Comic Book Resources

Hey, that Marvel Adventures: The Avengers cover is an Attack of the 50-Foot Woman homage! Pretty neat.

I do sort of wonder how much of the target audience will actually pick up on that, though.

I love that Jo Chen Runaways cover, particularly because it automatically makes you think of what happens immediately next… mainly, 12-year-old Molly punching the Punisher into the next state.

God, I hope that scene is in the book. Personally, I think “Molly punches the Marvel Universe guest star” should be a recurring motif whenever they bring somebody like that into the book.

Questions:

Is it wrong to find Xavier trying to pose with the rest of the Illuminati hilarious?

France being written on the head of She-Cap in that Iron Man: Hypervelocity cover: Funny or tired?

Bonus question: That same Iron Man cover features all-female, punk versions of the Avengers. How longer until the first erotic fanfic?

I agree with almost all of your choices. Would have ranked the Omega Flight cover higher though.

hi, just a quick correction but I think the marvel zombies army of darkness is a homage not an original cover. It’s an homage to spider-man/superman one of the first ever cross company one-shots.

So, the new Blue Beetle… how do you feel about the redesign?

Thanks for the cover reviews! Good stuff!

Tope Reviews!

But,

Re: Runaways 26, and as per my nephew…

What’s the Punisher doing with his left hand?

The hypervelocity cover is strangely arousing.

And I agree with bbsr,I thought it was a riff on Spider-Man/Superman too.

I’m “thirding” this…
It is a riff/homage to the Spider-Man Vs. Superman Treasury book.
Perhaps what is not widely known anymore is that there is even more of a connection with this cover than is first realized.
When recasting for Superman began WAAAAAY back (before the Burton/Cage horror), Bruce Campbell was one of the frontrunners to wear the “S” shield.
So, I think it’s pretty neat of Sudyam to include this classic in his now-classic Marvel Zombies cover series.

oh geez…
This is what I get for typing at 5:40 in the morning…

My most humblest of apologies to Arthur Suydam for misspelling his name.

Is that a yam or a whale fetus on Frank’s right elbow joint on the cover of PWJ 7?
Ariel…Ariel…Ariel…
What happened to you?

Isn’t that Gary Frank and not Dale Keown on that Hulk cover?

It’s hilarious how the Mighty Avengers #3 cover makes it abundantly clear that Frank Cho has absolutely no interest in putting effort into drawing men whatsoever. I wonder if Bendis told him to put the Sentry front and center and he deliberately drew it terribly hoping that he’d be asked to replace it with a close-up of Ms. Marvel’s tits or something.

There’s a clock motif in the current MOON KNIGHT storyline, which is why the last few months have all had clocks on the cover.

The Black Panther cover is a little under-conceptualized but nice to look at. Are they fighting somebody? If the “camera” was a little closer in, they could be threatening the reader, which would be a fun twist. As it is, the Thing is about to clobber…Black Panther? Or does he just run with his fist out like that? Why would he need to run at all if he is keeping pace with that little that’s left of Black Panther?

Ghost Rider #11. Perspective is great, colors, action. But what’s going on? Are they jumping off a flying manhole cover? Is that a huge tire off of Ghost Rider’s destoryed bike?

The Ghost Rider Trail of Tears cover also could be good if it was a little clearer as to what’s going on. A guy and some fire?

The Iron Fist cover is very well done, but too similar to other covers in the series and we’re only up to #5!

The Legion of Monsters cover has some nice backgrounds, but of course, the characters look like they were pasted in from a different pieces of “art.” Where are Morbius’ arms if he’s carrying her? Also, why couldn’t he have been *carrying her across the threshold* into his creepy castle? Why is he just standing there with his mouth open?

I am not digging the Ms. Marvel cover at all. And Horn wrote his name in the absolutely most conspicuous place to look?!? When the artist’s name is the first thing you see, something is wrong.

The Zombies/Army of Darkness cover is again nice to look at but where the hell are they? The titanic? A tower? Under a bridge? Under a train? On a rocket launch pad? Is Ash standing perpendicular to the Earth? Am I a moron for not being able to
figure these out?

