The Best of the Week in… Covers (12/16/09)

Like sands through the hourglass, so too do comic books have covers. Or something like that. Here are the three best from this week.

 

Power Girl #7

Power Girl #7
Cover by Amanda Conner

Power Girl is very much a throwback book and this very much a throwback cover. In fact, it's a homage to a cover from the Silver Age: Superman #281. Gone are the days when covers had dialogue balloons and shocking caption boxes designed to entice the potential customer at the newsstand to part ways with their 20 cents to see what was going to happen inside. I'm not advocating a return to that era, necessarily, but I will say that when I saw this cover and read the dialogue balloon I thought to myself, "Oh, no — what has Power Girl gotten herself into now, and how is she going to get out of it?" And that's a lot more thinking than I do while looking at your now standard character pin-up cover.

 


 

Captain America Reborn #5
Captain America Reborn #5
Cover by Bryan Hitch

Honestly? This cover just makes me laugh. Why? Because while a Red Skull-possessed Steve Rogers attempts to choke out Bucky Cap, Dr. Doom and Arnim Zola are cheering him on like a bunch of drunken douchebags watching a fight outside of a bar at 1am. That made me laugh the first time I saw this cover, and I'm still laughing now as I picture Dr. Doom holding a half empty bottle of Coors Light instead of a limp Sharon Carter. "Yeeeeah! Kick his ass!"

 


 

The Last Resort #5
The Last Resort #5
Cover by Darwyn Cooke

There are three things that I really like about this cover. Number one, I love Darwyn Cooke's exaggerated retro style that he's been using on these covers for The Last Resort. You don't expect to pair that kind of art style with the blood-soaked imagery and I find the juxtaposition wonderful. Number two, I love that the subjects on the cover are not only inside the frame of the cover, but that they are framed again by the red foliage. It really concentrates your attention and the leaves and bushes point right to the main figure. It's classic construction. Finally, I love that this single issue does a pretty great job of telling the story of the issue. Like the Power Girl cover above, that's just something you don't see enough of these days.


Those are my favorites. What are yours?


Comments

  1. I really llike that Last Resort cover. I also really liked the Locke & Key cover (like I always do) and even though I’m not reading it (though I will be getting it in trade) I liked the Ex Machina cover.

  2. I don’t know who has the better breasts on that cover, Power Girl or Red Robin.

  3. Oops I meant to say bigger, but better works too 😮

  4. @cromulent That’s not Red Robin…. it’s Doctor Midnight.

  5. No, that’s Red Robin. See that yellow "r" on his forehead? Though it’s kinda weird how if he was standing up, that "r" would look like a crescent moon.

  6. I loved the Alice in Wonderland cover. It was well done.

  7. @cromulent-No, that Doctor Midnight.

  8. Amazing Spidey 615 has an amazing Sandman cover

  9. The Captain America cover is ridiculous and not in a good way. Not to mention Dr. Doom or Sir-Not-Appearing-In-This-Issue being on the cover. 😉 Also, the Super Soldier Serum gives him incredible splitting ability!

    I love Amanda Conner’s art. There’s a great cartoony-ness to it, but it also stands out as looking different than the move toward realistic art. This was one of my favorite books (and covers) of the week. Jesus Saiz’s cover for Brave and the Bold was just fantastic. Streets of Gotham also had a beautiful cover.

  10. I’m with Prax on the Brave and the Bold cover…yet another book I wouldn’t be reading if not for the iFanboy community.

  11. Doctor Voodoo, Dark Avengers, Ex Machina… all dope covers. I have disagree with Power Girl and Cap America Reborn… those covers do NOT make me want to buy those comics.

  12. I’m sorry but I have to be angry on the snub of Brave and the Bold #30.

    Quite possibly the best cover of the year for DC and there is no love for it? Granted I do like the Power Girl, Cap Reborn, and Last Resort covers. They are all great (especially Power Girl’s cover) but to me B&TB beats out any of those three.

    I couldn’t even put any other covers next to Brave and the Bold; that’s how great it is.

  13. I go with Locke & Key. That cover was sweet ass.

  14. I only agree with Captain America on this one. and yeah wheres amazing spiderman 615?!

  15. I’d imagine Doom as the guy who also stumbles out of the bar yelling about how the group should hit up a strip club.

  16. I liked the Power Girl cover so much that I almost picked it up. Now I wish I had. I might do so next time I stop at the shop.

  17. My picks this week are Daredevil #503, Astonishing X-Men #33 and Captain America Reborn #5.

  18. Is no one goign to talk about Cable #21 and how Hope’s hair is forming the shape of the Phoenix Force? I mean, I know this is the worst kept secret in comics that Hope is goingt o be linked to Jean and the Phoenix Force, but still, I thought t was a clever little visual.

  19. I thought the Cassaday variant for Reborn was pretty dope as well.

  20. Vartox looks like Sean Connery in that crazy ass movie where he was dressed like an S&M slave. What was that movie called?

  21. I think the Reborn cover is kind of non-sensical, like if you don’t know what is happening in the book (like I do), you don’t understand it.

    For instance, when I first saw that cover I thought: Holy sh*t! Skrull Steve Rogers is choking out Bucky while Doctor Doom and that TV head guy cheer him on! Why is Red Skull looking like he is watching all this with an expression like he is watching his roommate masturbate? Oh God, Doctor Doom is choking a b*tch, a b*tch with metallic boobs?

    I honestly thought that. Oh, and that Skrul Steve Rogers has black sleeves instead of white.

  22. @Actualbutt Zarodz. Superman 281 – which this issue of Power Girl references – was also based off of Zardoz. 

  23. ZARDOZ 4-EVA!

  24. Cover of the week for me was Incorruptible #1, it’s just so bad ass.

  25. Liked the Dr. Voodoo cover alot. The story inside, not so much.

  26. My favourite was probably Locke & Key. I just vote it as my favourite everything these days anyway.

    The Forgetless cover was ugly as hell. 

  27. Of the above, I would pick Rebirth.  I’d have to go with X-Factor or Ex Machina for my personal favorite covers of the week.