A little Bogdanove appreciation.
Now, about that poster from yesterday…that image was taken from the cover of Superman: The Man of Steel #49 (Oct. 1995), and, as Tom and others noted in the comments, the pic certainly evokes a Batman feel. The story inside isn’t particularly moody or Batman-ish, as it involves Superman fighting leftover Byrne villain Skyhook. But then, Skyhook’s shtick is turning kids into bat-people, so maybe that’s the connection there, tenuous as it is.
But again, like I said in the comments, it’s not as if I don’t like Jon Bogdanove. I do. I think he did a swell job during his run on Man of Steel…very loose and cartoony and fun. I realize it’s not to everyone’s taste, but hey, we don’t all have to like the same things. I didn’t even mind the image from that poster as a one-off cover, out of the half-dozen or so Superman covers DC published that month, just for a little variety. But as the image for a store to hang on the wall to advertise the Superman books? They couldn’t find anything a little more…Superman-ish?
But then again, this was the mid ’90s, near the beginning of the comics market crash, and folks were casting about for anything that worked. “You all like dark ‘n’ gritty? Here’s dark ‘n’ gritty Superman for you.”
In fairness, here’s a promo poster I did like, a double-sider Bogdanove drew tying into DC’s Zero Hour event. One side is likely familiar, as it was the cover for Man of Steel #37, with Superman facing off against a number of different Batmen in the styles of the character’s many artists:
And the other side of the poster featured an image that, as far as I can recall, only appeared here (but may have been in a house ad, too…I don’t remember), and reversed the situation:
Always thought these were pretty neat, but I wish the Supermen were more posed looking inward at Batman, like the Superman/multiple Batmen poster. Though perhaps it may have been harder to tell what style was being mimicked without seeing Superman head-on.
Anyway, here’s another nice Batman-esque pic of Superman from Bogdanove:
I might have liked that image better as a promo poster for the Superman line of books.