Illuminati: This is OK for a team combat pose, but is that what the Illuminati are all about: “We’re gonna beat your a**”? Does the Prof have a really bad headache? Is Namor constipated? I thought we were going to get the real behind-the-scenes of the Marvel Universive? Inquiring minds want to know!

The Nova cover is cracking me up. It looks like an outbreak of “eskimo kissing” is brewing.

Spider Man Fairy Tales: Huh? OK cover but who is this for? Is this supposed to appeal to Lenore readers?

SMLMJ is pretty good, but shouldn’t Peter be looking a little more into the glass for his reflection to be looking almost straight out? Minor point, I guess.

Nice cover for Blade with bonus snarky quote! Will it look too busy when they put “BLADE” across the cover.

X-Men First Class has a pretty good layout, but it is scary how skinny Jean is!

Heroes for Hire: The fact that the dinos and the heroes are on totally different planes of existence really deflates the excitement that this cover should have.

Runaways is the best of the month, really the only outstanding cover this month in my opinion. No further comment.

– Frenz could’ve saved that Spider-Girl cover by tilting the vertical axis of the figures about 5 degrees, then redrawing the characters’ legs and MJ’s coat to fit the sense of motion thus generated.

— That Sandman: Year One cover explains his origin: he hates Spider-Man because Spidey traveled back in time just to ruin the sandcastle he built when he was eight.

— The Arthur Suydam cover for Ghost Rider is how you do an homage properly — it’s clearly riffing on the legendary Amazing Spider-Man v.1 #39 cover, but by chaging the layout Sydam makes the image his own, just as a good band makes a cover song their own by playing with it a little.

— Parel’s work on that Iron Man cover is beautiful; he even made the Mandarin’s rings seem cool all over again!

— I actually like that Morbius cover by Land…gets across the atmosphere of the Hammer films that inspired the character pretty nicely.

— In fairness to Djurdjevic, the “standing in a group” thing is basically how the Handbook covers work.

— Is Tigra taking a dump on that Mighty Avengers cover, or is she just in heat?

— It was Keith Pollard, not Ron Frenz, who took over the Deluxe Marvel Handbook covers when Byrne stopped doing them.

— Xavier may look silly on that Illuminati cover, but Namor really seems to have gotten short shrift. He looks like Teen Sub-Mariner or something.

— Is that supposed to be Ultimate Power or Ultimate Greg Land’s Subscription to Maxim?

— Why do I think that two seconds after that Wolverine: Origins cover, Logan and his son-thing are going to be mortified that they inadvertantly kissed in
the heat of battle? Seriously, their mouths are about two inches apart and they’re about to collide based on those poses.

— Did someone tell SImone Bianchi that Marvel added a hint of color to one of his covers? He’s gonna be soooo ticked off….

— All strong Top Five picks, though I might have switched the positions of the Runaways cover and the Spider-Man/FF 2 cover. The latter is strong, but it lacks the personality and clever tone of Jo Chen’s work.

I actually like that Spider-Girl cover, though it looks like it needs an old-fashioned word balloon of MJ saying “STOP! Do not open this comic book, or Spider-Girl may DIE!” And Spider-Girl’s standing behind her with that “Don’t ask me!” look.

Ms. Marvel: I think this is proof, if such was ever needed, that MODOK and “photo-realism” are two things not meant to go together.

World War Hulk Prologue: Cool cover, and I like how the details of the “pile o’ enemies” show the Hulk means business. It’s like, “He beat down Ben Grimm *and* Black Bolt? Whoa….”

What’s the deal with the Iron Man: Hypervelocity thing? If it’s not closely tied to the Civil War mess, I may have to check that title out now….

Wait wait… “I think the Gladiator comes off looking a bit cheesy”?

It’s, well… Gladiator. Is there a way for him not to come off cheesy?

I would’ve put Blade at #1 and Runaways at #2.

Not digging the X-Men cover. Rogue’s got an outbreak of Zombie Crotch.

Hey, lay off the Blue Beetle costume! I like it anyway…

My favorite cover is probably the Runaways cover, for the same reason that somebody mentioned above. I sooooo want to see Molly just throw him straight over Jersey…

The Illuminati cover: Why is Black Bolt’s mouth open? I know it’s standard for that type of action pose, but it makes him look like he’s yelling, which wouldn’t bode well for the other Illuminati members…

X-Men: First Class Special- I loves me some Kevin Nowlan art, but doesn’t everybody in that picture but Beast look awfully anorexic? Look at Jean Grey’s string–bean waist. Or the fact that you can see Iceman’s ice ribs…

X-23- Not a huge fan of either Wolvie or X-23, but I really like that cover for some reason. It’s violent without being graphic, colorful without being loud, and the details in the artwork are nice, especially in X-23’s boots. Very striking.

