Showing posts with label Super-Team Family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Super-Team Family. Show all posts
Friday, February 10, 2012
The All-Star Squadron and Spider-Man
I was glad to see a cover image for James Robinson's Earth Two series posted today on http://dcu.blog.dccomics.com/ but have to admit I am surprised to see it featuring Earth Two versions of the big three - Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. I figured that they would concentrate more on the trio of Alan Scott, Jay Garrick and Ted Grant. It will be interesting to see if the big three will be a regular part of the series or perhaps killed off early on to serve as a motivation for the rest of Earth Two's heroes and a divergence point from the mainstream DCU. I am very glad to see Jerry Ordway getting regular work in the DC reboot, but I kind of wish he was on this Earth Two title... he is my favorite JSA artist, hands down.
This cover was tougher to do than I thought it would be. I figured it would be a simple matter of swapping out The Tarantula for Spider-Man, but repairing and replacing parts of the background spider web was a pain!
Thursday, February 9, 2012
KISS and The X-Men
There have been a handful of attempts to combine musical acts with comics - Alice Cooper, The Beatles and Night Cat come to mind... but none of them were really ever anything more than an isolated oddity. I think the reason that KISS had a little more success with the transition is that they already seemed like comic book characters to begin with. Their elaborate costumes and personas made for a good fit and suggested story ideas right off the bat. They were able to tap into their existing fan base by utilizing the themes they had all along.
Labels:
Beast,
cyclops,
DC Comics,
Iceman,
Kiss,
Marvel Comics,
Marvel Girl,
Super-Team Family,
Team Up,
X-Men
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Green Lantern and Iron Man
I think these two characters go well together, and the pairing became even more appealing to me when I realized I could use Gil Kane images for both of them. I was also glad to fit in cameos by Mogo and Ego... sentient planets are just too cool, and I've always enjoyed stories featuring either of them. If the Green Lantern movie actually gets a sequel (c'mon, Clash of the Titans got one!), I'd love to see Mogo get an onscreen appearance. I definitely got a kick out of the animated Mogo Doesn't Socialize segment from the recent Green Lantern: Emerald Knights DVD.
Labels:
DC Comics,
Ego,
Gil Kane,
Green Lantern,
Iron Man,
Kevin Nowlan,
Marvel Comics,
Mogo,
Super-Team Family,
Team Up
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Firestorm and Spider-Man
I always saw Firestorm as DC's first real attempt to create a Peter Parker-type character. He was an adolescent superhero who was not a sidekick or spin-off of any existing character, and had lots of outside trials and tribulations that complicated his crime fighting efforts. Heck, One of my first letters ever published was a missive that I sent off to the editors of Fury of Firestorm in their first year comparing Ronnie Raymond with Peter Parker. At 13 years old, I got a real kick out of seeing my name in print... in the pre-internet era, that was about the only way to express your views to fellow comic fans!
Monday, February 6, 2012
Superman and Thor (Versus Mongul)
I already made a Silver Age version of this pairing, but I wanted to do a Bronze Age version as well, so here it is. This is an example of artwork that has provided inspiration for more than one cover for me. I loved the issue of DC Comics Presents that this came from, as it introduced me to the Prince Gavyn Starman. I used the Starman image from that cover for my Batman/Starman B&B Lost Issue cover. Now, for this team-up, I put Thor in Starman's place. I did a lot of tweaking with the orange Kirby Dots as well, to make the cover work as a whole.
Labels:
DC Comics,
Jim Starlin,
Marvel Comics,
Mongul,
Ron Frenz,
Super-Team Family,
Superman,
Team Up,
Thor
Friday, February 3, 2012
Doctor Fate and Doctor Strange
I wonder who the first comic character to go by the title "Doctor" was? It may be Doctor Fate, but perhaps there's a character that predates him. I know there were some villainous doctor types... Doctor Death comes to mind. And of course he didn't use the full term but there's Doc Savage, who came before he wave of superhero fiction. He did serve as an inspiration for a lot of characters so maybe that's where the Doctor as superhero name trend came from.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
The Atom and Yellowjacket
Hank Pym has had a lot of identities (Yellowjacket, Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Goliath, The Wasp) and just as many costumes. I have to say my favorite look of his is the Yellowjacket costume. It looked cool and sleek and I loved the big vibrating shoulder wings. Unfortunately, this is the outfit he was wearing when the ill-advised the decision to have him have a breakdown and smack his wife, so it has been since associated with the abusive, unhinged Pym.
I have always liked Gil Kane's design for The Atom's costume, but I do admit it looks a bit dated. I thought that the Justice League Unlimited cartoon had a great take on it - they kept the overall design but had the costume made from a shiny material and gave him Batman-like whited out eyes. It stayed true to the classic look but gave it a nice modern feel.
