Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Eighteens: Engage!

With a nod (or liquor bottle fling) to a certain anniversary that is upon us, let us examine the Eighteens. You know, like we did with the Elevens, Twelves, Eights, Tens, and Twenty-Nines

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


1. TEEN TITANS vs. NEW TEEN TITANS




2. HEX vs. MADAME XANADU




3. JOE PALOOKA vs. GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY




4. OMAHA THE CAT DANCER vs. CRIME AND JUSTICE

1. Teen Titans
2. Madame Xanadu
3. Joe Palooka
4. "Omaha" The Cat Dancer

Yay! One of my favourite threads! Thanks Teeds!

1. Teen Titans
Starting off with a tough one. I used to hear a lot about the previous Starfire appearing in #18 of the first series. It was ages before I got my mittens on it. The Perez cover has loads of detail, and he's the better cover artist. It has threat, it has dynamic captions. It gets a smile for having a damsel in distress on the cover, when said damsel is the one Titan most capable of kicking Red Star's butt. It gets bonus points for adding in that Starfire name connection the two have. BUT I love the way the original uses the shape of the subway tunnel to fit the logo and the text. There's similarly dynamic captioning, and the Titans are similarly running in to help. Kid Flash is an important character in both stories. There are elements of the Perez cover that are a homage to the original.

2. Madame Xanadu
Radioactive, post-apocalyptic and weird supernatural creations. Proper mutants for books with prominent "X"s on their logos. Lots of layers on both covers. Hex is doing what he does. I initially saw just the one body, but there's more on there. I thought he was having a fight in a luggage compartment at first. It might be the last Hex story, but there's more immediate threat on the Xanadu one, as its the main character under there. The Queen of Pentacles is an interesting card to have on there. I'm curious just to find out more about that. "Destined to become a classic" was something I thought Giffen had put onto covers as a laugh. Destined for the bargain bin. I got some of the earlier issues of Xanadu but I don't think I read them. Time to dig them out.

3. Joe Palooka
The art is far more advanced on the Guardians cover. It has the racoon on it, and you get to see the team. But that's about it. Is it a valentine's issue where we get to see their private lives. No idea. It's undermined by the "Come and gut your love" caption. None of them look likely to live up to that, and I've no idea who the threat would be. We get to see all of Jo's cast too. But it's the whirlwind effect with the hearts that makes all the difference. It's an invite into something with much more pace, fun and emotional depth.

4. Omaha the Cat Dancer
"Uh oh. It's the fuzz." "Actually, it's fur, ma'am." Someone showing a glum faced cast his badge collection might not have the same impact if readers don't know who anyone is. My guess is it's the vice squad. But over in Crime and Justice, we have a really rubbish crook. Bad enough to even want to gun down the law, but to not even get a shot off as they burst open the door, and target him, is particularly lame. I'm not sure how the cop doesn't shoot the detective who busts the door in either. I think bad carpentry is to blame for the door being really weak. It loses points for poor craftsmanship.

Oooh, same picks as EDE.

1. TEEN TITANS! Wow! The lines and angles of the tracks, platform, and logo sky/roof put you off kilter, just like Kid Flash -- look at his not-quite-fleet feet. THEN you notice Bomb Voyage there, AND get the text setup (which kind of looks like ad posters) AND HEY the rest of the Titans are there too! Plus, you know, oncoming train. NTT a nice image but it just don't compare.

2. MADAME XANADU. I'm fine with mega-shambles, but I can't quite figure out Hex. Two bodies are in the foreground & Hex's size means he's further back -- so is this through a building or what? MX is easier to 'see' (and I suspect that it might be figurative rather than literal, but Hex is most likely literal) and I like the coloring and finishes more.

3. JOE PALOOKA. Joe P is the whole package. Guardians cover 'unresolved' and by that I don't mean enticingly mysterious. The play on the title of the very excellent Redbone song (that is now linked to GOTG and Star-Lord in particular) works with the images how? I'm more annoyed than intrigued.

