This week’s reminder that comic book covers can be awesome is a tribute to superhero yarns, the most quintessential of the medium’s genres. Sure, superheroes have had their fair share of ventures into the big and small screens (from the old serials to MCU’s blockbusters, not to mention bonkers counter-cultural reappropriations of the genre’s iconography by the likes of William Klein’s Mr. Freedom), but it’s comics that have done the most to expand, revise, update, and even subvert the concept. Along with classic takes that played it straight or experimental works that pushed the storytelling potential to new heights, you have all sorts of offshoots entertainingly speculating about how supernatural powers could reshape the world (in the same way that, say, technology and finance already do), whether it’s Suicide Squad exploring the Reaganite geopolitics of the DC Universe or Astro City dramatizing the inevitable collateral damage (I’m thinking, for example, of Astro City (v3) #50-52, a beautiful arc about a support group for civilians traumatized by superhero battles).
And just by looking at the covers, you can see how this weird genre has evolved over time, approaching the material from various angles and with very different sensibilities:
