"For all my powers, I could not save _____": An image thread

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-LOvIGqJ8MfY/VMhO2viX-4I/AAAAAAABHZs/mQqim0bxNsE/s1600/21490.jpg

there's gotta be more of these

slight variation
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090105230059/marvel_dc/images/0/0e/Green_Lantern_Vol_2_180.jpg

Fuck, I can almost picture like fifty of these.

this has gotta count, right?
http://metropolisplus.com/Supergirl/SupergirlCrisis1.jpg

and this is another gold standard of the trope:
http://members.tranquility.net/%7Ebenedict/spiderman121.jpg

I think Emma Frost might have one of these in the issue where she swaps brains with Iceman and realizes that for all her powers, she could not save the Hellions from all being pointlessly slaughtered in a shit Whilce Portacio story.

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081222025444/marvel_dc/images/a/a0/Flash_v.1_305.jpg

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081222030129/marvel_dc/images/7/7f/Flash_v.1_336.jpg

ooh that's a good one

that is a very awkward vibrating hand.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-siN_pCe0to0/TcMhlBn55TI/AAAAAAAAF9E/88sBI0h9rlo/s1600/Aquaman-%25281962%2529-62.jpg

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/supermankills4.jpg

and this oldie but goodie
http://imageserver.moviepilot.com/cov3-superhero-psas-fighting-the-good-fight.jpeg

Superman/Pa Kent is maybe the classic version of this, been done many times. In the movie: "All those things I can do. All those powers. And I couldn't even save him. I was looking to see how John Byrne drew it in Man of Steel but - of course - he thought it was a drag and decided Jonathan Kent would just stay alive.

I can't find an image of that from a comic is the weird thing - the movie seems to be referenced way more often

http://media.comicbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/superman-jonathan-kent-heart-attack.jpg

also, it's not a perfect fit her but LOL 70's DC
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pu6Gmejl5j0/UoA2BwE-S4I/AAAAAAAAr3s/vgpQjKcqphI/s1600/img099.jpg

lol

here's a recent-looking one -

http://media.comicbook.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/superman-jonathan-kent-deathbed.jpg

haha wtf at that suicide one! that is fucking dark!

Jonathan Kent is almost strangled by a rope, vines, and a garden hose, and tells Superboy the attacks are a manifestation of the Kent family curse. A 16th century ancestor, judge Julian Kent, handed out a death sentence to a poacher, who cursed a member of the Kent family to die once every 50 years on the anniversary of his hanging. The attempts are secretly being made by the Phantom Zone villains, who focus their mental powers on a metal head from the “weird ESP planet” of Psyk, which enables them to telekinetically control the objects that almost strangled Jonathan Kent. But even after Superboy destroys the Psyk head, he later has to save his foster father from being strangled by a metal cable--just before the curse is lifted at midnight.

like if you think morrison is opaque and bizarre, you should really look at the source material

that is so great, dying over here. a lot more people were under terrible mystical curses in the 70s.

jesus between the cover and the description that is one of the best ILC finds ever

And here's the next ish, where things get back to reality

http://www.newkadia.com/Covers/L/S/Superboy%201949%20series/superboy1949series190.jpg

looks boring, what was Superbaby up to in that issue

no superbaby, just an LoSH backup but man, the description of that story

Clark Kent takes a summer job as a counselor at Camp Bravo and, as Superboy, discovers the children there are being hypnotized into searching for hidden Civil War gold chests in tunnels beneath Dwarf Mountain.

i don't mean to threadjack but my god, superboy in the early 70's
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111160212/marvel_dc/images/a/a8/Superboy_Vol_1_191.jpg

and, in an utterly unrelated storyline, we get this!

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111160215/marvel_dc/images/4/48/Superboy_Vol_1_194.jpg

just a few more:
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111155800/marvel_dc/images/4/42/Superboy_Vol_1_175.jpg
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/3125/428273-sboy177.jpg
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111155901/marvel_dc/images/8/81/Superboy_Vol_1_179.jpg
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090111155902/marvel_dc/images/d/d4/Superboy_Vol_1_180.jpg

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superboy/164-1.jpg

not quite as grim as the hanging one, but still

"and it's all my/your fault!" seems to be fairly common on these old dc books

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superboy/151-1.jpg

christ, someone stop him

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/superboy/169-14.jpg

http://superdickery.tumblr.com/

Superbly is kind of a clumsy oaf

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/3664/251242-19154-119470-1-superboy.jpg

okay, that one is a literal LOL, what the teetotal fuck

http://blogs.evtrib.com/nerdvana/files/2013/07/Superboy167.jpg

they did a superboy wolfpack cover TWICE
http://www.newkadia.com/Covers/L/S/Superboy%201949%20series/superboy1949series116.jpg

i can't even
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v416/foldedsoup/Blog/AC_0251_web.jpg

tbf that's a shop of course
http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20130323010351/marvel_dc/images/3/39/Adventure_Comics_251.jpg

Synopsis for "Superboy's First Mission"
At a time in which Superboy has received his costume, but has still not received parental permission to start his Superboy career, the Kents pay a visit to the Crowleys, who have bought their old farm. Unknown to them, the Crowleys are nuclear scientists who are being held prisoner by a spy named Lobko, who is in search of their energy pills. Clark becomes Superboy and frees the Crowleys, but they are struck by flying concrete and later believe the “flying boy” they saw was a dream. Lobko takes one of the pills and disintegrates. When Superboy later refuses to tell his parents about the nuclear secrets he discovered in the case, Jonathan Kent judges him worthy of becoming Superboy.

https://goo.gl/maps/viQ7i

Also, sorry derail derail http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20090108155134/marvel_dc/images/5/5d/Animal_Man_Vol_1_39.jpg

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/green-lantern-1960/71-1.jpg

The thing that's such a drag is that I'm 95% sure all of these comics would be boring as hell to read, at least based on my experience with random old Legion comics with similarly batshit premises. Like, the pencils and the layouts and the script never goes half as far into batshit territory as those great covers. The latter, though... I mean, I'd get a poster of that one with the blind guy.

That Neal Adams car crash cover is beautiful

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_small/0/3664/251242-19154-119470-1-superboy.jpg

I love the subtle ableism in this one: "Of course someone with normal eyesight could stop a tornado, but how can a blind person do it?! Read to find out!"

Good old skool ILC thread this.

THIS is the "your power cannot save them" cover that i couldn't quite remember and it's a doozy

http://https%3A//comiclists.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/heroes-against-hunger.jpg

with a special Stephen King writer credit iirc

http://comiclists.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/heroes-against-hunger.jpg

if we wanted to keep going on the LOL DC Covers, there's the treasure trove of Lois Lane, which vacillates between bondage and... well, there's a lot of bondage
http://www.comicbookdaily.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/ll73cover.jpg

http://bargaincomicreviews.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/lois_lane_1331.jpg
http://www.comics101.com/guestlecturer//images/view.php%3Fsrc%3D../news/Guest%20Lecturer/64/11lois.jpg%26w%3D
http://www.comicbookbrain.com/_imagery/2014-09-03/lois-lane-129-cover-bob-oksner.jpg
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081220201926/marvel_dc/images/7/70/Lois_Lane_122.jpg
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081220201822/marvel_dc/images/c/cd/Lois_Lane_120.jpg

dying @ the lady is a bomb!

oh man how did I forget that Heroes Against Hunger cover

Batman just standing there doing fuck all.

somehow i missed this era of Lois Lane bondage covers

take it to the Lois Lane Bondage thread guys

okay, here's the best of them imo
http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/lois-lane/102-1.jpg

"when you're dead, you're dead!"

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/lois-lane/112-1.jpg

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/lois-lane/135-1.jpg

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/lois-lane/88-1.jpg

the dog

I love that there is a least three batshit things about every cover. No single-issue batshittery here.

To redress slightly, I think these are all fucking great.

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081229160125/marvel_dc/images/c/c0/Superman_v.1_417.jpg
http://clzimages.com/comic/large/1a/1a_2796_0_ActionComics571MissiontoEarth.jpg
http://covers.cbrd.info/86faedcb61befc19ee3df59584839ce2_l.jpg

And

http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081229155858/marvel_dc/images/0/04/Superman_v.1_410.jpg

Superman 422 is very much all time.

loving all the DC batshit but yeah maybe should be its own thread, i do love the idea of being able to open this one up on days when i'm feeling cocky with all my amazing powers, getting some perspective, all that

And what might your amazing powers be, Doctor Casino?

this thread has just turned into Po-Faced #3 is all

The Po-Faced Absurdity of DC Comics (picture thread)
Po-Faced Absurdity of DC Comics, Part 2: Son of Po-Face

yeah that wasn't really what I was going for - it's not like the title trope is unique to DC

as evidenced by the v first post

it happened organically

for all our powers, we couldn't keep the thread on topic

https://themiddlespaces.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/putthingsright-asm70.jpg

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/thor/256-1.jpg

this one is only four issues later

http://www.coverbrowser.com/image/thor/260-1.jpg

awesome

http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20051107154935/marveldatabase/images/5/59/Tales_to_Astonish_Vol_1_75.jpg

seems characteristic of Marvel to go the more self-absorbed route:
http://www.cyberattic.com/stores/pasttreasures/items/360646/catphoto.jpg

i think these final panels from daredevil 7 by lee and wood are an interesting variation or inversion of the kind of the thing this thread is getting at - ie what 'value' are superpowers - or, for what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul etc etc. stan is telling his readers, hey kids, courage and determination are more important than any silly superpower.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/Panel-2.JPG

I can't get over the kitschy bad-taste of that Heroes Against Hunger cover. did that 'marvel superheros react to 9/11' book have one of these?

they had crying911doom.jpeg
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/doom-crying.jpg

stay on topic here kids (Marvel had Heroes for Hope - which was just as bad in content, altho the cover was standard "Wolverine is a badass" nonsense)

what 'value' are superpowers - or, for what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul

tbh I was thinking of it more in a Greek-tragedy sort of context, ie you are fucked no matter what you do or how badass you think you are, the universe is a merciless clockwork and you are just a pawn

"Not all my power can save..." is such a weird (and repeated!) construction compared to "All my powers cannot save..."

Not to be prosaic and such

if there's one thing Stan Lee is good at, it's mangling syntax

back on topic
http://archive.facetasm.com/bundles/bilderundworte/uploads/catalog/product/110001/item110814.1.thumb.300.jpg

I hate it when diseases won't die

http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/0/3125/317691-18006-124072-1-world-s-finest-comic.jpg

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/236x/d7/9b/c5/d79bc56c2eed2109d1bcf424bde0b532.jpg

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081101124342/marveldatabase/images/thumb/2/27/Incredible_Hulk_Special_Vol_1_4.jpg/300px-Incredible_Hulk_Special_Vol_1_4.jpg

lol what's up with that phrase and that character, you'd think it'd at least be "NOT ALL HULK'S POWER CAN SAVE HULK!"

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/JLIXx7Zw0rE/hqdefault.jpg

"NOT ALL HULK'S POWER CAN SAVE HULK!"

lol

had detailed discussion w my wife last night about the difference between Hulk and Bizarro syntax

"Bizarro Hulk has excellent syntax, thanks for asking."

this is not quite the same thing but feels related

http://www.newkadia.com/Covers/S/A/Action%20Comics%201938%20series/actioncomics385.jpg

ok, i love that.

in the future, all doctors are white guys and they still use head mirrors for some reason

late to this but is that Aquaman cover upthread Aparo? somehow it doesn't all quite come together into a visually striking design but so many elements of it are wonderful

yup: http://dc.wikia.com/wiki/Aquaman_Vol_1_62

Aquaman and Mera are each about 13 heads high

just realised I don't think I've ever read a comic with Mera in it but I wrote her name without thinking

for all my powers, I could recall her

Love the 60s Aquamans by Aparo and Steve Skeates, amongst the most formally inventive of all Silver Age DCs eg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_0aF72ivaEJI/TDlIyF5YdCI/AAAAAAAAEVA/LT2MEJpq0U0/s400/Aqua%252053%2520Splash%25202.jpg

pencilled, inked and lettered by Aparo.

wow, that's cool. when i started reading comics as a kid in the mid-to-late 80s, i was buying new batman comics which aparo was drawing alongside british reprints of older batman stories he'd drawn too, so his version of batman is pretty essential to me.

