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

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Batman and The Defenders




The Defenders was one of the first titles that I collected a complete run of. I read the entire series through at once in one big chunk, and boy what a wild ride it is! Roster changes, pseudo-mysticism and homicidal elves made for a series where you never knew what was coming next.

I prefer the original four – Hulk, Sub-Mariner, Silver Surfer and Dr. Strange. It is such a powerhouse line up full of strong personalities, it really set them apart from every other team. I also like the B-Team of Valkyrie, Hellcat and Nighthawk. Those seven are the quintessential Defenders team to me… although I do have a soft spot for The Gargoyle, who came along a little bit later.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Batman and The Cat



I had wanted to do a 100-Page Issue for this project since I started it. I used to love those special issues when I was a kid, there would be a new feature story and then the rest of the comic was jam packed with cool reprints. It was through those reprints that I was introduced to all the great characters and creators of past years, and I truly began to see the full scope of entertainment that comics had to offer.

I like that this cover hints at a long history of adventures with Batman and The Cat – hey, I think it is only natural, she really is his type if past girlfriends are any indication! The Cat was of course Greer Nelson, who later went on to be transformed into an actual she-feline and took on the name Tigra, thus making the leap from D-lister to C-lister. Her costume was later adopted by former model Patsy Walker, who went by the moniker Hellcat.

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Batman and The Black Widow



With her inclusion in Iron Man 2 and soon to be The Avengers. Black Widow is set to have a higher visibility than she has ever had. Scarlett Johansson was fine in the role, although I would have liked to have heard a Russian accent in there somewhere. Yes, I realize that a superspy of her caliber would have mastered many dialects including American, but still...

It is strange to see the character introduced to movie audiences this way. I first became aware of her when she was a regular co-star to Daredevil. I always liked the two together and felt she was more at home in the more street level adventures. I did like her as a member of The Champions though, and those adventures could be pretty far out.

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Batman and The Beast



It is probably just a product of growing up in the right time, but I always preferred the Beast as an Avenger rather than an X-Man. For years he has been the sole property of the X-Universe, but Marvel seems to have finally relented and Beast is now a member of the Secret Avengers. Hopefully too much time hasn't passed, I may have to check this out in TPB if the reviews are positive enough.

The third X-Men film had its share of problems, but one thing that I liked was the casting of Kelsey Grammar as the Beast. I would never have thought of it, but I felt that in the end it worked out well. There aren't a lot of actors who could make the line. "Oh my stars and garters!" work.

Friday, July 30, 2010

Batman and The Avengers



The Avengers have seen a real resurgence in the past few years. While I am happy for the increased exposure, I am still not crazy about the inclusion of characters like Spider-Man and Wolverine on the team. I still prefer the classic line up, and of course chose that era for this cover.

I am very excited for the big screen Avengers adaptation, and the fact that Marvel is combining it with the Iron Man, Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor film franchises is daring and incredibly cool. I've loved Marvel's self produced films so far, and the recently leaked trailer to Thor was great, so I have high hopes that they can pull this off. With the amazing cast they have assembled and comics fan and writer Joss Whedon directing, this has the potential to be something amazing.


Thursday, July 29, 2010

Batman and The All-New X-Men



I remember my older brother having a copy of Giant-Size X-Men #1 back when we were kids. If we had any idea of how important that issue would become, wed would have kept it in much better condition. Instead, I read and reread it to tatters over the years and I am not sure what ever became of it. Oh well, it was made to be enjoyed and not placed under glass so I have no regrets.
I loved team books and this one was filled with cool characters. I remember being bummed that the Beast didn't have a bigger part, but I loved the redesign on Cyclops' visor and the idea of a living island. Great stuff.

It seems that the X-Men are heading back to the movie screen, this time in the form of a prequel. I am withholding judgement until I learn more, but I do wish they had rebooted instead of stayed in the previous films' continuity. That way we could have seen something a little closer to the comics. Still, it will be nice to finally see an X-movie that isn't Wolverine-centric.

