Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Sevens Upside Your Head!

Use your noggin, log in, and name your preferred option!

Choose one per matchup -- no ties -- on your opinion of the cover merits alone. Click images to see larger versions

Previous editions, for perusal and/or catch-up: Elevens, Twelves, Eights, Tens, Twenty-Nines, Eighteens, Fifteens, Fives, Nines, Seventeens, Nineteens, Sixteens, Sixes, Twenties


1. TEEN TITANS vs. NEW TEEN TITANS




2. MAD vs. RUSE




3. FOUR FAVORITES vs. FANTASTIC FOUR




4. PATSY WALKER vs. PATSY AND HEDY

1. TEEN TITANS vs. NEW TEEN TITANS




2. MAD vs. RUSE




3. FOUR FAVORITES vs. FANTASTIC FOUR




4. PATSY WALKER vs. PATSY AND HEDY

1. The New Teen Titans - in spite of the business I prefer this look.
2. Ruse - artwork again
3. Four Favorites - in spite of being an FF fan, this cover has more drama in it.
4. Patsy and Hedy - Not sure what the guys are doing in the other cover, patting each other on the back as they are laughing I guess, not exactly fair to people of different build and he actually might be a much nicer fella than they are, but the P&H cover is genuinely funny.

1. NEW TEEN TITANS although the colorful distraction to the left can not be denied.

2. RUSE. Ah, a lift with (deadly) twists. (The logo isn't great though. Mad's trade dress is top-notch.)

3. FANTASTIC FOUR. Bright and nutty (yet makes sense). 4F is kinda washed out in comparison, and what exactly is happening there?

4. PATSY AND HEDY!

1. Titans - I usually like a lot of detail in an image, but New TT looks too cluttered. Plus I used to own the Mad Mod issue, back in the days when mothers threw out your comics when you went to college.

2. Ruse - might have appeared in a more modern MAD as a Norman Rockwell spoof. Lovely art.

3. Four Favourites - a delightfully WTF? cover.

4. Patsy and Hedy - if they're going for a chuckle, they've got it. What's wrong with kissing a short chubby rich guy? Maybe she'll marry him and the two bozos will end up working as her chauffeurs.

1. Titans - DC checkerboard makes for the gearest!

2. Ruse - Beauty and a much less tired feeling joke

3. Fantastic Four - Close, because I really like them both, but I don't really need both the headshots at the top and the blurb at the bottom on the Four Favorites cover.

4. Patsy and Hedy - No contest.

1. New Teen Titans. But it's close. Titans has go-go checks and groovy gear and a grinning goon. At thumbnail size, it might win. Enlarged, seeing Wonder Girl thumped by some new foe really brings home the level of threat in the issue. If anything, Light is a distraction to bring in readers who recognise him. And who is their mystery leader?

2. Ruse. The guy with the sword stabbies the guy on the bottom right. A lurching train results in the guy with the pistol shooting the guy with the garrotte. The bomb is thrown through the window, landing on the guy with the sword, knocking him beneath and onto the tracks, where the bomb exploded well behind the train. They guy throwing the bomb is hit as the train goes through a tunnel. The snake bites the guy with the pistol and returns to its basket. The noose is a bell pull for the porter. He arrives in a rush, bumping into the guy who opened the basket, who falls through the hole in the floor. The porter picks up the basket and replaces the floor hatch. He then brings tea to our triumphant protagonists, who have realised that 7 across is "constabulary", solving the Times crossword. Elsewhere, I shall not lech at a Kurtzman drawing. I am listening to Sherlock Holmes on audio at the minute though.

3. Fantastic Four - 4 Favourites gets its usual points for having all its cast interact on the cover. And its an action packed cover too. But Kirby's Thing is super broody, and Reed is super concerned about helping the world through his science. It's so far ahead, you'd need to strap yourself to a missile to catch up. Sorry, 4 favourites, a much bigger missile.

4. Patsy & Hedy - The playful twirling of the hair, before going in for the smooch, is the more romantic of the two. While the guys on Patsy don't seem to have seen each other for a while, they're perhaps a little over eager. Bride of the Vampire was the title of a Scooby Doo cartoon, who were obviously thinking along the same mash-up lines as the cover artist here.

5. SPIDER-WOMAN vs. KURT BUSIEK'S ASTRO CITY




6. DICK TRACY vs. CRIME PATROL




7. NICKEL COMICS vs. WHIZ COMICS




8. NEW MUTANTS vs. YOUNG X-MEN

5. Spider-Woman

6. Dick Tracy

7. Nickel Comics

8. New Mutants

5. Astro City - lighting & creepier

6. Dick Tracy - is he getting out or getting in? More going on in Crime Patrol, but I don't dig the disembodied head.

7. Nickel Comics - tough call, because it looks like Bullet Man is sending that boxcar of explosives back to the full train below, but Cap Marvel catching the plane between his legs, ouch!