Gotta love the fact that even when Mera is berating her husband for the death of their child, she still calls him "Aquaman".

weirder still is that their kid was also known as 'aquababy' according to that wiki page

how is aquababby formed

Chewed up aquababby parts squashed between aquaman and aquawoman.

fish paste

Someone I know was Aparo's inker for a while - said his pencilled pages always smelled of cigar smoke!

i always imagined kirby's would too

Aparo's art is still the default "what a DC comic looks like" image in my head

DC's super hero line did kind of have a bit of a house look as they had a core group of artists that drew the books for years. It was a cleaner style and they were much tighter on enforcing character guides. I think the best artists in DC's usual line worked on the war and mystery books.

"DC super hero style"
Jim Aparo
Dick Dillin
Mike Sekowsky
Carmine Infantino
Irv Novick
Jim Mooney
Curt Swan
Kurt Schaffenberger

Obviously Joe Kubert was also one of DC's best artists, but he did Sgt. Rock, Tarzan and outside of Hawkman or covers, didn't do as much super hero comics. Kubert's style is also very much him and totally not that clean line look like the others above.

Always hated that house style stuff. Marvel ended up getting it too when some artists were pushed to look more like Romita and Kirby.

It's not that these artists are really bad because most were pretty skilled. Never understood Wayne Boring, Curt Swan, Al Plastino fans. I've seen so many people praise Aparo too but I don't get that either. I do like Kubert, Toth, Nick Cardy, Frank Thorne, Neal Adams, Frank Robbins, Ramona Fradon.

He only did the darker superheroes but I think Jerry Grandenetti is very underrated. Has a wonky charm (some of the anatomy is just way too bad to work though). His later commission work was even more eccentric.
http://web.archive.org/web/20080520172343/http://www.jergrand.com/index.php

What?! Plastino and Boring are incredible. So clean.

A lot of the love for Aparo, mine included, comes at least in part from the guy's ubiquity. 10 years on Brave & the Bold, then Batman and the Outsiders, then Batman during peak-Batmania. (not to mention defining runs on the Spectre and Aquaman). A steady hand on the rudder, contrasted during my fanboy heyday by Breyfogle's wilder Detective art.

Yeah, same here: my first serious comics collectings were Batman Aparo (everyone looking oddly timeless and muscly and as though they were should be wearing checked caps and smoking cigars even when they weren't) and Detective Breyfogle (lovely, sketchy underappreciated stuff)

dude did a breakdown of the damsel carried by monster/hero trope
http://www.retrospace.org/search/label/carry

i am digging the cheesecake/sleaze vibe of that blog

"I'm too late!" is kissing cousin to "For all my powers"
http://cache.coverbrowser.com/image/green-lantern-1960/95-1.jpg

The one Marvelism that has always puzzled me is "...IN A WORLD HE NEVER MADE!" Apparently it's a line pinched from A.E. Houseman, but how this relates to the plights of Dr Strange and Howard The Duck is still somewhat oblique.

https://p.gr-assets.com/540x540/fit/hostedimages/1383939213/6709953.jpg
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-nWhwv-6S5c8/UVmEIfau8nI/AAAAAAAB4BY/DktNoywlV6k/s1600/Howard+the+Duck+01+-+00+-+FC.jpg

someone on another message board speculates it may have come to marvel via this 1950s sci-fi story

http://images.yuku.com.s3.amazonaws.com/image/jpeg/4ef36b4e55f02396344655848725b3b22737a0f5.jpg

that is one giant woman

busty giantesses something of a specialty for Amazing Stories cover artists

haha, yeah, i always struggled to parse "a world he never made," figuring it had to somehow be a pun or something, given its association with Howard the Duck.

do any other Marvelisms feature prominently in rock songs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOAdhIWpgk8

Ha, that makes me realize that "Waitin' For A Superman" is basically a magnificent re-rendering of these covers in ballad form.

