Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Legion of Super-Heroes and The X-Men



The All-New X-Men and Legion of Super-Heroes had a secret weapon in common:  Dave Cockrum.  Not only was he a dynamic artist that flourished in team environments, giving each character in a large cast their own distinct traits - his amazing knack for costume design  made for some of the best looking teams in comics.  How cool would a crossover between these two groups have been with Cockrum on art, depicting so many of his cool designs at once?

14 comments:

Jon said...

Oh god yes!! And 60 pages is not enough!!

Isaac said...

This team must seem familiar to the X-Men.

Bob Greenwade said...

Nicely done! From an artistic standpoint this is one of your best efforts yet. Banshee looks a little like he was pasted in, but otherwise it looks like the whole thing was drawn as a unit.

I always was fascinated by the pointed shoulder style on Sun Boy's and Nightcrawler's costumes as shown here. About half the superhero costumes I doodled in the '80s had some variation on that. It's nice to know now who was responsible for that idea. Now if only I could figure out how that can be done in real life....

This is also my favorite of Phantom Girl's many costumes. I don't generally go in for cleavage windows; she and Power Girl are the main exceptions. On Power Girl it's simply become an iconic feature, coupled with her large bust, but on Phantom Girl it somehow looks sexy whether she's drawn with large bust or small. And I just loved the bellbottoms as well. Add in the pigtails and it becomes a very iconic look; and that's what great superhero costumes are really all about.

And now that I think on it, those two might make for an interesting team-up in their own right.

Anonymous said...

they have team-up before in the dc/marvel mini-series access unlimited.if who can bring back access.

Doug said...

Excellent choice, Ross!!

Doug

Uncle Twitchy said...

Considering Storm, Nightcrawler and Colossus were all originally designed as potential Legion villains, I've been waiting for the inevitable Cockrum Legion/X-Men cover from you. This did not disappoint -- great job, Ross.

Ross said...

Thanks guys, I'm happy with the way this one came out.

Michael said...

Bob - Sun Boy's pointed shoulders are a Silver Age thing, that's how he looked like from the beginning (see this image for example).

Uncle Twitchy - Nightcrawler was going to be part of a hero team called the Outsiders, which also included a couple of members who inspired Storm. Cockrum's Wolverine was a member of their villainous team counterpart, the Devastators (sometimes called The Strangers). See this page for their history. I'm not familiar with Colossus being created for the Legion though.

Bob Greenwade said...

I just realized a few minutes ago that a team-up between Power Girl and Phantom Girl would be very unlikely here, since they're both DC and you generally only team up characters from different companies. So... oh well.

Michael -- thanks for the note and the link. I think Colossal Boy also sported the same kind of shoulders on his costume for a while too. In any case I do find it an interesting feature.

Michael Bruner - co-owner National Halloween, Horror, Haunted House and Hearse Convention said...

Your best cover that I have seen.

AirDave said...

Awwww, yeah! Very cool!

The best part of the "Access" Amalgamating DC and Marvel was the Days Future Past with the Legion and X-Men!

BigMike20X6 said...

Also, the Shi'ar Imperial Guard were modeled after the Legion (sort of like how Squadron Supereme is the JLA)
Fun times :D

Dougie said...

I understood that Colossus was a Cockrum redesign (or reboot, as we say these days) of Ferro Lad.

GF said...

Dave Cockrum was one of the modern (1970s) masters in comics history. Of important note, he was the artists who was the game-changer who rocketed both the Legion and the X-Men into the Bronze Age with the most significant visual changes of Silver Age characters since the redesign of Green Arrow in the late 60s.

A great, appealing legend.

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