Works' worthless contributions served only to prevent the comics from being black and white but might be viewed as the limits of the low-gloss or unglossed newsprint of Marvel comics at the time. On Marvel Unlimited and on an iPad screen, however, the colouring looks like it's been pre-emptively faded as though it's attempting to parody 60s and 70s colouring limitations for a flashback.

I remember sometimes picking up an issue of IRON MAN and CAPTAIN AMERICA on the stands and then seeing the poor colouring and deciding that this clumsy work did not deserve my money when the technology was capable of better and Marvel was willfully declining to use it.

It is shocking to see late 90s Marvel Comics revert to an out of date colouring style across the line to save a few bucks. Joe Quesada, writing IRON MAN in the 2000s, remarked that colourist Steve Oliff did beautiful work on his issues only for the hacks at Graphic Color Works to "butcher" Steve's efforts.

It is quite a shock to read THUNDERBOLTS #49 and see the dullness, the near unreadability of the pages -- and then get to #50 where the contract with Graphic Color Works has finally expired at which point Moonstone's blonde hair has gradients and lighting instead of being a flat yellow. Citizen V's reflective mask suddenly shows light bouncing off rather than being a lazy white. Colour is suddenly used to light a scene, distinguish background from foreground, highlight key information and set the emotional tone of the pages.