The strapline from the new series, "Trapped in a world he's grown accustomed to", is sadly the only good thing about it

This sorta fits into the "too late" meme - either way I just love this cover

http://cache.coverbrowser.com/image/superman/408-1.jpg

Bonus points for creeeeepy doll

Housman is pretty bummed about the world he never made:

The laws of God, the laws of man,
He may keep that will and can;
Not I: let God and man decree
Laws for themselves and not for me;
And if my ways are not as theirs
Let them mind their own affairs.
Their deeds I judge and much condemn,
Yet when did I make laws for them?
Please yourselves, say I, and they
Need only look the other way.
But no, they will not; they must still
Wrest their neighbour to their will,
And make me dance as they desire
With jail and gallows and hell-fire.
And how am I to face the odds
Of man's bedevilment and God's?
I, a stranger and afraid
In a world I never made.
They will be master, right or wrong;
Though both are foolish, both are strong.
And since, my soul, we cannot fly
To Saturn nor to Mercury,
Keep we must, if keep we can,
These foreign laws of God and man.

feel compelled to make a Legion of Super-Heroes/A Shropshire Lad joke but can't quite get there

The Houseman is very Jack Kirby if you just add an exclamation point to the end of each line.

The laws of God, the laws of man!
He may keep that will and can!
Not I: let God and man decree!
Laws for themselves and not for me!
Gone! Gone! -- the form of man --
Rise, the Demon Etrigan!!

A+

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xsIrDo19itU/VSL1MEz_P7I/AAAAAAABI1s/MPoGAmi4ixU/s1600/Marvel%2BTeam%2BUp%2B061-01.jpg

That does not look like a Byrne page!

Sloppy secret-ID security to refer to himself by govt name out loud.

huh I hadn't noticed but yeah that really doesn't look like Byrne does it

WHAT A MESS!

http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7136/7509105030_4a5b2cd4e8_c.jpg

that cover is one of those panels that if you try to imagine in what order the action and the dialogue take place, your brain will break

like did he see ulik running down the street at him and he just planted his thor self in front of a truck and soliloquized and at the end ulik rams him into a truck
or is he micromachining through the dialogue as ulik rams him
does he get halfway through the speech and then ulik connects and he just screams the rest as he's flying through a truck
we just can't know

this particular phrasing seems almost entirely limited to Marvel, like it was just a stock phrase approved for use by editors

He gets rammed between the round balloon and the spiky balloon, obviously. "Oh, Ulik's back" RAM "Oh shit, I'm in trouble."

Who is Ulik, BTW?

classic kirby baddie
http://i388.photobucket.com/albums/oo326/OneDumbG0/Thor%20Fights/ThorvsUlik01137.jpg

RE: the Byrne Marvel Team-Up page - well, SOME of it looks like Byrne (especially one of Spidey's legs!) but I'm guessing his pencils weren't that tight, or the whole page was heavily reworked by the John Romita art 'correction' squad. Dave Hunt was Joe Sinnott's long-time assistant, and could also be a fairly dominating inker at times.

http://robot6.comicbookresources.com/2013/11/martin-hands-sketch-a-day-challenge-unleashes-mash-up-mayhem/

Chris Claremont's Marvel Team Up run is a classic Marvel run and one that seems to be a bit under the radar in compilation. I think the story with John Byrne on artwork with Spider-man and Luke Cage saving the people in the building fire is one of the 10-20 best single issues in Marvel comics.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ypEVbxTnmsA/VTwzR7QfrVI/AAAAAAABJMA/6JyspZYvaS4/s1600/19112.jpg

