Welcome to the seventh installment of Comic Book Cover-Up, where We the Nerdy writer Henry Varona weighs in on his choices for the best comic book covers coming out this week, along with some great honorable mentions! Each week, Henry explain his picks and just what makes them so darn pretty. At the end, he adds up points for each given series, which will work towards earning further accolades in the future!
Point breakdown:
- First-10 Points
- Second-7 Points
- Third- 5 Points
- Fourth and Fifth- 3 Points Each
- Still Gorgeous- 1 Point Each
So without further ado, here’s the week’s best!
5. All-New Ghost Rider 1 (Variant) by Tradd Moore (Featured Image)
With the launch of an All-New Ghost Rider comes an all-new design! For his variant cover to All-New Ghost Rider 1, series artist Tradd Moore presents to the face of our hero. Unlike prior Ghost Riders, who have had their faces melt off in order to give them a flaming skull for a head, the new Rider instead wears a helmet in the shape of a skull, with flame funneled through the top and sides. This design choice makes the Rider all the more unnatural, and helps to elevate the character to an All-New status. As such, presenting this image to the reader in such a direct way allows Moore to show us that this is a book unlike any we’ve read before, and is worth our attention.
4. All-New Ghost Rider 1 (Animal) by Mike Del Mundo
By all rights, I should hate this cover. I have found Marvel’s recent animal cover series to be completely irrelevant to anything in the books themselves. They’re great spectacles of the artists, but they have no place on the spinner rack. But this time, Mike Del Mundo proves me wrong. Here, his representation of Ghost Rider as a hamster is everything I want it to be. It’s completely out there and tons of fun. Seeing the cute form of such a familiar furry friend transformed into something so grizzly is eye-catching and inspired. More than anything though, the way in which Mundo frames the shot, an a tilted angle, with the Rider shooting past the reader, makes it pop out. This book is high octane and high energy, and this cover manages to keep that and use it to it’s advantage.
3. Deadly Class 3 by Wes Craig
Ever since Guardians of the Galaxy, I have had a deed love for the work of Wes Craig. Now on the independent scene alongside Rick Remender, Craig is killing it with his work on Deadly Class. His cover for issue 3 shows a unique perspective on the world of cover design. Using only black, white, and a single color, Craig shows two students leaping from building to building. By positioning them over the title of the book, the gravity of their situation is highlighted, as we realize the immediate danger they are in. Their dire faces reflect the urgency of the scene further, even going so far as to have one of the characters losing their shoe. But it’s really the city landscape in the background that makes it. Minimalist and suggestive, it separates itself from the leads and allows us to focus on what a great image we have here.
2. Silver Surfer 1 by Francesco Francavella
On the surface, Francesco Francavella didn’t even try on this cover to Silver Surfer 1. The Surfer himself is barely there, drawn small in the center of the page. His board creates a darting line behind him. And that’s it. But the design work here is outstanding. The layout shows the vast, desolate space of the great beyond. The Surfer is truly alone, and we have no idea of knowing if he is lost or set on a straight path. The planet to the side places the scale into the mind of the viewer, who sees that he is so far from anything recognizable. You don’t know if he is outside of the Earth, a moon, or some random planet in the deepest reaches. Through in the slick title at the top of the page and you have an image that is bound to intrigue readers.
1. Hawkeye 18 by David Aja
It’s easy to forget about Hawkeye. With multiple delays and a continuing cover theme, we often forget how truly gorgeous the work of David Aja truly is. Here, Madame Masque stands among a honeycomb formation. Her dead glare and cold demeanor emphasize the severity of her mission. The warm color palette highlights the tropical location seen in the background, and helps to differentiate it from the rest of the books on the shelves. That this image so perfectly leads into the other books in the series really helps to make it a work of art. Madame Masque is one of the highlights of Fraction’s run on the series, and this cover finally gives her a cover that shows how deadly she can be.
Still Gorgeous:
Deadpool 26 by Phil Noto
Ghostbusters 14 by Andy Belanger
Sandman Overture 2 by J.H. Williams III
All-New Ghost Rider 1 (Baby) by Skottie Young
Real Heroes 1 by Frank Cho
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