DC Cover Themes: Pain, Confusion and Dickery

[espanolbot]

DC's April covers have been leaked, and the majority of them can be split into three lots: Superheroes looking confused, superheroes in pain, and superheroes being dicks to each other.

First, the baffled ranks of the world's finest!








Secondly, heroes being injured in numerous ways!





And finally, heroes manhandling each other like a Marvel event comic!




I have no idea what's going on in them... I think that they're possibly meant to make one extra wide cover thing, but there doesn't seem to be a story being told in them as such. Other than Catwoman looks like she's going to flip out and attack Ollie, resulting in him and J'onn dragging her off somewhere.

Well that and Barry and Batwing apparently getting stabbed.

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=43138

Comments

[bewareofgeek]

Well, at least we have the answer to one question:

"What does Orion's face really look like?"

[doodleboy]

Nu-Orion seems to have his father's eyes.

That's... actually pretty cool.

[bewareofgeek]

And his mother's eyebrows, if memory serves.

[icon_uk]

Orion always had two faces, the one he was born with, and the one which the Mother Box gave him, he tended to switch between them depending on his mood.

[bewareofgeek]

Yes, but there was some discussion earlier as to whether Chiang had made him too pretty, and if that was his true face.

Turns out they needn't have worried.

[silverhammerman]

For a second I was kind of confused and concerned about how Lex looks to have some X-TREME facial burns, and it was going to be like the Joker's X-TREME cut-off face, but then I decided that Lex is totally the kind of villain who would get that fixed as soon as he got a chance, and I relaxed again.
Also pretty happy to see that Wondy cover, I like that Orion looks to be actually ugly and junk, I was put out by his prettiness in Wonder Woman, so I'm pleased to see that he's actually still kind of fugly and hasn't just been made bland and generically attractive.
Not a fan of all those injured/fighting covers though. Among my least favorite cover trends.

[darkknightjrk]

The thing with Luthor's scar was shown in Superman #15. It apparently happened some time ago, and, in his mind, Superman is to blame for it, a reminder of Superman's vain attempt in trying to kill him.

[silverhammerman]

Oh yeah, I remember seeing that scan on here. I just really hope that there's some elaboration at that statement at some point, because I'm not at all cool with the idea of Superman having actually tried to kill Luthor. I'm hoping it was really something like Supes had to laser a telepathic starfish off Lex's face and accidentally burnt him, which Lex interpreted as an attempt on his life. Not to mention, it doesn't make a ton of sense, if Superman wanted to kill Luthor, he really ought to be able to. And the whole point is that he doesn't, because he's fucking Superman.
Anyway, hopefully Luthor'll get it fixed at some point, it's kind of weird and goofy.

[darkknightjrk]

Yeah, I get the feeling that Lobdell was trying to bring back something like the whole "Superman made me lose my hair" type thing, but kicked up a couple of notches. Maybe at some point, after this Luthor stopped being an advisor and just tried to do his own schemes to further his own ends, Superman stopped it, caused some things to blow up, and Luthor got caught in the blast.

But honestly I kinda like the look. At the very least Rocafort makes it work. But hey, YMMV.

[aeka]

Judging by the fact that Flash has a sword in him in one of the Justice League book titles, I'm thinking Trinity War.

[lieut_kettch]

Or maybe Barry pulled a Wally and ran into Slade's sword.

[cainofdreaming]

Any reason why Guy seems to be nomming up an asteroid in the cover?

[skemono]

Perhaps he figures that more celestial bodies than just the moon are made of cheese.

Given how it's crumbling by him squeezing it, he's probably right.

[cainofdreaming]

Well, that makes more sense than most things that have come out of NuDCU. :D

[thatnickguy]

He needed more iron in his diet?

[jaybee3]

Probably not what DC was going for but all I could think was that the Super-Family costumes (Supes, Superboy, Supergirl) all look horrible, even with not so bad artists. Overely-complicated and liney.

[midnightvoyager]

EXACTLY. They drive me absolutely nuts.

[midnightvoyager]

Okay, I have the biggest problem with the first three covers there for... reasons.

...Seriously, look at his face in the first cover. That reads "...eww... uh, someone wanna take this body off my hands, it's kinda gross."

(and then I laugh my ass off at the one of him being stabbed. "OKAY SORRY I'LL BE MORE SENSITIVE NEXT CORPSE I SEE")

The second one... WOW clothes do not EVEN work that way. Gah!

The third is ABSOLUTELY DREADFUL, and not because of the shapes. Why is everything so damn shiny? Why is Superman's costume SO BAD? (Okay, that one's unrelated, but throwing it out there. Also it might be Superboy's for all I know, but I'm going to assume Superman...?) Why is there absolutely no motion to this... fight scene??

[nezchan]

impaled_Barry looks like he needs a shave, too.

That last cover looks pretty static too, honestly. The only one who looks like they're moving is Ollie, although Jonn seems to be dancing to NuDisco or something. Not that the totally random shadows really helps with that. Also, what's with Ollie's calf there? Does he have a ham strapped to his leg as emergency provisions or something?

[rdfox]

Well, on the upside, they've redesigned Starfire's new costume so it's not clearly just pasties and a thong. The bad news? It still wouldn't stay on without almost as much double-sided tape as fabric.

[cainofdreaming]

Oh, I doubt bodypaint requires tape to stick.

[lieut_kettch]

Not to mention the zigzag/lightning motif makes it looks like it was meant as bondage gear for Jefferson Pierce.

[rdfox]

It'd also help if A) the artist didn't draw it lopsided, and B) the artist didn't apparently think that Kory's nipples are located on the SIDES of her breasts. (Given that George Perez, who, y'know, designed her in the first place, has drawn her nude before with essentially normal human anatomy... yeah, I'm calling that a fail, not an alien anatomical difference.)

[kraesil]

Dat 3rd cover... Hey, Superman? You do know you (or at least your costume) looks like some plastic toy/ 3D puzzle that takes 10 hrs to assemble, right? Supergirl- knees, fix that already. Superboy- Uh... Overly line-y...
Supers have bad luck with costumes, I guess..
Hawkman (the last of the "Superheroes in pain" section) - I'll figure out what's wrong with his feet later. The being-stabbed Flash- Is that supposed to be lightning bolts above his eyes on his mask?

On the plus side, no Catwoman doughnuts?

[chieflewal]

Hold up. Knee absurdity aside, did they incorporate the Superman diamond shape into Supergirl's pelvis?