4. CRIME AND JUSTICE. That's the morals-endangering Omaha the Cat Dancer? It looks like Det. Dawg has temporarily interrupted a Sunday cribbage league while canvassing for information about neighborhood car prowls or something. Just not very interesting to someone who doesn't know the story. (The lettering is very nice though.) Crime and Justice is iffy -- did he just shoot an unarmed man for no reason the reader can discern?

5. JUGHEAD'S JOKES vs. JOSIE




6. IRON MAN vs. BLUE BEETLE




7. BATMAN & ROBIN ADVENTURES vs. BATMAN ADVENTURES




8. LOVE AND ROMANCE vs. HAUNTED

5. Josie
Crumbs. Another toughie. Both with good jokes and poking fun at art in the background. Cool fashion details in both too. There's a hint of Woozy in Jughead's pocket. But I'm going for Josie as it's got the funnier picture over the logo.

6. Blue Beetle
Iron Man's trying to push my Fritz Lang buttons. But the sky writing is coming from the spotlights and not his hand. Which means he's looking at his hand as though a bird just pooed in it. Doesn't look as though they retrofutured the armour much, so it's all background fluff there. Perhaps unintentionally, the Beetle cover captures the warped architectural perspectives of German expressionism. It's closer to Metropolis than the pic grab on Iron Man's cover. It's a cover that knows the city as a living character, showing us danger as well as design. Classic Beetle pose too. No bird is going to poo on his armour! (that might have been his early battle cry).

7. Batman Adventures
Batman and Robin Adventures has a great idea. A Joker who's run out of fun. He's central and the paraphernalia around him reinforces the joke. BUT the other one is all slinky, shadow movement. The two, perhaps caught in a searchlight, automatically going in opposite directions to remove the threat. The Batman logo is nicer too, as good as the other font is.

8. Haunted
Oh, get over yourself Love and Romance. Try wearing less of those opaque nighties as a first step in your quest to appear less appealing. I'd date, and possibly have done, the tentacled horror on the front of Haunted. Sure, there may be some eating habits, but who's perfect? Not Miss Moan Face in Love and Romance. I'd much rather hear about "worlds I've devoured" than "me, me, me, me." The extra points Haunted gets for cool space helmets and ray guns are utterly cancelled out by the pointless imp doing a surfer gesture on the top left. What's that about? You don't summon a tentacled horror to a date. You ask it nicely or just pinch Doctor Strange's tinder account.

5. JOSIE. Both very good, but Josie takes it for the varied pop/op art images -- and for Melody getting Bean Soup food for thought!

6. IRON MAN. Blue Beetle himself flying and the bit to the right are fine -- but the crooked-looking (vis-a-vis the other side) left is EXPLODING INTO FLAMES and BB is ignoring it. Or caused it? Quasars? Iron Man would be better if it didn't have the confusion over whether or not the hand has anything to do with the projection. Lines from the background indicate it doesn't.

7. BATMAN AND ROBIN ADVENTURES. The other one is standard posing, could be on pretty much any cover from the series. Over on B&RA, though, the cover image could stand independent as a character study, but gives you a hint at what's inside.

8. LOVE AND ROMANCE. Now, I feel sorry for the gal in pink on the right, because not only is she haunted by some bro-ghost but in some genre confusion the annoying neighbors are playing space-laser tag or some damn thing. It's a bit too much. Weirdly enough, L&R also has too many elements but it seems to work. But don't worry, Miss, you're in a Charlton comic. Your worries will be over soon.

