Time for some X-Women "NOW!"

The Marvel NOW! event continues to progress in the comics & we've seen redesigns for various characters. I love that Marvel has taken risks with their redesigns & have actually used costumes for their female characters that aren't just practical but also tres sexy. It just goes to prove you don't need to put a female comic character in a thong to make her look sexy (yes, DC Comics. I'm looking at you).

My fave redesign EVER for any X-Men character in Marvel NOW! would definitely have to be Storm. Great, practical design AND she is once again rocking the mohawk that she sported in the 80's comics for a while! Below is the blog banner in higher resolution. It's taken from the cover of the X-Men #1 issue (left), created by Oliver Coipel.

^From top clockwise: Jubilee, Shadowcat, Rachel Summers, Rogue, Storm & Psylocke.

My top 3 FAVE costume redesigns as seen in Marvel NOW! would have to be (in order- Storm, Scarlet Witch & Cyclops):

The background I used is the Storm wallpaper from the Marvel Ultimate Alliance video game. Not posting a separate wallpaper for it as it's basically the same image with just the overall color changed...But that's the look Storm sported when she rocked the 'hawk in the 80's.

Hope you guys dig the change...Till next time, peace out, X-nerds!

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Deadpool does a...Marilyn Monroe?

Most of you may know by now that  I'm part of a group on Facebook, Comic Book Nerds Are Hot, that has a weekly task (called Artists Assemble), where group members draw a pic based on a weekly theme chosen by resident artist extraordinaire Adam Bayes. This week the topic is "Deadpool Variant". Knowing what a big goofball Deadpool is, my mind began racing with ideas when...

I thought, how about have Wade Wilson parody Marilyn Monroe? I mean he has donned Phoenix's costume  before, so slipping into Marilyn's iconic white dress shouldn't be a problem for him right? WRONG! He's pissed! Check out the art I created below.

I used the following images as inspiration & reference.

 

So what do y'all think? Post your (constructive) comments & criticisms below...

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Time for an "All-New" Look!

It's been a while since I've changed up the look of the blog & with the Avengers vs X-Men event long over in the comics, I thought it's about time I change it.

In October last year, Marvel launched its new event following AvX, called Marvel NOW! What's Marvel NOW! you ask? It's basically a sorta revamp of the Marvel Universe in the comics- new creative teams for the various titles as well as changes to the comics universe through character redesigns, new storylines, etc.

All-New X-Men is part of this movement. It kickstarted in November 2012 & mainly revolves around the X-Men First Class (Cyclops, Jean Grey, Angel, Iceman & Beast) who travel forward in time, to land in the present & come face-to-face with their future selves.

The blog banner is composed of the beautiful art by Stuart Immonen, which is basically a triptych of the three variant covers he created for All-New X-Men #1. Below is the original gorgeous artwork along with the blog banner:

The font I used for the banner is called Pop Pop. Big thanks to Chris Grisby from the Comic Book Nerds Are Hot Facebook group for letting me know about the font used for the title on the original cover.

I felt it would be a suitable time to use Cyclops for the blog background- he's never featured on my background before & he's pretty much in the forefront of the All New X-Men story- yesteryear Cyke leading the First Class & present-day Scott Summers leading the X-clan. Download the wallpaper (1280 x 1024) below for the artwork.

Hope you guys dig the new look- do let me know in the comments. Here's to some All-New X-citing months ahead right here on the blog!

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X-Babies: Mystique!

Some of you may know that I'm part of this group on Facebook called Comic Book Nerds Are Hot & they have this weekly "Artists Assemble" where artist extraordinaire Adam Bayes decides the topic for the week & members who wish to participate submit their entries by Monday. No winners are decided, it's just for fun, but I cannot express just how much I've learned while doing these tasks.

This week's assignment is: Babies- A tribute to Skottie Young. In case you didn't know, Skottie Young is a comic book artist & writer who has worked on many Marvel comics including Cable & Deadpool, New X-Men & Deadpool. Last year he brought us A-Babies v/s X-Babies on which he was writer as well as cover artist. He also released a lot of Baby-variant covers for various Avengers v/s X-Men (AvX) books.

