Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION Dr. Gym'll's Cultural Rarities Hey Kids! Nineteens!

Sure, the LMBP's 19th anniversary is soonish. But do we really need a reason to get our judgin' pants on?

Choose one per matchup -- no ties -- on your opinion of the cover merits alone. Click images to see larger versions

Previous editions, for perusal and/or catch-up: Elevens, Twelves, Eights, Tens, Twenty-Nines, Eighteens, Fifteens, Fives, Nines, Seventeens


1. TEEN TITANS vs. NEW TEEN TITANS




2. KERRY DRAKE DETECTIVE CASES vs. JOSIE




3. BOOSTER GOLD vs. BUNNY




4. TRUE LIFE SECRETS vs. BLACK HOOD COMICS

1. TEEN TITANS -- Underachieving ancestor of Mordru, plus wonderful use of shadows and perspective? No contest!

2. JOSIE -- There's actually more raw aggro in this one than the more "realistic" other.

3. BUNNY -- It's cuter.

4. BLACK HOOD COMICS -- Both very Ditko-esque, but this one has more atmosphere and more menace.

1. TEEN TITANS vs. NEW TEEN TITANS




2. KERRY DRAKE DETECTIVE CASES vs. JOSIE




3. BOOSTER GOLD vs. BUNNY




4. TRUE LIFE SECRETS vs. BLACK HOOD COMICS

1. Teen Titans
2. Kerry Drake Detective Cases
3. Booster Gold
4. True Life Secrets

1. Teen Titans - spooky. Like the snow scene but where's the guest star? And is that a skreak in the top left?

2. Kerry Drake - Somebody's fitness regime certainly paid off.

3. Booster Gold - nicely coordinated white figure with white title.

4. Black Hood - even though the title and logo take up too much space, the four women on True Life Secrets look odd and none of them look happy.

1. Teen Titans. The glow from below the stage goes well with the logo. It's a creepy threat. The villains on NTT offer no real impact. While the Tower is on an island, it's odd seeing both land and Giant Goldfish attacks. Oh, and Flash looks too small in the near foreground compared to the other figures.

2. Josie. A slice o' life. Why is Kerry's assistant only now calling for help. The other guy being Kerry and getting warned that the prisoner was free makes more sense.

3. Bunny. I like the outer design of Booster most of all. The central character is a let down though. Bunny gets pun points and looking at it today, probably gets some perv points too.

4. Life Secrets. Speaking of perv points, the Black Mask is exposed in this issue to try and get sales. But it's no deal Hoody! Life Secrets has angstiness from four characters to look forward too. FAME, POWER, HUSSINESS, GREED! One of these is the successful path apparently. But which?!

True Life Secrets can be read here.

But that's just the comic book. LWers got down to the nitty-gritty.

1. NEW TEEN TITANS. SATT interesting in that for a long time I thought the Titans were trussed up in some cave like food, I didn't notice that was a stage. (The top right of the curtain in pretty ragged/jagged.) Hard to pinpoint exactly why I like NTT. Probably the sunny-yet-snowiness. The light green color of that lower left antagonist (can't remember who) is a nice add to the color mix.

2. JOSIE. Kerry Drake has the restraints. Josie has the gag.

3. BOOSTER GOLD! Color has gone wild but is very precise!

4. I've gone back and forth on this. Gee, is a super hero going to be exposed? Uh, no. You can probably guess how a 1953 romance comic book is going to go but it could surprise you. I wanted to read TLS more for the likely trainwreck, but BLACK HOOD is a better image.

5. WOLVERINE vs. THE ATOM




6. THE TITANS vs. VICTORIAN




7. AQUAMAN vs. X-STATIX




8. ARCHIE AND ME vs. 52

5. The Atom -- So much more detail and variety of color. Zatanna is actually making me laugh here, because she looks like she's smelling something horrible ("Anattaz traf ni na ekilydalnu yaw!")

6. Victorian -- That Titans one is just *uuuugleeee.* If an artist is going to go monochromatic on a front cover, it's always better in my opinion to go with a cool, or even a lukewarm color, not *blazing golden-orange.*

7. X-Statix -- Proof positive that sometimes less is more. All the details and sophisticated printing and coloring can't disguise the way that I find the Aquaman one to be generic-looking and forgettable. The other one has style.

8. Archie and Me -- As people may have already surmised, I prefer old-fashioned, flat, candy-bright coloring. But especially when it's giant floating numbers! They pop so much better that way!

5. WOLVERINE vs. THE ATOM




6. THE TITANS vs. VICTORIAN




7. AQUAMAN vs. X-STATIX




8. ARCHIE AND ME vs. 52

THE ATOM




VICTORIAN




AQUAMAN




ARCHIE AND ME

5. WOLVERINE. Dragon looks great and fills space well. Also a wee bit funny.

6. Don't love either. Prefer color of Victorian, but not the image so much. Titans is kinda done. VICTORIAN I guess.

7. X-STATIX. They're both very nice but the color takes it.

8. ARCHIE AND ME. Although the numbers are kinda rough, I too like the candy colors!

5. The Atom. I like detail of the Dragon on Psycho Claws. But the Atom is about to punch a dragon on the snout. Points to the artist for just giving it wings and not both wings and arms. I wonder if this is part of the Zatanna Quest storyline. Of Legion interest: They white haired guy would go on to teach Dragonmage his secrets.