9. PHANTOM LADY vs. SPIDEY




10. I, VAMPIRE vs. IMMORTAL IRON FIST




11. RUSE vs. REX MUNDI




12. ADVENTURES OF DEAN MARTIN AND JERRY LEWIS vs. JUSTICE

13. ALL-STAR SQUADRON vs. DARING ADVENTURES




14. ACTION COMICS vs. ALL-AMERICAN COMICS




15. ZOT! vs. DARKSTARS




16. CALIBER PRESENTS vs. YOUNG LIARS

1. Teen Titans
2. Madame Xanadu
3. Joe Palooka
4. "Omaha" The Cat Dancer
5. Josie
6. Blue Beetle
7. Batman Adventures
8. Love & Romance
9. Phantom Lady
10. Iron Fist
11. Rex Mundi
12. Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis
13. All Star Squadron
14. All American
15. Zot
16. Young lIars

9. Phantom Lady
Fox's Phantom Lady goes all Attack of the 50' Woman. There are two types of smoking on these covers, and I'm going for Phants.

10. I Vampire
It's a shell of Iron Fist on his cover, and that reduces the threat. Blood is pretty central to I, Vampire and there's no telling whose has been spilled on that cover. While both have their blood right in the middle, only I Vampire has it going right past the logo.

11. Rex Mundi
While I could have got Ruse past my mum by saying "Well, at least it's not Phantom Lady" the symbolism all over the Rex Mundi cover gets the win. I was buying both of these, but I don't recall either cover.

12. Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis
Jerry putting the "I-Fell" into "Eiffel" Justice is pretty gloomy and the cover is saying that his future is jumping into a crater. Maybe the Mole Men stole Pittsburgh?

13. Daring Adventures
While it's great to see Thor throw away his A-Ha records for the Maracca, the great perspective on the Daring cover gives you an origin in a single picture. "I have chosen you, Jim Randall, to be the Human Atlas! You will give up science and go door to door selling maps!"

14. Action Comics
Tough one. Both have that great logo and background. Both have a lot of detail. It's a great pic of Alan Scott too. But the lines on the plane in Action, splitting the cover just edges it.

15. Zot!
There's lots to like on the Darkstars cover. Split into thee horizontals, giving us rooftops, a battle in the sky and possibly the reason why they are fighting at the top. Nice moody colouring and geometrical power effects. But the Zot cover is something special.

16. Young Liars
Clown nose is also a planet. Simple. No need to crucify yourself over it, like the pretentious Caliber one is trying to do.

9. Ugh, this one! Spidey pretty solid, although not a standout to me. (Also, I think Kingpin needs a little more fiber in his diet, but that's neither here nor there.) Phantom Lady is the real problem here. That's MATT BAKER, people. But...it doesn't do much for me. The figures in PL's hands are well-done, but it looks like a domestic argument and do I really want to read a comic about that? But look, this is billed as True Crime, so is this a domestic MURDER? Looking up the issue and the subsequent "quick" google search in fact dropped me into an internet wormhole akin to #12 below. But that too is neither here nor there, as the setup is judging on cover merits alone. So, SPIDEY...but the other cover adds many new dimensions to judgment by cover or otherwise.

10. I, VAMPIRE. It took me a minute or two to figure out what was happening on the Iron Fist cover. No such issue over on I, V.

11. RUSE. Cover lady (I've read the issue but don't remember it) fills up the cover by herself, but the extras (and the castle) help frame her. I think over at Rex Mundi the background stuff works counter to cover lady's movement. Also, I just like the finishing style of Ruse a bit more.

12. ADVENTURES OF DEAN MARTIN AND JERRY LEWIS. Both are solid images for what they are. But I have to choose, so Justice's demerits for not-great title and corner ad coloring sink it.

13. ALL-STAR SQUADRON. Page-filling action vs. wasted yardage and yapping.

14. ACTION COMICS. They aren't funning with that title. The lines! And even though the (very sharp) title takes up a lot of space, the green plane flies in front of it (without obscuring it, nice piloting). A-AC has the visual interest of the NY World's Fair, but what is going on there? Is the plane shooting at the Trylon and Perisphere, or the other way around? Is the World's Fair flooded?

