Welcome to Covers of the Week of December 7, 2022! We take a look at the best and worst covers from DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Image Comics, and other indie publications. We then crown the best overall cover of the month from all of the publishers combined.
A comic book cover is vitally important and often overlooked in a title’s success. An effective comic book cover can lead to new readers giving a title a try and boosting sales numbers. There are two main ways a comic book cover can generate interest in the title among new readers. The first is for the comic book cover to deliver poster quality artwork. These are covers that may not really have anything at all to do with the story inside the issue. However, the cover’s art is so phenomenal that it is worthy of being made into a poster and hung on a wall as art. The second approach is for the cover to effectively convey to the reader what type of story they can expect to get inside of the issue.
No matter which approach is taken, the primary objective of a good comic book cover is to grab the consumer’s attention. The comic book cover should dominate the shelf space and help the issue stand out among all of the other comic books lining the shelf space at a local comic book shop. That cover should be able to down out all of the competition on the shelf and command the reader to purchase the issue.
Let’s check out the nominees for Best and Worst comic book covers for the week of December 7, 2022!
DC Comics
Worst
Winner
This was a strong week for DC Comics! The covers were good across the board. So, there was only one DC Comic that had a dud of a cover. That would be Dark Crisis War Zone #1. The cover has the generic design of your heroes simply heading to the reader. The cover does nothing to tell the reader what is inside. The cover is also boring and does not grab the reader’s attention. The art itself is a total miss for me. Barry Allen’s face looks totally bizarre. Jo Mullen’s thigh is somehow thicker than her waist. It just looks bad.
Best
Nominees
This is a great cover! There is some quality action. The scene looks dynamic. Seeing Batman and Joker fighting together piques the reader’s interest. There is a lot to this cover to induce the reader to check out this issue.
This cover is packed full of details. The art is well done. The scene is gruesome and immediately leaps off the shelf at the reader. Being an attention-grabbing cover always helps the issue’s chances of attracting a new reader.
Winner
The winner of the best DC Comics Cover of the Week was Batman #130! I was not a fan of this issue at all. However, this is an excellent cover. I dig the contrast between Batman’s dark figure and the white snowy setting. We have our hero bloody and injured and we have Failsafe looking menacingly in the background. All of this helps to create a feeling of impending doom. This is a cover that definitely gets you interested in finding out what is inside.
Marvel Comics
Worst
Nominees
Captain Marvel #44 is such an unoriginal and boring cover. This cover does clearly convey the characters that will be inside of this issue. However, it does it in the most soul-crushingly uncreative manner. It is just our heroes standing there. Oooookay. Why should I get this issue? This cover blends into the sea of new comic books on the shelf. This cover also does nothing to tell the reader what we might get inside this issue.
Marauders #9 is a mess of a cover. The art looks bad. This looks like the art you might see in a kiddie comic. There is a complete lack of detail. We have two heroes and one villain with a boring white and gray background. This is a dull cover that will get lost on the shelf of new comic books.
New Mutants #32 is another dull cover. The art is drab and nothing about this cover grabs the reader’s attention or gets the reader interested in what is inside this issue.
The Variants #5 is just mind-numbingly boring. The colors are drab. The art itself looks like the type of plain art you might find in an indie comic. This is not the level of cover art that I expect from Marvel Comics. This is such a yawn-inducing cover that the reader will never notice it on the shelf of new comic books.
Winner
The cover for X-Force #35 is a hot mess. The art itself looks ugly. The scene is a jumbled mess. It looks like the Beast is mad at Maverick and is grabbing his neck. All while Sevyr Blackmore throws up on both characters? This cover is a total eyesore.
Best
Nominees
Ghost Rider #9 delivers that poster-quality cover that will always grab my attention. This is just a bad-ass-looking cover. I love the look of this bio-mechanical Ghost Rider.
Immortal X-Men #9 has a wonderful-looking cover. The art is fantastic. I love the approach of having Kitty’s back to the reader as she stares down a much more massive and physically imposing foe in Mr. Sinister. Not only is Mr. Sinister far larger, but Mr. Sinister also has two monster-sized guns while Kitty just has two swords. This cover conveys that our heroine is in big trouble and in for a serious fight in this issue.
