I have made it a personal mission to buy the best of the Skottie Young variant covers of Marvel Now titles. There are obviously some that are better than others, but I find them a unique insight into the world of superheroes. From first glance they look cute and adorable as he manages to captures the essential physical features that define a character, whether this be Thor’s child helmet, Captain Americas lowercase A, or Hawkeye’s string arrows. The cuteness of the characters certainly appeals because they are drawn as children, small bodies and larger heads but also their expressions are very focused around large eyes and smaller facial features. The dummies in the mouths is a nice touch. This is not the reason why they are brilliant covers. I think they highlight the childishness in all of us and also the in inherent adult cries of children. Iceman falling over, crushed to ice is not only shown as a child façade, but also is a truly adult concern of failing to protect your team and falling judgement to your peers. I do adore the pointing at each other in blame of the other X babies. Baby Hulk smashing his toys and breaking the ground below him is very much an adult response for Bruce’s anger. He manages to simplify our emotions and struggles to base childish responses, which makes us realise that maybe we are not as mature as we think we are. They make for great storytelling as his AvX babies book showed. They may not be able to convey the subtleties of the argument, but the base emotion and physical expression are often enough to portray the narrative. I do just love looking at them though!
House Of Flying Scalpels 