We talked about this question-with-many-answers a few sessions ago.
Here's one unique answer: From several years ago, a high-visibility title with big-name penciler John Byrne doing so-so work and a mediocre inker named Nelson taking considerable liberties with the inking. In making several sensible changes, Nelson takes the work all the way from "Enh..." to "Meh."
Yes, Byrne drew Supes with legs of two different lengths, his own peculiar and fanciful bullshit leg anatomy.
But despite Nelson's anatomical improvements, and rationalizing of shadows, it still isn't really very good, is it? Maybe only good in the eyes of the editor, who likely urged Nelson to fix things up, and was probably good and tired of Byrne turning in half-baked work.
(Though comics are in some sense done to a higher standard now, remember it's still a job, one that does not demand perfection.)
This non-uplifting, unredemptive little fable reminds of us of that time-honored maxim, "You can't polish a turd." When something is fundamentally off, you can't fix it with little adjustments. You really can't. You can massively redraw... But many inkers are not good enough draughtsmen to pull it off, even if they felt it was the right thing to do, had the OK, and didn't mind putting in extra effort for the same money.
So what could have prevented this admittedly inconsequential flub in the first place?
Thumbnailing a better pose early in the process.
John