Thanos Death Notes #1 also delivers a poster-quality cover. This is a cool-looking cover that gets across Thanos’ god-like powers. Thanos looks like the cosmic god that he is. I love that one eye is smoldering with his red energy. This approach conveys the immense power that fills Thanos and is so excessive that it cannot be contained and pours from his eye. Then we get the other half of Thanos’ face covered by a cosmic night sky. This helps get across the fact that Thanos is a cosmic god. The overall look of Thanos’ face conveys his always somber tone.
X-Treme X-Men #1 does employ one of the most uncreative approaches by having the entire team running at the reader. However, the artwork is so gorgeous that it makes up for the uncreative approach. I love the subtle touch of placing Ogun’s mask at the bottom of this cover.
Winner
The winner for the best Marvel Comics Cover of the Week is Avengers Assemble #63! The art itself is pretty. Plus, we get tons of detail in this cover. We have the cosmic characters standing above the scene like gods. Then we have Dr. Doom standing triumphant over a pile of our heroes’ bodies. Captain America is the last man standing even though he is about to fall, too. This is a fantastic cover that grabs the reader’s eye and also gets them excited to check out the story.
Indie Comics
Worst
Nominees
Oh, boy. A cover full of incredibly boring-looking people. Yup. That is never getting my attention when I am checking out the shelf of new comic books.
The art on this cover looks bad. This is a sketchy style of art that lacks any detail. The face of this character looks stiff and has dead eyes. This is a cover that is going to make me skip right over this book on the new comic book shelf.
Winner
Blade Runner 2039 #1 wins the award for Worst Indie Comic Cover of the Week. This is an awful cover. The cover has dull colors and the artwork is poor. The cover lacks any details. To make things worse, you get the dreaded boring-looking androgynous character, Is that a dude or a lady? I dunno. This art ain’t telling you.
Best
Nominees
This is a wild cover! It has some brilliant colors that capture the eye. The artwork looks amazing. I dig the mysterious-looking dude in the center with a crazy leafy monster rising up behind him. I have no clue what this issue is about, but this cover absolutely grabs my attention. This is a cover that makes All Against All #1 stand out on the shelf of new comics. That is exactly what a debut issue of a new comic needs to do.
I love Archie! This cover is a blast. First, it is Christmas themed which automatically makes it a cover that will get my attention. But, what makes this cover such a gem is that you have Santa like a pimp daddy with both Veronica and Betty on his lap. And the cherry on top is that Archie is giving Santa a thumbs up and a wink of the eye for being such a player! What a cheeky cover. I love it.
Oh, yeah! It is the 1990s all over again! This cover has some cool-looking artwork. Of course, the bloody action on this cover is what really separated this issue from all of the other comics on the new comic book shelf. This cover is absolutely going to entice me to pick up the issue and check it out.
The cover for Hexware #1 is phenomenal. I love everything about this cover. The colors are vibrant. The mecha witch character looks amazing. The amount of detail that is packed into this cover is stunning. This is a cover that commands your attention and gets you interested in reading it.
The cover for Shock Shop #4 is beautiful. This cover would make for an amazing poster. The amount of detail on this cover is impressive. The intricate design of these two skull-headed characters with all of the flourishes surrounding them is mesmerizing. This is a cover that I find myself staring at and admiring all the small aspects of this artwork.
This is another incredible cover. Indie comics were so damn strong with tons of great covers this week! This is another cover that would look cool as a poster. I dig the massive skeleton warrior on his throne as he overlooks the graveyard that is his kingdom. Seeing dead warriors from the past roaming the graveyard while a modern-day soldier watches them hammers home the chilling vibe of this cover. It is as if the modern-day soldier knows he will be a part of these undead warriors at some point.
Winner
The winner for the Indie Comics Cover of the Week is Vampirella vs Red Sonja #2! This is definitely a poster-worthy cover. The artwork is stunning. This is a gorgeous painting. Vampirella looks excellent as a supernatural creature that is more of an abstract presence on this cover. Of course, Red Sonja looks amazing in her battle pose. This is artwork that could easily be framed and hung on the wall.
All right, that is it for the week of December 7, 2022! We will return next week for a fresh batch of the best and worst covers of the week. Until then stay safe and be good!