15. ZOT! No movement, yet movement!

16. YOUNG LIARS. I like that the "cruel world" saying is maybe being subverted by...living on a different world? (And I'll admit I didn't get the nose/planet until Thothy pointed it out.) Also the other one is kinda gross/"edgy".

17. FAIREST vs. DARKWING DUCK



18. WALT DISNEY'S DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES vs. JUGHEAD




19. HAWKEYE vs. AGE OF BRONZE




20. L.E.G.I.O.N. '90 vs. STAR WARS

17. Darkwing Duck
The laughter with the malevolent eyes gets the points. It's a Disney comic so the Vertigo one should be making more of an impact. Good colour coordination between logo and pic for both.

18. Donald Duck Adventures
Donald is scarier than either of the covers in 17. The persuasive, menacing face is more than a match for consumer duck. Jughead gets points for fashion, the poses of the people around him and for providing Guardians with the heart design they would later rip off for #3.


19. Age of Bronze
The crisp design of Hawkeye is like a puzzle. Having an espionage character in it just adds to that. Really well drawn and a great palette. But it's cold, and lacks the immediate threat that boids of prey on a synchronised pooing run has. The gun in red on Hawkeye, just loses out to having the boid's merge into the background colours on Age of Bronze.

20. Star Wars
C3P0 does a great job posing for the cover of Crisis #7. But it years away for him, and there's a lot of things in the background. The Stormtoopers provide a frame, but there's skyscrapers, a space scape and a HUGE LOGO! in there too. But at least it's a scene. The LEGION cover is too posed. We have a space villain (with evil grin at no extra charge), a team pic with Maguire's usual flourish and attacking space ships. Perhaps the ships are really that size, on loan from the Micronauts or General Jumbo. Having Luke as a damsel in distress gives the win to Infantino.

21. THE SPIRIT vs. BATMAN AND THE OUTSIDERS




22. WONDER COMICS vs. ALL TOP




23. PLANETARY vs. SAM AND TWITCH




24. DESERT PEACH vs. GHOST RIDER

17. DARKWING DUCK. I agree with Thoth on all points.

18. WALT DISNEY'S DONALD DUCK ADVENTURES. Donald doesn't need any words for this cover to get its point across.

19. AGE OF BRONZE. If I'd seen this cover in a shop? 100% chance I would have picked it up. That tone-on-tone (of a difficult color) and the yellow (and white) touches are excellent. Overall: so striking.

20. STAR WARS. A LOT of text/trade dress elements work here because they serve to box in Our Heroes. THE EMPIRE STRIKES! is written like Ep IV's famous opening crawl...which narrows the top of the box.

21. THE SPIRIT. Nicely fits in 3 elements. BATO ...feels like I am missing something. So what if some unknown person is pointing at an old drawing/painting/whatever? Is that supposedly Metamorpho or something? Now I'm annoyed.

22. DANG IT!! Wonder is so gloriously Golden Age (with great art -- let's face it, not all of it was golden) and COMIC BOOK-Y in the best way. But All-Top has has such beautiful finishing, and possibly better visual flow. WONDER COMICS, but they're both tops.

23. SAM AND TWITCH. Maybe I'd like Planetary if I knew what the 'vintage photo' was, or meant.

24. DESERT PEACH. But that logo...ugh!

21. The Spirit.
The Outsiders cover looks like it's sand, but it's really supposed to be parchment. But it loses all points as those hands are going straight for the Pharoah's man boobs. I don't recall cleavers being that prevalent in ancient Egypt, but it's not surprising that the Spirit can't get a break, even on a mural. I should really pick up some issues of this for my dad as he likes Aragones a lot. It might just be a Groo thing though.

22. All Top
"Excuse me Lady. Can you tell me the way to the city...arrgh! I've been stabbied! Did you see that?! She stabbied me! Fer nothin'" Poor alien attacked by two Fencing Overenthusiasts...of Space! The evil look on All-Top is more than enough for the win. Nice costume details. The lady rescues herself after the guy falls down those stairs. Don't run on the stairs!

