| cover homages; ref: AHM 12 Romita homage | |
|---|---|
| Topic Started: Jul 30 2009, 03:10 PM (265 Views) | |
| Dominic Guglieme | Jul 30 2009, 03:10 PM Post #1 |
|
the human MICROscope!!
|
All Hail Megatron #12 (John Romita reference): Last night, I hung out at Lewis' and picked up my Apocalypse Comic variant of "All Hail Megatron" 12. As with the Apocalypse variant of issue #1, the cover is based on an iconic comic from the past. Coller gets the basics right. He credits Romita when signing the piece. But, there is something missing. As most readers of this blog know, I am something of a fanboy for all things "All Hail Megatron". As much as I like "All Hail Megatron", something about this cover bothered me. And, while actually holding the book last night, it all came together. The cover homage on issue 1 worked. The first issue featured Megatron holding Reflector, referencing Brian Bolland's cover to "The Killing Joke". As much as I am not a fan of that particular story, the cover homage was appropriate. Just as "The Killing Joke" was a story that added a new layer (or 2) to the Joker and Batman, and was seen as an instance of the "Batman" franchise growing up, "All Hail Megatron" did much the same for "Transformers". But, duping Romita's "Spiderman" #50 just seems hollow. It is not just that cover has nothing to do with the story. That is common. (Cover art is generally just an artist drawing a character doing something kewl.) Homages are also common. (And, Coller does better than most by virtue of crediting the original artist.) The problem is that Coller is going out of his way to dupe an iconic cover with specific associations that has nothing to do with the story in "All Hail Megatron". The original Romita art shows Peter Parker walking tiredly towards the reader, away from a large, half-strength image of Spiderman, with the text reading, "Spiderman no More!" The AHM cover puts Megatron in the same position, effectively walking away from himself. But, the whole point of "All Hail Megatron" is that Megatron is *not* disillusioned. He is not at the top of his game in AHM, but he is doing pretty well. In issue 12, Megatron just resecured control of the Decepticons and is making of with the Matrix....when he gets shot by a sniper. The only way this could count as a "Megatron No More!" story is if we assume Megatron was brain damaged by the head shot. (There is not evidence for or against this.) And, even then, the cover art shows a disillusioned party walking away, not a wounded party being carried away. Near as I can tell, Coller just wanted to dupe an iconic cover for the sake of drawing a cool picture of Megatron. If an artist is going to dupe an iconic image for a cover, why not have it be an image that implies or says something about the comic itself? Maybe Coller could have used Perez's cover for "Crisis on Infinite Earths" #7, with Starscream as Superman and Megatron as Supergirl? How about Jim Starlin's cover to "The Death of Captain Marvel"? Heck, a riff on Liefeld's cover to "New Mutants" #87 would have worked better. The problem is that comcis are becoming so derivative that just having a reference, regardless of how well it fits (or not), is reason enough to throw the reference out. Unless some one is a completist of some kind, ("All Hail Megatron", "Transformers", Romita homages), this is probably not worth picking up. It is not even very good if one is looking for a cover that really sums up the comic inside. Grade" C/D Technically sound, but lacking in thought. Dom -did incredibly rude things with Lewis' RotF Skids figure last night. |
|
Keep it local. The healthiest leper in the colony is still very very sick. www.theanimalrescuesite.com | |
 |
 
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · HS - General Talk · Next Topic » |
3:02 PM Mar 11