8. New Mutants - Young X-Men just looks boring, on New Mutants I wonder if Mom can kick that axe out of his hand since she's just being held by her t-shirt.

5. SPIDER-WOMAN vs. KURT BUSIEK'S ASTRO CITY




6. DICK TRACY vs. CRIME PATROL




7. NICKEL COMICS vs. WHIZ COMICS




8. NEW MUTANTS vs. YOUNG X-MEN

5. KURT BUSIEK'S ASTRO CITY - beautiful art as are most of Astro City but also a dramatic and engaging view as opposed to a fairly generic superhero one.

6. CRIME PATROL - This was close and in some ways Dick was the winner because less crowded but CP tells more of an interesting story

7. NICKEL COMICS - Plane catching seems a bit common (Ha! Try saying that in the real world) but bending up the railway tracks this way is more dynamic and more interesting.

8. YOUNG X-MEN - NM is fine and all and certainly attention grabbing with its threat but YXM is more appealing art.

5. ASTRO CITY. It's probably just space-mantis appendage anatomy, but I like how it appears the AC character is kindasorta considering annihilation. Maybe. "I guess we could blow it to pieces...what are you thinking, Madge?"

6. DICK TRACY. On the other one is the crime being patrolled the SDB -- silent but deadly?

7. NICKEL because why pay more?

8. NM serving up a big piece of 80s cheese -- which also happens to have a nostalgia factor for Teeds, who remembers seeing this on the spinner rack. But nah. YOUNG X-MEN but I'd zhuzh it up at bit -- make the background a very vivid color, and overemphasize the words that parody/subvert the usual (NOT a MUTANT).

9. FRANKENSTEIN vs. NELLIE THE NURSE




10. BOY MEETS GIRL vs. LOVE DIARY




11. SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE vs. WALLY THE WIZARD




12. NEW TEEN TITANS vs. SUB-MARINER

9. FRANKENSTEIN vs. NELLIE THE NURSE




10. BOY MEETS GIRL vs. LOVE DIARY




11. SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE vs. WALLY THE WIZARD




12. NEW TEEN TITANS vs. SUB-MARINER

9. FRANKENSTEIN: Nellie is ok but the numour of the monsters finding the Spook comic frightening is worth the win.

10. LOVE DIARY: Neither of these appeal to me at all but LD has Free Prizes!

11. SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE: Never heard of Wally the Wizard. I saw it and thought "Marvel? Looks like Harvey comics." Then looked it up and saw it was the same artist Warren Kremer. Nevertheless SOSH gets it for the simple joy on the girl dragon rider's face.


12. NEW TEEN TITANS: Very interesting approach using the city photographs as a backdrop but I think NTT pulls it off better. Does anyone know who was in the cars in the parade in Submariner? My first thought was the Apollo 11 astronauts but the comic came out the previous year.

9. Frankenstein - cute, more interesting than Nellie.

10. Love Diary - although the rose looks thornless, it appeals to my snoopiness. I'm not sure what the fingers over the face is on Boy Meets Girl, but I do love that apple in the background: Eve, meet Adam.

11. Secrest of Sinister House - because who wouldn't want to ride a dragon?

12. New Teen Titans - brighter, and it looks like a dimensional portal. Sub-Mariner just looks like cut and paste, but probably the best they could do back then. Stile, I wonder if those cars might be JFK's motorcade in Dallas November 1963 (?).

5. Astro City. The poor Insectoids from Arcturus V would regret outsourcing their electronic to a species that didn't know it's firing from its self destruct mechanisms. On Spidey, there's one too many captions telling us about impending doom. One of them saying it, and the button would have sufficed. Spidey does get points for being an Official Crisis on Infinite Earths Crossover issue though.

6. Dick Tracey. Tracey's bright yellow coat would have popped on the stands , doing the cover's job very nicely. Captain Crime may have spotted his foes. But all that second hand smoke made him too wheezy to chase them down.

7. Nickel Comics. Whiz has the better logo, and even though both are similarly sized, would be more attractive on the stands. Cap does him usual awesome job. Both of them do. But Bulletman's more in the foreground. That means the yellow of his neckerchief/ jodhpurs combo really stands out. Much as Tracey's coat does. Nice use of yellow in "explovies2 to continue the colour theme with the logo and outfit.

8. New Mutants. Good use of spacing, to get Sam in the foreground, Roberto in the near/mid and axe murderer (not too many on code covers) in the mid works. Alt+Blok2 standing in the middle of Xavier's dream where people mix together whether mutant or not, shouting that looks a bit silly. Is the non mutant going to be forced to leave the team, in a bit of xenophobia?

