Random Pics of the Month - Favorite Alternate Superman Costumes

I really haven't done this in a minute. While there have been changes to Superman's iconic costume over the years, he's been in a lot of different costumes as well. Today, I'll list (in no particular order) my 10 favorite alternate costumes from the different media. I'm not putting the Man of Steel and New 52 suits on here primarily because those are Superman's main costumes for now. By the way, I do like them both. I also wanted to include variations that you don't normally see Superman wear.

1. New 52 'First Costume' 

While I'm not including the armor on here, I did want to include this one. In the New 52, Clark didn't have Ma Kent to help make his suit, so he had to make due with what he had. For a young, inexperienced Superman, this wasn't a bad start at all. He even had different colored shirts and that was pretty funny.

2. Justice Lord Superman

In the Justice League episode "A Better World", we saw an alternate universe where the League basically declared martial law on the world. Superman adopted a new suit and it was pretty cool. It definitely fit his new outlook on life. He and the rest may had been the bad guys, but you have to admit that they looked good.

3. Kingdom Come Superman

In the story, Kingdom Come, Superman returns from a decade-long exile in order to help shape the world. Instead of sporting his classic suit, he sports a darker suit with a stylized 'S'.  He turned his back on humanity and his suit kind of fits this darker world. It's a cool look overall.

4. Superman/Doomsday: Hunter/Prey Battle Suit

In this story, Superman realizes that Doomsday may still be out in space alive, so he gets a Mother Box and heads out there. During the battle that also involves The Cyborg-Superman and Darkseid (!!!), his suit gets damaged. Mother Box makes him a new battle suit in order to fight Doomsday. While the suit does reek of the 90's, I like it. He only wore it this one time and that stuff came in handy. Heck, considering Doomsday did kill him before, wearing some armor is a smart move. I do wonder hat that yellow thing on his crotch does though.

5. Kryptonian Recovery Suit

When Superman came back from the dead, he needed something to wear into battle. He was pretty underpowered, so he got this piece of goodness. I think I my first comic owned had Superman in this suit, so I've always like this suit. They even had a variation of it on Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman.

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Icon #10

Today’s Super-Homage is one that I’ve talked about before: Icon. He was created by Dwayne McDuffie for Milestone Comics and was featured in his own title in the early 1990s’s. I talked about him back in February when I looked at a trade that has his series’ first eight issues. He shares some similarities to Superman in that he’s an alien who crashed on Earth and he has a secret identity. The similarities stop there though. Originally named Arnus, he crashed on Earth in 1839 and took the form of an African-American baby. He was named Augustus Freeman and kept his alien heritage a secret for over a century. It isn’t until the 1990s where he (at the behest of a young girl named Raquel) decides to become a superhero and clean up the city of Dakota.

Today’s issue is Icon #10. I did think about looking at an issue where he and Superman actually duked out, but it’s part of a crossover called "Worlds Collide." I haven’t read the total crossover, so this one seemed best. If you want to hear some discussion about those issues, head over to From Crisis To Crisis: A Superman Podcast where they went in-depth with that crossover between DC and Milestone. Dwayne McDuffie wrote the issue. M.D. Bright provided the pencils. Mike Gustovich handles the inks. James Brown (not the singer but that would be cool) and David Montoya handles the colors. So, let’s see what happens when Icon chases after some gangster

Icon #17

Writer: Dwayne McDuffie

Pencils: M.D. Bright

Inks: Mike Gustovich

Colors:  David Montoya and James Brown (Good God! Hey!... Had to do it.)

Letters: Steve Duturo

Editor: Matt Wayne

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Supreme #41

Next up on the list is a character I know little about: Supreme. He was created by everyone’s favorite 90’s whipping boy, Rob Liefeld. He first appeared in Youngblood and then got spun off into his own title. From what I’ve read online, he had the powers of Superman but not the morality. He wasn’t a bad guy but he was willing to have blood on his hands.  His origins were also pretty incoherent. The guy even went up against Thor and Loki… no, not Marvel’s Thor and Loki. This Thor actually had red hair but no beard.

Somehow, Liefeld was able to get Alan Moore, the bearded dude himself, to come write on the book. Apparently, Moore’s only condition was that he could pretty much ignore what came before with the character. From what I’ve seen online and actually read with those early issues, I can’t blame him. The ones I read (look, they were cheap) weren’t horrible but they weren’t any good either. Supreme #41 was published by Maximum Press aka Awesome Comics and released in 1996. All I know is that Liefeld was over that thing. Moore wrote the issue. Joe Bennett provided the main pencils and Norm Rapmund provided the main inks. There are also some pencils and inks done by Keith Giffen and Al Gordon. I’ll list the rest below.

Supreme #41

Writer: Alan Moore

Pencils: Joe Bennett and Keith Giffen

Inks: Norm Rapmund and Al Gordon

Colors: Reuben Rude

Letters: Todd Klein

Editorial Assistant: Brent Braun

Editor: Eric Stephenson

Tales From the 50 Cent Bin! - Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel

Well, I’ve finally gotten to Superman Month aka “Superman Analogue Month”… I’m still working on the title. As I said before, I’ll be looking at different analogues/homages/rip-offs to Superman. I’ve looked all around for them and I’ve found quite a few. Today, I’ll be starting with one who is a little similar to another hero I’ll be talking about this month.

The Blue Marvel was one I actually came across a few years ago. I had heard about a mini-series featuring a long-lost forgotten black superhero and I was interested. It was actually a long time before I found those issues though. I found all five of them in the cheap bin. The character was created by actor/writer Kevin Grevioux, the writer behind the Underworld movies. He apparently came up with the idea as a child and was able to do the story for Marvel. Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel was released throughout 2009. While Grevioux handles the writing duties, the pencils are handled by Mat Broome and Roberto Castro.

Adam: Legend of the Blue Marvel

Writer: Kevin Grevioux

Pencils: Mat Broome and Roberto Castro

Inks: Sean Parson, Alvaro Lopez, Lorenzo Ruggiero 

Colors: John Rauch

Letters: Dave Lamphear

Costume Designs: Kaare Andrews

Editor:  Alejandro Arbona

Favorites - 12 Favorite Mass Effect Companions

This sweet image comes from JoesHouseofArt on DeviantArt.

Yeah, I got another list. It’s the season. Besides, I’m preparing for September.

If there’s one thing I can say about Bioware, it would that they have some cool companions in their RPG games. I’ve run across a lot of them in the Dragon Age and Mass Effect games. To me, a companion not only has to be interesting,  you have to be able to use them in battle. You’ll get some good ones and bad ones. You’ll have some companions that are good in battle but bad everywhere else. Yes, I’m looking at you, Zaeed. You were good on missions, but that was it. You also have the inverse of that with a guy by the name of Kadian. Nice guy, but he was pretty weak.

Today, I’ll be listing down my favorite companions from the Mass Effect trilogy. I’ll save Dragon Age for later since I still haven’t finished Inquisition yet. Man, that game’s long and I can only play it well on an HD TV. Fortunately (or unfortunately), that’s a post for another time. Most of these companions all had something that made like or care for them. They also were pretty cool on the battlefield and that’s always good. There will be some spoilers, but I won’t spoil everything.