Wednesday 23 February 2011

Covering The Covers part 2

So, last time out in my look at famous comic covers and the subsequent homages/pastiches/rip offs, I looked at a couple of famous Superman and Spider-Man covers. This time out, my focus is on one group, and one group only, the ever Uncanny X-Men. Let's start with possibly the most famous X-Men cover of all time. Unlike many (though not all) characters, it isn't there first appearance. Arguably, and with apologies to the famous Jack Kirby pencilled X-Men #1 from 1963, you'd have to look at the 1975 relaunch, and Giant-Size X-Men #1.



This iconic cover, featuring the All New, All Different team bursting through the cover to the surprise of the original X-Men, has been riffed on many times, often by the X-Men themselves, be it to promote a line-up change, as in Uncanny X-Men #254



Or X-Men #70.



One striking version of the cover was used for X-Men: Deadly Genesis issue #1, which went back to Giant-Size X-Men #1 and showed us that, maybe, not everything was what we thought it was.



The X-Men aren't the only team of mutants in the Marvel universe though, and sometimes, some of their lesser known fellows want to get in on the act. Witness this cover from Excalibur #45 featuring the N-Men.



Or X-Statix, the team once known as X-Force, in their own Giant-Size relaunch.



Even DC wanted a piece of the X-Pie, with Justice League Europe #35.



Once again, as with Amazing Spider-Man issue #50, one of my favourite takes on it is back with Marvel themselves, choosing to subvert the image for What If... #35.



Of course, there are piss takes too, from Futurama Comics #8,



Or PVP issue #0.



Hell, even the X-Men themselves wanted a go with X-Men #46.



But what about the aforementioned X-Men #1?



Just because it's maybe not as iconic as Giant-Size X-Men #1, doesn't mean it hasn't been referenced it's fair share of times, by the second generation of X-Men on the cover of Classic X-Men #12,



By the Fantastic Four on the cover of Marvel Knights 4 #24,



By Excalibur (again) from The Mighty Thor #427,



And even the Autobots from this New York Comic Con exclusive cover to Transformers #12.



One of the all time classic X-Men covers is the one from Uncanny X-Man #141, which was part one of the classic Days Of Future Past storyline.



This iconic cover has been riffed on by the New X-Men in issue #26 of their own comic.



In researching this blog, I also came across this image. Apologies, but I couldn't locate where it was from. Still, this guy needs no introduction, right?



There are, of course, further piss takes, such as Alpha Flight #9 (which also riffed on the title, being Days Of Future Present, Past Participle part 1).



And, if we're talking piss taking, then there's one guy who's bound to have an appearance at least once an entry in this series of blogs. Yep, here's Deadpool #7.



My favourite take on Uncanny X-Men #141 though? It has to be this wonderful, and most unexpected, version from Star Wars Insider #7.



To be continued...

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