Captain Carrot & His Amazing Zoo Crew and Sasquatch

 

It's probably be a while before we see Sasquatch on the big screen, but I hope it eventually happens.  A Zoo Crew animated series feels overdue as well!

Captain Marvel and Ghost Rider

 

Now this is truly and odd couple.  A story that would find them having to work together could be very interesting.

The Quarrymen in: "Welcome To The Second Stone Age!"

 It's been a while since I have featured The Quarrymen, one of this blogs first teams.  Who better to usher in a new Stone Age, after all?

Halo and Thor

 

Halo's costume makes her look right at home on the rainbow bridge.  That was enough to suggest a story to me, as I always enjoy using this criminally underrated DC heroine.

Two-Face and She-Hulk

 

Between their duality and legal background, this feels like a natural combination.  I can only imagine what Harvey Dent's plan is with this newfound power. 

Two-Face encountered Jennifer Walters' cousin Bruce Banner in STF #4280...

Thor and Lois Lane

 

I've liked the quick moments that we have seen of Rachel Brosnahan's Lois Lane, and I am looking forward to seeing her performance in full when Superman is released to theaters.  I have to give a tip of the hat to the costume designers as well.  Her outfits seem definitely inspired by those that Lois wore on Superman: The Animated Series.

Darkseid Vs. The Inhumans

 

I was a little surprised that I had not pitted these Kirby creations against each other yet.  Let's remedy that right now - it would make for an epic storyline after all!

Superman and Giant-Man

 

The new Superman "S" shield has been officially revealed, and it is an interesting look.  It  evokes both the Kingdom Come symbol as well as Superman's very earliest symbols.  I think that is fitting as we will be seeing a Superman still early in his career who will be juxtaposing his crimefighting methods with those of a different set of heroes, as he did in KC.  I can't wait to see the full suit.

OMAC and The X-Men in: "Yesterday Begins Tomorrow!"

 

Scott Summers is correct, OMAC is indeed back - he first sought the help of the X-Men back in STF #3089.  It looks like it is time for them to finish the job that they started in that tale. All depicted by Jack "King" Kirby, naturally!

The Creeper and The Inhumans

 

I always gravitated towards the offbeat heroes, so this is an issue I would have grabbed off of the stand without thinking. I can see Jack Ryder launching an investigation into what's happening on the Blue Area of the Moon and then unwittingly getting caught up in an interplanetary incident. 

Justice League of America Vs. The Mandarin

 

Jack Kirby truly revolutionized comic book art. In addition to his amazing creativity in designing characters, monsters and machinery, he added many new visual tricks to the genre.  His use of extreme forced perspective, as shown on this cover, is one that many other artists picked up on and emulated.

The Thing and Power Girl in: "M.O.D.O.K. and Awe!"

 

Of all of the failures of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the depiction of M.O.D.O.K. was the biggest offence for me.  His appearance, his identity, his origin and personality were so far off from the comics character that I wondered why they even bothered to include him.  I refuse to believe that his look was the best that Marvel could have come up with - I understand he has a somewhat goofy look, but there had to be a better way to realize the character on screen.

Ben Grimm and Karen Starr first appeared together back in a MTIO cover from 2011...

Hawkman & The Atom and Jack of Hearts

 

This is another of those covers where the final product looks relatively simple to achieve.  Take a splash page featuring JOH, and then drop in the other two heroes on top of it, right?  This wasn't quite that easy, as I had to do a lot of prep work with the initial image before anything could be added to it.  I thought this would be a good candidate for a little behind the scenes view of a cover in progress.  I hope you enjoy these mid-creation peeks, I'm considering making this a semi regular feature of the blog going forward for whenever there's a cover that has a deceptively tricky element in its creation.

Thor Vs. The Parasite

 

While I am sure that Thor: Love and Thunder will be fun, the trailer does give me some reservations.  It does seem to be leaning a bit to heavily into humor, but that might just be the way the trailer was cut.  What bothers me more is the ongoing trend to keep emasculating Thor.  He's shown needy for attention from the Guardians of the Galaxy, overpowered for control of Mjolnir, remembering to the minute how long since he's seen Jane while she can't even get the years right, and publicly stripped, chained and humiliated while the female heroes have a chuckle about it (imagine the outrage if Marvel ever presented a scene like that with the sexes reversed). I don't need my heroes to be perfect, but I also don't enjoy them being beclowned at every turn either. 

Kamandi and The X-Men

 Presenting Part One of a Two-Part Epic!  Kamandi was a character that I liked every time I saw him in guest appearances, but I only ever read a couple of issues of his own series.  Is it worth seeking out? Make sure you stop by again tomorrow for the thrilling conclusion! 

Legion of Super-Heroes and Jack of Hearts

 

Jack of Hearts has never seemed to find a permanent home in the Marvel Universe, maybe he would have better luck in the future.  With that colorful and detailed costume, Jack looks like a long lost Legionnaire anyway! It might be fun to see him mixing it up with the teens of tomorrow.  

Johnny Thunder and Thor

 

There were definitely some teases for Johnny Thunder's Thunderbolt to make an appearance on the next season of Stargirl.  There's the magic pink pen that was included among the JSA artifacts that Courtney discovered, and younger brother Mike has name dropped his friend Jakeem.  Hopefully we will see him show up, and the TV effects budget will be enough to effectively bring Badhnesia's most famous genie to life.

G.I. Joe and Sgt. Rock

I'm a little surprised that I haven't heard any solid  plans for another G.I. Joe  movie.  There was mention of a G.I. Joe/Transformers crossover flick, which sounds so crazy it just might work, but I don't think that ever got beyond the pitch stage.  They could also go in another direction and present a more grounded reboot.  Whatever is decided, there's still plenty of material to mine in the property.

The Thing and Guy Gardner

Here's another character that would fit right in with The Thing's poker nights. I got a kick out of Guy when he was first brought back and became one of the headliners of the revamped Justice League comic. I loved his personality which set him apart from so many other heroes. For a while though, writers began to focus on his more boorish aspects and he started to become a little too unlikeable. On top of that, his changing status quo (losing the ring, becoming half-alien, wearing garish armor, etc.) made it tough to stay invested in him as a character. Fortunately Geoff Johns and others did a nice job of bringing him back to the Guy we all liked - a brash yet heroic Green Lantern. I think he has one of the best GL costume designs as well.

This cover took a lot of futzing with because there was a lot of clutter on the original MTIO cover that I had to clean up. It's what you don't see in the final product that seems to take the longest with these things! I am happy with the results though, Guy's pose worked out better than I had hoped.

The Thing and Elongated Man

I am a huge Ralph Dibny fan and I really hate that he has gotten the short end of the stick for so long. It all started with Plastic Man getting selected instead of him for Grant Morrison's JLA series due to a perceived higher profile. I never liked that decision, Plastic Man never really fit in there and I always felt that he stole the spot. One of the great things about Ralph was his relationship with his wife, Sue Dibny. When DC unleashed all sorts of terrible things on her and ultimately killed her, it did not sit well with me at all. The Dibny's were supposed to be two of DC's lighter characters and this all just felt so wrong. I thought maybe it would propel Ralph into the spotlight, but his big storyline in 52 was mostly him moping around until he was eventually killed off as well. All would have been forgiven if he and Sue were two of the heroes brought back at the end of the Blackest Night mini series, but they were not included. There is still a White Lantern ring floating around out there, so I really hope they are revived by the time the Brightest Day mini ends.