Marvel’s The Avengers hits the multiplex this Spring. To celebrate, Marvel commissioned some top tier artists to cast the ensemble in a series of variant covers. Each Most of these images pays homage to a fine artist’s style or notable composition. There’s even some Pooh.
The covers premiere in April, and will be as hard to miss as those zombie mashups from that one time.
Can you reverse engineer each image to discern its inspiration?
Let’s have a look!
AGE OF APOCALPSE #2
Variant Cover by CHRISTIAN NAUCK
AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #683
Variant Cover by MIKE DEL MUNDO
AVENGERS #25
Variant Cover by GABRIELE DELL’OTTO
AVENGERS ASSEMBLE #2
Variant Cover by STEPHANIE HANS
DAREDEVIL #11
Variant Cover by STEFFI SCHUTZEE
FANTASTIC FOUR #605
Variant Cover by MICHAEL KALUTA
INCREDIBLE HULK #7
Variant Cover by CHARLES PAUL WILSON III
INVINCIBLE IRON MAN #515
Variant Cover by GREG HORN
SECRET AVENGERS #26
Variant Cover by JOE QUINONES
UNCANNY X-FORCE #24
Variant Cover by JULIAN TOTINO
UNCANNY X-MEN #11
Variant Cover by GREG HORN
WINTER SOLDIER #4
Variant Cover by JOHN TYLER CHRISTOPHER
WOLVERINE #304
Variant Cover by Gurihiru
WOLVERINE & THE X-MEN #9
Variant Cover by ALEX MALEEV
X-MEN #27
Variant Cover by KHOI PHAM
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I would love to see these images paired with the particular artist’s work that inspired these covers images…I can certainly spot the influence of the X-Force piece, but the others are less familiar.
trying to justify the ol mfa once again here’s my best guesses:
Age of Apocalapse #2= ? some amalgam of a Middle Egyptian painting / hieroglyphics ?
Amazing Spider-Man #683= ? Saul Bass inspired ?
Avengers #25= Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze “Washington Crossing the Delaware”
Avengers Assemble #2= Claude Monet Pick any variation of “Rouen Cathedral”
Daredevil #11= after Al Hirschfeld
Fantastic Four #605= after Winsor Mccay Little Nemo
Incredible Hulk #7= Winnie the Pooh “Stuck In Rabbits House” (E.H. Shepard?)
Invincible Iron Man #515= ?some Easter Island thing I’m unaware of?
Secret Avengers #26= Toulouse-lautrec Moulin Rouge: La Goulue lithograph
Uncanny X-Force #24= Georges Seurat “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”
X-Men #27= sculpture garden containing” Rodin’s “The Thinker”, Michaelangelo’s “David” and Brancusi “Bird in Space”
Winter Soldier #4= ? (know this one but am blanking)?
Wolverine #304= ?
Wolverine & The X-Men #9= after Egon Schiele
X-men #27= ?uhm a japanese wood block print ?
i think the ifanboy posters here got most of them already anyway…but there’s the ones off the top:
winter soldier #4 = i think this one is an Erte print or someone similar.
I am not even remotely capable of identifying these, but I’m looking forward to finding out what they reference. The first one is obviously a cave painting.
Is the Daredevil one meant to be a Hirschfeld? (I have no idea if I’m spelling that correctly.)
The Pooh one is obviously awesome.
Al Hirschfeld, sure. That looks about right.
i first one looks like egyptian hieroglyphics
I think you’re right. I imagine is just offended a large number of Mummies by calling them cave paintings.
mummies are sensitive. bunch of stiffs
@Paul: Is Hirschfield’s daughter’s name in there somewhere (I’m blanking on it right now)? That would be an awesome tribute.
“Nina”
If she’s in there, I haven’t found her.
This just makes me want another Strange Tales anthology.
I saw these while digging through the Solicitations. Definitely awesome town. I especially like the Incredible Hulk # 7 variant by Charles Paul Wilson III. Thirds are just better than normal people.
Everyone really did a stellar job on these covers. I especially love Maleev’s and Kaluta’s. Hopefully Marvel releases all the covers in a one-shot in the near future, as they’ve done in the past.
LOVE THIS! Still not going to buy a lot (if any) of these issues though.
I’m pretty savy with the art history and i’m only getting maybe half the references. I like the Egon Schiele (maleev) one the best.
and Marvel just couldn’t not restrain themselves with the drop shadow type could they? its an actual sickeness. =p
Great idea!
I hope these beautiful covers are not marred by any stupid looking banners
I absolutely love these.
cool
i like the avengers 25. washington crossing the delaware
Love the Toulouse-Lautrec/ Joe Quinones Moulin Rouge
Wow. These are all gorgeous.
Nauck’s, Christopher’s, and Del Mundo’s are among my favs, but Dell Otto’s takes the taco.
These are fantastic!
The greg horn cover is based on Rodin, Michangelo and Henry Moore, maybe?
Iron man is after Brancusi (Constantin) he did many that look very similar to this one…I think the one here in LA at the Norton Simon Museum is titled “Bird In Space”
Nice job on the covers. My favoritie is Steffi Schutzee’s for the Hirschfeld homage. The long simple lines make their expressions and body types stand out.
I also like Greg Horn’s cover just because he made the Iron Man statue look like a piece of modern art. HA!
I’m guessing Kaluta’s cover is a reference to the Little Nemo comic strip? Since Cap, Thor, and Iron Man are all on beds?
wow. As a HUGE fan of Winsor McCay and Al Hirshfield, I absolutely LOVE those tributes. All of them are exceptional, but, those two spoke to me instantly. Can’t wait to collect some of these. Hopefully they’ll be offered as prints or posters.
Wow, Khoi Pham fail. “Look! Cross-hatching!”
Yeah suck it Rembrandt!