Welcome to the sixteenth installment of Comic Book Cover-Up! Every week, 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 worth checking out! Looking at the layout, artistic talent, and the overall craftsmanship, the covers are analyzed and ranked accordingly. At the end, each book will be given points based on their ranking. Then Henry adds up points for the various series, which will work towards earning further accolades in the future! Here’s a point breakdown for what every ranking will earn:
- 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 Invaders 5 by Steve Pugh (Featured Image)
There is something truly incredible about seeing Captain America leading the charge. I always love when Cap is drawn with a bunch of troops behind him, running down the beach to go beat up Nazis or Commies or something else that’s incredibly political. That’s why it’s so cool to see him leading both the Invaders and a giant cosmic army in this cover to All-New Invaders. Dressed in special armor, Captain America looks ready to throw down and start an intergalactic catastrophe. The insane amount of detail here from Steve Pugh really elevates the image and goes a long way towards making the Invaders intimidating and cool.
4. Mind MGMT 22 by Matt Kindt
This cover got my inner art nerd going. There is a very well known piece by René Magritte, called The Treachery of Images. The piece shows a pipe with the caption “This is not a pipe.” It is a commentary on art and representation, as technically, it is not a pipe. It is a picture of a pipe. Here, Matt Kindt kindly pokes fun at Magritte with the line “This is a pipe”, when it very clearly is not. In fact, it is a young woman steadying her shot, getting ready to take down some mysterious person shown off of the page. It has the right mix of technique, power, and referential humor to really get me excited.
3. Justice League Dark 31 (Batman ’66 Variant) by Mike Allred
I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for Mike Allred, but this cover is just really freaking cool. We see the Justice League Dark starring stunned at Swamp Thing, who is frozen inside of a swamp. The “GLUB” speech balloon is just the beginning f this very fun image, as we see some guy firing a freeze gun in the back and Constantine smoking a frozen cigarette. The frozen bodies look very fun and wacky, as does the completely deadpan gaze of Swamp Thing. Seeing Zatanna in her old threads makes this a nice retro piece, but it’s how seamlessly all of these ideas work together that really makes it great.
2. Deadly Class 5 by Wes Craig
Wes Craig delivers a top-notch cover for Deadly Class, this time isolating most of the page for the power of one image. The focus of the image is this young man, who looks like he is in horrible pain as he apparently stands at a mirror. The table looks very menacing and dark with the use of shadows, and the sporadic item doesn’t help things less so, despite the detail. Though I initially thought the background was just a cool layering of yellow on pink design, it’s actually a really weird clown stabbing him through the head. Once you see it you can’t unsee it, and the nature of it is menacing and terrifying. Many people hate clowns and this will not help that cause.
1. Flash 31 (Batman ’66 Variant) by Mike Allred
There is so much going on in this cover and yet it is so clean that it doesn’t feel cluttered at all. In true Mike Allred fashion, he is able to transform the Flashes into a piece of pop art, showing them as they fall between dimensions and warp out of control. The Flash is helpless as he falls from a missing panel of the screen, which seems to open up to a realm where he does so again. The family is more shocked and confused than they are scared, as they stare at their surroundings. Who is the mysterious flash in the foreground of the image? Why are the Flash and Professor Zoom linked to one another? What does this have to do with Batman ’66? The world may never know.
Still Gorgeous:
- Batman 31 by Greg Capullo
- Brass Sun 1 by I. N. J. Culbard
- Iron Patriot 3 by Garry Brown
- Shadowman End Times 2 by Jeff Dekal
- Winter Soldier: The Bitter March 4 by Andrew Robinson
Thanks for stopping by! Be sure to check out the archives for more beautiful art!
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