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20051103171303/marveldatabase/images/thumb/4/4d/Iron_Man_Vol_1_193.jpg/300px-Iron_Man_Vol_1_193.jpg

hawkeye's all 'i'm not fighting a fuckin' dinosaur, i'll make tony do it instead'

hawkeye otm tbf

a little tangential but
http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20070918195543/marvel_dc/images/f/f1/Action_Comics_402.jpg
http://www.comicbookbrain.com/_imagery/2012-08-22/bb-158-wonder-woman-aparo-cover.jpg
http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/scale_large/0/4/51711-3816-68542-1-superman.jpg

those are some high-waisted shorts on that last cover

hawkeye's all 'i'm not fighting a fuckin' dinosaur, i'll make tony do it instead'

left his anti-dinosaur-explosive arrows at home by accident

doesn't contain the line but sentiment is there

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Kd4GsjDdbak/VUqsbx4x1fI/AAAAAAABJZE/-IJ5x_oIg1k/s1600/20895.jpg

Nice selection of pieta covers here:

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10153063529589051&type=1

http://www.firstcomicsnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Sonic-136.jpg

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080811190150/marveldatabase/images/4/4f/Marvel_Premiere_Vol_1_9.jpg

Omg emo sonic in his big boots

https://41.media.tumblr.com/33ff497bb87b7e3d9e49b3e7621cc39d/tumblr_nv3v3qZrP91qbgo38o1_540.jpg
Doctor "All My Power" Strange

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AAYZnAn0HLs/ViQ5Al6o3UI/AAAAAAABNvg/zAMYvKJ8BkI/s640/2752.jpg

tv version:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPPZbLB49tw

how could I have forgotten this one, the comic book issue I have owned the longest:

https://images.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=http%3A%2F%2Fhighqualitycomics.com%2Frawpics6%2Finvaders21gbus.jpg&f=1

ha, i like the interthread communication there

the "now you're going to pay!" could be an entirely new thread

https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LDDWqg_EWco/VquiZ7QEydI/AAAAAAABQZs/XLKp3c2EeRg/s640/18303.jpg

this is not really the same thing, but I like it when 60s marvel books have a final panel in which the hero ruminates on his own failings, and sad Iron Man is just killing me

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-LZ2ZuuzjBQQ/UZAh1MWsG0I/AAAAAAAAAhQ/X5qXe7aq4kE/s1600/tumblr_majjd468qI1qm2a7co1_500.jpg

haha that's great

squats go with introspective thinking

i feel like there's 200 of those with spider man

Now I'm imagining 98% of these covers with Scalia and/or John Roberts photoshopped in.

slight variation

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-JQlBqa6ko6o/V1eHN4qF42I/AAAAAAABSmk/gKtc3BbeHVo9x08pQvLbj4ueDasJyf-JQCLcB/s640/3933.jpg

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-C3P_4a09tDE/WDniZPEYoKI/AAAAAAABVUo/GLE76CaArPkECeQcmgruupF3_XY3B2EoQCLcB/s1600/4091.jpg

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-P21g-g-RpVI/WGckkTORDTI/AAAAAAABV5c/mSXLnplZSYMK_4vCkEwFy5yGxj_z2RJFACLcB/s640/21463.jpg

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xn_cghiQRgE/WGckk8WqyoI/AAAAAAABV5k/8JJw0nfPQxcaI8sOO1DzfeEfLRMfXKAagCLcB/s640/25381.jpg

is this panel from Avengers #4 the "For all my powers, I could not save" urtext?

http://imgur.com/5fc33980-0d42-49cc-988c-21be4d524786

http://i.imgur.com/ANeZmQQ.png

haha wow maybe!

missing the tag but sentiment/message is there for sure

https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-at9e-5cW1bo/WMdNlaAOE9I/AAAAAAABWwg/WqGrO6iWx2Y8zlC1QNoD24TaUFaBwrClwCLcB/s640/7729.jpg

academy award for best comic

a message from the mayor of nyc

waht

http://www.printmag.com/wp-content/uploads/g.-FF62.jpg?da32cb

close enough
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FOivK-zbREE/WcxNuojszUI/AAAAAAABZWs/w6C_80utKJANv-pLRwbfPTtEdkeudpzPgCLcBGAs/s640/RCO003_1467789079.jpg

i'll allow it

Young Giffen doing a pretty good Neal Adams impression there.