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
The New Teen Titans Vs. The New Warriors
Here are two great teams that I wish could recapture some of the magic they had in their prime. The Teen Titans never quite recovered from the loss of Perez and Wolfman for me, despite some very nice work from creators like Tom Grummett, Geoff Johns and Dan Jurgens. I really like the new Young Justice cartoon, and was hoping the New DCU Teen Titans series would take its cues from that, but they went in another direction that bears very little resemblance to the team of my youth. The New Warriors have never quite bounced back since the events of Civil War. At least Speedball is out of his Penance phase. These two teams are among the most revamped and relaunched properties in comics, so maybe I just have to wait for the next inevitable incarnations and see if those strike more of a chord with me.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Swamp Thing Vs. The Phoenix
I love the Alan Moor run on Swamp Thing, especially the large scale adventures with Swamp Thing teaming with DC's occult characters against impossible odds in Hell. Moore later took the character into a sprawling space epic and made that work, too. I think Swamp Thing is just as effective when interacting with other characters and genres as he is in his own solo stories, so I am glad that he has at long last broken free of the "Vertigo Only" rule. I'd love to see this match up, you just know there would be some great visuals. The best thing is we wouldn't have to worry about who ultimately loses - Both Swamp Thing and Jean Grey have plenty of history with death and rebirth.
Labels:
DC Comics,
Marvel Comics,
Phoenix,
Super-Team Family,
Swamp Thing,
Team Up
Monday, January 30, 2012
The Metal Men and Magnus, Robot Fighter
I definitely wanted to do a team-up featuring my favorite band of robots and was looking around for a suitable costar... and then it hit me! I can't believe I never made the connection between Magnus, Robot Fighter and Doc Magnus, creator of The Metal Men before. I figured there's gotta be a story there! Unfortunately The Metal Men, like many of DC's more fun characters, are missing in action since the DC Reboot. Who knows how long it will be before they appear again, and what alterations will be made when they do? I'd still like to see them wind up in their own animated series.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Cosmic Boy Vs. Magneto
You didn't think that I'd ask the question, "What has Magneto done with Cosmic Boy?" without addressing it, did you? Here we seen the motivation for his trip to the future. I actually did these two covers months apart (hence the larger size on part two - eventually all covers will be this larger size as I changed up my templates shortly after I began STF). Sometimes I will look back on an earlier cover and the story will suggest a follow up issue. Hmm... now that I have established his lineage, maybe Cos will have to cross paths with his siblings one of these days...
Labels:
cosmic boy,
DC Comics,
magneto,
Marvel Comics,
Super-Team Family,
Team Up
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Legion of Superheroes Vs. Magneto
Magneto has become of one of comicdom's most complex villains doe to his ever changing status in the Marvel Universe, as well as the skillful onscreen portrayals by Michael Fassbender and Ian McKellan. Much is made of how his tragic past and sympathetic motivations give him shades of grey, but frankly I always enjoy him best as a straight up villain. Sure, in his mind he may think what he is doing is right, but at the end of the day he is no better then Dr, Doom and the Joker. The Legion depicted here is from my favorite era of that team. Paul Levitz, one of the architects of that LSH phase, is writing their current adventures. I'll have to check some of those out and see if they have any of the old magic.
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Daredevil and Daredevil
I was surprised when I first learned that Matt Murdock's superhero moniker had previously been used by a classic hero, but I guess I shouldn't have been - "Daredevil" sounds cool and is a perfect name for a superhero. I always thought that the original DD had a really cool costume and it is cool to see him in new adventures again after all these years now under the name The Death-Defying Devil.
Labels:
Art Adams,
Daredevil,
Lev Gleason,
Marvel Comics,
Super-Team Family,
Team Up
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
The Spectre and Captain America
Jim Aparo was may favorite artist growing up, mostly due to his work on The Brave and the Bold. Still, if I had to pick my favorite work by him, it is the Spectre run from Adventure Comics. Aparo's mastery of mood and shadow really sold these grisly morality tales. Who can forget all the cool, ironic ways that The Spectre would dispatch of the wrongdoers... Turned to wood and then chain-sawed, turned to a candle and then melted, impaled by giant scissors... ah, good times, good times.