MA Fantastic Four- The Atlanteans are wearing fishbowls on their heads, but not any kind of wetsuit? What…does just their head dry out when they’re out of water…?

Ms. Marvel- “I wonder how Horn was able to deal with drawing an ugly person…”

LOL, funniest line I’ve read all day. But seriously, lay off the Blue Beetle costume…

There’s a clock motif in the current MOON KNIGHT storyline, which is why the last few months have all had clocks on the cover.

Right, but I mean it is interesting to see them continue the cover motif with a new artist. You don’t see that that often.

hi, just a quick correction but I think the marvel zombies army of darkness is a homage not an original cover. It’s an homage to spider-man/superman one of the first ever cross company one-shots.

Good call!

Thanks!

Isn’t that Gary Frank and not Dale Keown on that Hulk cover?

Oops! Thanks!

Heroes for Hire: The fact that the dinos and the heroes are on totally different planes of existence really deflates the excitement that this cover should have.

That WAS a bit annoying.

In fairness to Djurdjevic, the “standing in a group” thing is basically how the Handbook covers work.

Oh yeah, totally. I am not knocking Djurdjevic, he’s just following the standard cover set-up.

I’m knocking Marvel for wasting him on such a cover.

— Is Tigra taking a dump on that Mighty Avengers cover, or is she just in heat?

Whatever the reason is, she does look awfully weird on that cover - but weird in a way that it looks like Cho actually spent a lot of time trying to get her to get that exact pose.

It was Keith Pollard, not Ron Frenz, who took over the Deluxe Marvel Handbook covers when Byrne stopped doing them.

Pollard took over after Frenz did an issue (presumably because it was the Spider-Man issue and Frenz was currently the artist on Amazing Spider-Man).

Why do I think that two seconds after that Wolverine: Origins cover, Logan and his son-thing are going to be mortified that they inadvertantly kissed in the heat of battle? Seriously, their mouths are about two inches apart and they’re about to collide based on those poses.

I was going to mention that as well, but really, it has gotten to the point that practically ALL of these “people jump at each other” covers look like the people are going to kiss!!

It’s really weird.

All strong Top Five picks, though I might have switched the positions of the Runaways cover and the Spider-Man/FF 2 cover. The latter is strong, but it lacks the personality and clever tone of Jo Chen’s work.

Yeah, folks seem to really be fans of the Runaways cover.

I, too, liked it a bunch, but I think I’ve just seen the “other person in the background” cover motif a bit too many times to have it ranked higher, although Chen did a great job with the motif, basically by stressing the personality of Molly.

Okay, Blue Beetle, Goatee on the Spectre, and Wolverine’s son: All lame. Got it. We need a master list that you can just put up at the beginning of the column so you can save yourself time.

Totally disagree with the assesment of the X-men: First Class cover. One poster said the characters look anorexic and I agree. More so, they look out of proportion. Cyclops’ legs look odd and the pose he is doing with Marvel Girl makes no sense.

Also, I like how the Blade on the cover looks totally different from the character that appears in the book.

Lastly, I think the Spider-man/FF cover from last month was stronger than the one for this month. The Four does not synch up with Spider-man’s outfit, I don’t think it really works.

But seriously, lay off the Blue Beetle costume…

Just giving blog pal T a hard time, Andrew.

Re. Suydam and the Spider-Man vs. Superman Treasury:

The thing that I don’t get is why he picked the middle of a mini-series to change his tack. Without exception, every previous MZ-related cover, including MZvsAOD #1 and #2, has been an exact homage/update. So why change the perspective now of all times? I would strongly prefer thematic unity for the entire mini-series. Plus, it’s not as if an exact homage/update of the source material wouldn’t have worked quite well here.

The Avengers: Illuminati cover is an homage to Secret Wars#1 by Mike Zeck.
I’m not giving Cho much credit for his New Avengers cover design. It’s a bit too similar to Agents of Atlas#1 IMO.

