Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Cover Talk: Batman RIP

Welcome to our second weekly edition of Cover Talk, here, we’re talking about the 5 Alex Ross covers for Batman RIP, as well as the 5 Dust Nguyen covers for Heart of Hush in Detective Comics. I wasn’t able to find any of the Tony Daniels variants, so I decided that a straight 10 covers should be fine.

Batman covers by Alex Ross

Batman #676

I’ll say it right now, that is the best of Ross’ covers. The cape looks like a wicked shadow, and the cowl itself looks like a hollowed ghost. It’s a chilling image, and creates the right image for a story that is surrounded by death, which is the key theme to this entire story arc.

Batman #677

While Batman’s head looks a little odd, I still like this cover. The image of Batman being torn from himself, to Bruce Wayne and his “love” for Jezebel Jet, very nicely done. The colors also work nicely here too, Batman in the dark grey, and Bruce and Jezebel in the warm sun, definitely creates the right image of a man torn in two.

Batman #678

I’m not sure if I like this cover or not…while the colors are cool and the pose is all right, I hate the angle we see Batman at. While it’s nice to see Ross trying to be creative with how he positions Batman in these covers. That angle looks pretty bad. So this goes up as my least favorite of the RIP covers.

Batman #679

I like the image of Batman falling, holding his cape, and the urban background that surrounds him. It’s a pretty sharp and cool image, but it’s fairly plain. Just Batman falling downwards while holding his cape, nothing new and especially nothing special.

Batman #680

Finally a cover that shows what is (at least supposed to be) inside the comic! Most of these covers are just Batman by himself, but this is the first (and only) one to show him actually doing something. The image is fairly strong, Batman taking on all these new bad guys, Robin is there as well, and the Dynamic Duo are surrounded. I like Batman’s pose with the batarang, very dynamic, very cool. My only real complaint is that color, why in the hell is it all green? What a bad choice to color this. Something like…red or blue would have worked better.

Batman #681

I both love, and hate this cover. I really like how stern Batman looks, as well with the rain and him beside the 2 gargoyles, it’s a very cool image, but at the same time…I was expecting a little more, for the final issue of RIP. Maybe an image of bloody cape and cowl or something more…well…something more gripping, at least. This is a fine cover, but I was hoping for something better.

Well, that’s my thoughts on Ross’ Batman covers, now onto the Detective Comics covers.

Covers here done by Dustin Nguyen

Detective Comics #846

That is a pretty cool cover, I like both poses on Batman and Catwoman as they tear away at the bandages like restraints, and Hush’s eyes…their creepy. They are very, very creepy. While it’s a fairly simple image, I still like it, and it’s a nice creative way to get all 3 characters on the cover.

Detective Comic #847

I really like how the image is of Batman and Hush fighting, but as they fight, their fighting through a picture of them as children. It’s a strong message to show just how far back these two characters go back with each other.

Detective Comic #848

Again I have to applaud Nguyen on his creativity with this cover. The image, if you can’t tell, is like a work desk with pictures and tools. That’s what I see when I look at it, at least. Batman looks kind of weird here, facially I mean, but I don’t mind it. I like how the colors are darker here than in most of Nguyen’s covers.

Detective Comic #849

Wow, talk about creative designs…I know this is supposed to be gripping image of Batman in the clutches of Hush, but that weird Doll-headed Hush throws it off. But I do like the close up of Batman and the image of him being dragged to the operating table. Still…one hell of a weird cover.

Detective Comic #850

That is a very powerful image, while it’s been done to death (the image of a hero holding a fallen hero) it still retains it’s power, since it’s Batman holding Catwoman. Also, we see both of their masks are off, possibly to show Bruce Wayne and his final moments with Selina Kyle, rather than Batman and Catwoman. While I don’t like the blank background, this is an incredible cover.

So that’s it for the Batman in this week's cover talk, see you Thursday with our weekly reviews.

2 comments:

Keith Gammage said...

My favourite out of those is Batman #681. Its probably cause I like gargoyles. The pouring rain somehow seems to give it an air of struggling against great odds.

Andrenn said...

I actually don't like how Ross gives the gargoyles hanging tongues, they look a little too silly next to the stern and serious Batman.