Marvel Flipside

What The--?! Marvel Cover: November

Ah, not too many What The--?! covers this month. Maybe November is too serious? Winter is coming up, Thanksgiving makes us too maudlin, and the reality of the first quarter of the term starts to settle in... What we need is a crazy offbeat comic book cover.

 

Ah, that'll do. Amazing Spider-Man #611, cover by Skottie Young, on sale Nov. 11. Obviously, there's a crazy amount of pockets, the crazy Deadpool smiley, and the fact that this is a Spider-Man comic, not one of the many Deadpool series floating around. But the craziest thing? The comic will apparently feature Lady Stilt-Man. Sweet.

Worst Marvel Cover: November

Black Widow: Deadly Origin #1 (Greg Land variant), on sale Nov. 4.

Say what you will about Greg Land-- and believe me, many people are saying a lot of things about Greg Land-- there's no denying that his rendering style is very effective. The point is that for many it's TOO effective, and if it looks too much like his source, is it really his own? I'll let that debate slide, because there's enough problems on this cover that these issues of swiping-slash-plagiarism are actually secondary.

First of all, I have to wonder when Black Widow became a paraplegic. Is the art supposed to fade away into the background or otherwise have Natasha burst from the page? Then this is not the kind of rendering you want. It's not the only anatomy issues, either. Check out that left arm-- little more than a steel rod protrudinga from her neck. And those bracelets on the left arm are completely going the wrong way according to their supposed twin set on her right wrist. There should be a twist in the torso, but it's too smooth to be twisted, unless the Widow is a T-1000 Terminator robot with different points of articulation.

And what's with the random photo collage in the background? Great use of iStockPhoto, to be sure, but there's nothing visually interesting about their integration together nor anything to highlight or differentiate with the foreground. It's a bit of a mess with no guidance for our eyes. Ultimately, it just ends up being quite dull overall, and that makes the attention and rendering of the Widow's face all that more weird by juxtaposition. If I had to make a guess, all of the artist's attention when to creating the face and hands, and everything else was afterthought. For shame.

Best Marvel Cover: November

Yup, looks like it's that time again!

Now, I love looking at advance solicitations, but it's hard to get excited about covers that won't be seen for three more months or so. Instead, I like to take a more serious look at covers in the month they are made available. Not only is it more appropriate to get excited about what you are buying *at that moment,* but it's a neat reminder of what's actually going on in the stories *at this moment* too. In other words, while many people complain that covers are "too generic," I think it's a factor of having to work with advance solicitations, so that only the most icon-ic/generic ideas are allowed to go through. Because obviously the story doesn't matter, but the cover is still supposed to sell...

Anyway, as I was scrolling through the covers on sale at Marvel.com, I was waiting for that one Best cover to jump out at me. It was this one, Invincible Iron Man #20, on sale Nov. 25, cover by Salvador Larroca. The "jump" at me was twofold. 

First, of course, it's a great visual. Second, I remember being excited about it when it was announced as a new trade dress for Iron Man comics. I've been saying for a while that the aesthetics of design in general and of magazine/book covers in particular have shifted, but comics haven't kept up with the change. Here, we finally arrive. 

Yet, there's something Not Quite Right about the image above, as it wasn't quite what I remembered. After a bit of google-fu, I found this:

What happened? I hope the solicitation on Marvel's site isn't the drab and dull one, above, but instead is this really neat and vibrant one. Which begs the question if all the covers we see at Marvel.com are actually pale imitations of what they really might be on the stands, and another begged question-- why would they? Maybe if they did, it'd be a lot harder to pick out a Best every month!

Speaking of which--- the Worst was quite easy this month! Check it out tomorrow!

Friday Night Fights: Spidey vs. Kingpin

Feet of Fury!

He gets no kicks from champagne! Mere alcohol doesn't thrill him at all, but he gets a kick.... out of what? The answer's in Friday Night Fights!  

The Fight:

Spidey vs. the Kingpin

 

as featured in Spidey Super-Stories #38 (1979), by Jim Salicrup and Ricardo Villamonte!

What's the story here?

Thanks to the Daily Bugle, the Kingpin knows that President Jimmy Carter's coming to New York City, so naturally he wants to "kidnap him . . . and take over the country!" Thankfully, he has an exact duplicate of the president's car handy (perhaps he was practicing taking over the country already?) and hopes to change the cars and steal the president. But Spidey just happens to be swinging by and recognizes the president's car (well, the very convincing duplicate) and finds out about the plot. But the Kingpin's not going to give up too easily. Hence the scene above. But New York's tow service is the real hero. While Kingpin was busy with Spidey, the president's car was towed away since the Kingpin's stooges left it double parked, thus ruining the Kingpin's plans forever!      

Here's how it all goes down!

    * Take a look at all of Fights participants, hosted by spacebooger.com!
    * Before Sunday at 11PM (EST), cast your vote for the best Friday Night Fights by posting a comment there! Voting is encouraged and will be open to all visitors and participants.
    * The winner of the round will be posted there on the following Tuesday with the Pre-Fight Rules for next time!

ENJOY all the FEET O' FURY!