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Batman and The All-New Outsiders



This was the 201st B&B cover I made, That's one more issue than the actual series ran, so I wanted to do something special. My first thought was to do a version of one of my all time favorite covers, All-Star Squadron #1. My idea was to have Batman forming a new team. Now, who to populate it with? Well I started two of my favorite characters in their funkiest looks: Iron Man With A Nose, and Silver Age Adult Robin (I love that costume!). For their potential teammates, I just want down my list of charactes that I wanted to get to but hadn't yet. I can't say the will never get their own appearance, but at least I could cameo them here. I think Batman could pick a great team out of these candidates.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Batman and Storm



Storm is one of my favorite Marvel heroines. She is very unique in appearance, powers and history and is thankfully not just a female version of a pre-existing male character. I know she has been a big part of the Black Panther series in the past few years, but I think she is strong enough to hold down he own solo title with the right writer.

I was the perfect age for when she went through her mohawk phase back during the X-men's prime. I couldn't believe she went through such a shocking transformation and had to know more. I missed the beautiful long locks but was intrigued by her new attitude. Marvel was good about keeping the new look for just the right amount of time, too - returning her to her classic look within a few years.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Batman and Stan Lee



I'll never forget the first time I read the paperback Origins of Marvel Comics, where every chapter was headed up by a few pages of text by Stan Lee, explaining the genesis of his ideas. It seemed to cool to me that this master creator was just as interested and enthusiastic about the art form as I was. I then devoured his How To Draw Comics The Marvel Way and made sure to read his Stan's Soapbox columns on Bullpen Bulletins. He was and remains the greatest spokesman the form has ever seen. I love all of his cameos in the movies as well. Stan Lee as Willie Lumpkin was perfect casting!

When I got the request to do a cover with Lee, I knew just what to use. The cover and issue of B&B where Jim Aparo depicted himself as part of the story was always one of my favorites. This cover was probably the easiest one I made.

I recently picked up the hardcover collection of Lee's Spider-Man newspaper strips and enjoyed it immensely. Stan really knew how to write in that format.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Batman and Spider-Woman



Brian Michael Bendis is obviously a fan of Spider-Woman and has given her a major push in the titles that he writes after may years of the character lying dormant. I am glad that Jessica Drew is back on the scene, I always liked her simple yet effective design and her back story lends itself to many different types of adventures.

I recently caught an episode of the Spider-Woman motion comic. The motion comic technology is interesting but not all that different from the limited animation of almost 40 years ago. One thing that did surprise me is that Spider-Woman was given a British accent. Was she ever revealed to be of British descent in the comics, or was this just a producer's whim?

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Batman and Spider-Man (Black Suit)



Almost every major hero has had a major costume makeover, and they almost always snap back to their traditional looks soon enough. A few years pass and the alternate looks appear even more dated and unattractive (Like Electric Superman or Daredevil with armor). We seem to be going through this now with Wonder Woman, I will be surprised if her new costume lasts in its current form for more than 18 months.

Spider-Man's black costume is a notable exception. As crazy as changing such an iconic costume sounded, lost of fans (myself included) had to admit that the now look was pretty cool. Of course the costume, obtained on an alien planet, was revealed to be sentient and eventually begat the villain Venom. Venom is an OK villain but I always liked the black suited look more on Peter Parker, and I am glad that Marvel has decided to bring it back from time to time. I'd never want it to replace his traditional togs, but every once in a while it's cool to change out the costumes.

Monday, July 19, 2010

Batman and Spider-Man



Spider-Man the film franchise is about to be rebooted. The new guy they picked certainly looks the role, hopefully he will have the acting chops. I can understand the desire to cast younger and set the tale back in the high school years, but I hope they don't tread over too much ground that Raimi already covered. Raimi teased us with Doc Connors for three movies, but we never got to see the Lizard, so I hope that character is on the short list of villains to use.

Monday, July 12, 2010

Batman and Sasquatch



Sasquatch is actually the first character I read about from Alpha Flight. He showed up in an issue of Marvel Two-In-One, and I instantly got a kick out of the design and size of the character. The rest of his teammates joined him in the following issue and I was hooked. I eventually read their guest appearances in Uncanny X-Men and eagerly followed them to their solo series. John Byrne was in his artistic prime, and all was good with the world.

Unfortunately, after Byrne left the title. things didn't go so well for Sasquatch. He was sidelined, turned white for some reason, and spent a lot of time mooning over unrequited loves. Sheesh - I just wanted to see him kick the Super Skrull's butt again (as he did in my favorite appearance)! I've been waiting for a writer to do something interesting with him, but aside from some ill-fated Alpha Flight revivals, he has kept a very low profile. Here's hoping that changes soon.

