266. Riptide


This was a tough one to get around and I absolutely failed. In the comics, Riptide – one of Mr. Sinister’s Marauders that killed a bunch of Morlocks in the Mutant Massacre – is pretty much always in human tornado mode. Looking him up, it took a while to find out what he’s wearing under the tornado. And the answer is: either a plain solid white bodysuit, or a plain solid purple bodysuit. I also found out that he was in the movie X-Men: First Class. He wears nice suits in that. He also made such an impression that I was completely unaware that he was in the movie despite having seen it at least twice. So basically, fuck Riptide.

The only comic I’ve read with this character was actually one of the first X-Men books I ever read, part of the aforementioned Mutant Massacre. In it, Riptide is spinning around, killing morlocks with throwing stars as Colossus charges him, grabs him by the throat and snaps his neck. It’s a great, memorable scene.

Anyhoo. This abomination happened.

265. Deadman


I “get” the original look for Deadman. Boston Brand was a circus acrobat, so it sorta looks like that, crossed with a superhero costume. And a large “D” on his belly. For some reason. So going off that, I tried to base Deadman’s look on some Cirque Du Soliel-type outfits and makeup. Also, I wanted to retain some of the Kelley Jones style that I will forever and always associate with the character. Whenever he shows up looking “normal”, I just feel it’s absolutely wrong.

I tried to watch Arrow as it aired, but due to other Wednesday night obligations and general dislike of what I had seen, I gave up on it pretty quickly. It recently popped up on Netflix, so I decided to give it an honest binge-watching shot. I still don’t particularly love it. But it’s watchable. I do think I like it better than network television’s other big comic-related property, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. I think the characters are more engaging and less annoying and the overall story more intriguing, if not stretched to the very limits of tolerability. SHIELD’s characters (outside of Coulson & May) are vapid empties. When they are busy not making me give a crap about them or what they do, I am highly irritated by them and what they do. Arrow – while every single last character is a vapid empty – I am not annoyed by their presence. One thing SHIELD gets right: cutesy winks.

Both shows offer up a lot of winks and nods to comic fans with names of things and references to their universes and whatnot. SHIELD is a little more subtle and clever with them, though, and makes it seem like each and everytime it happens, it could be a possible plot point or something that comes later. Everytime Arrow does it, it’s like the writers have cold-stopped the show, walked onto the set and while looking at the camera, begin to scream directly to the viewer a sorrowful “THIS IS FOR YOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!! ALL FOR YOUUUUUUU!!!!!!” and then break down into some shame tears.

So yeah, I think both are watchable, just not very good. I know not every show can be THE WIRE, or BREAKING BAD, or JUSTIFIED, or RESCUE ME, or the first couple seasons of DEXTER, or DOCTOR WHO, or THE LEAGUE, or IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILADELPHIA, or 30 ROCK, or THE WALKING DEAD, or…

Actually, y’know, there’s a fuckton of good tv shows out there, I feel like there’s almost no excuse to make mediocre shows anymore. Fuck you, Arrow and Agents of SHIELD! I’ll see you next week.

264. The Atom


Unlike some other silver age characters that were eventually replaced with modern counterparts (Barry Allen, Hal Jordan), I have nothing against the Ray Palmer Atom. In fact, I’d almost say that I’m a fan. Unfortunately, this all stems from the only Ray Palmer Atom series I’ve really read, The Sword of The Atom, which saw the character transform from a sci-fi superhero to a sword-and-sorcery/fantasy/Warlord Travis Morgan-type character. And it was pretty great, though it has been years since I’ve read them.

But despite that, I found myself really enjoying the Ryan Choi Atom when he came along, and that is who I chose to draw here. His costume was a simple and perfectly fine upgrade of Ray’s (though the colors were positioned wrong). But I came up with this basic design of an Atom costume back in like 1996. You can see my microhero version of that original concept on the micros site. I changed up the colors here because it felt like I’d been using a ton of red lately and my quota is almost up.