It's been a while since I've taken part in CBNAH's AA tasks but seeing the entries that were coming in, I got inspired...So here's my creation, which you can download as a wallpaper (1280 x 960) if you like. Of course it features my fave, Mystique, left, right & center. Literally.

^(From l - r) The various Mystique versions are original X-Men movie trilogy, classic comics, X-Men Evolution & X-Men First Class respectively. 

I hope you guys can catch the small references here & there. X-Men Evolution Mystique hides the "Principal" sign she stole. In the show, Mystique went under the disguise of the Bayville High School Principal to do Magneto's bidding. X-Men First Class' Raven holds a broken mirror in her hand, alluding to how she loathed the way she looked in her true form.

Also classic comics Mystique HAS torn the sides of her dress- she couldn't be bothered being contained in a "whole" dress! But she ain't no nudist, no siree! And since she's just a kid, but she did have an idea of what she would ultimately like to wear, in art class she took some balls, drew some "skull expressions" on 'em, strung 'em up & wore 'em! :P

I used the following images as inspiration & references for drawing style, expressions, etc. The first 2 are variant covers for AvX & Uncanny X-Men respectively. The third is the cover Skottie did for 2009's X-Babies #1.

As always, comments & critiques are always welcome...You can check out more of my X-art out here. Alternatively, you could also head over to my DeviantArt page & see all my art, including the non-X-Men stuff.

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XD About time things got "AvX" in here!

More than half of the year 2012 has passed & my blog has been donning the same look ever since January! So I decided to do something about it...

If the previous theme of my blog's look was the then-ongoing Marvel event "Schism", this new theme revolves around the event that follows it: Avengers vs X-Men. Consider AvX Marvel's way of pandering to the movie-going crowd- fresh after watching (& enjoying) The Avengers movie, they'd be curious to learn more about these beloved comic book heroes & hit their local comic book stores (or the Internet) to get their hands on some comics that will help them do just that!

The Avengers vs X-Men event (or AvX, for short), kicked off its 12-issue biweekly run in April this year. Spurred by the return of the Phoenix Force, the Avengers wage an all-out war on the X-Men as they do not want to see the Phoenix cause any more destruction in its wake. The event was teased by several gorgeous comic book covers that enticed us with battles that we've been dying to see between the Avengers & X-Men characters!

Act 1 (issues #1-5) of AvX saw both the Avengers & the X-Men in a frenzied rush to get hold of Hope Summers while the Force headed for Earth. When the Avengers manage to prevent the Force from bonding with Hope, they inadvertently cause it to split into five & link itself with five other members of the X-Men: Cyclops, Emma Frost, Colossus, Magik & Namor, thus forming the Phoenix Five. And it's this very same fiery team that is now featured in my blog banner!

This art is from the Avengers vs X-Men #8 Adam Kubert variant cover. Personally I absolutely LOVE Emma Frost's new outfit! It's sexy in keeping with her trademark tantalizing dress-sense & nicely melds in the Phoenix theme. Magik's is pretty cool too. What I don't like are the male costumes- Cyclops' costume is a complete Nightwing rip-off! Colossus' costumes have always been messed up really bad, so this isn't much of a surprise. And Namor? OMG! That's just gay! That being said, this cover still looks pretty badass!
^The #8 AvX cover & some more art featuring the Phoenix Five in their fiery glory!

Of course, with all this focus on the Phoenix Force, I just had to have the beloved Jean Grey as part of my blog background! The Dark Phoenix artwork comes from the Phoenix Endsong #1 issue. This cover (< left), created by Greg Land, is by far my favorite image of Jean Grey till date! You can download the wallpaper (1280 x 1024) of this background below.

CREDITS:Thanks to my Comic Book Nerds Are Hot Facebook group peeps, Chris Grisby, Tim Barklay & Mohammed Aarrach, for helping me search for the "Things" font on the banner. Big thanks to Chris for managing to snag the Linotype Rory Oblique font that is so close to the original!
The other (red) font used is Avengeance.

