CBRunway
Once again, the community at Comic Book Resources are going through the Comic Book Runway, an art contest taking their inspiration from Tyra Banks.
The concept for this round was to "create an original, fifth member of the Fantastic Five. Your new character should reflect the original book's Silver Age feel and style as drawn by Kirby and remain true to the title's themes and concepts."
How could I pass up a FF contest? Especially one that basically asks "what if someone else was in the rocket ship that gave the Fantastic Four their powers?"
So here are my initial concepts and sketches:
I was trying to think of what would work visually, first of all. Someone would have to have a unique look that could stand alongside the distinct visuals of Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing. My thoughts ranged from including a super-pet, like a dog or a monkey, which would fit the idea of being on a rocket ship with the foursome. This didn:t seem inspiring, so I wondered if a robot would work better. I couldn:t help but thing that this was too derivative-- after all, although they might not have been present in issue #1, there was still Lockjaw the dog and Herbie the robot as already-existing additions to the Four Mythos. Discarding the non-human ideas, I turned to look for a human, but distorted, perhaps someone smaller, like a little person or an alien. This would also lend itself to a different personality type that would be missing in the FF dynamic, perhaps an irascible grandpa or a miserly curmudgeon. Heck, even an effervescent money-maker (someone like Phoney Bone from Jeff Smith:s Bone) could be different-- a Mad Men-ish upstart that trades part of his uniform for a Kirby-brand business suit!
All of which led me to this guy:
Taking influence from Wakanda, from the fact he:s an outsider, from mind-related powers, and I get the Mind Master! He:s the fills the missing dynamic of someone strong and silent, almost prophetic, the mysterious "wise man" that borders on the spiritual and meditative.
I guess you could say that if Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch, and the Thing are considered akin to water, air, fire, and earth, respectively, what:s missing is the human element, the "spirit" or also the "flora/fauna" aspect. Taking my cue from Captain Planet, maybe, the fifth element is *heart.* Which leads me to the final and perhaps what i would have entered for my final answer:
Okay, so I also take my cue here from Johnny Quest. It:s the Plant Maharajah! Okay, maybe too on the nose. How about just Plant Master? He fits all the criteria for a perfect Fantastic Fifth!
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