Plastic Man and The Mask

 

Putting these personalities and powers sets side by side would make for a visually interesting and humorous story. This is another cover in which I had to do some character removal before I could do any character addition.  Here's a look behind the scenes:

Venom Vs. The Mask

I have to hand it to Sony Pictures.  While there had been lots of speculation about the Venom Sequel, and whether Tom Holland's Spider-Man would appear in it, they decided to throw fans a curve.  The Morbius trailer not only featured Spider-Man imagery (reflecting the hero's new status following Far From Home), Michael Keaton's Vulture actually showed up  in it, connecting the solo Sony film with the MCU Spidey.  I know it certainly got me more interested in a project that I hadn't been paying too much attention to.

Thank you to Mike Shirley, a patron of this blog, for suggesting this match up!

Joker's Wild in: "Knock Knock, Who's Dead?"

I'm not sure what to make of the upcoming Joaquin Phoenix Joker movie.  It looks like a well made period character piece, but I don't know how much it will actually remind me of The Joker from the comics.  Like Wolverine, the Clown Prince of Crime is a character that works better without a definitive origin story.  I'm not sure if I want to be asked to identify or sympathize with a crazed murderer.  I'm also not sure about Phoenix' look in the role, with applied on makeup that doesn't really match what we know from the villain's classic appearance.  I guess if this is going to be more of an Elseworlds-type tale they can take some liberties.

Joker's Wild first appeared way back in STF #224...

The Mask Vs. Loki

This would make for a fun - and close - match up.  With Loki, nothing is ever as it seems and you never know what magical trick he has up his sleeve next.  The Mask can match his unpredictability, though, and has the power to back that up with.  It might come down to who is more ruthless, which would give the God of Mischief the evil edge.

Joker's Wild

I thought I would try my hand at a villainous team this time around.  What's more creepy than a clown?  I mean even real clowns are kind of creepy to me, so evil clowns are that much worse.  While this crew would certainly give any hero a run for their money, I imaging that there would be a lot of inter-team conflicts as well with so many crazy personalities.  That may undermine their effectiveness, but they would still be fun to read about.

Batman and The Mask

 

I did not know much about The Mask as a comic book series other than the basic concept and the fact that I liked the John Arcudi artwork.  So when the movie version of the comic came out, I went in with an open mind.  I thought it was a perfect vehicle for Jim Carrey and it is still one of my favorite performances of his.  I was hoping to see a sequel, but unfortunately the studio went the cheap route and cut the budget and star power form it.  The results  were forgettable, and it's too bad.  This was a property that at one point had a successful comic, movie and cartoon series running, and I hope to see new material from it in the future.