Sort of a light week for DC Comics, and as such some slim pickings, covers-wise...but the ones that got picked are hum-dingers! Don't believe me? Why just take a gander at the five covers I picked that are the definitive best of the week!
Shade the Changing Girl #10 variant
Jill Thompson
This one is really all about the negative space bisected by the billowing, pink smoke trailing from Shade's coat. It is reminiscent of an atomic blast, but not an exact mushroom cloud, which was a good design choice because mushroom cloud basically look like upside-down dorks.
Cyborg #14
Eric Canete with Guy Major
This sort of reminds me of the way Warlock of the New Mutants was drawn in the 1980s. You might think that's a dumb reason to pick a cover as one of your five favorites, but you'd be wrong. It's a pretty crazy image besides, but all I can see is Bill Sienkewicz's awesome Warlock.
Batman #26 variant
Josh Middleton
I liked the regular cover for this issue, too, and how it evoked Dave Gibbons' Joker from A Killing Joke, but this is just a luxurious cover. You want to fall into those mossy branches and hope Poison Ivy doesn't feed you to a giant Venus Flytrap...or do you? This is an incredible image and guess who's to credit? Josh Middleton, the same fella that's been killing the variants on Aquaman for quite a while. Nice to see him stretch his, uh, pencil or whatever.
Green Arrow #26
Otto Schmidt
I got a head's up that this cover was the tits earlier in the week and...well, it's pretty spectacular. Vertically bisecting an image with conversely traveling complimentary colors might seem like an easy thing to say, but it takes a skilled illustrator to make it happen. Great job!
Superman #26 variant
Jorge Jimenez and Alejandro Sanchez
This is, of course, an homage to the cover of Superman #14 (January 1942) by Fred Ray, and it's been redone several times over the years. Considering Superman's newly-redesigned costume, I suppose its due for an update--but I wanted to talk more about this image and what it evokes in Americans. It's a little silly when scrutinized: an American eagle digging its talons into Clark's bicep while he grins in front of a Stars & Stripes shield. But I would bet dollars to donuts that many Americans seeing this image now, or at the comic shop, or whenever...they felt something. And perhaps it's jingoistic indoctrination, maybe a classic patriotic image drawn by two guys that aren't even American is nothing to hang your red, white and blue cap upon--but there's something to the belief that America can be good, and fair, and still work for the little guy. And during this time of terrible political division in our country, it's important to remember that many of us, from different ideologies and locations, believe that an image like this stands for something. Stands for something good. And if we can agree on that, then maybe we have more in common than we've been led to believe.
There's something about the Green Lanterns cover I really love. I like the glass-like ripping apart look of it.
ReplyDeleteI dug that effect too!
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