Labels:
DC Comics,
Jim Aparo,
Marvel Comics,
spectre,
Super-Team Family,
Team Up
Monday, January 23, 2012
Hourman and The X-Men
I thought this would be a fun pairing. I have been a big fan of Hourman from the time when I first encountered him in the early JLA/JSA team-ups. It is kind of crazy to go back and look at some of his old adventures. A guy who can gain enhanced abilities for an hour is a fun concept but the way that power was administered through popping a mysterious pill was certainly a product of simpler times. Of course, Stan Lee had the most simple solution to explaining how a character gained superhuman powers - they were born that way!
Labels:
DC Comics,
Hourman,
Jack Kirby,
Marvel Comics,
Super-Team Family,
Team Up,
X-Men
Friday, January 20, 2012
Hawkman and The Angel
It's too bad the because of the wonky continuity we will never see The Angel in a true X-Men: First Class movie with the original team. I figured we would have to wait for an inevitable reboot, but considering the success of the last X-movie installment that may be a long way off. Hawkman has gone quite a revamping looks-wise in the New DCU - I assume that like most of the costume changes DC did it was with an eye towards making live action adaptations easier. The new helmet, like the old one, looks cool but not every artist can depict it effectively. I do think it might translate better to live action, but I would still miss the classic look.
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Catwoman and Tigra
Gotta say, I see Tigra winning this battle... but then again, Catwoman is not above fighting dirty...
I am very interested to see what Christopher Nolan and Anne Hathaway have in store for audiences with the latest on-screen incarnation of Catwoman in The Dark Knight Rises. It's a role I think we have yet to see realized perfectly yet. Michelle Pfeiffer looked great, but her character's origin and motivations had little to do with the Selina Kyle of the comics... and that was a downright reverential portrayal when compared to the truly head scratching Halle Barre Catwoman film. Hathaway has the looks and acting chops to do the role justice, I hope it is written as well as the previous villains have been. The glimpses of costume we have seen have been fairly simple but cool and in line with the world Nolan has created. Hathaway has claimed that we haven't seen the full Catwoman look yet, so who knows what else to expect.
Labels:
Catwoman,
DC Comics,
Jim Balent,
Marvel Comics,
Ron Frenz,
Super-Team Family,
Team Up,
Tigra
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Zatanna and The Scarlet Witch
Here are a couple of great characters, both spell-casters with daddy issues . Zatanna spent years searching for her Father Zatara and then struggled to live up to his example. Wanda Maximoff's father is Magneto, so you know that's gotta be a dysfunctional relationship. She has been out of the spotlight for a bit, but something tells me that she will play a role in the upcoming Avengers Vs. X-Men event, as she has a history with both teams. Plus it is Brian Michael Bendis' final big storyline with The Avengers, and maybe he will use the opportunity to redeem her - after all he was the one who decided to make her insane and homicidal in his first Avengers arc. Zatanna is back with a JLA team in Justice League Dark, which is cool - but I have to wonder what DC was thinking with her new costume design. Did they really think that moving the fishnets from her legs to her arms was a good idea?
Labels:
DC Comics,
John Byrne,
Marvel Comics,
Scarlet Witch,
Super-Team Family,
Team Up,
Zatanna
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Superman and Thor
This is another pairing that I really like and will revisit in the future. It was great to see the two share a lot of screen time together in JLA/Avengers, but I would still love to see a team up featuring them without their respective teams. We will be seeing new films featuring both characters soon, each by a director making heir first mark on the franchises. Thor was a strong start, but I would like to see more action (with helmet on, thank you!) in a sequel. I have no fear about lack of action in a Zach Snyder film, but I hope his Man of Steel has a strong script to go with what I am sure will be impressive visuals. I'm not going to nit pick too much in advance though - it's a great time to be a comic fan when there are so many genre-based projects to look forward to.
Labels:
DC Comics,
Jack Kirby,
Marvel Comics,
Super-Team Family,
Superman,
Team Up,
Thor,
Wayne Boring
Monday, January 16, 2012
Captain Marvel and Captain Marvel
I think we all knew that this team up had to happen sooner or later.I am a big fan of both characters and it has been interesting to watch them evolve over the years. Mar-Vell is one of the few characters allowed to stay dead (Skrull impersonators notwithstanding), but I wonder how long that status will remain intact. I still llove his look, his costume just screams Bronze Age Comics to me. DC's Cap is about to be relaunched via a back up series in Justice League by the talented team of Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. It will be interesting to see what changes will be made. I have a feeling he will be losing the Captain Marvel name once and for all and go by Shazam or Captain Thunder or something. Time will tell, hopefully enough of what made the character great in the first place will remain in this new incarnation.
Labels:
Captain Marvel,
CC Beck,
DC Comics,
Jim Starlin,
Mar-Vell,
Marvel Comics,
Ron Lim,
Shazam,
Super-Team Family,
Team Up,
Thanos
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