Can't see a great deal of Adams there myself, and at this stage of his career Giffen was generally more of a Kirby Kopyist (though it's true that throughout the 70s Marvel encouraged their artists to 'emulate' Kirby, while DC encouraged their artists to 'emulate' Adams.)

i can see adams in it, but looks a bit more like joe kubert to me

Well the inker, John Celardo, was an old newspaper strip hand who took over the Green Beret comic strip from... Joe Kubert, so I think that might account for the similarity, more than Giffen's pencils.

close enough
https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_RqQX6TJreU/WzBKLNsqUAI/AAAAAAABeXw/bghAjGIYaUo9wQ6hM_4S8miJ5Iy4CQD2wCLcBGAs/s640/8009.jpg
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-env6Mi6qLlA/WzBKKzHKAKI/AAAAAAABeXo/m7znH1t1QoIyiot_7VpXdqi3fL944oMAgCLcBGAs/s640/3933.jpg

wow, that Hawk & Dove cover is great. went to GCD to see who inked it, and they have it as Ditko, which surely can't be right?

(I agree with their assessment of Gaspar for letters, and the logo looks like him too - wonder if the overall design came from Ditko, Gaspar, or someone inhouse)

That looks like a Ditko to me.

did Ditko not ink his own stuff?

he usually inked his interiors, but the drapery and black-spotting on that cover look more fluid and shadowy than he tended to do, and the varying lineweight on Dove and the top heads is a heavier brush than I think of him doing.

I'm no expert though, and have only seen his stuff in non-reprint form from the 1980s on.

hmm, just saw it full-size at Spurge's, and the inking on the "Don" legs is totally Ditko's shading style

I had no idea that Hawk & Dove went back that far!

They were in Showcase first.

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZAM7HvgXEJ4/Wz2I2D8U3OI/AAAAAAABef4/cYosKpS364Qq1q8hqJ7XqwJvnSDVBkDNQCLcBGAs/s640/18244.jpg

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/60351981_2117804144933758_705667851196825600_n.jpg?_nc_cat=100&_nc_ht=scontent-lht6-1.xx&oh=959612ca58d0676575ae29e90ee9c4a5&oe=5D9EBEAA

^^^^ the alpha and the omega

LOL Gil Kane really loved this pose:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj2tJO7kdXiAhVJURoKHfehAV8QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdc.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FDC_Comics_Presents_Vol_1_56&psig=AOvVaw3h5zmiBqtJArZw8Soug0YI&ust=1559920113591120

https://www.google.com/urlsa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwj2tJO7kdXiAhVJURoKHfehAV8QjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fdc.fandom.com%2Fwiki%2FDC_Comics_Presents_Vol_1_56&psig=AOvVaw3h5zmiBqtJArZw8Soug0YI&ust=1559920113591120

Sorry!

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/marvel_dc/images/c/c5/DC_Comics_Presents_56.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20081219165634

there's a whole page for pieta-style covers
https://www.cbr.com/i-cant-cover-what-i-am-the-best-pieta-covers/

(although i think that one isn't the original)

ah, apologies...

"For all my powers, I could not save _____": An image thread

https://i.annihil.us/u/prod/marvel/i/mg/6/d0/57d951da7236f/clean.jpg

I mean, if I was him I'd be quite keen to get my normal body back too.

Good lord, is that Angel in the top right? That costume...

It's Nighthawk. He was a Batmanesque character iirc, rich dude fighting crime.

From the Squadron Supreme, an alternative reality superteam who were deliberately created as takes on DC heroes, no?

Yeah, Gerber goes to some weird places w that character

Valkyrie’s boob armor is really... something.

