Comic Book Covers

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I sure hope Aquaman doesn't find out about this...she didn't even call to see if he was available to assist!
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It's not like these are all super original names. Tell me when they get to things like Yondu or gorilla Grodd
 
That was the only appearance by that version of Wonder Man. DC Comics sued Victor Fox in 1939 because they said Wonder Man was basically a copy of Superman. Fox was forced to drop the character. It was the first copyright lawsuit in comics history.
 
I don't think that's all Marvel ripped off. Does this remind you of anyone?

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It's not like these are all super original names. Tell me when they get to things like Yondu or gorilla Grodd
It looks like Quicksilver is the only one that is close in that he's a speedster. . . but the name IS Quicksilver. lol
 
Actually, yes they were. Show me earlier examples.
Just because they are the first time they are used doesn't mean it's original.

Describing someone with Superior powers as super man is not original. Evocative yes but original not really.

There's a whole trove of patents out there for the incredibly original idea of doing something obvious over the web. I'm on some. They weren't original and really never should have been granted in a sane world but I think there is very little sane about the patent office.
 
That might be the definition of "original." :tongue:
I suspect I can find in all of prior literature some occurrence of wonder man/woman. Quicksilver is the metal associated with a speedster God Hermes, etc..
 
Was just looking over my small floppies collection and these two consecutive covers by Walt Simsonson for X-Factor are great. Dude was on fire in the 80s.

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I tried to think of my favorite covers, and I honestly don't have many. I really like Jim Lee's cover for "adjectiveless" X-Men #1, but everyone has seen that one.

So here's some X-Men and Star Trek:

classic xmen dark phoenix.jpg

I've always really liked this monochrome (is that right?) cover. The red and yellow make it striking and feel tense even though it's a very static team shot. It's my second favorite X-Men cover.

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This is one of those chaotic team battle shots which used to be so common, but I really liked Paul Smith's style here. I like how all attention lines go to Dark Phoenix, although she is a little small and her face is posed awkwardly for this image (but that makes some sense in the context of the story). I liked this combination of artist, inker, and colorist because things had a sort of "glossy" look without getting ridiculous.

Another X-Men cover, and this is where I show that I'm just a perv:

x-men demon storm.jpg

Goddamn. Art Adams could make Storm look so hot. Yeah, that's all I got. I had actually forgotten all about this cover until I was looking for some to contribute to this topic. Then I saw this and DAMN! How the hell did I forget this one?

But I have not yet begun to perv.

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Oh yeah... I'll be in my bunk. Nuff said.

Ahem.

Moving on to a few Star Trek covers:

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This was the first issue of Volume 2 of DC's comic run which was concurrent with the TOS movies. I didn't like the Volume 2 comics. They were increased in price and the story quality dropped like a rock. Peter David was writing the book early on, and I didn't like anything he was doing. On top of that Paramount had directed DC to drop all their existing plotlines and shortly thereafter even denied them the ability to use non-movie recurring characters.

But the cover was good. It's a solid cast shot and a good image of the Enterprise. Iconic image.

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This was the last issue of Volume 1 of DC's Star Trek that I was able to pick up. I had been following the entire run, but there was a span of time between issue 51 and this issue where no local store carried the comic. Then they also failed to carry issue 56. I didn't find out the book had started over at #1 until I saw Volume 2 issue 2 at a grocery store.

Anyway, I just think this is a good generic Star Trek image. You have a pretty good Enterprise. You have the trinity of Spock, Kirk, and Bones. You have a strange new world. You have a transporter beam. I just like it compositionally, and it has a strong place in my memory.

Finally, I offer this:

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OK, this is not what you think of when you think Star Trek. The scene at the bottom seems more like something out of a war property. Then there's the Excelsior at the top which frankly looks like crap. But for me this is a strong comic image.

Maybe its because it's so uncharacteristic of Trek. Maybe it's because the battle at the bottom reminds me of the off camera battle described by Captain Tracey in the episode The Omega Glory. The blood red moon helps strengthen the feeling of desperation as well, with the safety of the Excelsior so close, but so far away. I dunno. There's just a desperation in the image.

I loved DC's Star Trek run, if you couldn't tell.
 
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These (I believe) Silvestri covers for the late 80s Brood issues of The Uncanny X-Men have always stuck with me.

I liked Silvestri's dynamic and energic but loose, sketchy, almost rough interior art during this period. I wonder if he was being influenced by Mazzucchelli's work on Daredevil.

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Doug Wildey was quite a talent. Created Jonny Quest after a long career in comics and then went back. Eventually he would do some work on the Comico series that Tulpa Girl Tulpa Girl posted above. One of the covers he did:

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The planet and the action at the bottom are cool, but that really awkward Excelsior ruins it for me. Should have tilted it and had it not coming straight on as this angle is really unflattering even for one of uglier Star Trek starship designs. The planet would have worked better as a sun, I think.

This was a good issue, though. I liked the Bearclaw character. It's one of the stack of Marvel and DC Star Trek comics I got last year (?) in the bargain bins. They had a bunch of DC's volume 2 but those are nowhere near as good. After reading the earlier DC issues, it's too bad they had to bring Spock and the Enterprise back so soon (or at all), as the stories using Saavik and the Excelsior were fun and made it feel like a logical extension of the events of the movies up to that point, with the Excelsior the new flagship of Starfleet and Spock's protégé Saavik struggling to fill his shoes.
 
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