“Is Tigra taking a dump on that Mighty Avengers cover, or is she just in heat?”

Tigra is ALWAYS in heat.

Gladiator could be doofier. Could have a mohawk.

I’m not quite sure how the Exiles logo got broken. Maybe it got broked, like, a couple days ago during another fight. Neither of those guys look like they’re even strong enough to break a logo. (You need 50 ton strength.)

Dark Tower is really bland for such a high profile book.

Ferris what, now?

“I don’t believe I’ve ever made a fart joke on these things.

And I won’t be starting now.”

Dissapointing. We want fart jokes!

*Sigh* Yeah, everybody’s fighting dumb ‘ol Iron Man now a days. I miss the good old days when everybody fought the Hulk.

REALLY like the Spider-man Fairy Tales cover. Easy top five for me. It would’ve been better if the two figures in the background were removed, just leaving Mary Jane and the wolf.

I like JRjr. and all but that Hulk cover looks sorta… Liefeldian. Especially the Thing.

And EVERY cover with Molly on it should be an automatic top five. That’s just logic.

Re. Suydam and the Spider-Man vs. Superman Treasury:

Just a shot in the dark here, but:

I vaguely seem to remember that the Treasury’s cover itself went through several iterations and versions before the final cover was chosen (and that this was a feature somewhere? Maybe the first “Crossover Classics” TPB?) Anyhoo, perhaps Suydam is using the perspective of one of the earlier versions?

Iron Man vs. Nova: Battle of the Shellheads!

Michael Turner is terrible at anatomy (yeah, news flash, am I right?). Look at that FF cover; Silver Surfer’s shoulder is bigger than his head. Ugly.

Oh, and here’s the Superman/Spider-man cover, I think. It’s a weird homage, with the perspective changed, the characters in different places, and different poses. Maybe Suydam was drawing from memory.

And I’m not too impressed with the Spidey/FF cover. It’s just a picture of Spider-Man wearing a Fantastic Four logo. So I guess he joins the team. I think Wieringo could have come up with a much more interesting way of portraying that.

Is it just me, or is Cho’s positioning on Tigra’s tail majorly screwed up? It looks like she’s pooping it out!

Answering my own question from #31 - there is a “How this famous cover was born” feature in Crossover Classics (which, itself, looks like it was reprinted from some other source, incidentally.)

It does show several rough preliminary sketches of cover ideas… and none look especially like the Suydam one above.

“Dark Tower is really bland for such a high profile book.”

Seems to me bland covers are almost a *requirement* for high profile licensed books. When the licensee is heavily involved in the project, it seems like bland covers are the norm.

And this on the heels of Vulture’s hilariously lame origin, too!

Okay, this is kind of off-topic for this post, but…what is the Vulture’s recently-established origin? I haven’t followed the Spider-Man comics, so I’m not familiar with it. I keep seeing references to it, and how lame it is, but I can’t find any details, and I’m dying of curiosity here. Anyone willing to summarize, or at least to point me to a page that does?

“Okay, this is kind of off-topic for this post, but…what is the Vulture’s recently-established origin? I haven’t followed the Spider-Man comics, so I’m not familiar with it. I keep seeing references to it, and how lame it is, but I can’t find any details, and I’m dying of curiosity here. Anyone willing to summarize, or at least to point me to a page that does?”

It’s not so much an origin, as revealing that the reason Vulture is such an ornery, mean bastard is because his parapalegic elder brother made him help him commit suicide.

Is the Black Panther zombie cover an homage too?

I’m also wondering why T’Challa has a hole in the midsection. Isn’t the Black Panther of zombie-earth NOT a zombie? In which case, wouldn’t such a hole kill him?

They’re showing OUR FF as zombies, not the actual zombie versions. It’s a symbolic cover, like Deadly Genesis #1, where the X-Men are all shown as skeletons.

OK then. I figured this was the zombie-earth T’Challa since he’s missing his right leg and on a crutch, just like that character. I haven’t seen a lot of zombies on crutches.

I forgot that that T’Challa *also* lost his right arm, though.

Man, Wolverine needs to stop having illegitimate kids (or clones, as the case may be). They keep trying to kill the poor bastard.

