Showing posts with label Marvel Comics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marvel Comics. Show all posts

Friday, April 16, 2010

Batman and Devil Dinosaur



This request had me stumped because I just couldn't fit the Jack Kirby artwork with a Batman cover to my satisfaction. Then I decided to see if I could find a Kirby Batman on the web. This turned out to be a lot harder than I though it would be. Kirby illustrated the two Super Powers minis series for DC in the 80's, but Batman was not featured prominently on the covers and I could not find many scans of the interiors. Finally I found a decent copy of the promotional ad to the series and was able to pull the Batman image off of there.

I never read the short lived Devil Dinosaur series, but from the covers it looks like a fun Kamandi style romp. Regardless of how much sense the stories might make, you gotta love the inventive visuals Kirby gave them.

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Batman and Deathlok



Here's another character that I wish Marvel would do more with. I think my first exposure to Deathlok was in Marvel Two-In-One. I always dug his look and concept. When he was first introduced he was pretty original and since then we have seen many variations on the man/machine hybrid in film and comics. But good ol' Luther Manning was a pioneer and should not be relegated to a 4 issue miniseries once in a blue moon. I think I read that Marvel is ready to give the character another shot, hopefully this time he will find an audience.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Batman and Deadpool



OK, I am not a huge fan of Deadpool. I have read a few funny comics featuring him, but these days Marvel seems determined to oversaturate the market with him for some reason. Anyway, I never thought I would do a team up with him until I stumbled onto a cover with his mask pinned with a knife and I knew it looked very similar to a cover John Byrne for the "Many Deaths of the Batman" storyline several years beck. It's a very simple concept, but I think it worked out quite nicely.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Batman and Daredevil



I thought this would be a simple matter of swapping in Daredevil for Green Lantern, the original co-star in the issue of B&B that I used as a template here. I then realized that because of his DD chest symbol I couldn't flip his image, so I would up flipping the entire B&B issue and adding him in, and then I had to re-flip all of the logos and dialogue. It would up being a lot of work for such a simple looking cover. It's a good thing that Batman has a symmetrical costume or this is a problem I would probably run into a lot more often!

Even though the Ben Affleck Daredevil movie met with only a lukewarm response, I still feel that ths is a character very well suited for live action. I think a TV series would be great, half lawyer dramas and half action show. Daredevil's powers are relatively easy to represent and his rogues gallery are mostly street level characters, so this would be easy to produce. I've heard rumblings of a reboot for the film franchise, so we will see what the future holds.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Batman and Conan



I was never a big sword and sorcery fan as a kid so I did not come to appreciate Conan comics until much later in life. Now I look back on those old issues and can't believe all of the gorgeous artwork by John Buscema and others within. This is a match up that just writes itself, whether Batman was thrust back to Conan's time, or Conan found himself in present day Gotham.

Sometimes I have to add in a caption or word balloon on these covers in order for the scene to make sense, but this was a situation where the guest star fit right in. Batman's actual teammate in this issue was The Spectre and it was a relatively simple matter to swap him out.

I read that Conan is headed back to the big screen. It will be interesting to see a new film interpretation so many years after the Arnold Schwarzenegger versions.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Batman and Cloak and Dagger



This is one of my more recent efforts, I made it just a few days ago. I would have definitely like to see this follow up to the "A Death in the Family" storyline back in the day.

I always thought that Cloak and Dagger were a great addition to Marvel's heroes. ThEY were and still are pretty unique characters and it is too bad they do not get used more often. They traditionally have had a tough time holding their own series, but I still think they can make for some interesting tales in a mini-series or as guest characters with street level heroes like Spider-Man or Daredevil. They have never looked better than when Rick Leonardi drew them back in the 80's.

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Batman and Captain Britain



This is another one of my favorite covers. It took a lot of work to eliminate Spider-Man from the Marvel Team-Up cover that served as the template here and then to rebuild girders and background areas. Also, the in the Batman image I used, a character had his hand wrapped around Batman's wrist, so that had to be removed as well. It was worth the effort though.

I love this original costume Captain Britain used to wear, I always thought the lion looked cool.

Batman and Captain America



So, Chris Evans is playing Captain America. Well, I am pretty happy with this choice. He has acting chops and certainly looks the part, especially in recent pics where it is clear he is bulking up for the role. He's young enough to convincingly play the role for a while to.

The Director, Joe Johnston, made The Rocketeer - one of my favorite superhero movies. I always thought that Captain America would be a hard sell for a movie but with Marvel producing and Johnston behind the lens, I am cautiously optimistic.

I just hope they keep the little wings on his cowl. I know they are goofy, but he looks naked without them!

Batman and Brother Voodoo



This one is one of my favorites. At first, I never thought I would come up with a cover Idea for such an obscure character. Then I saw the image with the snakes I realized I had a B&B cover featuring Batman and The Red Tornado battling robots that I could use with it. With a little tweaking, I was able to transform one of the robotic tentacles on Batman into a snake and he fit right into the jungle scene!

This one was a request. I never read much of Brother Voodoo aside from his guest appearance in Marvel Two-In-One. I know Marvel has given the character a push recently with him taking over for Doctor Strange as the Sorcerer Supreme, But I don't know how long that will last.

Batman and Black Panther



The contrast in brightness between the two images was tough to work with on this one so I have never been 100% pleased with how it came out. Maybe I'll do another Black Panther cover one of these days.

The image here is from T'Challa's first appearance in Fantastic Four. I always liked how Marvel had heroes and villains who commanded entire Nations. Dr. Doom, Namor, Black Bolt and The Black Panther seemed to rise above their peers for that reason. Over at DC I guess Aquaman ruled Atlantis, but I seem to remember him being exiled a lot.

Batman and Ant-Man

OK, since this blog is so new, I have decided to add more than a cover per day at the beginning, just to give folks a little more to look at when they visit...




The figures are blurrier than I would liked on this one but it still works out OK due to the easy swap between Ant-Man and the Atom. Actually I cheated a bit here because I used a Scott Lang Ant-Man picture and not Hank Pym.

Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne have suffered more than the rest of the founding members of the Avengers. Neither really ever rebounded from the ill advised idea to have Hank smack Janet a couple of decades ago. I'd love to see Hank back in the Ant-man or Giant-Man gear and Jan back among the living, working together in new adventures. There was a chance to clean the slate with Secret Invasion, but no such luck. Still, this is comics, so I live in hope.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Batman and Alpha Flight



Here's an issue where I couldn't find an appropriate Aparo Batman for so I opted to use a piece by Shawn McManus from Legends of the Dark Knight.

Alpha Flight is another one of those properties where Marvel just couldn't leave well enough alone. If they revived the series with the original cast from Byrne's run, I bet it would find a following, but every revival seems to have too many radical changes in roster and tone and does not last long. Alpha Flight is like the Doom Patrol of Marvel in that way.

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