6. The Victorian. Nicely evil expression, interesting perspective and background clockpunk figure that doesn't clutter up the cover. The colour on Titans gets in the way of identifying the people on it. Although I think I bought this.

7. Aquaman. Wins due to the background of little jars compared to the odd science things.

8. Archie. I prefer the art on Booster and Skeets. The 52 almost, but not quite, looks as though it's fallen from the logo. Had that worked better, it might have won. Archie's cast are interacting with the numbers while Booster just looks.

9. DARK SHADOWS vs. DMZ




10. WEIRD WESTERN TALES vs. KING CONAN




11. SHOWCASE vs. TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED




12. MY SECRET LIFE vs. SABLE

9. DMZ. The hand going up in defence against the gun, and the friendly fire story title connect the cover more.

10. Weird Western. Hex is a sneaky varmint.

11. Showcase. Cosmic Boy on the ... pull again in another example of early Time Bubble abuse.

12. Secret Life. Sable loses points for gratuitous cat symbolism.

9. DMZ: Far more subtle and artful.

10. Weird Western: I love Conan, but that Conan cover is an ill-considered, poorly executed Giant Size X-Men homage.

11. Showcase: Adam and Alanna Strange. That's more than enough for me. The greater variety of color and more imaginative design are icing on the cake.

12. Secret Life: It has all the class and mystery lacking in Sable. Jeez Louise, even Howard Chaykin wouldn't do such an obvious visual double entendre.

5. Wolverine - despite the all orange dragon (would have been better multi-hued). Zatanna distracts and looks odd in the lower corner of The Atom, and why can't the Atom just grow and squash the little dragon? What are those green things on the Wizard? Too many distracting details.

6. Victorian - colours suitably eerie, spooky and foggy. Titans looks like a promo for Metal Men: Copper.

7. Aquaman - mainly because I don't like the background on X-Statix and Aquaman looks suitably enraged.

8. 52 - colour scheme, Booster running erraticly through time. Looks like more of a story than the Archie mystery, which looks pretty upbeat. Those crazy kids are just having fun. Booster's probably saving the world. I don't remember.

9. DMZ - both are interesting, but the smeared hand seems to be crying for help, or surrender. Ominous.

10. King Conan - tearing through the flag/cloth unusual. The yellow sun with whiskers behind Hex against solid orange sky is distracting.

11. Showcase - good action scene against starfield. Unexpected is dramatic but loses because: why aren't the men melting, when the solid car 20 feet behind them is liquifying? It's the sort of detail which annoys.

12. My Secret Life - yup, she's got secrets and will probably blackmail people as well. How many little beasties had to die for Sable's fur blankets? I think that cat is destined to be earmuffs.

Thanks for mentioning the Booster travelling through time look Cramer. I forgot to add that.

9. DMZ.. Nice integration of title -- literal and figurative. What exactly is the DS arm/hand doing?

10. WEIRD WESTERN because I want to move on! This is one of those where I'm not wild about either but neither is an obvious dud. Hex is nuttier. There.

11. SHOWCASE. I am a sucker for starfields.

12. SABLE. Yeah, kittycat is a little on the...nose, but I prefer the art style on this one.

Forgot to mention spiffy space Alanna too..

13. OZ vs. MARTIAN MANHUNTER




14. CATWOMAN vs. X-23




15. RIP HUNTER TIME MASTER vs. STRANGE ADVENTURES




16. COOKIE vs. MISTER MYSTERY

13. Oz - faces too close-up on Manhunter, also devoid of expression.

14. Catwoman - just like the art (very Darwyn Cooke but I think it's Pulido(?)), but also find the background on X23 distracting.

15. Strange Adventures - looks like a lot stranger story than Rip Hunter's.

16. Mister Mystery - weird gag. Joker crossover?

13. Oz

14. Catwoman

15. Strange Adventures

16. Mister Mystery

For pretty much the same reasons Cramey states. (Just out of curiosity, does it happen often that two Legion Worlders make the exact same choices for one block of covers?)

13. Oz. Slightly less like a posed boxing face off. Slightly.
14. Catwoman. X23 looks too much like a Star Wars cover.
15. Rip Hunter. Strange Adventures gets points for the sensible sweater and skirt. Not the skirt on the Eternal. But Rip betraying his friends gets the win. Oh, the shock on their faces. Rip has been looking to kill off his similarly clad colleagues for ages. With Crisis removing all duplicates, it's now mandatory that they die! Rip goes of to join the Forgotten Heroes with a smile.
16. Mister Mystery. I quite liked Cookie. But that was before the weirdness of the people on Mister Mystery. Creepy.



Occasionally mine will be the same as one of the others. The results include PMs calling me out for trying to pretend to have standards and cease and desist PMs.