9. Frankenstein. I like the framing of the candles. Good perspective use, with the rat in foreground etc. Nice family pic of guy in coffin. Calamity Nell seems to be the cause of the accidents that she the nurses. It is well known that Stephen King subscribed to Nellie The Nurse, which led to Misery, just as he read all those EC comics as a kid.

10. Boy Meets Girl. Lots going on. Ornate mirror on right, girl in middle and pic on left make for a well designed cover. vertically, you have the nicely coloured books and that white backdrop that makes the other decorations, and the character stand out. Very nice. The rose on the other oen doesn't look preseed enough to have made it into a Love Diary. I suspect fake diaries!

11. Wally. There's some light humour in there. Wally is even more confused when Sargon turns up and belts him for no apparent reason. Over in Sinister, Lockheed looks for other humans to pal with, having been bounced around the X-Man scorecard roster once too often.

12. New Teen Titans. Like Boy Meets Girl, that white background would have really stood out on the stands. Lovely offset circle of the background allows the characters to stand out, the diagonal starbolt is just the design cherry on the well baked design cake. Oh, and.."LIIIIILIIIIIIIITH!" Over in Namor?.."Gah! It's Nixon!.... must grasp logo to climb away to safety!" The bystanders are used to seeing drunken naked guys when there's a parade, and no one pays Namor any attention. He hates that. Cover was later used for a Tales To Astonish #7.

9. NELLIE. Frankenstein idea is good, but the composition and coloring does not work for me.

10. LOVE DIARY. BMG seems a little off to me - the use of white space, the color of the dress with respect to the rest of it, and that hand pose.

11. SECRETS OF SINISTER HOUSE. Co-sign Crames & Stile.

12. NTT. Sub-mariner looks like a sticker on a photograph. NTT a better (but not perfect - I think the drawn bit could be sharper) blend of its pieces and good call on cropping the photo into a Big Dot.

13. JONESY vs. CHERYL BLOSSOM




14. WENDY PARKER vs. KATHY




15. MAD HOUSE MA-AD ANNUAL vs. THAT WILKIN BOY




16. JETTA vs. MILLIE THE MODEL ANNUAL

13. JONESY vs. CHERYL BLOSSOM




14. WENDY PARKER vs. KATHY




15. MAD HOUSE MA-AD ANNUAL vs. THAT WILKIN BOY




16. JETTA vs. MILLIE THE MODEL ANNUAL

13. Cheryl Blossom - both corny gags, but Jonesy looks creepy.

14. Kathy - the gag is better integrated with the setting. The art on Wendy Parker looks clumsy.

15. That Wilkin Boy - the sort of scene that really happens; why would the Reggie's father worry about the electrical bill? Wasn't he supposed to be well-to-do? He looks it.

16. Jetta - the title name and "cosmic creep" win this one, although I have some fondness for the Hey Kids We're Cool cover for Millie.

13. CHERYL BLOSSOM. Prefer the style.

14. KATHY. What's up with those weird Wendy Parker railroad tracks?

15. THAT WILKIN BOY. Co-sign re: scene that really happens

16. MILLIE ANNUAL. It's fun to look at and I don't think I've seen that specific gag before! Also I'm gonna get a little Wertham here and say Jetta is drawn too body con. She is in high school!

17. U.S. 1 vs. THE TWELVE




18. REYN vs. SHADE THE CHANGING GIRL




19. THE LEGION vs. CARNAGE




20. PLOP vs. CARE BEARS

13. Cheryl. Jonesy looks like a stalker. If that's the third time he's been back, what's the blonde up to?

14. Kathy. Showing us the truth about drive-ins. The track on the Wendy cover looked as though it was added late to reinforce the gag.

15. That Wilkin. Boy It has the better gag, although the fashion is much better on the other cover.

16. Jetta. Because we don't say Cosmic Creep around here as much as we should. Also for eye-catching skirts. As futuristic as Jetty is, it's Millie that has a Carggian on the cover.

17. US1. I prefer the colour palette of it, and it's nice to see Lashina crossover into another company. In art in the panel is probably a warning of a quality drop inside. The Twelve doesn't quite get the feel for pulps that it's going for.

18. Reyn. I'd read more of Adama Strange/ Cosmic Girl. If I ever want to take up lounging, I could maybe read an issue of Shade. But it's not likely.

19. Legion. More sitting around in Carnage. A crossover with Shade is imminent. The Legion are facing something...well... bright. Possibly involving Mr T's T-Spheres. But at least there's chance of me opening to cover to find out what the bright thing is. Oh, and points for the Thomas Dolby cover text.

20. Care Bears. I've mentally replaced all those Per Degaton covers and Secret Wars ones with a care bear in the middle. The plot in the Marvel ones improves too as an added bonus.