Last night I watched Maniac starring Elijah Wood as a serial killer. Which isn’t much of a stretch. He’s got the crazy eyes. It was… okay. I know it’s a remake, but I’ve not seen the original. I don’t know if the basic concept is the same or not, but this one is shot entirely from Wood’s point of view. It’s a First Person Movie. There are one or two moments when we shift perspectives and a flashback or two, but we really only see him when he looks in a mirror, etc. It can take a bit to get used to. It’s gory and weird and a little overwrought. I’ve also never been a fan of Elijah Wood, so hearing him as a whiny psychopath for 90 minutes didn’t do anything to change my mind on that.

263. Jesse Quick


I pencilled this while drunk, inked it sober and colored it angry. A gamut of emotion.

Jesse Quick has had a crapton of costumes, none really fantastic. It’s hard to be a speedster character, particularly in the Flash family and have a unique look. Unfortunately, I don’t know that I did any real great shakes here. Ah well.

262. Hellcat


Patsy Walker is a weird character. Starting off as a romance/comedy character and becoming an Avenger. I don’t mind her original costume, but it is a little bland, especially for a character with a modelling background. I tried to fashion-up the costume, but there is a reason I’m not a fashion designer. Also, my first instincts were to make her costume red and black, which is so overdone, I knew those instincts were wrong. They’re still wrong with the choices I did make, but at least there’s no red.

261. Gladiator


I read a short story once in an old issue of Marvel Comics Presents featuring Gladiator. It was a pretty great introduction to the character and managed to explain his entire schtick and tell a compelling story in 8 pages. He was a reformed Daredevil villain who opened a costume shop. This kid comes in and wants a custom Gladiator costume with working blades. He makes the costume but realizes the kid is going to use it to become a villain. So he dresses up in his old costume and scares the kid straight. It was good and had weird art and I loved it. Being a reformed villain, he doesn’t show up too often, but when he does, I’m always a fan.

This redesign is trying to combine the elements of his costume with that of an actual roman gladiator without hopefully being too ridiculous. I do like his normal look, but also feel like it needs some change. Mostly the colors, I think.

Last night I “watched” Ghoulies II. And by that, I mean that I slept through the majority of it. I will not be picking up where I left off on it.

260. The Tornado Twins


Don & Dawn Allen. Goddammit, Barry Allen is the most boring fucking character even when he names his stupid fucking kids from the future. Fuck Barry Allen. There was a reason he was dead longer than he was alive as a character. ‘Cuz Wally West is the best. Anyhoo, at some point, Barry moved to the future, got married and had kids. In the future. Then he abandoned them to return to the past to die. The kids grew up to have their own superspeed powers and shitty, shitty costumes.

I decided to change their looks to be homages to their Flash lineage rather than poofy purple dresses.

259. Electro


So one thing I’ve noticed is that I tend to really like the original costumes of the characters I’ve been redesigning (Mr. Terrific excluded). Electro is no different! I love the ridiculous oversized mask and the corny lightning suspenders and the lightning flared gloves. It’s glorious and I would gladly pay to see Amazing Spider-Man 2 in IMAX 3-D if Jamie Foxx were in that costume.

So, as usual, I tried to keep the redesign reminiscent of the original. I toned down the mask, got rid of the undies, changed green to blue. Thought about changing the yellow to white, but that screamed “ice” to me more than “electricity”.

Last night I watched The House of the Devil. A few months ago, I had watched another Ti West movie called The Innkeepers (and by a few months, I think I mean over a year). I loved that one, but for whatever reason I never got around HotD. I remember it disappeared off Netflix shortly after I had seen Innkeepers. Somewhere along the line, it came back. I was going to sit through another episode of Arrow last night when I saw HotD back in my queue. It’s very good. It’s a slow-burn movie and I’m guessing a casual watcher would hate it. Not as good as Innkeepers, but the building of tension and dread are all very well done.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: Return of the Saw


Drawn for Matt Brassfield for some reason.

258. Mr. Terrific


Terry Sloane, the original Mr. Terrific, had a Mr. Terrible costume. A very long time after his death, he was replaced by Michael Holt and got a pretty sweet updated outfit. Even the New 52 version of Holt’s costume was neat. Unfortunately, that’s all I had in mind while trying to come up with a new look for Sloane. I went for streamlined and tried to incorporate elements from both Sloan’s O.G. look and Holt’s, as a sort-of bridge between the two. The biggest hurdle is trying to figure out where to slap that “Fair Play” slogan. I think it’s adequate.