And, that Blade cover is, by far, my favorite, mainly for the self-deprecating quote.

“Is the Black Panther zombie cover an homage too?” Yes, I think so — Fantastic Four #116 http://www.comics.org/coverview.lasso?id=24637&zoom=4

The Spider-Girl cover: The shot is straight on, and also I think the space in which everything is happening is too compact. The white BG isn’t helping either

>>You know what would save it? If that head guy was Dark Doug Ramsey.

>>I’ve always wanted to read a comic where Dark Doug Ramsey led the Dark X-Men against a hodgepodge group of mutants living in England.

>>Always.

Yeah, just like I’ve always wanted to read a book about Batman sitting in his car intercut with Vicki Vale parading around like a Maxim girl.

Or one where a team of second stringers fight multiple burger-shooting, Elvis-themed MODOKs, for that matter.

Obviously “New Excalibur” has fans. More fans, it would seem, than “Nextwave.” Oooops.

That is a bizarrely poor argument.

You can’t bring up All Star Batman and Robin and THEN go to a “higher sales equals better” argument (which is a stupid argument in and of itself, but whatever, it’s at least a consistent position).

ASSBAR sells, what, a gazillion more copies than New Excalibur?

*shrugs*

My point about “ASBAR” is that taking a book out of context makes it difficult to judge. Saying “a hodgepodge group of mutants living in England” holds little value to actual fans of the old “Excalibur” and of Chris Claremont, whom the book is aimed at. “Excalibur” has always been a “hodgepodge,” which was part of the book’s considerable charm. “New Excalibur” captures some of that charm, though it has been admittedly inconsistant what with Claremont’s health.

Calling “ASBAR” a book about Batman sitting in his car is similarly of little value. It has no context and is merely dismissive. Oddly, I find the books similar in approach; one is aimed at Claremont fans and one at Miller fans.

The point about “Nextwave” was me being snarky. I actually hold no real opinion on “Nextwave,” as I never really got into it. It’s just a bit odd to me that a book which all the Internets seem to despise (”New Excal”) evidently had more legs than the one dubbed the greatest thing ever. Also, I never said it was better. I said it had more fans as evidenced by number of copies sold, which is a valid argument.

And, reading over my comments, I think I was a little mean spirited and for that I am sorry. I just get a little defensive about “New Excal,” much as I used to get defensive about the old “Excal” back when the X-books ruled the world and it was the black sheep.

I don’t really read or follow Batman other than the occasional issue here and there, so “ASBAR” is not really my cup of tea. But it sells a hell of a lot of comics so obviously it is a very popular and seemingly successful series. “Nextwave” may have been a little too obscure or over the top for some readers but it has a hugely devoted fanbase and there has to be quality there to inspire that devotion.

“New Excalibur” has a pretty good share of fans too, even if those who don’t follow it find the premise a bit shaky. Trying to explain the appeal of the Excalibur team to a non-reader is always a daunting task. Much, I suppose, like trying to explain the appeal of “Nextwave” to a non-reader. In the end it all comes down to what you like and what you don’t like, which is what this hobby should be all about, I think.

Again, sorry for losing my cool. I really like the “Judging Books By Their Covers” articles — they’re my favorite part of this site — and always look forward to them. I like this “New Excal” cover, but unless you read the series it won’t do much for you, I don’t think.

i own the thunderbolts piece and i love it. its so freaking awsome i own a few comic art pieces but i love that oh so much not saying its my fav of the bunch i own but i do love it an awful lot.

Honourable mentions:

Blade 9 - pretty cool and funny
Wolverine: Origins 14 - the characters look satisfyingly menacing
Spiderman Loves Mary Jane 18 - great idea, good contrast of mundane and extraordinary
Ultimate Power 6 - okay, it’s cheesy, but nice

Top Five

5

Oops

Top Five

5 Legion of Monsters: Morbius - always loved Morbius and I like how Land has captured him here

4 Runaways 26 - nice contrast between Molly and Frank. And I do love Jo Chen.

3 Omega Flight 2 - feels original and well captured.

2 She Hulk 19 - made me laugh, what can I say?

1 New Avengers 30 - fantastic work by Yu, don’t you feel Dr Strange’s pain? Brilliant stuff.