Part of the fun of comic book movies is seeing your favorite characters leap off the page and come to life on the screen. I still have fond memories of the first Spider-Man movie I saw, starring Tobey Maguire—watching the scene in which Spidey has an aerial battle with the Green Goblin made me realize how much cinema could bring to the comic book genre.
What we don’t think about as often, though, is the subtle magic of seeing comic book movies make their way back to the page. Take Loki, for instance: when Tom Hiddleston’s portrayal of the character exploded in popularity, his comics counterpart changed to take on more of the Marvel Cinematic Universe character’s qualities. Sure, it can be frustrating when the synergy between comics and films becomes a little too blatant, but it’s still a lot of fun to see comics and movies play off of each other and evolve together.
Throw fan art into the mix, and you’ve got a whole universe of possibility.
Australian artist Leo, who goes by the name Ultimate Comicz, has embarked on an ambitious project inspired by the interplay between comics and movies: he’s recreating every MCU project as a comic book cover.
Leo’s social media channels contain the first few dozen entries in his project. They range from straightforward depictions of Marvel movies, like Ant-Man and Avengers: Age of Ultron:
Other covers capture particularly memorable moments or themes. His WandaVision cover, for instance, shows Wanda and Vision caught between realities, with the false sitcom world of Wanda’s hex on the left, and the real world (containing Agatha Harkness) on the right. His Spider-Man: No Way Home cover shows all three Spideys fighting together in the film’s climax.
Other covers are just beautiful illustrations.
One thing I love about the covers are all the little details in each picture. For instance, each corner box contains the project’s release date, phase, and saga, with an infinity gauntlet symbolizing the Infinity Saga and Kang’s face pointing to the Multiverse Saga.
Leo also shows off his process on his TikTok page, and sells prints on his Etsy shop.
We’ve reached out to Leo for comment.
(featured image: Disney+)
Published: Mar 1, 2023 11:08 pm