So how do y'all like the hot new look of the blog? While creating the new banner I was just thinking to myself that it's such a happy coincidence that my blog's name begins with an "A" & ends with an "X"! :D What would y'all like to see as the theme next time around? Any fave character you'd like to see gracing the background of my blog? Sound off in the comments below!

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X-Event 2012: Avengers vs. X-Men (AvX)

X-Event is pretty self-explanatory...Any event, be it an in-comic event, comic con, etc, concerning or revolving around the X-Men is gonna be covered by me in this segment...

Come April 2012, Marvel is gonna kickstart their new comic book event: Avengers vs X-Men (AvX)! The 12 issue biweekly series revolves around the war between the Avengers & X-Men that begins after the rebirth of the Phoenix Force.
^Promo posters for AvX

Recenty the AvX teasers were just pouring in! Some are great dueling duos & some just leave you scratching your head (Hulk vs Emma Frost??)! Check out all the cool art below...
^ Row 1: Colossus vs The Thing, Archangel vs Daredevil, Storm vs Thor, Beast vs Luke Cage.
Row 2: Hulk vs Emma Frost, Ms. Marvel vs Rogue, Spiderman vs Iceman, Black Widow vs Psylocke.
Row 3: Iron Man vs Magneto, Cyclops vs Hawkeye, Wolverine vs Captain America, Spider-woman vs Gambit

The one with Spider-woman & Gambit HAS to be the WORST teaser of them all!! The anatomy of both characters is just WAY off! Spider-woman looks like she's got the body of a female Avatar! And Gambit looks like a coat hanger with a trench coat hung on it! Arrgh! But that's just one, the rest are pretty awesome looking! (Well, I do have issues with the Wolverine vs Cap teaser as well, but I'll overlook that so that I don't appear too cranky :P)

And NOW, since covers for AvX #1 have also been released, I thought I'd add them in along with the cover for #0...Check out Scarlet Witch & Hope Summers (not dueling each other) on the cover of issue #0 (that releases in March, commencing the whole event). Pity that big-ass title covers all that gorgeous sketch art! Hence the cover without titles is below as well...

AvX #1 features the (pretty common superhero-team pose) of the Avengers going head-to-head against the X-Men. I'm loving the variant of Captain America vs Cyclops a lot more though! I think it's a much better match-up than what they had for both characters in their respective teasers...


Watch this space for more AvX teasers (if any) & cover art!

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XD A New Year, A New Look...

Don't worry you ain't gonna be seeing this same new look for the WHOLE of 2012! But it's a new look nonetheless! Hope you guys like it...I thought of going all "Schism-y" on you guys :P

FYI Schism was the big Marvel X-Men event of 2011 that divided the X-Men between 2 camps: Team Wolverine & Team Cyclops. The brutal violence in my new blog banner is courtesy X-Men Schism #5! We all knew how much Wolverine & Cyclops held their grudges against each other. We just never thought it could actually come to this! Check out the 5 pages from the #5 issue below that I used to create the new blog banner!

And you can download the wallpaper size (1280 x 1024) of the banner below!
                               

I tried to get a font that is as close to the Schism-font as possible. After asking about it on Yahoo Answers I managed to get one- Treacherous Curves! I think it is seriously working it's magic in the banner imho...Check out a sample of the Schism font below from the X-Men Schism #1 cover:

Now about the background, the Wolverine image comes from the cover of Fear Itself Wolverine #3 (of 3). The New York scenery is a pic I got off the Net. Below is the cover featuring a bad-ass Wolverine chained to a missile & besides it is the background in wallpaper form (1280 x 1024).

So if you've looked on the right & noticed that this is just my 2nd post for 2012, fear not! Cos I've been updating posts that are already on the blog:
* X-Men First Class Awards News
* X-Men Anime Wallpaper downloads (this post got mentioned on SlashFilm as well after the update!)

Feel free to comment below (in Blogger's new threaded commenting feature) on what you'd like to see more or less of on the blog. I got a couple of cosplay posts & quite a few X-movie concept art posts lined up, so do lemme know what you'd like to see next...

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