The Kyle Richmond/Defenders Nighthawk is an interesting character in that he is a bit of a loser. He wants so bad to be a hero and the "leader" so bad and really just does not have it down. I know one of the endings of the Defenders is that everybody quits and he cannot get anyone to rejoin with him. I can't remember when that story happened, it might have been a newer one.

That character died at the end of Gruenwald's original Squadron Supreme miniseries. I don't know how Marvel brought him back, but I'm sure it was stupid.

it was.

grim and gritty:
http://i.imgur.com/B7gfq2d.png

gave way to grim and grittier:
http://i.imgur.com/BLhnnhx.png

Sometimes I think Marvel went roughly 40 years w out making a decent comic. I kinda hate everything between 1980 and Immortal Hulk.

I found the JMS super-gritty Supreme Power comics to be pretty amusing actually

That character died at the end of Gruenwald's original Squadron Supreme miniseries. I don't know how Marvel brought him back, but I'm sure it was stupid.

The Nighthawk who was a Defenders member was from Squadron Sinister, not Squadron Supreme. Squadron Sinister was introduced first by Roy Thomas as an parallel universe evil version of JLA, and later on he decided to create a heroic parallel universe version of them called Squadron Supreme. But Squadron Supreme mostly stayed in their universe (until it was destroyed), while the evil Nighthawk stayed in ours, reformed and joined the Defenders. He actually died before the Squadron Supreme Nighthawk, who impersonated him for a short while. I can't blame anyone for getting confused by all this.

Was Squadron Supreme an influence on the original Watchmen series?

The 1970s version? No. The 1985 version, published after the earliest Watchmen promotional material? Also no.

(possibly very very faintly inasmuch as they were an earlier example of filing the serial numbers off a bunch of characters, but Moore very obviously had the examples of Kurtzman and Anglo imprinted on his creative psyche before Roy Thomas even entered comics.)

I was thinking more along the lines of "We are the heroes! But are we? Or are we fascists?" plotline, but it's been a decade since I last read Watchmen, and probably two or more since I read Squadron Supreme.

we have a thread for that
Squadron Supreme (Mark Gruenwald) - C or D?

xxxxp Thx, Tuomas -- I missed that distinction

stevie -- besides my great Squadron Supreme thread (thx, ulysses!), see also Alan Moore's comments in this 1987 interview:

MOORE: I think that when Watchmen was first announced everybody assumed that it was going to be Squadron Supreme, the superheroes take over. We never said that. We said that we were going to try to treat them realistically. (...) I think that while people expected that, we’ve not investigated the idea of superheroes as fascists the same way that Frank Miller has in Dark Knight, or the same thing they’ve done in Squadron Supreme. It wasn’t really our intention. Our intention was to show how superheroes could deform the world just by being there, not that they’d have to take it over, just their presence there would make the difference. It’s what we try to show in Watchmen #4. From the point where Dr. Manhattan appears, it slowly starts to go downhill from there — everything starts to change. He doesn’t take over the country or make people subservient to him, but just his presence there makes everything begin to change. Yet on another level, if you equate Dr. Manhattan with the atom bomb, the atom bomb doesn’t take over the world, but by being there it changes everything. That was more the idea that I was trying to explore. (...)

Ah! Thanks Morrisp... Reread that thread this afternoon and your overview of the series reminded me why I've never reread SS. Watchmen is definitely an infinitely subtler and more effective book.

also that thread gets kind of steamy towards the end, doesn't it?

"Towards the end"? Nothing ends, stevie. Nothing ever ends.

SAD BUT TRUE

Also - I’ll grant you that Watchmen is “subtler,” but I think Squadron Supreme has a brute “effectiveness” of its own.

It’s like saying you prefer, I dunno, Solaris* for being “infinitely subtler” than Alien... I’d rather watch Alien!

(*NB - I’ve never actually seen Solaris)

tbh all i remember clearly of SS is how Tom Thumb's death is announced in a little black panel at the very bottom of the page!