The Best of the Week in Covers – 10.24.2012

Remember to have a parent or guardian check your Best of the Week in Covers before gobbling them up. A mean stranger could’ve put razor blades in there. Or worse, Good’n’Plenty.

 


A-Babies vs. X-Babies #1
By Skottie Young

I’m not terribly fond of babies, personally. They’re not hugely articulate. They also tend to grow up to become people, which seems unfortunate. However, these babies are delightful, each in their own way. It’s a scheme that’s worked for the Muppets and I think, briefly, the ThunderCats and the Justice League. There’s just something about Magneto in a onesie. Or footy pajamas. Whatever you want to call them. The sheer volume of characters, the level of expression, and the unadulterated silliness make this one a winner. And hopefully the first of many. I think Skottie’s working on 30 or 40 of these as variant covers. Expect a baby boom in this feature over the next few months.

 


Spawn #224
By Todd McFarlane

Listen. This is a really tight homage to “Dark Knight Triumphant”, the iconic cover to Frank Miller’s Dark Knight Returns #2. So much so, that I’d imagine a light box was involved. It’s striking and incredibly playful though, so we want to celebrate it. It remains a terrific composition, totally filling the canvas like a molten mound of Faustian dough expanding on a cookie sheet. It’s alive with creases and shadow detail. Don’t anyone teach this indentured hellspawn how to use an iron, okay?

 


The Flash #13
By Francis Manapul

Cripes, these Arrow banners. Despite the noise, the signal rings true though. This looks like a proper saga, replete with a Star Wars style collage of hero and villains. It’s not the most dynamic cover in the run, but it has tons of impact and gravity.

 


Punisher War Zone #1
By Marco Checchetto

This is a potent and elegant distillation of the mini-series and its exciting premise. A matter-of-fact deconstruction. The Punisher is up against the wall, and some of our favorite heroes have found themselves in his sights. I love the grid. I love the weathered margins.

 


The Shadow #6
By Alex Ross

I wonder if the guy from thoseĀ Bazooka Joe comics has the same condition. Also, AHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

 

Comments

  1. Have something against Good and Plentys? I could only dream that a house around me was handing those out.

  2. I was more disgusted at the Spawn cover than anything. Flipped through the book and it had no relevance to TDKR at all… so to me its just another way to sell the book. and the Arrow banners are annoying as hell.. can’t they just keep the ads inside or in back of the books.

    • Disgusted seems a bit strong.

    • McFarlane’s been doing homage covers for the last several issues, including Savage Dragon 1, Youngblood 1, Amazing Spider-Man 15, ASM 316, Walking Dead 1, and this one. I believe there are Watchmen #1 and ASM 300 coming up as well. I think they’re all pretty rad.

    • i don’t know the homage covers for spawn are awesome to me

    • Todd McFarlane shows that, after all these years he’s still great at what he does. That being said, I’ve never liked this image, starting when I first saw it in its original, Dark Knight Returns #2 form. The other covers to that series were good, I thought, but issue #2 always bothered me. It’s flat, lumpy, fills too much of the page and uses a really awkward pose.

  3. Aaargh! Put it back on, put it back on!

  4. It should be a rule that covers have to do with what’s going on inside the book.

  5. Great selections for the week. I really like the Spawn cover. McFarlane has been putting out some creative ones to celebrate Spawn’s anniversary, and its good to see his art on the book again.

  6. I too have been loathing the Arrow banners. While it sometimes looks odd, I’ve been editing them out just to focus on the covers themselves.

  7. The art A-babies vs X-babies artwork is fantastic from the front cover through the last page. I haven’t read a word of it yet, but the art alone is worth the price.

  8. I totally agree with Spawn 224 being here the tribute covers that MacFarlane had been doing are freaking incredible. However I feel that the Flash should not have been included simply for the annoying Arrow CW banner. Seriously those things are a greedy corporation being greedy…go fuck yourself DC

  9. LOVE that Spawn cover. i havent been able t stop looking at it.

  10. The Spawn cover was so great and eye catching that even though I have ZERO interest in Spawn I picked it up and looked inside……I don’t really know know what I expected to find like classic Miller art from the 80’s or something I guess……at any rate the cover did its job haha.

  11. I think the theme of theses covers are: clenched fists.