23. Planetary
On Sam & Twitch our protagonists are beginning to regret the seemingly simple task of delivering ammo to a G. Allon at Weisinger Plaza. On Parade Your Gun Parade Day too. Those heels look a pain to be with. And then there are her shoes. Planetary gets points for the ageing of the cover image that taps into the time of Victorian exploration (and often stupidity).

24. Ghost Rider
Wins for the logo and for the mild interest in why the jacket hasn't caught fire. Is it a supernatural jacket? Is there a tailor for such items? Will the jacket have its own series, since Marvel have been happy to publish anything in the past? Mild interest. They should really have gone with the resurrection thing on the cover, if that's going to be the story.

So....I have to be the one to talk about the elephant in the room! DW's so-called "eyes"----don't they look kinda like a bra or bikini top feeled with large boobs? I mean LOOK!

What Lardy has to do is pick one cover per matchup. You can talk bikini tops if you want -- but no ties.

If they have no ties, then the tops will fall do...oh, like he even needs encouragement

Hooks exist. Right and left. Is that enough encouragement?

Is that a hook back on topic?

25. CLASSICS ILLUSTRATED vs. CLASSIC COMICS




26. MIDNIGHT TALES vs. BLONDE PHANTOM




27. FURY OF FIRESTORM vs. CAPTAIN ATOM




28. ATARI FORCE vs. TRANSFORMERS

25. CLASSIC COMICS. Action!

26. BLONDE PHANTOM. While I very much appreciate Midnight Tales' humorous cover approach, BP front and center/ her outstretched arm/the light in the elevator make BP pop.

27. FIRESTORM.

28. ATARI FORCE. This is a battle of the backgrounds -- different style, but both well done.

25. Classic Comics
Two giant Quasimodos threatening Notre Dame? Or Two normal sized Quasimodos with a keen interest in model making? Classic Comics gets the points for having the closest thing to a scene in it. Quasimodo helping or hindering the forces arriving to get Esmerelda. I don't remember the big goat scene in the hunchback. I guess the over artist has mistakenly added The Goat of Riems, Victor Hugo's less successful moves where a goat rises to the pinnacle of the medieval church.

26. Blonde Phantom
Covers only, so not recollections of Midnight Tales being really dull or that I think I had one of them really early on in my back issues boxes. It's a decent enough cover, with a laugh and a mix of genres with the ogre, recurring hosts (I think?) and space globe (or one of those infamous Ogre Lift Discos). But it doesn't have the anger, jealousy and shooty/stabby threat that's all over the Blonde Phantom. How's the Phantom going to get out of this? And where there's a question, you have a potential reader.

27. Firestorm
There's not much difference between the jaw of the "have you seen this man" poster and Cap. I think the pic is meant to be Ealing. But it could easily be Cap before the event that gave him his powers. The World Comics Health Organisation puts character deaths by smoking just below death by time travel accident, but still miles below death by falling rubble from superhero fights. WHile Cap shows off his Broderick steroid muscles by ripping up a bit of paper, Ronnie and the Prof are being shrunk by Bug of Bug and Byte. It took me a moment to realise that was all supposed to be circuitry. Then to remember the villain and figure out that Firestorm is going all Tron. So, it's not leaping out at me. But it clearly shows that our hero is going to have more than the paper cut threatening Cap.

28. Atari Force
Why? Well that's Garcia Lopez on the art chores. What? More? Well, it's a Tempest spotlight as his loyalty is torn between Dart and Commander Grimtache. Or he's teleported into a weird world of psionic head tennis. Transformers has an interesting background, with lots going on. But I just feel sorry for the robots. Blaster will always have to take his gun into close combat. He'll never get to put it down and call himself Stabbybot in a fight. Inside, I imagine the sad tale of a robot who, like so many of us, was stuck in a particular role. I'm not sad enough to give it the win though.