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Batman and ROM



ROM was one comic that I liked more for the villains than the main star. The Dire Wraiths were the main bad guys and one of the most creepily designed alien races ever. They were just so inhuman looking that you knew there was no reasoning with them.

ROM himself was a little harder to get into for a couple of reasons. I liked the concept but the design made it hard for a reader to identify with him. The featureless metal mask made it very difficult to convey emotion - artists couldn't even cheat with it the way the can with Spider-Man or even Iron Man. But the main thing that bothered me about his costume was... he was wearing mittens! Yes they were made of cool alien metal, but they were still mittens! It was very hard to take a mitten-wearing superhero seriously.

Still, ROM has a lot of fans. It's too bad that rights issues prevent Marvel from reprinting his adventures.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Batman and Rick Jones



I remember reading about Rick Jones in Giant-Size Captain Marvel #1, and thinking that he was pretty cool. He got to have adventures with The Hulk, Captain America, The Avengers and now Mar-Vell. It was a good idea for Marvel to have a regular Joe type of character that hob-nobbed with all of their big guns. Unfortunately Snapper Carr never took off the same way for DC!

A lot of credit must go to Peter David, who kept Jones in the spotlight during his runs on Incredible Hulk and Captain Marvel. I haven't been following the Hulk titles too closely, but last time I checked in, Jones had been transformed into an Abomination riff called A-Bomb. Yeesh. Maybe it's time to start hanging out with Captain America again!

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Batman and Quicksilver



I always liked Quicksilver in spite of his often pompous attitude. He couldn't get a break - neither mutants or Inhumans ever really accepted him. Sure he had a short temper, but his father is Magneto, he could be a lot worse. Basically his inclusion in an issue meant there was a level of unpredictability at play, which is always interesting for a reader.

This cover was a pleasant surprise for me. I had wanted to do a lopsided race scene and was amazed when I saw how much the two running poses matched up.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Batman and Quasar



Quasar was a character that was giving me a very hard time, as I just couldn't find an image that would work. finally I came upon a cover of his that was done by the very talented Mike Mignola and my my flashed to a Mignola Batman cover that I thought would do the trick. I had to tweak it a little, extending the cover on the left side and moving a few bats around.

I never followed Quasar's solo series but I did like him as a guest star with Spider-Man, The Avengers or the FF and thought he had an interesting history. I'm not sure but I think I read that he was killed in one of the recent Annihilation series that Marvel has put out, and there is a female version now? I'm sure one of you can let me know if I have that right or not.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Batman and The New Mutants



As promised, here is the continuation of the story that began with yesterday's cover. Looks like things didn't go too well for Batman.

I really liked the New Mutants during the first couple of years of their original series. This was back in a time where being a newly created mutant was actually a fresh concept, of course! Recently Marvel has brought the original team of characters back for a new series. I liked the first few issues, but unfortunately it got too intertwined in crossovers with X-titles I do not follow.

Monday, June 28, 2010

Batman and Professor X



The X-Men movies got as many things wrong as they did right, but one thing that was spot on was the casting of Patrick Stewart as Professor X. It's one of those times that the fan favorite casting choice was actually used and worked perfectly. From Picard to Xavier... that's as cool as being both Magneto and Gandalf! It will be interesting to see whether James McAvoy tries to do a Stewart impression when he portrays the younger Xavier in the upcoming X-Men: First Class.

By the way - this cover is only the first part of the story... what happens next? Well, stay tuned tomorrow for chapter 2!

Saturday, June 26, 2010

Batman and Power Pack



Power Pack is one of those properties that I think could do well in kids animation, it has all the elements. Kids as protagonists, visually interesting super powers, and aliens both scary and cute. Marvel does seem to be pushing them in their all-ages line and teaming them with the more heavy hitters to increase their profile.

I always remember reading the first issue of Power Pack way back in 1984 on a bus ride to Canada, it's weird how I can recall exactly when and where I was when I read certain issues, while most just fade away. The Brave and The Bold #177 with Elongated Man reminds me of my grandparent's house, DC Comics Presents #48 with Aquaman reminds me of waiting on the grass after school play rehearsal to be picked up by my mother, and so on. Some comics I guess just have a sense memory attached to them and seeing their cover is all I need to be taken back to the days of my youth. That's one of the things I love about the hobby... and why it can take me so long to sort my comics, with all the detours down memory lane!

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